Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Betty Smith was born on July 6, 1929 in Sileby, Leicestershire, England. She studied the saxophone as a young child and began playing the alto saxophone when she was nine in Archie’s Juveniles, not concentrating on jazz until her early teens.
1947 saw Smith touring the Middle East with pianist Billy Penrose, and then with Ivy Benson’s evening gown clad Girls’ Band, playing for off duty Nuremberg trials officials, and in 1948 with Rudy Starita’s All Girls Band to play for the troops.
Women jazz musician were rare in the Fifties, but Betty, by then playing tenor, proved herself in Freddy Randall’s Dixieland/Chicago styled band. She would be heard swinging, improvising and playing hotter jazz than her colleagues as they toured around Britain.
Following a tour of the U.S. the breakup of Randall’s band, and Betty forming a quintet in 1957, she returned to the States and toured with Bill Haley’s Comets. She worked fronting the Ted Heath Orchestra as a vocalist, got numerous radio and television jobs and had her own program on Radio Luxembourg.
She would meet trumpeter Kenny Baker, form the sextet “Best of British Jazz” and be the band’s only saxophonist for the remainder of her career until she got sick in 1985. She continued to sing and play the piano until a week before her death on January 21, 2011 in Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire, England.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Teodross Avery was born on July 2, 1973 and grew up in Oakland and Vacaville, California. Exposed to a wide range of music by his parents, at ten he began his training with classical guitar. However after hearing Coltrane’s Giant Steps he switched to saxophone and it was Wynton Marsalis who bought him a saxophone as a testament to his young promise. At 17 he won a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music.
Two years into Berklee the young saxophonist was heard by Carl Griffin of GRP/Impulse who signed him at age 19, launching his first album In Other Words to critical acclaim. This brought to national attention and demand by the likes of Aretha Franklin and Ramsey Lewis among others. Graduating in 1995 he moved to New York, landed a performance spot in the film Love Jones, released his sophomore project My Generation and worked with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Roy Hargrove, Leela James, Roy Ayers, Mos Def, and Betty Carter. By the end of the decade he was touring with Lauryn Hill and Matchbox Twenty
As a composer and producer, Teo has collaborated on such feature films as Beauty Shop and Brown Sugar, the documentary The N Word, has written music for Amy Winehouse, and appeared on numerous television shows like American Idol, Ellen Degeneres, Saturday Night Live and others. He has been a part of Grammy winning recordings, and recipient of the Advancement In The Arts Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellowship and the Sony Innovator Award. With five albums as a leader and several more as a sideman, saxophonist Teodross Avery continues to perform, compose, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jimmy Mundy was born James Mundy in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 28, 1907. He learned to play the saxophone as a child but gained his arranging skills in his early twenties playing in the local bands of Erskine Tate, Tommy Miles and Carroll Dickerson.
In 1932 he sat in the saxophone chair of the Earl Hines band for four years, but swiftly developing a reputation as an arranger. Arranging a couple of tunes for Claude Hopkins in 1932, it was after selling one of his arrangements to Benny Goodman in 1935 that Mundy was hired him away from Hines, becoming Goodman’s staff arranger.
Mundy was also a significant supplier of arrangements to Count Basie from about 1940 to 1947, as well as writing for Gene Krupa, Paul Whiteman, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Spivak, Harry James and many others. He briefly led his own band in 1939, but after WWII he returned to arranging for Basie, James, and others.
Jimmy wrote the score to the 1955 musical “The Vamp” that starred Carol Channing. The 1957 musical “Livin’ The Life” and the 2010 dance revue “Come Fly Away” also had some of his music.
In 1959, a move to Paris had Mundy as the musical director for Barclay Records but he returned to the U.S. in the Sixties. He continued an active career as a writer well into the 1970s. He recorded three albums as a leader with his last “Fiesta In Brass” the year before his death. On April 24, 2003, tenor saxophonist, arranger and composer Jimmy Mundy passed away.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Lowe was born on June 24, 1943 and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. Taking up the tenor saxophonist he was extremely influenced by the first and second waves of free jazz throughout the 1960s. He moved to San Francisco, California to explore the avant-garde jazz scene. While making several visits to New York City he began playing with Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane, recording with the later in 1971.
As a leader he recorded two-dozen albums between 1973 and 2002 working with the likes of Don Cherry, Billy Bang, Jack Walrath, James Carter, Geri Allen, Charnett Moffett, Carlos Ward and numerous others.
Composer and tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe passed away on September 19, 2003 of lung cancer. His legacy was a varied body of recordings and memorable performances and his composition “Spirits in the Field” was performed on Arthur Blythe’s 1977 album The Grip.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Karl Marsh was born on June 14, 1959 in Los Angeles, California. He learned to play the saxophone as a child coming out of the tradition of John Coltrane, Joe Henderson and Pharoah Sanders, with an added twist of Ben Webster.
Marsh’s big & warm toned tenor saxophone is comfortable in a variety of performance settings, from combos, duos and quintets delivering heartfelt ballads and standards and straight-ahead, earthy and spirit-filled original compositions.
Since 2009 Karl has held a regular gig at the Left Coast Wine Bar and Gallery, has played Maggiano’s at The Grove and the LA Farmer’s Market Summer Jazz Concert series in Los Angeles, has performed at Belgocargo in France, the Joe Henderson Tribute Concert and art venues throughout metro Los Angeles. He released his debut album titled “Push’N Ahead!” in 2005.
Tenor saxophonist Karl Marsh currently serves as the saxophone instructor for the Pasadena Community Youth Orchestra and also offers private instruction.
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