Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Shad Collins was born Lester Rallingston Collins on June 27, 1910 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He learned to play the trumpet and acquired the nickname Shad in his teens. The late 1920s saw him joining Charlie Dixon’s band and performing with pianist Eddie White before joining Chick Webb’s band in 1931. In the mid 1930s he played and toured Britain and Europe with Teddy Hill and then joined the Count Basie Orchestra.

Collins performed in Basie’s band at the From Spirituals to Swing concerts in New York City in 1938 and 1939. By the late 1930s he was working in the bands led by Benny Carter, Lester Young and Don Redman among others.

In 1941, he replaced Dizzy Gillespie in Cab Calloway’s band for two years, then sporadically through 1946. He worked and recorded in the 1940s with Oran “Hot Lips” Page, in the 50s with Jimmy Rushing, Lester Young and Sam “The Man” Taylor, when the later ventured into a more rhythm and blues sound.

Though he worked more on a part-time basis during the Sixties, he never recorded as a leader but was known for composing and arranging the frequently recorded tune “Rock-A-Bye Basie”. On June 6, 1978 trumpeter, composer and arranger Shad Collins passed away.

DOUBLE IMPACT FITNESS

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jimmy Deuchar was born James Deuchar on June 26, 1930 in Dundee, Scotland. Taught trumpet by WWI bugler John Lynch, after national service he began his professional career in the John Dankworth Seven in 1950. He would go on to work with the Oscar Rabin Band, Ronnie Scott, and Kurt Edelhagen’s Orchestra through the decade.

By the Sixties he was working with Tubby Hayes and sitting in with visiting Americans at Ronnie Scott’s club. A highly gifted player and a leading exponent of the “modern” style, he was in demand and achieved success as a touring player in Europe and the United States.

He joined the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band during the late 60 and early 70s, returned to London and freelanced, arranged for the BBC Big Band, the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra and played in a number of settings.

He recorded a number of albums as a leader and sideman beginning in the Fifties utilizing many of his compositions on albums such as The Deuchar Plays Deuchar, Down In The Village, Pal Jimmy and Live In London.

 With his health deteriorated, on September 9, 1993 jazz trumpeter and arranger Jimmy Deuchar, who was influenced by Fats Navarro and whose small range was broad and fat toned, passed away at age 63.

THE WATCHFUL EYE

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Lammar Wright Sr. was born on June 20, 1907 in Texarkana, Texas but grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He began his musical career playing and recording with Bennie Moten’s band in 1923. Relocating to New York City in 1927 Lammar played with The Missourians, staying with the group after Cab Calloway became its leader. Wright remained Calloway’s lead trumpeter until 1942.

Playing sporadically with Calloway through the rest of the decade, Wright would also played with Don Redman, Claude Hopkins, Cootie Williams, Lucky Millinder, Sy Oliver and Louis Armstrong.

In the 1950s and 1960s he taught music and worked as a studio musician, in addition to recording with Arnett Cobb, Count Basie, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra and George Shearing.

Wright led his own groups from time to time, had a role in the 1968 film The Night They Raided Minksy’s. Trumpeter Lammar Wright passed away on April 13, 1973 in New York City.

ROBYN B. NASH

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Requisites

Booker Little and Friends: At the time of Booker Little’s death in 1963, he was just 23 years old, he was already far more than a promising trumpet talent. This reissue of his landmark fourth and final session as a leader, “Victory And Sorrow”, showcases his compositions with trumpet voiced against a backdrop of tenor and trombone. It demonstrates Little’s interest in a mix of complex moods and advanced harmonies, use of multiple keys to create simultaneous joy and mourning, and rhythmic shifts, flaring runs, and surprising intervals.

Personnel: Booker Little – trumpet, Julian Priester – trombone, George Coleman – tenor saxophone, Donald Friedman – piano, Reggie Workman – bass, Pete LaRoca – drums

Record Date: Bethlehem / August 1961 – September 1961

Songs: Victory And Sorrow, Forward Flight, Looking Ahead, If I Should Lose You, Calling Softly, Booker’s Blues, Matilde, plus two previously unreleased takes – Matilde (Alt. Take 4), Matilde (Alt. Take 7)

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Claudio Roditi was born on May 28, 1946 in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. He began his musical studies of trumpet when he was just five years old and his native Brazilian music nearly took a back seat as he became enamored with jazz recordings of Louis Armstrong, Harry James and other American trumpeters.

By 13, he became familiar with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. At the age of twenty, he was named a finalist in the International Jazz Competition in Vienna, and the following year, moved to Mexico City where he was active on the contemporary music scene.  Relocating to Boston in 1970 he enrolled at the Berklee School of Music.

In 1976 Roditi moved to New York eventually establishing himself in the highly competitive atmosphere of the world’s jazz capital. He would go on to perform with Joe Henderson, Charlie Rouse, Herbie Mann, Tito Puente, McCoy Tyner, and Paquito D’Rivera.  He has been a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra, The Jazz Masters led by Slide Hampton and his solo work Symphonic Bossa Nova with Ettore Stratta and the Royal Philharmonic earned Roditi a Grammy nomination in 1995 as well as Brazilliance X4 in 2010.

Claudio easily integrates post-bop elements and Brazilian rhythmic concepts, is in demand as a studio musician and a sideman, has composed, arranged and recorded seventeen critically acclaimed albums. The trumpeter currently tours leading his own band, is frequently travels as a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra and is on the faculty of the School of Contemporary Music.

FAN MOGULS

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