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Ian Hamer (musician)
Ian Wilfred Hamer (11 September 1932 – 3 September 2006) was a British jazz trumpeter. Early life Hamer was born in Liverpool, the son of a successful Merseyside dance band leader. Together with his two brothers, also professional musicians, he played in the band run by his mother until serving in the Royal Air Force. Music career In 1953, Hamer moved to London to work for clarinettist Carl Barriteau and a brief period with the Oscar Rabin Band. From 1955 to 1956, he was part of the Tubby Hayes octet. He later joined the Vic Ash quintet. In 1963, together with Harry South, he led a band called The Six Sounds, featuring Ken Wray and Dick Morrissey, and which by 1966 had developed into his own band, the Ian Hamer Sextet. The Sextet featured variously South, Dick Morrissey, Keith Christie, Kenny Napper, Bill Eyden, Tubby Hayes, Alan Skidmore, Spike Wells, Daryl Runswick, Alan Branscombe and Ron Mathewson. Also in 1966, Hamer joined the ''Top of the Pops'' studio orchestra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.24 million. On the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, Liverpool historically lay within the ancient hundred of West Derby in the county of Lancashire. It became a borough in 1207, a city in 1880, and a county borough independent of the newly-created Lancashire County Council in 1889. Its growth as a major port was paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the Industrial Revolution. Along with general cargo, freight, and raw materials such as coal and cotton, merchants were involved in the slave trade. In the 19th century, Liverpool was a major port of departure for English and Irish emigrants to North America. It was also home to both the Cunard and White Star Lines, and was the port of registry of the ocean lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenny Napper
Kenneth Napper (born July 14, 1933 in London) is an English jazz double-bassist. Napper started out on piano as a child and picked up bass as a student at Guildhall School of Music. He entered the British military in the early 1950s, playing with Mary Lou Williams in 1953 during a leave period. After ending his term of duty, he played with Jack Parnell, Malcolm Mitchell, Vic Ash, and Cab Calloway. He was the house bassist at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club for several years and played with many British and American jazz musicians in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Alan Clare, Ronnie Scott, Stan Tracey, Tubby Hayes, Tony Kinsey, Tony Crombie, Jimmy Deuchar, John Dankworth, Pat Smythe, Phil Seamen, Zoot Sims, Carmen McRae, and Paul Gonsalves. Later in the 1960s he worked with Ted Heath, Tony Coe, John Picard, and Barney Kessel, as well as with Gonsalves, Tracey, and Dankworth. In 1970 he played with Stephane Grappelli and moved to Germany, playing with Kurt Edelhagen from 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Tracey
Stanley William Tracey (30 December 1926 – 6 December 2013) was a British jazz pianist and composer, whose most important influences were Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Tracey's best known recording is the 1965 album '' Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas's "Under Milk Wood"'', which is based on the BBC radio drama ''Under Milk Wood'', by Dylan Thomas. Early career The Second World War meant that Tracey had a disrupted formal education, and he became a professional musician at the age of sixteen as a member of an ENSA touring group playing the accordion, his first instrument. He joined Ralph Reader's Gang Shows at the age of nineteen, while in the RAF and formed a brief acquaintance with the comedian Tony Hancock. Later, in the early 1950s, he worked in groups on the transatlantic liners '' Queen Mary'' and '' Caronia'' and toured the UK in 1951 with Cab Calloway. By the mid-1950s, he had also taken up the vibraphone, but later ceased playing it. At this time he work ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career. Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy, until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality provided one of bebop's most prominent symbols. In the 1940s, Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman. He pioneered Afro-Cuban jazz and won several Grammy Awards. Scott Yanow wrot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he was also active in free improvisation and occasionally contributed to rock music recordings. Wheeler wrote over one hundred compositions and was a skilled arranger for small groups and large ensembles. Wheeler was the patron of the Royal Academy Junior Jazz course. Early life Wheeler was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 14 January 1930. Growing up in Toronto, he began playing the cornet at age 12 and became interested in jazz in his mid-teens. Wheeler spent a year studying composition at The Royal Conservatory of Music in 1950. In 1952 he moved to Britain. He found his way into the London jazz scene of the time, playing in groups led by Tommy Whittle, Tubby Hayes, and Ronnie Scott. Career In the late 1950s, he was a member of Buddy Featherstonhaugh's quint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Parnell
John Russell Parnell (6 August 1923 – 8 August 2010) was an English musician and musical director. Biography Parnell was born into a theatrical family in London, England. His uncle was the theatrical impresario Val Parnell. During his military service in the 1940s he became a member of Buddy Featherstonhaugh’s Radio Rhythm Club Sextet and played drums with Vic Lewis and other servicemen who were keen on jazz. From 1944 to 1946 Parnell recorded with Lewis, and the Lewis-Parnell Jazzmen’s version of "Ugly Child". During the 1940s and 1950s, he was voted best drummer in the ''Melody Maker'' poll for seven years in succession. He composed many television themes, including ''Love Story'' (for which he won the Harriet Cohen Award), ''Father Brown'', ''The Golden Shot'' and ''Family Fortunes''. He was a regular judge on the ATV talent show ''New Faces''. He was also the musical director for ''The Benny Hill Show''. He was appointed as the musical director for ATV in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Gibbs (composer)
Michael Clement Irving Gibbs (born 25 September 1937) is a Rhodesian-born English jazz composer, conductor, arranger and producer as well as a trombonist and keyboardist. He is known for collaborations with vibraphonist Gary Burton, his student, and for his use of rock elements in orchestral jazz. Career Gibbs was born in Harare, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He moved to Boston, Massachusetts, United States in 1959, in order to study at the Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory. In 1961, Gibbs took scholarships at the Lennox School of Jazz and later at Tanglewood Music Center. Initially returning to Rhodesia, Gibbs later settled in England. After recording with Graham Collier, John Dankworth, Kenny Wheeler and Mike Westbrook in the late 1960s, Gibbs released his first album, ''Michael Gibbs'', in 1970. From 1970 to 1974, Gibbs was musical director for the BBC TV comedy programme ''The Goodies''. When he left the UK to take up a teaching position at Berklee, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ted Heath (bandleader)
George Edward Heath (30 March 1902 – 18 November 1969) was a British musician and big band leader. Heath led what is widely considered Britain's greatest post-war big band, recording more than 100 albums, which sold over 20 million copies. The most successful band in Britain during the 1950s, it remained in existence as a ghost band long after Heath died, surviving in such a form until 2000."Ted Heath" Jazz Professional, from the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine Musical beginnings After playing tenor horn at the age of six, encouraged by his father Bert, a trumpeter and the leader of the Wandsworth Town Brass Band, Heath later switched to trombone.Moira Heath, ''I Haven't Said Thanks: The Story of Ted and Moira Heath'' ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Top Of The Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its history, it was broadcast on Thursday evenings on BBC One. Each show consisted of performances of some of the week's best-selling popular music records, usually excluding any tracks moving down the chart, including a rundown of that week's singles chart. This was originally the Top 20, though this varied throughout the show's history. The Top 30 was used from 1969, and the Top 40 from 1984. Dusty Springfield's " I Only Want to Be with You" was the first song featured on ''TOTP'', while the Rolling Stones were the first band to perform, with " I Wanna Be Your Man". Snow Patrol were the last act to play live on the weekly show when they performed their single " Chasing Cars". Special editions were broadcast on Christmas Day (and us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Mathewson Rognvald Andrew Mathewson (19 February 1944 – 3 December 2020) was a British jazz double bassist and bass guitarist. During his career, Mathewson performed with Ronnie Scott, but also recorded with Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, Joan Armatrading, Ben Webster, Philly Joe Jones, Roy Eldridge, Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans. Biography Mathewson was born in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, into an unusually musical household. At eight years old he was studying classical piano. He continued to study and perform classical piano until he reached sixteen, having started playing bass guitar a year earlier. His talent was noted and encouraged by the Shetland musician, Peerie Willie Johnson. In 1962, Mathewson was in Germany, playing professionally with a band that played Dixieland music. In London, he also performed with various jazz and R&B bands throughout the early 1960s. Around this time he was also a member of The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band. In 1966, Mathewson becam |
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