Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Babs Gonzales was born Lee Brown on October 27, 1919 in Newark, New Jersey and he and his brothers were all called Babs. He studied piano at a young age and learned to play drums. He sang in clubs; wore a turban in Hollywood in the late 1940s, calling himself Ram Singh; worked as a chauffeur for Errol Flynn; called himself Ricardo Gonzales (Mexican rather than ‘Negro) so as to get a room in a good hotel.
Gonzales was a pioneer in the scat vocalese style who did what he could to popularize bop. He had stints with Charlie Barnet and Lionel Hampton’s big bands, and then led his own group Three Bips & a Bop from 1946 to1949, recording for Blue Note during 1947- 1949, including the earliest version of “Oop-Pop-A-Da”, later covered by Dizzy Gillespie. Among his sidemen on these dates were Tadd Dameron, Tony Scott, Roy Haynes, James Moody, J.J. Johnson, Julius Watkins, Art Pepper, Wynton Kelly, Don Redman and Sonny Rollins making his recording debut.
When Capitol Records decided to flirt with bop around 1950, Babs was voicing the sessions. He worked with James Moody; recorded with Jimmy Smith, Johnny Griffin, and Bennie Green, who was one of the first Americans to perform at Ronnie Scott’s club in London as early as 1962. Spending a lot of time in Europe Babs was considered quite a colorful jazz personality there. A hard-working promoter of jazz, he also published three autobiographies; “I Paid My Dues — Good Times”, “No Bread” and “Movin’ On Down De Line”.
Babs Gonzales, who used his voice as a musical instrument incorporating slang, strange and funny new words in rhythmically complex phrases died on January 23, 1980. He would later become more of a cult figure, leaving a recorded legacy that is considered collector’s items for the die-hard bop aficionados. Though his place in jazz history is often blurred, he was present during the bop revolution and was ever the consummate hipster.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dianne Reeves was born on October 23, 1956 in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father was a singer, mother Vada Swanson played trumpet, her cousin George Duke. Raised in Denver by her mother after her father died, she took piano lessons and sang at every opportunity. Inspired at age 11 to sing, she discovered she wanted to be a singer when a teacher brought students together. Subsequently her uncle, Charles Burrell, a bass player with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, introduced her to the music of jazz singers, from Ella Fitzgerald to Billie Holiday and was especially impressed by Sarah Vaughan.
By 16, Reeves was singing in the high school big band at Denver’s George Washington High School and that same year the band played at the National Association of Jazz Educators, taking first place. It was there she met trumpeter Clark Terry, who became her mentor. A year later she began the study of music at the University of Colorado prior to moving to Los Angeles in 1976. There her interest in Latin-American music grew and she began experimenting with different kinds of vocal music and finally decided to fully pursue a career as a singer. She met Eduardo del Barrio, toured with his group “Caldera”, sang in Billy Childs’ jazz band “Night Flight” and later she toured with Sergio Mendes.
From 1983 until 1986 Reeves toured with Harry Belafonte as a lead singer and immersing herself in world music for the first time. The following year she became the first vocalist signed to the reactivated Blue Note/EMI label. Dianne is well known for her fluent improvisational style that mixes elements of jazz with R&B, for which she has won four Grammy awards since her first release in 1977, “Welcome To My Love”. She has 18 albums to her credit as a leader and more than two dozen collaborations with Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride, Eddie Henderson, Solomon Burke, Tom Browne, Gordon Goodwin, Joe Sample, George Duke, both Chico and Von Freeman, Ronnie Laws, McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter and the list goes on. She was featured prominently as the vocalist performing in the studio adjacent to that of Edward R. Murrow in the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck.
Considered one of the most important contemporary jazz singers, Dianne Reeves continues to perform, tour and record, her latest import album being “Beautiful Life”.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anita O’Day was born Anita Belle Colton into a broken home in Chicago, Illinois on October 18, 1919. She took the first chance to leave home at age 14, she became a contestant in the popular Walk-a-thons as a dancer. She toured on the Walk-a-thons circuits for two years, occasionally being called upon to sing. In 1934, she began touring the Midwest as a marathon dance contestant and singing “The Lady In Red” for tips.
In 1936, she left the endurance contests, determined to become a professional singer. Anita started out as a chorus girl in such uptown Chicago venues as the Celebrity Club and the Vanity Fair, and then found work as a singer and waitress at the Ball of Fire, the Vialago, and the Planet Mars. It was at the Vialago that O’Day met and later married drummer Don Carter and later married, who introduced her to music theory. Her first big break came in 1938 when Down Beat editor Carl Cons hired her to work at his new club, the “Off-Beat” followed by a stint at The Three Deuces.
She went on to work with Gene Krupa in 1941, recorded her first big hit with him performing a novelty duet with Roy Eldridge titled “Let Me Off Uptown”, was named “New Star of the Year” by Down Beat, appeared in two short musical films, and over the next several years she performed as a solo act, fronted the bands of Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, rejoined Krupa and then became a solo artist again.
During the late forties she would record regularly, attempting to achieve popularity without sacrificing her jazz singer identity. Plagued with long-term problems with heroin addiction and alcoholism, coupled with erratic behavior surfacing earned her the nickname “The Jezebel of Jazz”. During this period she was in and out of jail for various possession charges. However, a date with Count Basie at the Royal Roost resulted in five air checks and her career was back on the upswing. But what secured O’Day’s place in the jazz pantheon are the 17 albums she recorded for Norman Granz’s Norgran and Verve labels between 1952 and 1962, recording her and the label’s inaugural LP “Anita O’Day Sings Jazz” in 1952.
Anita’s backbeat-based singing style was strongly influential on many other female singers of the late swing and bebop eras, including June Christy, Chris Connor and Doris Day. Admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, her early big band appearances shattered the traditional image of the “girl singer” by presenting herself as a “hip” jazz musician, wearing a band jacket and skirt. Anita O’Day passed away in her sleep of cardiac arrest on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2006, at age 87.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Freddy Cole was born Lionel Frederick Cole on October 15, 1931, to Edward and Paulina Nancy Cole and is the youngest sibling of musicians Eddie, Ike and Nat. Growing up in Chicago he began playing piano at age six, Cole hoped for a career with the NFL. But a hand injury ended his dream and the teenager began playing and singing in Chicago clubs. Although he was ready to hit the road at 18, his mother intervened and he continued his musical education at Chicago’s Roosevelt Institute before moving to New York City in 1951. While in New York, Cole studied at the Juilliard School of Music and went on to get a master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music.
The small Chicago-based label, Topper Records, released Freddy’s first single, “The Joke’s On Me” in 1952. A sophomore single, “Whispering Grass” on the OKeh label, was a moderate hit in 1953. He later spent several months on the road with Johnny Coles and Benny Golson in the Earl Bostic band before returning to hone his skills in the bistros of New York. He went on to work with Grover Washington, Jr. and to record jingles for various companies, including Turner Classic Movies.
During the 1970s, Cole recorded several albums for European and English based labels. He was the subject of the 2006 documentary “The Cole Nobody Knows” by filmmaker Clay Walker and is a member of the Steinway Artist roster. He has been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
Freddy cites his influences as John Lewis, Oscar Peterson, Teddy Wilson and Billy Eckstine, the latter being the subject of his release, “Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B”, that was nominated for a Grammy Award. When speaking of Eckstine, Cole recalled, “He was a fantastic entertainer. I learned so much from just watching and being around him.”
With over two-dozen albums as a leader and numerous collaborations, jazz pianist and vocalist Freddy Cole leads his quartet that holds down a rigorous schedule that continually tours the United States, Europe, South America and the Far East.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nancy Kelly was born on October 12, 1950 in Rochester, New York and at the age of four began studying piano, clarinet, drama and dance with private instructors, and voice at the Eastman School of Music. By sixteen she formed a combo and performed in clubs around Rochester.
The early Seventies saw her joining a rock band as lead singer and touring the East coast and Midwest. She enjoyed the freedom of improvising and soon gravitated to jazz, once again forming her own group. Gaining a reputation she began performing on the West coast, the Far East and Europe and regularly performs in New York City at the Blue Note, Birdland and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center.
Nancy has appeared on the stages of numerous jazz festivals, sung with symphony orchestras, and has been named “Best Female Jazz Vocalist” twice in the Down Beat Readers’ Poll. He debut cd “Live Jazz” reached #11 on the Billboard charts, followed by three ore with “Born To Swing” and “Well Alright” featuring tenor saxophonist Houston Person.
A four-year stint at Jewels Jazz club in Philadelphia between 1982 – 86 helped to revitalize jazz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Subsequently jazz musicians Al Cohn, Jack McDuff, Etta Jones, Shirley Scott and Joey DeFrancesco became favorites of audiences bringing together students and professional people.
Nancy Kelly continues to perform and swing with her signature smoky, take-no-prisoner, back to the roots style delivering authentic expression of real emotion.
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