Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ray Anderson was born on October 16, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois. An independent jazz trombonist and trumpeter he began training with the Chicago Symphony trombonists then spent time studying in California. By 1973 he was in New York freelancing and four years later joined Anthony Braxton’s group, then with Barry Altschul.
By the late ‘70s his influence was growing, he was leading his own groups, working with George Gruntz’s Concert Jazz Band and over the next twenty years began taking an occasional good-humored vocal singing two notes at the same time.
Anderson also plays the sousaphone, is a master at multiphonics and a supportive sideman has recorded and performed with David Murray, Charlie Haden, Dr. John, Bennie Wallace, Henry Threadgill, John Scofield and Sam Rivers among others. He also received a grant from the National Endowment For The Arts for a series of solo trombone concerts.
While pushing his sound into the future, Anderson has frequently returned to his early love of New Orleans music for inspiration as he continues to perform, record and tour. Since 2003 he has taught and conducted at Stony Brook University.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
More Posts: sousaphone,trombone,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lester Bowie was born on October 11, 1941 in the historic village of Bartonsville in Frederick, Maryland however he grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of five he started studying the trumpet with his father, a professional musician and grew up playing with Little Milton, Albert King, Solomon Burke, Joe Tex and Rufus Thomas. In 1965, he became Fontella Bass’s musical director and husband and co-founded the Black Artists Group (BAG) in St Louis.
In 1966, Bowie moved to Chicago, worked as a studio musician, meeting Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell became a member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). In 1968, he founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago and was a member of Jack DeJohnette’s New Directions Quartet. Lester lived and worked in Jamaica and Africa, recording with Fela Kuti.
In 1984, he formed Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, a nonet demonstrating jazz’s links to other forms of popular music, covering songs by Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson Marilyn Manson and the Spice Girls along with more serious material. His New York Organ Ensemble featured James Carter and Amina Claudia Myers.
Although seen as part of the avant-garde, Bowie embraced techniques from the whole history of jazz trumpet, filling his music with humorous smears, blats, growls, half-valve effects, and so on. He had an affinity for reggae and ska, appeared on the Stolen Moments: Red, Hot + Cool compilation in support of the Aids epidemic in the African American community that Time Magazine named Album of the Year.
Throughout his career trumpeter Lester Bowie took an adventurous and humorous approach to music. He passed away of liver cancer on November 8, 1999 and was posthumously inducted into the Down Beat Hall Of Fame in 2000. The following year the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded Tribute To Lester.
Jazz Is Global – Share
More Posts: trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harry “Sweets” Edison was born on October 10, 1915 in Columbus, Ohio but spent his early childhood in Kentucky, getting his first introduction to music by his uncle. Moving back to Columbus at age 12, he started playing trumpet with local bands.
In 1933, he became a member of the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra in Cleveland, went on to play with the Mills Blue Rhythm Band followed by Lucky Millinder. In 1937 he moved to New York joining Count Basie’s Orchestra playing alongside Buck Clayton, Lester Young (who named him Sweets), Buddy Tate and Jo Jones among others.
Edison came to prominence in the Basie band as a soloist and as a composer and arranger for the band. He spent 13 years with Basie until the band was temporarily disbanded in 1950. He then pursued a varied career as leader of his own groups, freelancing with other orchestras and traveling with Jazz At The Philharmonic.
In the early 1950s, he settled on the West Coast and became a highly sought-after studio musician, making important contributions to recordings by such artists as Billy Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. In 1956 he recorded the first of three albums with tenor great Ben Webster.
Through the 60s and 70s Harry worked in many orchestras on TV shows, including Hollywood Palace and The Leslie Uggams Show, specials with Sinatra; prominently featured on the sound track and album of Lady Sings The Blues, was musical director for Redd Foxx, toured Europe and Japan.
Jazz trumpeter Harry “Sweets” Edison, the first tribute Honoree from the Los Angeles Jazz Institute, and twice Los Angeles Jazz Society’s tribute Honoree in 1983 and 1992, passed away on July 27, 1999.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
More Posts: trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Vaughn Wilton Monroe was born on October 7, 1911 in Akron, Ohio and didn’t study music until attending the New England Conservatory in 1935 and then only one semester of voice. By 1940 he formed his first orchestra becoming lead vocalist and recording for the Bluebird label. That same year he built The Meadows, a restaurant/nightclub outside Boston and hosted the Camel Caravan radio program on location in 1946.
Monroe recorded extensively for RCA Victor into the 1950s and his signature tune was “Racing with the Moon” among his many other hits such as In The Still Of The Night, There I’ve Said It Again, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow; and Riders In The Sky are just a few. A composer, he also wrote a number of songs.
His interest turned to acting and as the movies also beckoned he pursued but with little vigor. He co-authored The Adventures of Mr. Putt Putt, a children’s book about airplanes and flying, published in 1949.
He hosted The Vaughn Monroe Show on CBS television in the Fifties, and appeared on Bonanza, the Mike Douglas Show, the Ed Sullivan Show, the Jackie Gleason Show and American Bandstand. A major stockholder in RCA, Monroe appeared in print ads and television commercials for the company’s TV and audio products.
Vaughan Monroe, baritone singer, trumpeter, bandleader actor and composer died on May 21, 1973 shortly after having stomach surgery. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording and radio.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
Daily Dose OF Jazz…
Demas Dean was born on October 6, 1903 in Sag Harbor, New York. He began playing trumpet at age 10 and later picked up the violin but professionally became a trumpeter.
While in high school he played in Mazzeo’s Brass Band, and worked with Beatrice Van while still in his teens. He attended Howard University from 1922 – 23 and played with Elmer Snowden, Doc Perry, Russell Wooding and Lucille Hegamin in the first half of the decade.
Through the end of the 1920s Dean played with Billy Butler, Ford Dabney and Leon Abbey, touring South America. In 1928 he recorded with Bessie Smith and the following year worked with Noble Sissle in the Blackbirds revue in Europe.
By the early 1930s Demas was working with bandleaders Joe Jordan and Pike Davis but returned to play with Sissle from 1934 to 1944. Shortly after 1944 he quit music and took a post office position in Los Angeles, working there until his retirement in 1965. Jazz trumpeter Demas Dean passed away in 1991 in Los Angeles, California. (in picture – 2nd from left)
Inspire A Young Mind
More Posts: trumpet