Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roger Guérin was born on January 9, 1926 in Saarbrücken, Germany and initially studied violin, followed by cornet and trumpetat the Paris Conservatory. It was there as a teenager that he won first prize.
Roger began working professionally in 1947, playing with Aime Barelli, Django Reinhardt, Don Byas, Hubert Fol, James Moody, Benny Golson, Bernard Peiffer, Fats Sadi, Lucky Thompson, Kenny Clarke, Blossom Dearie, Martial Solal, Michel Legrand and Andre Hodeir.
Playing at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival l with a youth ensemble, Guérin also played in Les Double Six in 1959, later returning to this group. He replaced Clark Terry in Quincy Jones’s Big Band in 1960. He worked on the soundtrack to the film Paris Blues in 1961 with Duke Ellington and went on to work extensively as a vocalist for Michel Legrand.
He has over 150 album credits to his name including recording with the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band, and has won the Prix Django Reinhardt in 1959. Trumpeter and vocalist Roger Guérin passed away on February 6, 2010 in Nimes, France.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paolo Conte was born January 6, 1937 in Asti, Piedmont, Italy. He began performing as a vibraphonist in local jazz bands and started songwriting with his brother, guitarist Giorgio, eventually writing songs of his own. As a poet, painter and lawyer as well as a musician, he first earned attention during the late ’60s and early ’70s as the creative force behind hits from Adriano Celentano and Patty Pravo.
Beginning his solo career with a 1974 self-titled LP, with subsequent efforts enjoyed considerable success throughout Europe. His 1998’s Paolo Conte, a greatest-hits collection, was his first U.S. release. He had hits used in movies like I Am David, Mickey Blue Eyes, French Kiss and No Reservations, as well as the Fritz Coca Cola commercial.
Paolo has recorded and released fifteen studio, five live and seven compilation albums, has been honored with handprints on the Rotterdam Walk of Fame, and awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for Outstanding Cultural Achievements. He has been given the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and has received honorary doctorates from several universities. Singer, pianist, and composer Paolo Conte continues to perform, composer, record and tour.
Inspire A Young Mind
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Una Mae Carlisle was born on December 26, 1915 in Zanesville, Ohio and was trained to play the piano by her mother. Performing in public by age three, still a child, she performed regularly on radio station WHIO AM in Dayton, Ohio.
In 1932, while a teenager, Fats Waller discovered Carlisle while she worked as a live local Cincinnati performer live and on radio. Her piano style was much influenced by Waller’s, playing in a boogie-woogie stride style that incorporated humor into her sets. Una Mae played solo from 1937, repeatedly touring Europe and recording with Waller in the late 1930s.
By the 1940s Carlisle recorded as a leader for Bluebird Records with Lester Young, Benny Carter and John Kirby. She had a longtime partnership with producer/publisher/manager Joe Davis, which began after her contract with Bluebird expired. Her records during this period enlisted the talents of Ray Nance, Budd Johnson and Shadow Wilson.
As a songwriter she also found success as Cab Calloway and Peggy Lee were just two among those who covered her tunes. She had her own radio and television programs in the late 1940s Una Mae recorded her last session for Columbia Records with Don Redman early in the 1950s.
With her suffering from chronic mastoiditis that required repeated surgeries and hospitalizations, the vocalist was forced her to retire in 1952. Pianist and songwriter Una Mae Carlisle passed away of pneumonia in a Harlem hospital on November 7, 1956.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sy Oliver was born Melvin James Oliver on December 17, 1910 in Battle Creek, Michigan. His mother was a piano teacher and his father was a multi-instrumentalist who made a name for himself demonstrating saxophones at a time that instrument was little used outside of marching bands. Showing a proclivity for singing as a child, he also learned to lay trumpet during these formative years.
Oliver left home at 17 to play with Zack Whyte and his Chocolate Beau Brummels and later with Alphonse Trent. He sang and played trumpet with these bands, becoming known for his “growling” horn playing. In 1933, he joined the Jimmie Lunceford band, contributing many hit arrangements for the band, including My Blue Heaven and Ain’t She Sweet as well as his original composition For Dancers Only which in time became the band’s theme song.
By 1939 Sy became one of the first Black musician with a prominent role in a white band when he joined Tommy Dorsey as an arranger, though he ceased playing trumpet at that time. He led the transition of the Dorsey band from Dixieland to modern big band. His joining was instrumental in Buddy Rich’s decision to join Dorsey. His arrangement of On The Sunny side Of The Street, Yes Indeed!, Opus One, The Minor Is Muggin’ and Well, Git It were big hits for Dorsey,
After leaving Dorsey, Oliver continued working as a freelance arranger and as music director for Decca Records. One of his more successful efforts as an arranger was the Frank Sinatra album I Remember Tommy, a combined tribute to their former boss.
In 1950 the Sy Oliver Orchestra released the first American version of C’est Si Bon with the interpretation of Louis Armstrong to worldwide success. In his later years, up until 1980, he reformed his own big and small bands, with which he also played his trumpet again after having set it aside so many years earlier.
He arranged and conducted many songs for Ella Fitzgerald during her Decca years. As a composer, one of his most famous songs was T’ain’t What You Do (It’s The Way You Do It, which he co-wrote with Trummy Young. On May 28, 1988 arranger, composer, bandleader, trumpeter and singer Sy Oliver passed away in New York City. He was 77.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Machito was born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo on December 3, 1909 in Havana, Cuba. He began playing music as a child and started playing professionally in his teens before emigrating to America in 1937 as a vocalist with La Estrella Habanera.
In the late 30s he worked with several Latin artists and orchestras, recording with bandleader Xavier Cugat. An attempt to launch a band with his brother-in-law Mario Bauzá failed, but in 1940 Machito founded the Afro-Cubans and was the front man, singer, conductor and maraca player. The following year he hired Bauzá as his music director, a working relationship that lasted for 35 years.
Under Bauzá’s influence, Machito began hiring jazz-oriented arrangers and his bands of the 40s were among the first to fuse Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz improvisation that greatly inspired jazz giants Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton. Throughout his career he played and recorded with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Mann, and Johnny Griffin, held a spot at the Palladium and recorded Decca, Mercury and Clef labels.
In 1983 he won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording for Machito & His Salsa Big Band ’82. In 2005, his 1957 album, “Kenya”, was added to the list of “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. He played a huge role in the history of Latin jazz and passed away after suffering a fatal stroke on April 15, 1984 while playing on stage at Ronnie Scott’s in London. He was 74. A documentary of the great Cuban musician, Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy was released in 1987.
Take A Dose On The Road