Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Snooky Young was born Eugene Young in Dayton, Ohio on February 3, 1919. Taking up the trumpet at the age of five, he didn’t begin making a name for himself until he joined the Jimmie Lunceford band as lead trumpeter in 1939, a relationship that lasted for three years.
He played a total of eight years over three stints with Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and was an original member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. However, his longest engagement was as a studio trumpeter with NBC’s Tonight Show Band from 1967 to 1992 when Johnny Carson’s departure broke up the band and the network replaced it with a new, smaller group.
Young only recorded three albums as a leader but was a sideman on nearly three-dozen albums and he continued to perform in L.A. with several big bands and holds membership in the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. Known for his mastery of the plunger mute, he is able to create a wide range of sounds. He can make his horn speak, shout, growl, and sigh with his mutes while always swinging irresistibly.
On October 17, 2008 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Award. Trumpeter and flugelhornist Snooky Young passed away on May 11, 2011 in Newport Beach, California at the age of 92.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenny Wheeler was born Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler and came into this world on January 14, 1930, in Toronto, Canada. He began playing the cornet at the age of 12, becoming interested in jazz in his mid-teens. Spending a year at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, he moved to Britain in 1952 at the age of 22 and found his way into the jazz scene of London playing with Tommy White, Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott.
In the 60’s Wheeler worked with John Dankworth, recording “Windmill Tilter” which is now a collector’s item since the master tapes have been lost. He has also enjoyed being active in free improvisation creating orchestral writing with passages of free improvisation infused in the bi band album “Song For Someone” in 1973 named Album of the Year by Melody Maker magazine in 1975.
Kenny’s lists of recordings or performances are too vast but includes Paul Gonsalves, Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton, Keith Jarrett, Steve Coleman, John Taylor, and Lee Konitz among a host of other notables in jazz.
Highly respected among his peers for his beautiful tone and extensive range on the trumpet and flugelhorn, Wheeler has written over one hundred compositions and is a skilled arranger for small groups and larger ensembles. His compositions blend lyrical melodies with a distinctive and ever changing harmonic palette. He has occasionally contributed to rock music recordings, is the patron of the Royal Academy Junior Jazz course, has been based in the UK since 1950 and remained faithful to the jazz genres of avant-garde, post bop, chamber jazz and free improvisation until his passing on September 18, 2014 at age 84 in London, England.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dizzy Reece was born Alphonso Son Reece on January 5, 1931 in Kingston, Jamaica. The son of a silent film pianist, Reece attended the Alpha Boys School, which was famed for its musical alumni. He first took up the baritone saxophone but switched to trumpet at 14. From the age of 16 he was a full-time musician, moving to London in 1948 and spending the 50’s working in Europe with much of his time in Paris.
Reece found himself overshadowed by the innovators of the hard bop style, even though the trumpeter had his own distinctive sound and compositional style. He did, however, work with Don Byas, Kenny Clarke, Frank Foster and Thad Jones among others and winning praise from Miles Davis and Sony Rollins he emigrated to New York in 1959. Struggling through the 60’s, Reece recorded a series of critically acclaimed projects for Blue Note such as “Blues In Trinity”, “Star Bright”, “Comin’ On!” and “Soundin’ Off”.
Remaining active as a musician and writer, Dizzy Reece has recorded over the years with Victor Feldman, Tubby Hayes, the Paris Reunion Band, the Clifford Jordan Big Band, Dexter Gordon, Ted Curson, Duke Jordan, Sun Ra alumni John Gilmore and Philly Joe Jones.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frankie Newton was born William Frank Newton on January 4, 1906, growing up in Emory, Virginia. The trumpeter’s mellow and thoughtful style sometimes seemed out of place in during the swing era, however, he played in several New York bands in the 1920s and 1930s, including bands led by Lloyd Scott, Elmer Snowden, Cecil Scott, Sam Wooding, Chick Webb, Charlie Barnet, Andy Kirk and Charlie “Fess” Johnson.
In the 40s he played with bands led by Lucky Millinder, Pete Brown and Mezz Mezzrow. He played in clubs in New York and Boston, with musicians such as pianist James P. Johnson, drummer Sid Catlett and clarinetist Edmond Hall.
He accompanied Bessie Smith on her final recordings (November 24, 1933), Maxine Sullivan on “Loch Lomond” and several of Billie Holiday’s Café Society recordings, most notably Strange Fruit in 1939.
Although the lyrical trumpeter had a relatively brief but artistically rewarding career producing a couple of recordings, “At The Onyx Club” and “At The Cotton Club”, by the end of the 40’s he became less interested in music and gradually faded from the scene and concentrating more on painting.
Politically, Newton was known to be a communist and as an homage, historian Eric Hobsbawn has written jazz criticism for the New Statesmen under the pen name “Francis Newton”. Trumpeter Frankie Newton passed away on March 11, 1954 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Colligan was born on December 29, 1969 in New Jersey and raised in Columbia, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. He attended the Peabody Institute, majoring in classical trumpet and music education. In high school he learned to play the drums and later switched to piano.
Moving to New York City he quickly became an in-demand sideman working with Phil Woods, Billy Higgins, Gary Bartz, Nicholas Payton, Buster Williams, Don Byron, Vanessa Rubin, Christian McBride and Cassandra Wilson and many others.
George’s eclectic style incorporates everything from show tunes to funk, from free improvisation to modern classical music. He performs at festivals all over the world, including the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and the Cancun Jazz Festival.
As an educator, Colligan has taught at the Juilliard School of Music, the University of Manitoba, was the songwriter-in-residence at Aqua Books and has taught jazz history, piano, drums, trumpet, and led many different master classes. Continuing to perform and record, George Colligan is currently an Assistant Professor and Jazz Ensembles Coordinator at Portland State University in Oregon.