Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Brad Gowans was born Arthur Bradford Gowans on December 3, 1903 in Billerica, Massachusetts. His earliest work was on the Dixieland jazz scene, playing with the Rhapsody Makers Band, Tommy DeRosa’s New Orleans Jazz Band, and Perley Breed. In 1926 he played cornet with Joe Venuti, and worked later in the decade with Red Nichols, Jimmy Durante, Mal Hallett and Bert Lown. Leaving music for several years during the Great Depression, he returned to play with Bobby Hackett in 1936, then Frank Ward, Wingy Manone, Joe Marsala, and Bud Freeman’s Summa Cum Laude Band by 1940.
Moving to New York City early in the 1940s, Brad played regularly at Nick’s in Greenwich Village and worked with Ray McKinley and Art Hodes. As a clarinetist, he played in the reconstituted Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s 1940s recordings. He stopped playing again briefly in the mid-1940s, then returned to play with Max Kaminsky, Jimmy Dorsey, and Nappy Lamare.
Aside from his playing, Gowans also arranged pieces for Bud Freeman and Lee Wiley, and invented the valide trombone, a hybrid slide-valve trombone which never caught on. He recorded a few times as a leader in 1926, 1927, and 1934, and recorded Brad Gowans and His New York Nine for Victor Records in 1946.
He went on to freelance on the West Coast and collapsed on stage in 1954 while playing with Eddie Skrivanek. Trombonist and reedist Brad Gowans passed eight months later on September 8, 1954 in Los Angeles, California.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Frank Reichenbach Jr. was born November 30, 1949 in Takoma Park, Maryland, the son of Bill Reichenbach, drummer for Charlie Byrd. He began playing in high school bands in the Washington, D.C. area, sat in with his father’s group, and played with Milt Jackson, Zoot Sims, and others.
Reichenbach went on to study at the Eastman School of Music and after graduating joined the Buddy Rich band. He would also work in the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band in Los Angeles, California during the mid to late Seventies. After that move to the West Coast, he became known for music for television and film.
Not limiting himself to jazz, Bill played trombone on The Wiz and, with the Seawind Horns including Jerry Hey on Michael Jackson’s albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and HIStory. He was also the composer for Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
Trombonist and composer Bill Reichenbach is best known in jazz circles as a session musician for television, films, cartoons, and commercials. He recorded a solo album, Special Edition, where he is featured on tenor as well as bass trombone. He continues to compose, record and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tyree Glenn was born William Tyree Glenn on November 23, 1912 in Corsicana, Texas. He played trombone and vibraphone with local Texas bands before moving to Washington, D.C. in the early Thirties. He performed with several prominent bands of the Swing Era, playing with Bob Young and Tommy Myles before moving to the West Coast.
While he was living out West, Tyree first played with groups headed by Charlie Echols followed by Eddie Barefield, Eddie Mallory and Benny Carter. By the end of the decade from 1939 to 1946 he played with Cab Calloway. He toured around Europe with Don Redman’s big band in 1946, then joined Duke Ellington until 1951 as a wah-wah trombonist in the Tricky Sam Nanton tradition and Ellington’s only vibraphonist, being well-featured on the Liberian Suite. After his time with Ellington he played with Howard Biggs’s Orchestra.
During the 1950s, Glenn did studiowork, led his quartet at the Embers, did some television, radio and acting work, and freelanced in swing and Dixieland bands. In 1953 he joined Jack Sterling’s New York daily radio show, with which he remained until 1963. During 1965–68, he toured the world with Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars, staying with the group until Armstrong passed in 1971.
He would go on to record with Louis Bellson, Gene Krupa, Buck Clayton, Clark Terry and during his last few years he led his own group, recording seven albums. Trombonist Tyree Glenn, was also a studio musician, actor and composer who penned Sultry Serenade, which was recorded by Duke Ellington and Erroll Garner, moved to Englewood, New Jersey where he passed away from cancer on May 18, 1974.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Masso was born November 17, 1926 in Cranston, Rhode Island. Most notable for his work from 1948 to 1950 as a member of the Jimmy Dorsey band, but finding the life of a professional jazz musician financially difficult, Masso quit performing following his work with Dorsey and began teaching.
Returning to music in 1973, George recorded and/or performed with Bobby Hackett and Benny Goodman. In 1975 he became member of the World’s Greatest Jazz Band and by the late 1980s and early 1990s, he had recorded with George Shearing, Barbara Lea, Ken Peplowski, Scott hamilton, Warren Vache, Bobby Rosengarden, Woody Herman, Spike Robinson, Bob Haggart, Totti Bergh, Harry Allen and Yank Lawson.
He recorded numerous albums leading sessions on the Sackville, Nagel-Heyer, Arbors, Famous Door, World Jazz and Dreamstreet labels over the course of his career. Trombonist, bandleader, vibraphonist, and composer George Masso, who specialized in swing and Dixieland, rarely performs at 90 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Conrad Herwig was born Lee Conrad Herwig III on November 1, 1959 in Lawton, Oklahoma. He graduated from North Texas State University in Denton, Texas, where he performed in the One O’Clock Lab Band, attended Goddard College and Queens College, CUNY.
He began his career in Clark Terry’s band in the early 1980s and has gone on to be a featured member in the Joe Henderson Sextet, Tom Harrell’s Septet and Big Band, and the Joe Lovano Nonet and featured as a soloist on the latter’s Grammy Award winning 52nd Street Themes.
He performs and records with Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta II and Afro-Caribbean Jazz Octet, Michel Camilo’s 3+3, the Mingus Big Band (often serving as musical director, and was an arranger on the 2007 Grammy nominated Live at the Tokyo Blue Note, the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra, and Jeff “Tain” Watts Family Reunion Band, among many others.
He has recorded several highly acclaimed projects in the Afro-Caribbean jazz genre, including the Grammy nominated albums the Latin Side of Joe Henderson featuring Joe Lovano for Half Note Records, the Latin Side of Wayne Shorter, Another Kind of Blue: The Latin Side of Miles Davis, and, the Latin Side of John Coltrane. Conrad has worked with Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Valentin, Eddie Palmieri, and Randy Brecker. He has been voted No. 1 Jazz Trombonist three times in the Downbeat Jazz Critics’ Poll and nominated for Trombonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association on multiple occasions.
He has conducted master classes, seminars and workshops at hundreds of universities and conservatories around the world and has received performance and teaching grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Trombonist Conrad Herwig is a professor of jazz trombone, jazz improvisation and jazz composition and arrangement at Rutgers University, was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Trombone Association and continues to compose, perform and record.
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