Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Serge Chaloff was born on November 24, 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts to noted piano teachers, Margaret and Julius. He was among the few major jazz performers on his instrument, and until his arrival on the jazz scene the only prominent baritone player was Harry Carney of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
Originally influenced by Charlie Parker, Serge became the first major bebop baritone saxophonist, opening the way for others to follow. He first became well known as one of the “Four Brothers” reed section in Woody Herman’s Second Herd. He also played with Boyd Raeburn, Georgie Auld, Jimmy Dorsey and Count Basie.
Recording as a leader Chaloff produced five records working with Stan Kenton, Sonny Clark, Leroy Vinnegar, Philly Joe Jones and the metronome All-Stars, however, his career was greatly limited by addiction to heroin. After successfully giving up drugs, baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff developed cancer of the spine which caused his early death on July 16, 1957 at he young age of 33.
More Posts: saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don Braden was born November 20, 1963 in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He began playing tenor sax at age 13 and started playing professionally at 15. As a high school student he played in the McDonald’s All-American High School Jazz Band. He went on to attend Harvard University, studying engineering but played in the school’s jazz ensemble.
Braden moved to New York City in 1984, where he played with The Harper Brothers, Lonnie Smith and Betty Carter. In 1986 he toured with Wynton Marsalis and followed this with Out of the Blue, Roy Haynes, Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard, J. J. Johnson, Tom Harrell, Art Farmer and the Mingus Big Band.
Don has developed an extensive knowledge of every aspect of jazz performance and is an imaginative and soulful saxophonist. He has released 16 albums as a leader or co-leader, with his recording debut in 1991 with “The Time is Now”. His list of sidemen is extensive and includes Christian McBride, Joris Teepe, Benny Green, Julian Joseph, Kenny Werner, Darrell Grant, Carl Allen, Cecil Brooks III & Billy Hart, David “Fathead” Newman, Vincent Herring, Dave Liebman, Terell Stafford, Tom Harrell, Randy Brecker, Steve Turre, Conrad Herwig, Jack McDuff, Larry Goldings and Russell Malone among many others.
He spent four years as co-music supervisor/composer for Bill Cosby’s CBS sitcom, “Cosby”, co-wrote the theme song for Cosby’s CBS cartoon series, “Little Bill” and composed music for Nickelodeon’s “Fatherhood”. Braden is a passionate and highly experienced educator, having held the position of Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Montclair State University, served as Music Director of the Litchfield Jazz Camp, has been the Music Director of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Well’s Fargo Jazz for Teens program and a visiting professor in the “New York Comes to Groningen” program at the Prins Claus Conservatoire, in Groningen, Netherlands. He continues to educate, perform, record and tour.
More Posts: saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ivy Benson was born on November 11, 1913 in Holbeck, Leeds, England. Her father Digger Benson, a musician who played with ensembles, began teaching her to play piano at the age of five. She played at working men’s clubs from the age of eight, billed as Baby Benson, and performed on BBC Radio’s Children’s Hour at nine years.
Ivy’s father had ambitions for her to become a concert pianist, but she was inspired to become a jazz musician after hearing a Benny Goodman record and learned to play clarinet and alto saxophone. Leaving school at 14, she took a job at the Montague Burton factory in Leeds, putting aside half a crown from her wages each week to save up for her first saxophone, supplementing her income by playing evenings in dance bands.
Benson joined a sextet, Edna Croudson’s Rhythm Girls in 1929, touring with them until 1935, followed by Teddy Joyce and the Girlfriends where she became a featured soloist. Moving to London in the late 1930s, she formed her own band and her first significant engagement was performing with the all-female revue Meet the Girls, starring Hylda Baker.
During World War II opportunities opened up and Ivy’s band became the BBC’s resident dance band in 1943 and was top of the bill at the London Palladium for six months in 1944. By wars end she was playing the VE Day celebration in Berlin, touring Europe and the Middle East performing for Allied troops, headlining variety theatres and performing at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Over the next thirty years the band experience much success with television appearances, a tribute on This Is Your Life, and a speaking role in the film The Dummy Talks.
The group disbanded in 1982 but she was honored as a fellow of Leeds Polytechnic, a plaque at her childhood home and a play, The Silver Lady, was based on her life. Retiring to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, multi-instrumentalist Ivy Benson passed away on May 6, 1993 at age 79.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hubert Laws was born November 10, 1939 in the Studewood section of Houston, Texas, the second of eight children. He grew up across the street from a honky-tonk called Miss Mary’s Place where his grandfather played harmonica and his mother, a pianist, played gospel music. He began playing flute in high school after volunteering to substitute for the school orchestra’s regular flutist. Becoming adept at jazz improvisation he played in the Houston-area jazz group the Swingsters, which eventually evolved into the Modern Jazz Sextet, the Night Hawks, and The Crusaders. At age 15, he was a member of the early Jazz Crusaders while in Texas from 1954–60. Multi-talented, he also played classical music during those years.
A scholarship to Juilliard School of Music in 1960 saw him studying music in the classroom and with master flutist Julius Baker. Laws went on to play with both the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (member) and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra during the years 1969–72. In 971 he recorded renditions of classical compositions by Fauré, Stravinsky, Debussy, and Bach on the CTI album Rite of Spring with strings and enlisted the talents of Airto Moreira, Jack DeJohnette, Bob James, and Ron Carter.
During his years at Juilliard he played flute with Mongo Santamaría and began recording as a bandleader for Atlantic in 1964, releasing the albums The Laws of Jazz, Flute By-Laws, and Laws Cause. He has worked with In the Seventies he can also be heard playing tenor saxophone on some recordings.
The 1980’s saw the minor hit Family on CBS Records getting played on many UK soul radio stations. In the 1990s Hubert resumed his career, recording with opera singers Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman. His albums on the Music Masters Jazz label—My Time Will Come in 1990 and Storm Then Calm in 1994 show a return to his old form of his early 1970s albums.
Over the course of his career he also recorded with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Nancy Wilson, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Leonard Bernstein, James Moody, Jaco Pastorius, Sérgio Mendes, Bob James, Carly Simon, George Benson, Clark Terry, Stevie Wonder, J. J. Johnson, The Rascals, Morcheeba Ashford & Simpson, Chet Baker, George Benson, Moondog, his brother Ronnie, Gil Scott-Heron, among others, and was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet. .
Laws has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Flute Association and the National Endowment for the Arts in the field of jazz, as well as a recipient of the NEA Jazz Masters Award and three Grammy nominations. Flautist and tenor saxophonist Hubert Laws continues to compose, record and perform.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lynn Baker was born on November 9, 1955 and spent the early years of his life in Salem, Oregon. At seven he started piano lessons and by fifth grade was in band class playing clarinet. While in sixth grade he received his first tenor saxophone and enrolled in summer band program at Morningside Elementary. By seventh grade he was first chair in the junior and high school bands.
During his training he learned many Dixieland tunes that started him on the road to jazz. He would go on to play with McNary High School band and swing choir, and after graduation enrolled at Oregon College of Education (OCE) with the intent of playing and teaching music. He would later transfer to the University of Oregon, return to OCE and eventually enter Mt. Hood Community College’s music program.
After graduation he joined a top 40 band, bought an old Rickenbacker bass and learned some rudimentary bass lines. Post band and teaching privately Baker moved to Los Angeles, California but ended up in Washington teaching in Upward Bound. A Move to Eugene, Oregon put him in the Experimental Jazz Ensemble. He then joined a rock/Latin band and then found his niche as a college educator.
Throughout most of Lynn’s professional career he would teach saxophone, start and direct college bands, form big bands, become director of Jazz Studies, build music programs, playing with several jazz orchestras, an improvising trio culminating in his forming the Lynn Baker Quartet and Quintet. He has performed on several jazz, big band and classical recordings, but finally released his debut album as a leader titled “Azure Intention in 2010. He continues to compose, perform, tour and educate.
More Posts: saxophone