Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herman Autrey was born into a musical family on December 4, 1904 in Evergreen, Alabama. He played alto horn before taking up trumpet as a teenager and performed locally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Florida. After Florida, he went on to work in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York City, where he played with Charlie Johnson in 1933.
He became well known through Fats Waller, who hired him in 1934 after signing a contract with Victor Records. He played with the drummer Harry Dial, guitarist Al Casey, and reedist Gene Sedric. Autrey went on to record extensively with Waller, Fletcher Henderson, and Claude Hopkins.
Into the 1940s Herman worked as a sideman with Stuff Smith, Sammy Price, and Una Mae Carlisle and his ensembles sometimes included pianist Herbie Nichols. By the early 1950s he was hurt in a car crash, sidelining his career for a year. He played with Saints & Sinners in the 1960s, including on their 1968/69 tours of Europe. In 1969, he played with Buzzy Drootin’s Jazz Family, which included Benny Morton, Herb Hall, pianist Sonny Drootin, and bassist Eddie Gibbs.
In the Seventies, he began to lose his playing capacity and spent more time as a vocalist. Trumpeter Herman Autrey passed away on June 14, 1980 in New York, at the age of 75.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jolyon Hunter was born on December 1, 1926 in Ealing, London, England and moved with his actor parents to America in 1935. He studied the French horn at two military schools before switching to trumpet. By 1943 he returned home to Britain and attended the Royal College of Music before joining the war effort in the British Army.
In 1950 Jo left Army service and joined the Kenny Graham Afro Cubists, working with them off and on until 1957. Departing the group, he then worked for a short time with Roy Fox, followed by a five year residence with the Jack Parnell Big Band. He went on to play with Oscar Rabin, replacing Jimmy Deuchar.
Moving to Brighton, he worked with local bands and was an active freelancer on both trumpet and piano. In his later years he worked on cruise ships and played harmonica. Trumpeter and pianist Jo Hunter, who also played pianist and harmonica, passed away on August 14, 2016 at the age of 89.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dick Vance was born on November 28, 1915 in Mayfield, Kentucky, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He learned violin before concentrating on trumpet and by 1932 was playing with J. Frank Terry before joining Lil Armstrong’s band in 1934.
He moved to New York City and played with Willie Bryant, Kaiser Marshall, and Fletcher Henderson between 1936 to 1938. In Henderson’s band he was lead trumpeter and occasionally sang. By 1939 he joined Chick Webb’s orchestra, remaining in the group when Ella Fitzgerald took over leadership. His next move had him becoming the staff arranger for Glen Grey’s band and, in 1942, joined the Lucky Millinder Orchestra.
From 1944–45 he worked with Charlie Barnet, Don Redman, Eddie Heywood and Ben Webster. From 1944 to 1947 he studied at Juilliard, and moonlighted as a pit orchestra musician and an arranger for Harry James, Cab Calloway, Earl Hines and Duke Ellington. During this time Dick played on notable Broadway productions including Pal Joey, Beggar’s Holiday, and in the off-stage band for Streetcar Named Desire.
In 1950, Vance reunited with Fletcher Henderson, playing in his New York sextet. 1951 to 1952 saw him as a member of Duke Ellington’s trumpet section where he arranged most of the items for the album Ellington ‘55. In 1958 he co-composed Jazz Festival Suite with Ellington for performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. He led Sonny Stitt’s trumpet section on the 1962 album Sonny Stitt & The Top Brass. He toured abroad with his own band in 1969, which later appeared in the film L’aventure du jazz.
He toured with Redman in 1953 and was a regular at the Savoy Ballroom throughout the 1950s. He released two albums in the 1960s and toured with Eddie Barefield in 1969. He appears briefly in episode 9 of the music documentary series All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music. In 1979, he composed for the documentary film No Maps On My Taps, starring Lionel Hampton and Howard Sims.
Trumpeter, vocalist, composer and arranger Dick Vance passed away on July 31, 1985 in New York City at the age of 69.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tommy Stewart was born November 19, 1939 in Gadsden, Alabama. He attended Industrial High in Birmingham, Alabama where John T. “Fess” Whatley trained him along with Erskine Hawkins, Dud Bascomb, Paul Bascomb, and Sun Ra. Alvin “Stumpy” Robinson, the band director at Washington Jr High School, was also influential in his development.
Enrolling at Alabama State College and having no way to pay tuition, the problem solved itself when he joined the Bama State Collegians, a dance band that made enough money to fund Stewart’s way through four years of college. He attended Alabama State University, where he directed the Bama State Collegians. Later, he studied jazz arranging at the Eastman School of Music and studied arranging under John Duncan, a classical composer and teacher at Alabama State University.
As an educator he began his teaching career at Fayette High School in St. Clair County Alabama, 1961 to 1963. Moving to Atlanta, Georgia in 1969 he taught in Fayetteville, Georgia, worked for Morris Brown College doing band arrangements and taught jazz and arranged for the Morehouse College band. He also taught band classes at West End High School in Birmingham, Alabama from, and taught A Survey of Popular Music at Georgia State University.
During the 1970s, he worked with Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Tams, Johnnie Taylor, Jackie Moore, King Floyd, Z. Z. Hill, and The Stylistics. He toured as musical director for Johnnie Taylor and for Ted Taylor and went on to record disco in the Seventies with Final Approach, Cream De CoCo, Tamiko Jones, Moses Davis, and his own album.
In 1990, he co-founded the African American Philharmonic Orchestra with founder and conductor John Peek. He moved from Atlanta to Birmingham in 1992. He was a member of the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, Cleveland Eaton, the Alabama All-Stars, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame All-Stars, and Ray Reach and Friends, continues to be involved in music. In 1988, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. At 81, trumpeter, arranger, composer, and record producer Tommy Stewart remains involved in the music industry.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Henry Windhurst came into this world on November 5, 1926 in New York City, New York and was a self taught trumpeter. At the age of 15 he played his first public performance at Nick’s, and made his professional debut during the spring of 1944 at one of Eddie Condon’s concerts at the Town Hall, both venues in New York City. By eighteen he replaced Bunk Johnson in Sidney Bechet’s band for a Savoy Cafe gig in Boston, Massachusett, which launched his career as a trumpeter.
Going on to play with Art Hodes and James P. Johnson at the Jazz at Town Hall concert in 1946, Johnny then moved to the midwest and after a brief stint in the Chicago, Illinois jazz scene he returned to the Savoy Cafe as a member of Edmond Hall’s band. Eventually he moved west to experience the west coast jazz scene in California. However, his inability to read music forced him to decline gigs with Benny Goodman and Woody Herman, emphasizing his preference for informal jamming.
Over the years, he played with Louis Armstrong, Nappy Lamare, Eddie Condon. Ruby Braff,George Wettling, Jack Teagarden and Barbara Lea. He also led his own band, Riverboat Five, through Columbus, Ohio and Boston for several years, opting to play colleges and small venues instead of the most popular east coast venues and nightclubs.He also did some off-Broadway work with Conrad Janis in the musical Joy Ride.
Windhurst only made one recording with his swing quartet called Jazz at Columbus Avenue, for the Transition label in 1956. On the record label Jazzology, George Buck released The Imaginative Johnny Windhurst which showcased his unique trumpet style. The LP was recorded at a showcase in Massachusetts, where the decision to record it was made on the spot just as the show began. The spontaneous set flaunts his innovative playing on timeless numbers such as Back In Your Own Backyard, Strut Miss Lizzie and Lover Come Back to Me.
He eventually moved upstate to Poughkeepsie, New York with his mother, where he finished his career in a dixieland band at Frivolous Sal’s Last Chance Saloon. Trumpeter Johnny Windhurst passed away from a heart attack at the age of 54 on October 2, 1981 in Dutchess County, New York.
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