Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Phil Napoleon was born Filippo Napoli on September 2, 1901 in Boston, Massachusetts. He began with classical training and was performing publicly by age 5. In the 1910s, he was one of the first musicians in the northeastern United States to embrace the new jass style brought to that part of the country by musicians from New Orleans, Louisiana.
At 16 with pianist Frank Signorelli he formed the group The Original Memphis Five in 1917. He became one of the most sought after trumpeters of the 1920s and the group became one of the most prolific in New York City at the time. In 1922-1923 they made over a hundred recordings. Napoleon’s 1927 version of Clarinet Marmalade was a particular success. The group split up in 1928.
During the 1930s, Phil mainly worked as a session trumpeter, working in the RCA Radio Orchestra in the early 1930s, and in 1937 unsuccessfully tried to form his own orchestra. He recorded with the Cotton Pickers and the Charleston Chasers and also worked with blues singers Leona Williams and Alberta Hunter.
Napoleon joined Jimmy Dorsey’s then Los Angeles, California based group in the mid 1940s, and he appeared with the band in the film Four Jills in a Jeep. Parting with Dorsey in 1947, he moved back to New York City and worked as a studio musician at NBC until 1949-1950 when he reformed The Original Memphis Five. During the early 1950s the group became noted for their performances at Nick’s in New York City. He worked frequently with his nephew Marty Napoleon, a jazz pianist. In 1959, Napoleon and The Five performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, later released as an album.
In 1966 Phil opened up his own club named Napoleon’s Retreat in Miami, Florida and continued to perform Dixieland jazz in the club up until the 1980s. Trumpeter and bandleader Phil Napoleon passed away on October 1, 1990 in Miami.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Horst Konrad “Conny” Jackel was born on August 30, 1931 in Offenbach am Main, Germany. Initially working as a steel construction fitter, he attended the conservatory in 1951 and from 1952 played in the clubs of the US Army in France, the Netherlands and Germany.
In 1955 he became a member of the Helmut Brandt Combo, contributing to its success. In 1959 he went on to perform the equally demanding arrangements of the Media Band of Harald Banter in Cologne. 1961 saw Jackel moving to the Erwin Lehn Orchestra in Stuttgart, where he performed with Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Sinatra.
From 1964 to 1969 he was a member of the Hessischer Rundfunk Jazz Ensemble led by Albert Mangelsdorff, then became first trumpet of the orchestra in 1967 under Willy Berking and the HR Big Band under Heinz Schönberger. He would go on to perform with Joki Freund, Rudi Sehring, Attila Zoller, Charly Antolini and the Sugar Foot Stompers among other traditional bands.
Suffering from cancer, he lost his lower jaw to amputation forcing him to give up the trumpet. Occasionally he was active as a drummer with The Bookreaders. After a long illness as a result of an operation, trumpeter and flugelhornist Conny Jackel, whose motto was “No beer – no music!”, passed away on April 28, 2008 in Bad Nauheim, Germany.
The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Remaining vigilant, being healthy, social distancing as those in our nation who continue to navigate positively and negatively through this pandemic.
This week the album I’m recommending for listening is The Young Lions by Lee Morgan leading an ad hoc group of musicians who made up the septet for this recording. It was recorded on April 25, 1960 at the Bell Sound Studios in New York City and was produced by Sid McCoy. The album was released in 1961 on Vee~Jay Records.
The album title echoes that of a popular 1948 novel by Irwin Shaw which had been made into a feature film shortly before the album was recorded. The young lions who made the music on this album have varied musical philosophies and sundry jazz backgrounds.
The young lions phrase was revived in jazz in the 1980s when, as in 1960, there was a tension between the modern jazz traditionalists and the avant-garde.
Track Listing | 35:14- Seeds of Sin (Shorter) ~ 5:44
- Scourn’ (Shorter) ~ 5:58
- Fat Lady (Shorter) ~ 5:03
- Peaches and Cream (Shorter) ~ 6:52
- That’s Right (Morgan) ~ 11:37
- Lee Morgan – trumpet
- Wayne Shorter – tenor sax
- Frank Strozier – alto sax
- Bobby Timmons – piano
- Bob Cranshaw – bass
- Albert “Tootie” Heath (3-5, 8) drums
- Louis Hayes (1, 2, 6, 7) – drums
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louis “King” Garcia was born on August 25, 1905 in Juncos, Puerto Rico and played early in his life in the Municipal Band of San Juan, whose director was Juan Tizol’s uncle, Manuel Tizol. This led to some work with the Victor Recording Orchestra.
Moving to the United States in the early 1920s during the Jazz Age, he played with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and the Emil Coleman Orchestra. The Thirties saw him increasingly working in the studios, including his most important association, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, which he recorded with both together and separately. He also played with the Vic Berton Orchestra, Richard Himber, Nat Brandwyne, Amanda Randolph, Louis Prima, and vocalist Amanda Randolph.
In the 1940s he returned to play with Coleman again, and led his own Latin ensemble that decade. By the 1960s he had moved to California and faded from the scene, essentially retiring due to failing health.
Trumpeter and bandleader King Garcia, who spent most of his career in the United States, passed away in Los Angeles, California on September 4, 1983.
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Three Wishes
Kenny Dorham was asked what his three wishes were and he told Nica that he would wish for the following:
- “Money.”
- “Happiness’d take care of all that sh*t!”
- “To have the ecstasy granted to me of music.”
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