Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie Allen was born in Jackson, Mississippi on September 25, 1908 and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He began playing in the early 1920s just out of high school and through the decade worked as a member of the bands of Hugh Swift, Dave Peyton, Doc Cook, Clifford King, and Johnny Long.
Allen worked with Earl Hines from 1931 to 1934, then did a short stint in Duke Ellington’s orchestra in 1935, though he never recorded any solos with Ellington. He played with Fletcher Butler in 1936 and then returned to play with Hines again in 1937.
He played in various groups in Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. Later in his life he became a music educator, worked in the Chicago Musicians’ Union, and designed custom trumpet mouthpieces, used by Cat Anderson, among others.
Trumpeter Charlie Allen passed away on November 19, 1972 in Chicago.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Francis Williams was born September 20, 1910 in McConnell’s Mill, Pennsylvania. His first gigs were with Frank Terry’s Chicago Nightingales in the 1930s.
In 1940 he moved to New York City, and in the first half of the decade played in the bands of Fats Waller, Claude Hopkins, Edgar Hayes, Ella Fitzgerald, Sabby Lewis, and Machito. From 1945 to 1949, and again in 1951, he played and recorded extensively as a member of Duke Ellington’s orchestra.
Williams worked primarily with Latin jazz ensembles and New York theater bands in the 1950s and 1960s, and played with Clyde Bernhardt and the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band. In addition to working with his own quartet, near the end of his life he worked with Panama Francis.
Trumpeter Francis Williams, who was a single father of two, had one son, actor Greg Morris, passed away on October 2, 1983 in Houston, Texas.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina) is a perfect album to listen to as this country continues to play the stupid card and not take this pandemic or its remedy serious. So as those of us who are vaccinated, wearing masks and social distancing. This studio album was recorded in 2007 by the Terence Blanchard Quintet at Conway Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California and Bastyr University, Kenmore, Washington. It was released on August 14, 2007 by Blue Note Records. Blanchard won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, and was nominated for Best Jazz Instrument Solo for his work on the song Levees.
The album was produced by Blanchard, with Robin Burgess as the associate producer, the engineers were Brian Valentino and Frank Wolf, Seth Waldman was the assistant engineer, and mastering by Gavin Lurssen. Lolis Eric Elie, Blanchard, Brice Winston, Derrick Hodge,and Aaron Parks each contributed to the liner notes.
Spike Lee commissioned Terence Blanchard to compose the score for his 2006 four-hour HBO documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, to show the agony of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 2007 Blanchard recorded “A Tale of God’s Will”, which contains The Water, Levees, Wading Through, and Funeral Dirge heard in Lee’s documentary. His mother Wilhelmina survived but lost her Pontchartrain Park home.
Track List | 69:13 All tracks are written by Terence Blanchard except where noted.- Ghost of Congo Square (Blanchard, Hodge, Scott) ~ 3:01
- Levees ~ 8:07
- Wading Through ~ 6:27
- Ashé (Aaron Parks) ~ 8:18
- In Time Of Need (Brice Winston) ~ 7:53
- Ghost Of Betsy ~ 1:58
- The Water ~ 4:07
- Mantra Intro (Kendrick Scott) ~ 3:22
- Mantra (Kendrick Scott) ~ 9:49
- Over There (Derrick Hodge) ~ 7:43
- Ghost Of 1927 ~ 1:38
- Funeral Dirge ~ 5:51
- Dear Mom ~ 3:39
- Terence Blanchard ~ conductor, trumpet, orchestration, producer, liner notes
- Brice Winston ~ soprano sax, tenor sax, liner notes
- Derrick Hodge ~ double bass, bass guitar, liner notes
- Aaron Parks ~ piano, orchestration, liner notes,
- Kendrick Scott ~ drums, percussion, orchestration
- Zach Harmon ~ tabla and happy apple
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Richard Berry was born on September 14, 1930 in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The son of a bass player in a touring dance band, he spent his early years traveling with his parents sleeping in the bass case under the bandstand when he was only a few months old. From the age of five, he took piano lessons at home in South Bend, Indiana. In high school in Cincinnati, Ohio he switched to trumpet, and played in a Midwest band led by Don Strickland, after which he served four years in the Air Force.
He studied at the Cincinnati College of Music and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts then played trumpet with the Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson orchestra. In 1961, he became one of the Duke Ellington orchestra’s first white members. After his working with Ellington, he played with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and led his own big band in New York.
In 1965 he joined The Merv Griffin Show, where he remained for fifteen years, moving to Los Angeles, California with Griffin and reforming his group as the L.A. Big Band in 1971. Among the most successful of his own 1978 recording Shortcake, an album of jazz for small groups in the Ellington style. He appeared on many albums by other musicians, including Rosemary Clooney, Scott Hamilton, Jake Hanna, and Coleman Hawkins.
He recorded four albums as a leader and fifty-five as a sideman with Frank Capp, Duke Ellington, Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Ruth Brown, Benny Carter, Ray Charles, Chris Connor, Randy Crawford, Bing Crosby, Dave Frishberg, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Johnny Hodges, Milt Jackson, Irene Kral, Trini Lopez, Johnny Mathis, Gary McFarland, Dave Pell, Herb Pomeroy, Jimmy Rowles, Jack Sheldon, Patty Weaver, and Joe Williams.
Trumpeter Bill Berry passed away on November 13, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alvin Elmore Alcorn was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 7, 1912. Learning music theory from his brother, in the early 1930s he was a member of the Sunny South Syncopators led by Armand J. Piron.
He worked in Texas as a member of Don Albert’s swing band, but he spent most of his career in New Orleans in the dixieland bands of Paul Barbarin, Sidney Desvigne, Oscar Celestin, and Octave Crosby.
During the 1950s, he moved to Los Angeles, California and joined Kid Ory’s band, then a couple years later returned home to New Orleans. After going on tour in Europe with Chris Barber in the late 1970s, he continued to perform into the 1980s.
Trumpeter Alvin Alcorn passed away on July 10, 2003.
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