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Howard Rumsey
Howard Rumsey (November 7, 1917 – July 15, 2015) was an American jazz double-bassist known for his leadership of the Lighthouse All-Stars in the 1950s. Biography Born in Brawley, California, United States, Rumsey first began playing the piano, followed by the drums and finally the bass. After jobs with Vido Musso and Johnnie Davis, Rumsey became part of Stan Kenton's first band. Rumsey soon left Kenton after an argument. He played with Charlie Barnet and Barney Bigard before taking a short hiatus from music. Following this absence, Rumsey returned to the Los Angeles jazz scene to form the group the Lighthouse All-Stars. For most of the 1950s this group played each Sunday at the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach. During its lifetime, the Lighthouse All-Stars were one of the primary modern jazz institutions on the west coast, providing a home for many Los Angeles musicians. The Lighthouse All-Stars In early 1949, Rumsey was in search of a playing job and came across the Lighthous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brawley, California
Brawley (formerly, Braly) is a city in the Imperial Valley and within Imperial County, southern California, United States. The population was 24,953 at the 2010 census, up from 22,052 in 2000. The town has a significant cattle and feed industry, and hosts the annual Cattle Call Rodeo. Year-round agriculture is an important economic activity in Brawley. Summer daytime temperatures often exceed . History The Imperial Land Company laid out the town in 1902 and named it Braly in honor of J.H. Braly, who owned the land. After Braly refused to permit the use of his name, the name was changed to Brawley. The first post office at Brawley opened in 1903. Incorporated in 1908, it was a "tent city" of only 100 persons involved in railroads and the earliest introduction of agriculture. It had a population of 11,922 in 1950, but population growth was slow from the 1960s to the early 1990s. Geography Brawley is located in the Colorado Desert and Lower Colorado River Valley regions. The c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Criss
William "Sonny" Criss (23 October 1927 – 19 November 1977) was an American jazz musician. An alto saxophonist of prominence during the bebop era of jazz, he was one of many players influenced by Charlie Parker. Biography William Criss was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 15. He then went on to play in various bands including Howard McGhee's, which also featured Charlie Parker. Criss had developed his own, concise, bluesy tone by this point, and though his basic style did not vary much, his ability on the instrument continued to develop. Nevertheless, he continued to drift from band to band, and played on some records with Johnny Otis and Billy Eckstine. His first major break came in 1947, on a number of jam sessions arranged by jazz impresario Norman Granz. In 1956 he signed to Imperial Records, based in New York, and recorded a series albums including ''Jazz U.S.A '', ''Go Man!'' and ''Sonny Criss Plays Cole Porter'' feat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lorraine Geller
Lorraine Winifred Geller (née Walsh; September 11, 1928 – October 13, 1958) was an American jazz pianist. Geller was born in Portland, Oregon on September 11, 1928. She started out with the all-female big band Sweethearts of Rhythm, based in New York. She met saxophonist Herb Geller, and married him in 1951. Together they moved to Los Angeles, where they played with many musicians on the West Coast jazz scene, such as Shorty Rogers, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, and Red Mitchell; she also did sessions with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1957, she accompanied Kay Starr. The following year, she concentrated on bringing up her daughter, so did not often perform, but she did play at the first Monterey Jazz Festival. On October 13, 1958, Lorraine Geller died in Los Angeles; this has been attributed to heart failure or pulmonary infection. Discography As leader/co-leader *''The Gellers'' (EmArcy, 1955) *''Lorraine Geller at the Piano'' (Dot, 1959, recorded 1954) As sidewoman With ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russ Freeman (pianist)
Russell Donald Freeman (May 28, 1926 – June 27, 2002) was a bebop and cool jazz pianist and composer. Initially, Freeman was classically trained. His reputation as a jazz pianist grew in the 1940s after working with Art Pepper and Shorty Rogers. He played with Charlie Parker on the 1947 "Home Cooking" jazz session. Numerous collaborations followed in the 1950s with Chet Baker, Shelly Manne, and Art Pepper. These collaborations included the ''Jazz Immortal'' LP recorded with Russ Freeman and jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown in 1954, which included leading musicians Brown and Zoot Sims. On the ''Jazz Immortal'' LP, Russ Freeman was able to play in a combo that recorded many Clifford Brown compositions. In 1957, he collaborated with André Previn on the album '' Double Play!'', where they both played piano, accompanied only by Manne on drums. In 1988, Keith Jarrett performed a version of Freeman's "The Wind" in a solo concert in Paris, which is featured on his album '' Paris Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz. Born in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis left to study at Juilliard in New York City, before dropping out and making his professional debut as a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's bebop quintet from 1944 to 1948. Shortly after, he recorded the ''Birth of the Cool'' sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental to the development of cool jazz. In the early 1950s, Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music while on Prestige Records but did so haphazardly due to a heroin addiction. After a widely acclaimed comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, he signed a long-term contract wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals: ''Chet Baker Sings'' (1954) and '' It Could Happen to You'' (1958). Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one". His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame. Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and 1980s. Biography Early years Baker was born and raised in a musical household in Yale, Oklahoma on 23 December 1929. His father, Chesney Baker Sr., was a professional guitarist, and his mother, Vera Moser, was a pianist who worked in a perfume factory. His maternal grandmother was Norwegian. Baker said that o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz Jazz drumming, drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Clifford Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, and Booker Little. He was inducted into the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in 1980 and the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1992. In the mid-1950s, Roach co-led a pioneering quintet along with trumpeter Clifford Brown. In 1970, he founded the percussion ensemble M'Boom. He made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement. Biography Early life and career Max Roach was born to Alphonse and Cressie Roach in the Township of Newland, Pasquotank County, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rolf Ericson
Rolf Ericson (August 29, 1922 – June 16, 1997) was a Swedish jazz trumpeter. He also played the flugelhorn. Yanow, Scott. Biography ''AllMusic'' Early career Ericson was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He moved to New York City in 1947 and, in 1949, joined Charlie Barnet's big band and then with Woody Herman in 1950. Later, he worked with Paul Gonsalves, Charlie Parker, and Charles Mingus. Returning to Sweden in 1950, he recorded as a leader and with Arne Domnérus, as well as for Leonard Feather's Swinging Swedes and Lars Gullin, He returned to the U.S. during 1953–1956, and played with the big bands of Charlie Spivak, Harry James, the Dorsey Brothers, and Les Brown, and was with the Lighthouse All-Stars. In 1956, he toured Sweden and played with Ernestine Anderson and Lars Gullin. Later career From 1956 to 1965, he was back in the U.S., working with Dexter Gordon, Harold Land, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, Dan Ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Cooper (musician)
Bob Cooper (December 6, 1925 – August 5, 1993) was a West Coast jazz musician known primarily for playing tenor saxophone, but also for being one of the first to play jazz solos on oboe. Career Cooper worked in Stan Kenton's band starting in 1945 and married the band's singer June Christy, two years later. The union producing a daughter Shay Christy Cooper (September 1, 1954 – February 21, 2014), with the marriage lasting 44 years, until Christy's death in 1990. His last studio recording was on Karrin Allyson's album '' Sweet Home Cookin''' (1994) on which he played tenor saxophone. Cooper died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 67. He was found in his car, which had pulled over to side of road. Selected discography As leader * ''The Bob Cooper Sextet'' (Capitol, 1954) * ''Shifting Winds'' (Capitol, 1955) * '' Flute 'n Oboe'' (Pacific Jazz, 1957) with Bud Shank * ''Milano Blues'' (Music, 1957) * ''Coop! The Music of Bob Cooper'' (Contemporary, 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bud Shank
Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank Jr. (May 27, 1926 – April 2, 2009) was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and throughout the decade worked in various small jazz combos. He spent the 1960s as a first-call studio musician in Hollywood. In the 1970s and 1980s, he performed regularly with the L. A. Four. Shank ultimately abandoned the flute to focus exclusively on playing jazz on the alto saxophone. He also recorded on tenor and baritone sax. His most famous recording is probably the version of "Harlem Nocturne" used as the theme song in ''Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer''. He is also well known for the alto flute solo on the song "California Dreamin'" recorded by The Mamas & the Papas in 1965. Biography Bud Shank was born in Dayton, Ohio, United States. He began with clarinet in Vandalia, Ohio, but had switched to saxophone before attending the Universi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Haig
The Haig was a jazz club located at 638 South Kenmore Avenue in Hollywood. Along with the Tiffany Club it was one of Los Angeles's premier jazz venues in the 1950s and strongly associated with West Coast jazz. History Author James Lincoln Collier describes the club as "the best-known Los Angeles jazz club of the day". Located across from the Ambassador Hotel, which housed the famous supper club, The Cocoanut Grove. The Haig club was originally a bungalow home, which was then converted by owner John Bennett into a club. It has been described as looking more like a doll house than a club. In early 1952 Gerry Mulligan walked into the club and found Erroll Garner, Bobby Short and others jamming without amplification. He joined in on an informal Monday night jam. He would later take over the jam night. Mulligan would audition and work with artists such as Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton and Bob Whitlock and many others. In its time, Erroll Garner, Shorty Rogers, Red Norvo, Laurindo Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shelly Manne
Sheldon "Shelly" Manne (June 11, 1920 – September 26, 1984) was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz, and later fusion. He also contributed to the musical background of hundreds of Hollywood films and television programs. Family and origins Manne's father Max Manne and uncles were drummers. In his youth he admired many of the leading swing drummers of the day, especially Jo Jones and Dave Tough. Billy Gladstone, a colleague of Manne's father and the most admired percussionist on the New York theatrical scene, offered the teenage Shelly tips and encouragement. From that time, Manne rapidly developed his style in the clubs of 52nd Street in New York in the late 1930s and 1940s. His first professional job with a known big band was with the Bobby Byrne Orchestra in 1940. In those years, as he became known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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