Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Martin Abraham, better known as Chink Martin, on June 10, 1886 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He played guitar in his youth before settling on tuba as his main instrument. He played with Papa Jack Laine’s Reliance Brass Band around 1910, and worked in various other brass bands in the city in the 1910s.
In 1923, he traveled to Chicago, Illinois and played with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings with whom he made his first records. He also recorded guitar duets with Leon Roppolo, but these unfortunately were never issued. Returning to New Orleans with the Rhythm Kings in 1925, Martin made further recordings with them.
He also played with the Halfway House Orchestra with which he recorded on both tuba and string bass, the New Orleans Harmony Kings, and the New Orleans Swing Kings. In the 1930s, Martin worked as a staff musician at WSMB radio. He continued to play tuba for his entire career, though he also played and recorded on the double-bass from at least the 1920s onward.
He played with dozens of noted New Orleans jazz musicians, appearing on record with Sharkey Bonano, Santo Pecora, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, and others. Tubist Chink Martin, who released one album under his own name on Southland Records in 1963, transitioned on January 7, 1981 in New Orleans.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Sylvester “Red“ Callender was born on March 6, 1916 in Haynesville, Virginia. He made his recording debut at 19 with Louis Armstrong’s band. In the early 1940s, he played in the Lester and Lee Young band, and then formed his own trio. Through the 1940s, he recorded with Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon, Uffe Baadh and many others.
After a period spent leading a trio in Hawaii, Callender returned to the mainland, settling in Los Angeles, California. He became one of the first black musicians to work regularly in the commercial studios, including backing singer Linda Hayes on two singles. He would later turn down offers to work with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and the Louis Armstrong All-Stars.
On his 1957 Crown LP Speaks Low, Callender was one of the earliest modern jazz tuba soloists. Keeping busy up until his death, some of the highlights of the bassist’s later career include recording with Art Tatum and Jo Jones, playing with Charles Mingus at the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival, working with James Newton’s avant-garde woodwind quintet on tuba, and performing as a regular member of the Cheatham’s Sweet Baby Blues Band.
He reached the top of the British pop charts as a member of B. Bumble and the Stingers. In 1964, he was introduced and highlighted in performance with entertainer Danny Kaye on his television variety show, in a duet on the George and Ira Gershwin song, Slap That Bass.
He worked with an array of pop, rock and vocal acts as a member of The Wrecking Crew, a group of first-call session musicians in Los Angeles, California. Double bassist Red Callender, who also plays tuba, transitioned from thyroid cancer at his home in Saugus, California on March 8, 1992.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Singleton Palmer was born on November 13, 1912 in St. Louis, Missouri and began playing cornet at age 11, and was actively playing gigs with the Mose Wiley Band in St. Louis by 14. 1928 saw him playing tuba, and joined Oliver Cobb’s Rhythm Kings in 1929. His first recordings were with Cobb in 1929, and he continued to perform with the band through 1934.
Following Cobb’s death in 1931, Eddie Johnson took over leadership for the band, renaming it the St. Louis Crackerjacks. He recorded with the band under Johnson’s leadership in 1932, and switched to string bass in 1933. The following year Palmer joined Dewey Jackson on the riverboats, performing with him until 1941.
Singleton took a job at Scullin Steel, where he joined the company’s 45-piece big band, which performed for the employees in the cafeteria during the daily lunch hour. Additionally he began performing with George Hudson’s first band in 1941, continuing until 1947. Toward the end of the decade he got higher-profile performing and recording opportunities, including with Clark Terry in 1947 and Jimmy Forrest in 1948. In 1947 he joined Count Basie’s 18-piece jazz band, touring for 3 years and recording 11 sides.
In 1950 Palmer left Basie’s group and started his own band, the Dixieland Six. He led this Dixieland jazz ensemble in jam sessions at the Universal Dance Hall on the DeBaliviere Strip, performed at Gaslight Square at the Opera House, and recorded six albums between 1960 and 1967. Late in his life he became a source for jazz historians, offering oral history testimonies of his early years in the music industry.
Multi-instrumentalist Singleton Palmer, who played bass, cornet and tuba, and recorded with blues musicians Big Joe Williams and Sonny Boy Williamson, passed away on March 8, 1993, St. Louis.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marc Steckar was born on June 1, 1935 in Cherbourg, France. He began learning the cello from age eight, then played the trumpet. During his studies at the Paris National Conservatory, he switched to the trombone in 1953, which he studied with André Lafosse. After an interruption due to his military service in the Algerian War, he completed his training and in 1959 he received the second prize for trombone.
In the next few years he worked in the big band of Benny Bennet, in the Aimé Barelli orchestra in the Monte Carlo casinos and in Olympia where he played Marlene Dietrich and Nat King Cole, with whom he toured Europe. He played in the orchestra of Paul Mauriat accompanying Charles Aznavour, then in the big band of Daniel Janin who played behind Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Gilbert Bécaud and Sammy Davis Jr. in 1961.
Over the next few years he worked as a studio musician, among others for Michel Legrand , Vladimir Cosma and for various television shows, but also again at the Olympia for Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire. Between 1973 and 1983, Marc accompanied Claude Nougaro with Eddy Louiss and Maurice Vander before becoming a member of Martial Solal’s big band. He recorded film music with Vander.
He went on to form Steckar TUBAPACK, and the Elephant Tuba Horde Big Band. Steckar is also on albums by François Jeanneau, Illinois Jacquet and Sonny Rhodes. Tubist Marc Stekar, who played trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, and was a composer, passed away on June 27, 2015 in Bessancourt, Val-d’Oise, France.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy Barber was born John William Barber on May 21, 1920 in Hornell, New York in 1920 and was known professionally as Bill or Billy. He started playing tuba in high school and studied at the Juilliard School of Music. After graduating, he travelled west to Kansas City, Missouri, where he played with the Kansas City Philharmonic and various ballet and theatre orchestras.
Joining the United States Army in 1942, he played in Patton’s 7th Army Band for three years. After the war, he started playing jazz, joining Claude Thornhill’s big band where he became friends with trombonist Al Langstaff, pianist Gil Evans and saxophone player Gerry Mulligan in 1947. Barber was one of the first tuba players to play in a modern jazz style, playing solos and participating in intricate ensemble pieces.
Becoming a founding member of Miles Davis’s nonet in 1949 in what became known as the Birth of the Cool recording sessions. He then worked in the theatre pit orchestras of The King and I, Paradiso, and the City Center Ballet. He joined up with Davis and Gil Evans in the late 1950s to record the albums Sketches of Spain, Miles Ahead and Porgy and Bess. Barber also played tuba on John Coltrane’s album Africa/Brass released in 1961.
Barber completed a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music and became an elementary school music teacher at Copiague, New York. He continued to play where possible including with the Goldman Band. In 1992, he recorded and toured with a nonet led by Gerry Mulligan, reworking material from Birth of the Cool. From 1998 to 2004 he was part of The Seatbelts, New York musicians who played the music of the Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop.
He is considered by many to be the first person to play tuba in modern jazz. Tubist Billy Barber passed away on June 18, 2007. of heart failure in Bronxville, New York.
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