Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Daniel Moses Barker was born on January 13, 1909 in New Orleans, Louisiana to a family of musicians, the grandson of bandleader Isidore Barbarin and nephew of drummers Paul Barbarin and Louis Barbarin. He took up the clarinet and drums before switching to a ukulele that his aunt got him, and then to banjo. One of Barker’s earliest teachers in New Orleans was fellow banjoist Emanuel Sayles, with whom he would record.

Barker began his career as a musician in his youth with his streetband, the Boozan Kings, and toured Mississippi with Little Brother Montgomery. 1930 saw him moving to New York City where he switched to the guitar. Through the decade he played with Fess Williams, Billy Fowler and the White Brothers, Buddy Harris, Albert Nicholas, Lucky Millinder, and Benny Carter in 1938. During his time in New York, he frequently played with West Indian musicians, who often mistook him for one of them due to his Creole style of playing.

From 1939 to 1946 he frequently recorded with Cab Calloway, and started his own group featuring his wife Blue Lu Barker after leaving Calloway. In 1945 he recorded with pianist Sir Charles Thompson, and saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Charlie Parker. In 1947 he was back with Lucky Millinder and Bunk Johnson. He returned to working with Al Nicholas in 1948 and in 1949 rejoined efforts with his wife in a group.

During the 1950s Danny was primarily a freelance musician, but did work with his uncle Paul Barbarin from 1954 to 1955. In the mid-1950s he went to California to record again with Albert Nicholas; performed at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival with Eubie Blake. In 1963 he was working with Cliff Jackson, and then in 1964 appeared at the World Fair leading his own group. Sometime in the early 1960s he formed a group he called Cinderella. The following year he returned to New Orleans and took up a position as assistant to the curator of the New Orleans Jazz Museum.

In 1970 he founded and led a church-sponsored brass band for young people ~ the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band. The Fairview band launched the careers of a number of professional musicians who went on to perform in brass band and mainstream jazz contexts, including Leroy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Kirk Joseph, Nicholas Payton, Shannon Powell, Lucien Barbarin, Dr. Michael White and others. In later years the band became known as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

He played regularly at many New Orleans venues from the late 1960s through the early 1990s, in addition to touring. Beyond overcoming the obstacles of segregation, banjoist Danny Barker, who also sang and played guitar and ukulele, authored two books and was an amateur landscape artist; and who suffered from diabetes throughout most of his adult life, passed away from cancer in New Orleans on March 13, 1994 at age 85.

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Conversations About Jazz & Other Distractions

Conversations About Jazz Features Scat, Improvisation & The Avant~Garde on January 7 

Hammonds House Digital invites you to join us for Conversations about Jazz & Other Distractions hosted by former jazz radio host and founder of Notorious Jazz, Carl Anthony. On Thursday, January 7 at 7:30 pm (EST), Carl’s special guests will be musicians and artists known for their extraordinary skills in improvisation, scat, and the avant-garde. Tune in for a great evening with vocalist and pianist Audrey Shakir, saxophonist Kebbi Williams, and composer and lyricist Fay Victor. The program is free and will stream live on Hammonds House  Museum’s Facebook and YouTube.

Audrey Shakir is a jazz-pop vocalist and pianist extraordinaire. Dubbed Atlanta’s First Lady of Jazz, she has entertained throughout the U.S. and internationally. Her scatting talents have been compared to the great Ella Fitzgerald, and she brings a remarkable jazz influence to all the material she performs.

Kebbi Williams is a Grammy award-winning tenor saxophonist and one of contemporary music’s whirlwind improvisers. The imaginative multi-instrumentalist/ composer/producer/arranger/teacher resists categorization. His innovative sound blends avant-garde jazz, hip-hop, afro-beat, gospel, electronica, classical and fiery rock, which he interweaves with passion and edge.

Fay Victor is a musician, composer, lyricist, and educator. Originally a singer in the traditional jazz field, she has been working in jazz, blues, opera, free improvising, avant-garde, modern classical music, and occasional acting since re-settling in New York in 2003. She is an Associate Professor at the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York.

Hammonds House Museum is generously supported by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Fulton County Arts and Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, The National Performance Network, AT&T and WarnerMedia.

Hammonds House Museum’s mission is to celebrate and share the cultural diversity and important legacy of artists of African descent. The museum is the former residence of the late Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds, a prominent Atlanta physician and a passionate arts patron. A 501(c)3 organization which opened in 1988, Hammonds House Museum boasts a permanent collection of more than 450 works including art by Romare Bearden, Robert S. Duncanson, Benny Andrews, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Hale Woodruff, Amalia Amaki, Radcliffe Bailey and Kojo Griffin. In addition to featuring art from their collection, the museum offers new exhibitions, artist talks, workshops, concerts, poetry readings, arts education programs, and other cultural events throughout the year.

Located in a beautiful Victorian home in Atlanta’s historic West End, Hammonds House Museum is a cultural treasure and a unique venue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they continue to observe CDC guidelines, but look forward to welcoming in-person visitors soon!  For more information about upcoming virtual events, and to see how you can support their mission and programming, visit their website: hammondshouse.org.

MEDIA: For more information, contact Karen Hatchett at Hatchett PR, karen@hatchettpr.com.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Vinnie Knight was born on January 5, 1958 in Harlem, New York and later moved to the borough of Brooklyn. At an early age, she sang in church choirs and performed in school plays and her father was a singer and guitarist who traveled the world. She studied dance with La Rocque Dance theater and music at the Juilliard School Of Music and Kings Borough Community College.

Knight recorded the songs of composer Duke Ellington, performed in Nairobi, Kenya, and starred with Oliver Jackson and the Harlem Big Band of New York, touring Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and Turkey.  Returning to New York she performed with Clark Terry on the SS Norway cruise line, then played the Rapos Nightclub in Japan.

She has recorded, performed and collaborated with the best jazz musicians. In 1997 Vinnie moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia and began singing at such noted venues as Uncle Louie’s, The Jewish Mother, Bienville Grill, House of Jazz, as well as resorts, museums, concert halls and private events in Hampton Roads.

Her love for music theater had her writing and producing a musical revue called Black Pearls (The Speakeasy) songs from the 1920’s thru the 40’s; followed by the sequel Black Pearls and White Diamonds. In 2002, she performed a tribute to Ruth Brown and Pearl Bailey. Vocalist Vinnie Knight continues to perform, tour and record.

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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

Ella and Louis is a 1956 studio album by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, accompanied by the Oscar Peterson Quartet, This was the first of three albums that they were to record together for Verve Records, later followed by 1957’s Ella and Louis Again and 1959’s Porgy and Bess. All three were released as The Complete Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong on Verve.

Norman Granz, the founder of the Verve label, selected eleven ballads for the duo, mainly played in a slow or moderate tempo. Recording began August 16, 1956, at the new, and now iconic, Capitol Studios in Hollywood, California. Though Granz produced the album, Armstrong was given final say over songs and keys. Val Valentin was the session engineer and the photography was taken by Phil Stern.

Tracklist

Side One

1. Can’t We Be Friends? (Paul James, Kay Swift) ~ 3:47
2. Isn’t This A Lovely Day? (Irving Berlin) ~ 6:16
3. Moonlight In Vermont (John Blackburn/Karl Suessdorf) ~ 3:42
4. They Can’t Take That Away From Me (George & Ira Gerrshwin) ! 4:39
5. Under A Blanket Of Blue (Jerry Livingston/Al J. Neiburg/Marty Symes) ~ 4:18
6. Tenderly(Walter Gross/Jack Lawrence) ~ 5:10

1. A Foggy Day (George & Ira Gershwin) ~ 4:32
2. Stars Fell On Alabama (Mitchelll Parish/Frank Perkins) ~ 3:34
3. Cheek To Cheek (Irving Berlin) ~ 5:53
4. The Nearness Of You (Hoagy Carmichael/Ned Washington) ~ 5:42
5. April In Paris (Vernon Duke/Yip Harburg) ~ 6:33

• Ella Fitzgerald – vocals
• Louis Armstrong – vocals, trumpet
• Oscar Peterson – piano
• Herb Ellis – guitar
• Ray Brown – bass
• Buddy Rich – drums

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Pleasant Joseph, known as Cousin Joe, was born on December 20, 1907 in Wallace, Louisiana. He worked at Whitney Plantation throughout his childhood.

Until 1945 Cousin Joe toured Louisiana, and it was in that year he participated in the King Jazz recording sessions organized by Mezz Mezzrow and Sidney Bechet.

In the 1970s, he toured extensively throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, both individually and as part of the American Blues Legends ’74 revue organised by Big Bear Music. He recorded the album Gospel-Wailing, Jazz-Playing, Rock’n’Rolling, Soul-Shouting, Tap-Dancing Bluesman From New Orleans for Big Bear.

Blues and jazz singer Cousin Joe passed away on October 2, 1989 in his sleep from natural causes in New Orleans, at the age of 81.

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