Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Russell Morgan was born on April 29, 1904 in Scranton, Pennsylvania into a Welsh family. He was encouraged to express himself musically from the age of seven. His father was a former drummer, his mother a pianist in a vaudeville act. He began studying piano and worked in the mines with his father to earn money to help support the family and pay for his lessons.
By 14, he was earning money as a pianist in a Scranton theater. Purchasing a trombone he learned to play and in 1921 he played trombone with the Scranton Sirens, a popular band in Pennsylvania. Russ moved to New York in 1921 at 18 and three years later he was writing arrangements for John Philip Sousa and Victor Herber. He then joined Paul Specht’s orchestra and toured throughout Europe with the likes of Paul Whiteman, Charlie Spivak, and Artie Shaw. After returning from Europe, Jean Goldkette invited him to Detroit, Michigan to lead his band with former associates Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Chauncey Morehouse, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Bix Beiderbecke, and Fuzzy Farrar.
His first records were made for OKeh in mid 1930 and for Parlophone and Odeon, usually under the name Russell Brown and his Orchestra. During the early 1930s, Morgan joined the group of anonymous studio groups recording pop tunes for the dime store labels, which included Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, Conqueror, and Vocalion.
For a short time in the Thirties he arranged for Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra. In 1935, he played trombone with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band when they recorded four sides for Vocalio and two sides for Brunswick. He was offered the position of musical director for Detroit radio station WXYZ and his show, Music In The Morgan Manner, became one of the most popular radio shows.
An automobile accident in the early 1930s nearly sidelined his career but after several months in the hospital, Russ started again in New York City as an arranger for the George White Scandals, the Cotton Club Revue, and the Capitol Theatre. When not arranging for the Broadway shows, he worked as a pianist or trombonist with orchestras led by Phil Spitalny, Eddie Gilligan, Ted Fio Rito, and Freddy Martin.
He would go on to join the Freddy Martin Orchestra, become music director at Brunswick, hosted The Russ Morgan Show on the Mutual Broadcasting System and formed an orchestra at Rudy Vallee’s insistence. He landed his first engagement at the Biltmore along with Vallee’s band. He was music director for the Rinso-Lifebuoy Show on NBC and the Philip Morris radio series on NBC and CBS for two years.
Through his career he had four songs that charted, was music director for NBC and CBS and hosted television shows, On August 7, 1969 trombonist, arranger, composer, conductor and bandleader Russ Morgan, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, transitioned at the age of 65 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,conductor,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph William Yukl was born on March 5, 1909 in Los Angeles, California and learned to play violin before switching to trombone as a teenager.
Yukl relocated to New York City in 1927 where he took a position playing in radio bands for CBS, and worked with Red Nichols and The Dorsey Brothers. During 1934 he played with Joe Haymes, then with the Dorseys once again.
Through the end of the decade he played with Louis Armstrong, Ray McKinley, Bing Crosby, Ben Pollack, Frankie Trumbauer, and Ted Fio Rito. The 1940s saw Joe working as a session musician for studio recordings in Los Angeles, California and for film and television.
He played with Wingy Manone and Charlie LaVere in the 1940s. He appears in the film Rhythm Inn in 1951 and is heard playing trombone in the 1953 movie The Glenn Miller Story.
Trombonist Joe Yukl transitioned on March 16, 1981 at the age of 72 in his hometown.
More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul Crawford was born on February 16, 1925 in Atmore, Alabama, to parents who were a Baptist minister and a music teacher. After serving in the Navy during World War II he graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where he studied trombone in a classical style. He went on to study under trombonist and teacher Emory Remington, pursued for a time graduate studies at the University of Alabama. Moving to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1951 he became a specialist in the Dixieland style of Jazz.
Crawford initially took up residence in the French Quarter of New Orleans where he became acquainted with people in the local arts and music scene. He also started performing at the New Orleans Jazz Club and learned to play Dixieland. Soon after he became co-bandleader of the Crawford-Ferguson Night Owls, with Leonard Ferguson, frequently performing on the steamboat President.
He made his first recordings on trombone in 1957 with the Lakefront Loungers. During this time, Paul played the trombone on non-paying gigs, and participated in jam sessions. He performed with Sharkey Bonano and with bandleader Paul “Doc” Evans.
By the 1950s, with Deep South laws prohibiting white musicians from performing with Black musicians, jobs dried up. As these laws were struck down in the 1960s, opportunities opened up for Crawford to perform with various notable Black jazz musicians in New Orleans. In 1964, Crawford was approached by Allan Jaffe, who was the owner of Preservation Hall, about performing at the Preservation Hall venue. With Punch Miller, he became a part of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Shortly thereafter, he became a part of the Olympia Brass Band, marched in many New Orleans Jazz Funerals and often performed with the baritone horn. He was a founding member of the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra. As a member of this group and others, he helped make the soundtrack for the movies “Pretty Baby” and “Live and Let Die”, as well as many other recording sessions. Crawford played the baritone horn in many performances of the musical “One Mo’ Time”.
Crawford was an associate curator at the Tulane University Hogan Jazz Archive. As curator, conducted numerous interviews for an oral history of jazz, and resurrected many forgotten pieces of jazz music and developed arrangements of them. He also developed a significant number of photos of jazz musicians and performances, in a private collection.
Trombonist, baritone hornist, arranger and music historian Paul Crawford, who specialized in Dixieland jazz, transitioned on July 31, 1996 of lung cancer. He had been living in a New Orleans skilled nursing facility at the time.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,baritone horn,curator,historian,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bruce Willmarth Squires was born on January 21, 1910 in Berkeley, California. From 1935 to 1937 he was a member of the Ben Pollack band. As The Dean and His Kids, they recorded Spreadin’ Knowledge Around/Zoom Zoom Zoom on the Vocalion label in 1936.
Following this Bruce worked with Jimmy Dorsey for a year in 1937, Gene Krupa the following year, Benny Goodman in 1939, and Harry James from 1939 to 1940. From 1940 for the next two years he worked with Freddie Slack and Bob Crosby.
After World War II he was a studio musician and worked in music for the next three decades. Trombonist Bruce Squires, who primarily performed in the swing genre, transitioned on May 8, 1981 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Shep Shepherd was born Berisford Shepherd on January 19, 1917 in Honduras while his mother was enroute from the West Indies to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Arriving in the city she first settled and raised him in a Jewish neighborhood before moving to a Black neighborhood.
An early fascination with marching bands he drummed on tables and chairs until his mother bought him a toy drum to save wear and tear on the furniture. He attended the Jules E. Mastbaum Area Conservatory and Vocational School where he trained as a percussionist on timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, snare and bass drums. Students were required to have a secondary instrument, and he chose the trombone.
Initially hoping for a career in the Philadelphia Orchestra, he shifted his interest to jazz. He formed a friendship with drummer Jimmy Crawford, who was able to help his career in New York City. During the Thirties performed with Jimmy Gorham’s band in Philadelphia. In 1941, Benny Carter contacted Shep and he moved to New York City, where he also worked with Artie Shaw the same year. He became heavily in demand and the phrase “Get Shep!” became a phrase among area musicians.
Four years in the Army saw him serving in the entertainment corps, and working there he played trombone and improved his skills as a composer and arranger. He met Billy Butlet and in 1952 after his discharge he began working with Butler as part of Bill Doggett’s group. In 1956, Shepherd helped write Doggett’s signature song, Honky Tonk. He left Doggett’s group in 1959 and returned to New York City where he worked in pit orchestras for Broadway shows, and as a music copyist and arranger.
When the nationwide tour of the Broadway show Here’s Love ended, Shepherd found himself in San Francisco, California and he became a freelance musician there. He continued to play drums through the Sixties and Seventies working with Patti Page, Lionel Hampton, Lena Horne, The Ward Singers, Earl Bostic, Buck Clayton, Odetta, Cab Calloway, Sy Oliver, Big Maybelle, and Erskine Hawkins. At 80 years old, he switched his primary focus from drums to trombone, and with organist Art Harris and drummer Robert Labbe formed the group Blues Fuse.
Drummer, trombonist, vocalist and composer Shep Shepherd, who is listed in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz and Who’s Who Among Black Americans, transitioned on November 25, 2018 at the age of 101.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone,vocal