Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louis Raphael Mucci was born on December 13, 1909 in Syracuse, New York and began as a baritone horn player. By age ten, he was appearing in professional settings. As a teenager, he switched to trumpet and worked in the late 1930s with Mildred Bailey and Red Norvo before joining Glenn Miller’s ensemble in 1938-1939.
During World War II he played in the bands of Bob Chester, Hal McIntyre, Claude Thornhill, and Benny Goodman. In the first half of the 1950s, he worked as a house musician for CBS and also recorded with Buddy DeFranco and Artie Shaw.
The late 1950s saw him working with Miles Davis, Helen Merrill, and John LaPorta. His association with Davis lasted into the early 1960s and he played with Kenny Burrell in 1964. Trumpeter Lou Mucci passed away on January 4, 2000.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
With a surge in Covid cases after Thanksgiving travel, I am doubling down on maintaining my social distancing and wearing my mask when I have to go out, otherwise, I remain in quarantine. From the shelves of my jazz collection, I am placing on the turntable the 1971 recording of First Light by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, his third release on Creed Taylor’s CTI label.
The string arrangements are by conductor Don Sebesky and features performances by Herbie Hancock, Eric Gale, George Benson, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette, Airto Moreira, and Richard Wyands. The album is part of a trilogy including his two previous records at the time, Red Clay and Straight Life. First Light won the 1972 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group.
TRACKS | 42:55- First Light (Hubbard) ~ 11:05
- Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (McCartney, McCartney) ~ 8:17
- Moment to Moment (Mancini, Mercer) ~ 5:43
- Yesterday’s Dreams (Martin, Sebesky) ~ 3:55
- Lonely Town [from On the Town] (Bernstein, Comden, Green) ~ 7:00
- Fantasy in D” (Walton) ~ 6:55
- Freddie Hubbard – trumpet, flugelhorn
- Jack DeJohnette – drums
- Ron Carter – bass
- Richard Wyands – piano
- George Benson – guitar
- Airto Moreira – percussion
- Herbie Hancock – Fender Rhodes piano
- Phil Kraus – vibraphone
- Hubert Laws – flute
- Wally Kane – flute, bassoon
- George Marge – flute, clarinet
- Romeo Penque – flute, English horn, oboe, clarinet
- Jane Taylor – bassoon
- Ray Alonge – French horn
- James Buffington – French horn
- Margaret Ross – harp
- David Nadien – violin
- Paul Gershman – violin
- Emanuel Green – violin
- Harold Kohon – violin
- Joe Malin – violin
- Gene Orloff – violin
- Matthew Raimondi – violin
- Tosha Samaroff – violin
- Irving Spice – violin
- Alfred Brown – viola
- Emanuel Vardi – viola
- Charles McCracken – cello
- George Ricci – cello
You all know I will be back flying around the globe just as soon as the world becomes safe again from this pandemic. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy.
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Three Wishes
When asked, Louis Armstrong had three wishes he told to Pannonica:
- “One year off my horn to listen to all the tapes I’ve colected and index them, so I can write a few things. The rest will do me good”
- “That I go back to the world and see the fans, and play for them again.”
- “That I live a hundred years, so I can enjoy what the next generation’s doing, same as I do this one.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clarence “Shorty” Sherock was born on November 17, 1915 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and attended the Illinois Military Academy. In the 1930s he was a soloist with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and with the Gene Krupa Orchestra. He led a big band in the 1940s. In 1944 he was a featured soloist in Los Angeles, California at the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert, a series started by Norman Granz. The concert included Nat King Cole, Illinois Jacquet, J. J. Johnson, Jack McVea, and Les Paul.
1946, Sherock recorded Leonard Feather’s composition Snafu, and in 1955 he recorded three tracks for Freddie Slack’s Boogie Woogie on the 88. As a member of the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, he recorded with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Van Alexander, Benny Carter, Bobby Darin, Bing Crosby, Pete Fountain, Mel Henke, Freddy Martin, Matty Matlock, and Mavis Rivers.
He only recorded two albums as a leader during his career. Swing trumpeter passed away on February 19, 1980 in Northridge, Los Angeles, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jan Bertil Allan was born on November 7, 1934 in Falun, Sweden and at 17 began his career in 1951 as a pianist. After moving to Stockholm, he switched to the trumpet as his main instrument, playing in Carl-Henrik Norin’s orchestra. From 1954–55 he worked with Lars Gullin and Rolf Billberg and again with Norin from 1955–59 while earning a Ph.D. in physics.
In the early Sixties, he led a quintet with Billberg and throughout the decade worked with Arne Domnérus, Georg Riedel, and Bengt Hallberg, among others. From 1968 to 1975 he was a member of the Swedish Radio Jazz Group. His album Jan Allan~70, featuring Rolf Ericson, Nils Lindberg, Bobo Stenson, Jon Christensen, and Rune Gustafsson, won a Grammis Award for Jazz of the Year in 1970.
Allan played with the same group and Georg Riedel on the trio-album Sweet And Loverly. His 1998 album Software has an affinity with the West Coast jazz genre of Gerry Mulligan and Stan Getz.
Over the course of his career, Allan also recorded albums with Bosse Broberg, Benny Carter, Dorothy Donegan, Lars Gullin, Jan Johansson, Thad Jones, Roger Kellaway, Lee Konitz, Nils Lindberg, Georg Riedel, George Russell, and Monica Zetterlund.
In 2000, his Bach trumpet, which was engraved with his name and he played for 35 years, was stolen. A movie about the theft and missing trumpet was broadcast on Swedish television in 2015 and had 1.1 million viewers. In 2009 he was honored with a Swedish Golden Django as a Master of Jazz. He composed for several films such as The Adventures of Picasso, Sopor, and Trollkarlen. He recorded eight albums as a leader and forty-six as a sideman.
Trumpeter and pianist Jan Allan, is considered among the most important modern jazz musicians in Sweden, continues to compose and perform.
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