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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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Joe McPhee was born November 3, 1939 in Miami, Florida and grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York. He began playing trumpet when he was eight, before learning other instruments. He played in various high school and then military bands before starting his recording career. His first recording came in 1967 when he appeared on the Clifford Thornton album titled Freedom and Unity.

McPhee taught himself saxophone at the age of 32 after experiencing the music of John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and Ornette Coleman. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he lectured on jazz music at Vassar College.

In 1975, Werner Uehlinger started the Swiss label Hathut Records with the specific intent of showcasing McPhee’s music. In the 1980s, he met Pauline Oliveros, began studying her musical theories, and worked with her Deep Listening Band.

Not having been signed with any major label in his native United States, Joe was better known throughout Europe until the 1990s. His 1996 album As Serious As Your Life, which takes its title from the jazz book by Val Wilmer, has been said to arguably be the finest of his solo recordings, according to the AllMusic review.

He has recorded or performed with Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Jeb Bishop, The Thing, Clifton Hyde, Jérôme Bourdellon, Raymond Boni, and Joe Giardullo. Since 1998, he, Dominic Duval, and Jay Rosen have performed and recorded as Trio X. In the 1990s Dominique Eade and McPhee had a jazz ensemble called Naima.

He has written reviews and commentary for Cadence magazine and was awarded the Resounding Vision Award by Nameless Sound. Multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, who plays tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone, is most notable for his free jazz work done from the late 1960s to the present day.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Reuben “River” Reeves was born in Evansville, Indiana on October 25, 1905 and started out playing locally in the Midwest before moving to New York City in 1924. The next year he moved to Chicago, Illinois and by 1926 joined Erskine Tate’s orchestra, then played with Fess Williams and Dave Peyton by the end of the decade. While in Chicago he took lessons from a German trumpet player, Albert Cook, who played in the Chicago Symphony.

While playing at the Regal Theater in 1929, Peyton featured Reuben, his hot trumpet player, on a night where Louis Armstrong had a gig across the street at the Savoy, to outdo the latter which didn’t work. Signed to Vocalion he recorded as a bandleader with his groups the Tributaries and the River Boys. His sidemen were his brother, trombonist Gerald Reeves, and clarinetist Omer Simeon and in 1929, twenty sides were recorded in 1929.

He played under Cab Calloway in the early Thirties, and recorded again with the River Boys in 1933. He toured as a leader for two years from 1933 to 1935, then played freelance through the late 1930s. During World War II, he led an Army band called the Jungleers. Stationed at the Army Jungle Training Center on the northeast coast of Oahu, Hawaii. There they were popular participants in Battle of the Band competitions that were an integral part of the extraordinary music scene in Hawaii during the war.

After the war, he played in Harry Dial’s Blusicians in 1946. Trumpeter and bandleader Reuben Reeves, whose entire output as a bandleader has been released to a single compact disc by RST Records, passed away in September 1975 in New York City.

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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

For Musicians Only is an album by Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Sonny Stitt incorporating bebop influences. Produced by Norman Granz, it was recorded on October 16, 1956 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California. It wasn’t released until 1958 on the Verve label. It has been described as the real thing, no pretense.

The story behind this session from Stan Levy’s point of view is that everything was done in one take, no 2nd takes, no overdubbing. It was virtually a live, real bebop session, nothing worked out, just play by the seat of your pants or get off the bandstand. Like it or not, that was the way it was with Bird and those cats, the real thing, no pretense.

The album is known for the front line’s winding, intricate solos. This has led to praise for the back line, particularly bassist Ray Brown, for keeping some semblance of the original tune going behind the solos.

1. Bebop (Gillespie) ~ 12:48
2. Dark Eyes (Traditional) ~ 12:10
3. Wee (Allen’s Alley) (Denzil Best, Gillespie) – 8:28
4. Lover Come Back to Me (Sigmund Romberg, Oscar Hammerstein II) ~ 9:33

• Dizzy Gillespie ~ trumpet
• Sonny Stitt ~ alto saxophone
• Stan Getz ~ tenor saxophone
• John Lewis ~ piano
• Herb Ellis ~ guitar
• Ray Brown ~ bass
• Stan Levey ~ drums

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ray Linn, born in Chicago, Illinois on October 20, 1920 experienced his first major engagements in the late 1930s playing with Tommy Dorsey, from 1938 to 1941 and Woody Herman until the outbreak of World War II. He would return to play with Herman again several times after the war during the Forties and Fifties.

In the 1940s he spent time playing with several big bands led by Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Boyd Raeburn. Moving to Los Angeles, California in 1945, he worked extensively as a studio musician, in addition to playing with Bob Crosby in the early 1950s.

The Fifties decade would be his final extended tenure with Herman. He spent much of the 1960s playing music for television, including The Lawrence Welk Show.

He recorded eight tunes as a leader in 1946, and full-length albums in 1978 and 1980, the latter of which are Dixieland jazz. Trumpeter Ray Linn passed away in November 1996 in Columbus, Ohio.

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