Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Louis Leo Prima was born December 7, 1910 in New Orleans, Louisiana into a musical Italian American family. His mother, a music lover, made sure that each child played an instrument, assigning him the violin and started out playing at St. Ann’s Parish. His interest in jazz came when he heard black musicians, including Louis Armstrong at a time Italians and Blacks in New Orleans frequently socialized together in the same clubs and bars.

He practiced continuously on his worn-down cornet and formed a band in 1924 with his childhood friends, bassist Candy Candido, Irving Fazola on clarinet and drummer Johnny Viviano. Prima attended Jesuit High School but transferred to Warren Easton High in 1926. There he played with the Eastonites, the school band. The next year he partnered with fellow musician Frank Federico and they played in the French Quarter.

By 1928 his decision was made to become a professional musician. After finishing high school he joined the Ellis Stratako Orchestra in 1929 then the Joseph Cherniavsky Orchestrafollowed by a temporary job playing on the steamship Capital that docked on Canal Street. His first break was when Lou Forbes hired him for daily afternoon and early evening shows at The Saenger.

1934 saw him begin recording for the Brunswick label. He recorded That’s Where the South Begins, Long About Midnight, Jamaica Shout, and StarDust. Prima and his New Orleans Gang featured Frank Pinero playing piano, Jack Ryan bass, Garrett McAdams guitar, and Pee Wee Russell clarinet. at the Famous Door. HIs recordings from 1935 were a combination of Dixieland and swing. He and Russell recorded The Lady in Red, a national jukebox hit. They also recorded Chinatown, Chasing Shadows and Gypsy Tea Room.

Martha Raye played a role in Prima’s professional and personal life and with her got his first national debut on The Fleischman Hour. He recorded Sing, Sing , Sing in 1936, which subsequently became a hit for Benny Goodman. Moving to California he expanded his music, joining the movement for big bands and orchestras. However for him the configuration was not successful.

He returned to New York City in 1937 with  his quintet at the Famous Door. Then on to Billy Rose’s Casa Mañana club in 1938, earning nearly a quarter million dollars throughout seven weeks. This led to an East Coast to mid-West tour. During the war years, Louis was experiencing great success regardless of anti-Italian sentiment. He would go on to have several big hits but by the end of the war years, the popularity of big band music was diminishing. By 1947 he was playing more jazzy versions of his music for the next decade and a half.

Trumpeter, singer, entertainer and bandleader Louis Prima suffered a heart attack in 1973.  Two years later he was diagnosed with a brain stem tumor, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, went into a coma following surgery and never recovered. He moved back to New Orleans and transitioned three years later on August 24, 1978 at 67 in his hometown.

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SEAN JONES

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DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER WITH SEAN JONES

NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater with bandleader and trumpeter Sean Jones and the NYO Jazz All-Star Big Band. The program consists of:

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Robert Graeme Barnard was born on November 24, 1933 in Melbourne, Australia and his parents had formed a dance band in the 1920s, his mother was the bandleader and pianist, his father on saxophone, drums and banjo. His older brother Len joined them on drums at age 11. He took trumpet lessons from age 11 and played clarinet in a local brass band before he joined the family band at 14 in 1947.

When his brother Len formed his own group, Len’s South City Stompers the next year he joined on trumpet and they made their first recording in 1949 on his 16th birthday. The following year they began a weekly radio broadcast as Len Barnard’s Dixieland Jazz Band. He played with the group until 1955 after being cheated of their takings and stranded in Tumut, Australia. Relocating to Sydney he performed with Ray Price Trio before returning to Melbourne.

In 1958 Barnard joined the Graeme Bell band for an Australian tour. He worked for Brashs from 1958 to 1962, while performing after business hours. He went back to Sydney in 1962 and as a member of Graeme Bell and His All-Stars appeared on Trad Pad, a TV special program.

He was nominated in 1996 at the ARIA Music Awards of 1996 for Best Jazz Album for Live at the Sydney Opera House, which was recorded with the Australian Jazz Allstars.

Trumpeter and cornetist Bob Barnard, who was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to music, particularly jazz, transitioned on May 7, 2022.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Elmer “Sonny” Dunham was born November 16, 1911 in Brockton, Massachusetts and attended local schools, taking lessons on the valve trombone at the age of 7. He changed to the slide trombone at the age of 11, and was playing in local bands at 13. He began his musical career as a trombone player in the Boston, Massachusetts area.

By the late 1920s he had moved to New York City where he played with Ben Bernie for six months before moving on in 1929 to Paul Tremaine’s Orchestra. He remained there for two years and while working as an arranger and vocalist with Tremaine’s group he switched to the trumpet.

In 1931 he left Tremaine and for a few months led his own group, calling it Sonny Dunham and his New York Yankees. That same year along with clarinettist Clarence Hutchenrider, trombonist-singer Pee Wee Hunt and singer Kenny Sargent, he was recruited by Glen Gray for Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra. During the golden years of Casa Loma, he was a popular soloist, scoring a big hit with his trumpet work on Memories of You. He stayed until 1936, when he formed another more unusual group, Sonny Lee and The New Yorkers Band, which featured 14 pieces, with ten of his musicians doubling on trumpet.

Moving to Europe for three months, he then returned to the Casa Loma Orchestra, remaining until 1940 when he tried again to form his own group, this time, with more success. They debuted in 1940 at the Glendale Auditorium in Los Angeles, California and toured and held talent searches throughout the United States. After returning to New York in 1941, they were on nightly radio broadcasts at the Roseland Ballroom, and the Meadowbrook at Cedar Grove, New Jersey.

On the road in California the band played Los Angeles, were featured in the Universal picture Behind the Eight Ball with the Ritz Brothers and he served as musical director for this film, and was part of a vaudeville revue. Over the next couple of decades he would divide his time between New York and Los Angeles with stints in Chicago, Illinois. Dunham briefly experimented with dual female vocalists, Mickie Roy and Dorothy Claire, which did not turn out due to professional temperament.

Dissolving the band in 1951 Sonny joined Tommy Dorsey’s band as trumpet player, then reorganized the next year, remaining active until the decline of the big-band business. By the 1970s obscurity set in, however, he recorded playing trombone on a few LPs with Don Goldie’s Dixieland revival bands.

In the 1980s trumpeter, trombonist and bandleader Sonny Dunham, who was living in a trailer in Miami, Florida and still involved in booking bands for cruises and playing occasionally, transitioned from cancer on July 9, 1990, aged 78.

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