Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott was born Ronnie Schatt on the east side of London on January 28, 1927. He grew up in a single parent household after his father, dance band saxophonist Jock Scott separated from his mother shortly after his birth. His introduction to music was on a cornet he purchased from a local junk shop, then moved on to the soprano saxophone and finally settling into the tenor by his teens. Ronnie first starting playing in public performing with aspiring drummer Tony Crombie and was soon playing an occasional professional gig. After a stint with bandleader Carlo Krahmer and touring with trumpeter Johnny Claes, Ronnie joined the popular big band of Ted Heath in 1946.
However, changing economics made big bands increasingly unfeasible, and as bebop crossed the pond to the U.K., he and Crombie traveled to New York City to explore the source firsthand. Scott regularly returned to New York after signing on to play the Queen Mary’s transatlantic voyages alongside alto saxophonist Johnny Dankworth. Despite his travels Scott remained a cornerstone of the growing London bop scene, and in late 1948 he co-founded Club Eleven, the first U.K. club devoted to modern jazz. During this time he developed the lyrical but harmonically complex style that would remain the hallmark of his career.
In 1953 Scott formed a nine-piece group that made its public debut in conjunction with a London appearance by Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic touring revue and working from arrangements by trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar, the Scott band’s debut proved to be a landmark moment in the history of British jazz heralding the true starting point of the postwar era. Yet in 1955, assembling a full-size big band proved creatively and commercially disastrous but left him a household name throughout Britain. In ‘57 he co-founded the Jazz Couriers with fellow tenor saxophonist Tubby Hayes, scaling to even greater heights of fame.
1959 saw Scott looking to create a jazz club emulating those of New York’s famed 52nd Street and on October 31st, with borrowed money, he opened Ronnie Scott’s Club at 39 Gerrald Street. Over the next two years as popularity grew, Scott hosted the likes of Dexter Gordon, Roland Kirk, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt, Ben Webster and Sonny Rollins. By 1965 he moved the club to it’s present location on Frith Street, becoming the epicenter of London’s jazz community and bringing to the stage everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Albert Ayler over the next decade.
At the time of his death on December 23, 1996, Ronnie Scott’s Club was perhaps the most famous jazz venue in all of Europe.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
One of the many jazz musicians to come out of St. Louis, Missouri was Jimmy Robert Forrest Jr., born January 24, 1920. Working with pianist Eddie Johnson, Fate Marable and the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra while in high school, he went on the road with Dan Albert in 1938 and then the Jay McShann Orchestra from 1940 to 1942.
Forrest moved to New York and played with Andy Kirk and Duke Ellington before returning to St. Louis. His recording of “Night Train” with it’s hook and classic tenor solo reached the #1 spot on the Billboard R&B chart in 1952 and stayed for seven weeks. Gathering greater attention Jimmy recorded a series of jazz influenced R&B singles for United Records including two other hits “Hey Mrs. Jones” and “Bolo Blues”.
“Night Train” became the theme song for a nightly rhythm and blues program of the same name hosted by William A. “Rascal” McCaskill on KREL-AM in Houston market from 1954-1957 that virtually introduced white teenagers to what was called race music.
During the fifties he led his own combos and played with Miles Davis but Jimmy Forrest’s most important associations were with Harry “Sweets” Edison from ’58-’63, the Count Basie Orchestra from ’72-’77 and Al Grey with whom he co-led a quintet until his death.
Tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest, bandleader and sideman, died on August 26, 1980 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Allie Wrubel was born in Middletown, Connecticut on January 15, 1905. He attended Wesleyan and Columbia Universities prior to playing saxophone and clarinet for a variety of famous swing bands. His musical career began in Greenwich Village where he roomed with his close friend and actor, James Cagney.
1934 saw Allie’s move to Hollywood to work for Warner Brothers as a contract songwriter. He was a major contributor to a large number of movies including Busby Berkeley films before moving to Disney in 1947. He also contributed to films such as “Make Mine Music”, “Duel In The Sun”, “I Walk Alone”, “Melody Time”, “Tulsa”, “Midnight Lace” and “Never Steal Anything Small”.
He collaborated with many lyricists such as Abner Silver, Herb Magidson, Charles Newman, Mort Dixon, Ned Washington and Ray Gilbert, the latter collaboration penned Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah from the 1947 film Song Of The South, which won Gilbert and Wrubel an Oscar for Best Song that year. A few recognizable songs from his huge collection of compositions, some that have become staples in the jazz catalog – Gone With The Wind, As You Desire Me, Music Maestro Please, I’ll Buy That Dream, Mine Alone, How Long Has This Been Going On and The Masquerade Is Over.
After a long and successful career Allie Wrubel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1970, just three years before his death on December 13, 1973 in Twentynine Palms, California.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
The hard bop alto saxophonist John Jenkins was born January 3, 1931 in Chicago, IL where he initially studied clarinet in high school but switched to saxophone after six months on the instrument. He played in jam sessions led by Joe Segal at Roosevelt College from 1949-1956 going on to play with Art Framer in 1955 and led his own group in Chicago later that year.
Jenkins had a sound similar to Jackie McLean and the 50’s saw his most active period. In 1957 he played with Charles Mingus s and recorded two albums as a leader, “Jenkins, Jordan & Timmons” on the New Jazz label and “John Jenkins with Kenny Burrell” on Blue Note.
He played as a sideman with Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, Paul Quinichette, Clifford Jordan, Sahib Shihab and Wilbur Ware. in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but essentially dropped out of music after 1962, aside from a few dates with Gloria Coleman.
After leaving the jazz world John worked as a messenger in New York and dabbled in jewelry; he sold brass objects at street fairs in the 1970s. After 1983 he began practicing again and playing live on street corners and he played with Clifford Jordan shortly before his death on July 12, 1993.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Morgan was born on December 23, 1933 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and took after his father playing the guitar until he was seven, when he went to see Charlie Parker. Meeting him backstage, Parker suggested the clarinet for embouchure and two years later he switched to the saxophone.
Moving to California at age of 14, Frank entered and won a talent contest that provided him the opportunity to solo with Freddy Martin. But he hung out in the wrong circles and started taking heroin at 17, subsequently becoming addicted. He recorded with Teddy Charles in ’53 and Kenny Clarke in ’54 and touted as Charlie Parker’s successor, he would cut his first self-titled album “Frank Morgan” in 1955.
It would be three decades before his sophomore project due to his addiction and spending some twenty years in prison for various drug-related crimes. He would, however, form a small ensemble at San Quentin prison in the 1960s with another addict and sax player Art Pepper.
The Frank Morgan Quartet featured pianist Dolo Coker on piano, Flip Greene on bass and drummer Larance Marable. In 1985 he started recording again, releasing Easy Living in June 1985. This kicked off one of jazz’s most amazing comebacks. He recorded and toured vigorously but suffered a stroke in 1998. He subsequently recovered and once again began recording and performing.
Though mainly playing alto saxophone, Frank also played soprano and has recorded a string of excellent sets for Contemporary, Antilles, and Telarc, and has become an inspiring figure in the jazz world. Bebop alto saxophonist Frank Morgan passed away on December 14, 2007.
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