Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Garnett Brown, born January 31, 1936 in Memphis, Tennessee and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and later studied film scoring and electronic music at University of California Los Angeles. Winning the DownBeat Reader’s poll for trombonists, he appeared on the classic 1976 recording Bobby Bland and B.B. King Together Again…Live.
As a sideman he recorded with Chico Hamilton, Charles Lloyd, Roland Kirk, Art Blakey, Booker Ervin, Lou Donaldson, Teddy Edwards, Frank Foster, Duke Pearson, George Benson, Charles Tolliver, Johnny Hodges, Houston Person, Louis Armstrong, Gene Ammons, Modern Jazz Quartet, Gil Evans, Jackie and Roy, Airto Moreira, Hubert Laws, Dakota Staton, Reuben Wilson, Charles Earland, Don Sebesky, Lou Donaldson, Charles McPherson, Joe Chambers, Yusef Lateef, Jack McDuff, Rusty Bryant, Les McCann, Billy Cobham, Arif Mardin, Herbie Hancock, Charles Tolliver, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Eddie Harris, Horace Silver, Ahmad Jamal, and Gerald Wilson Orchestra of the 80’s among others.
He has worked as a composer in film and television due to his training in the field. In 1989 he was the conductor and orchestrator for Harlem Nights. Trombonist Garnett Brown, having been diagnosed with dementia, he is now retired and living in West Hollywood, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Streamline Ewing was born John Richard Ewing on January 19, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas and began his career when he was seventeen. Four years later he was with Horace Henderson, then with Earl Hines live and on record from 1938 to 1939 and from 1941 to 1942. He worked for short spans with Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton in the 1940s, in addition through the 1940 decade he worked with Jimmie Lunceford, Cab Calloway, Jay McShann, Cootie Williams, Louis Jordan, and Earl Bostic.
Moving to California in the early 1950s Ewing played with George Jenkins and in the studio with T-Bone Walker and Gerald Wilson. He began playing with Teddy Buckner in 1956 and the two would play together on and off into the 1980s. He led his band the Streamliners for recording sessions in 1958 and 1960. In 1962 he toured with Henderson again and with Rex Stewart in 1967. Late in the 1960s he played in the Young Men of New Orleans band.
In 1983 he played with the Eagle Brass Band and recorded with Johnny Otis in 1990. In the 1990s he played on two Willy DeVille albums: Backstreets of Desire and Big Easy Fantasy.
A prolific session player he recorded with Hoyt Axton, David Bromberg, Roy Brown, Bobby Bryant, Teddy Buckner, Red Callender, Papa John Creach, Willy DeVille, Judy Henske, Earl Hines, Diana Ross, Ike & Tina Turner, and Bob Thiele among others. Trombonist Streamline Ewing passed away on February 1, 2002 in Pasadena, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Britton was born on November 28, 1903 in Birmingham, Alabama and following his student days under the guidance of Fess Whatley, he went to work with Bessie Smith who took him on the road from 1924 through 1926 as a member of her backing group, followed with the Fred Longshaw Orchestra and then the Bill Woods Orchestra. The next year, he jumped to Frank Bunch & the Fuzzy Wuzzies, most likely the most obscure name in the list of the groups he played for.
Settling in New York in the ’30s and immediately got into the fast-paced jazz scene working with Ellsworth Reynold’s Bostonians, Teddy Hill, the band of classic jazz drummer Kaiser Marshall, Charlie Johnson, Edgar Hayes, and the Vernon Andrade Orchestra. In the ’40s: he worked with Benny Carter from 1940-1941 and Dizzy Gillespie, while at the same time collaborating on older styles of jazz.
In the 1940s Britton worked and recorded with Jelly Roll Morton, Jay McShann, and Lucky Millinder in 1942. He would go on to be employed by Wynonie Harris showing up on a half-dozen of her R&B records, and also recorded with Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
He performed and recorded with pianist Earl Hines. The trombonist dabbled into orchestra arrangements and his work in this field is highlighted on the album Breaks, Blues and Boogies by fellow bone-man Vic Dickenson. retired from full-time professional playing in the 1950s, however, he gigged off and on into the Sixties, including a regular stint in a band led by saxophonist Wesley Fagan. Trombonist Joe Britton passed away on August 12, 1972 in New York City, New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kiane Zawadi was born Bernard Atwell McKinney on November 26, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan into a family of ten children, several of whom also became musicians. A trombone and euphonium player, he first worked with Barry Harris and Sonny Stitt in 1951, and then played with Alvin Jackson’s band early in the decade. Toward the middle of the decade, he joined Art Blakey, and by 1959 he moved with Yusef Lateef to New York City.
The 1960s had him playing with Illinois Jacquet, James Moody, and Curtis Fuller. It was later in the Sixties that Bernard adopted the name Kiane Zawadi. By the 1970s he was performing with Archie Shepp, Carlos Garnett, Harold Vick, Frank Foster, Charles Tolliver, Abdullah Ibrahim, and McCoy Tyner.
In 1978, he played in the pit orchestra for Dancin’, a Broadway show. He also appeared at a Charlie Parker tribute at Town Hall in New York City in 1985. Other musicians Zawadi worked with include Mongo Santamaría, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Joe Henderson, and Aretha Franklin.
As a sideman, he has recorded thirty-eight albums with Foster, Slide Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Jordan, Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, Pepper Adams, James Moody, Sun Ra, Hank Mobley, Howard McGhee, Freddie Roach, Archie Shepp, Willis “Gator” Jackson, Dollar Brand, McCoy Tyner, Les McCann, Shirley Scott, Jackie DeShannon, Harold Vick, Charles Tolliver, Carlos Garnett, Kenny Vance, Ralph MacDonald, Phyllis Hyman, Cornell Dupree, Grant Green, Mickey Bass, Illinois Jacquet, Rodney Kendrick, Joe Henderson, and Patience Higgins.
Trombonist and euphonium player Kiane Zawadi, one of the few jazz soloists on the latter instrument, at 87 he continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Keg Johnson was born Frederic Homer Johnson on November 19, 1908 in Dallas, Texas. His father was a choir director and he and his younger brother, Budd began their musical careers singing and playing first with their father and later with Portia Pittman, daughter of Booker T. Washington. They played in Dallas-area bands like the Blue Moon Chasers, then with Ben Smith’s Music Makers, eventually performing with Gene Coy and The Happy Black Aces.
Playing a variety of instruments but most noted as a trombonist, around 1928, in Kansas City, Missouri they played in several bands but by 1930 Keg left for Chicago, Illinois to play with Louis Armstrong, recording his first solo on Armstrong’s Basin Street Blues album. His move to New York City in 1933 Keg played with Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, and Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club, remaining with Cab for 15 years.
Leaving New York City for Los Angeles, California he briefly changed careers renovating houses. During the 1950s he returned to New York City where he and his brother reunited and recorded the album Let’s Swing. In 1961, he began playing with Ray Charles and was still in his band when trombonist Keg Johnson passed away in Chicago on November 8, 1967.
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