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Joe Evans (musician)
Joe Evans (October 7, 1916 – January 17, 2014) was an American jazz alto saxophonist. Early life and education Evans was born in Bonifay and grew up in Pensacola, Florida. Evans dropped out of high school and moved to New York City to pursue his music career. He later earned a GED and associate's degree from Essex County College in 1973. Through a Ford Family Foundation scholarship, he earned a Master of Education degree from Rutgers University in 1975. Career Evans was active between 1939 and 1965, playing in the big bands of Jay McShann, Jimmy Forrest and Gene Ramey; Don Redman and Louis Armstrong. In 1944 he recorded with Mary Lou Williams, as a member of a band including Coleman Hawkins, Bill Coleman and Denzil Best. At the beginning of 1945, he recorded for J. Mayo Williams's independent label, Chicago, leading a combo comprising Jesse Drakes, Duke Jordan, Gene Ramey, J. C. Heard and Etta Jones. Later that same year and in 1946, he recorded with Andy Kirk's orchest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bonifay, Florida
Bonifay is a city in Holmes County, Florida, Holmes County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 2,759. It is the county seat of Holmes County. Bonifay was founded in 1882 when the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad was built across the Florida Panhandle, and was named by P&A executive William Dudley Chipley, W. D. Chipley for Frank Bonifay, member of a prominent family who had a brickmaking factory in Pensacola, where the P&A was headquartered. Frank Bonifay bought a stake in the P&A, which in 1891 was merged into the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which after several more mergers became part of CSX Transportation in 1986. On June 1, 2019, the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad acquired most of the CSX line from Pensacola to Jacksonville. Geography Bonifay is located in southeastern Holmes County at 30°47′N 85°41′W (30.791, –85.681. U.S. Route 90 runs through the southern part of the downtown area, leading east to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denzil Best
Denzil DaCosta Best (April 27, 1917 – May 24, 1965) was an American jazz percussionist and composer born in New York City. He was a prominent bebop drummer in the 1950s and early 1960s. Biography Best was born in New York City, into a musical Caribbean family originally from Barbados. Trained on piano, trumpet, and bass, he concentrated on the drums starting in 1943. Between 1943 and 1944, he worked with Ben Webster, and subsequently with Coleman Hawkins (1944–45), Illinois Jacquet (1946) and Chubby Jackson. The drummer was known to sit in at Minton's Playhouse. He took part in a recording with George Shearing in 1948 and was a founding member of his Quartet, remaining there until 1952. In 1949, he played on a recording session with Lennie Tristano for Capitol and also recorded later with Lee Konitz. In a 1953 car accident he fractured both legs and was forced into temporary retirement until 1954, when he played with Artie Shaw, and then in a trio with Erroll Garner (19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by producer John Hammond, who liked her voice. She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson produced the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. By the late 1940s, however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cab Calloway
Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years. Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the most popular dance bands in the United States from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole. Calloway had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming known as the "Hi-de-ho" man of jazz for his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher", originally recorded in 1931. He reached the '' Billboard'' charts in five consecutive decades (1930s–1970s). Calloway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Thigpen
Ben Thigpen (November 16, 1908 – October 5, 1971) was an American jazz drummer. He is the father of drummer Ed Thigpen. He was born Benjamin F. Thigpen in Laurel, Mississippi. Ben Thigpen played piano as a child, having been trained by his sister Eva. He played in South Bend, Indiana with Bobby Boswell in the 1920s, and then moved to Chicago to study under Jimmy Bertrand. While there he played with many noted Chicago bandleaders and performers, including Doc Cheatham. He played with Charlie Elgar's Creole Band during 1927-1929 but did not record with them. Following this he spent time in Cleveland with J. Frank Terry, and then became the drummer for Andy Kirk (musician), Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy, where he stayed from 1930 to 1947. Much of his work is available on collections highlighting the piano work of Mary Lou Williams, who also played in this ensemble. After his time with Kirk, Thigpen's career is poorly documented. He led his own quintet in St. Louis and recorded with Sin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Hall (musician)
Alfred Wesley Hall (March 18, 1915 – January 18, 1988) was an American jazz bassist. Biography Hall grew up in Philadelphia, where he played cello and tuba early in life before settling on bass at the age of 17. He moved to New York in 1936, where he played with Billy Hicks (1936–37), Skeets Tolbert (1937–38), and Teddy Wilson in both big band and small ensemble format (1939–41). Following time with Ellis Larkins (1942–43) and Mary Lou Williams, Hall took a job as a staff musician at CBS, working in Paul Baron's orchestra on the '' Mildred Bailey Show''. He also worked on Broadway theater pit orchestras for the next several decades. In 1946, he founded his own label, Wax Records, which was bought by Atlantic Records in 1949. Hall had an extended partnership with Erroll Garner, playing with him intermittently from 1945 to 1963. He also played later in life with Benny Goodman (1966), Hazel Scott, Tiny Grimes, Alberta Hunter (1977–78), and Doc Cheatham. He led five num ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floyd Smith
Floyd Robert Donald Smith (born May 16, 1935, in Perth, Ontario) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre and coach. Biography Smith grew up in Galt, Ontario, playing junior hockey with the Galt Black Hawks. He made his National Hockey League debut for the Boston Bruins, playing 3 games with the team in 1955, but he was mostly mired in the minors during the early portion of his career. He played 23 games with Boston over the next two seasons, while serving as a significant contributor on the Hershey Bears club. Smith then spent five years with the New York Rangers organization, reaching the NHL for a 29-game stint in 1961. During this period, he was a dominant force with the Springfield Indians, scoring 82 points in 71 games in 1960. In 1963, Smith finally earned a chance to become an NHL regular after being acquired by the Detroit Red Wings. He scored an NHL career-high 49 points during the 1965–66 season. At the 1968 trade deadline, he was sent to the Toronto Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hank Jones
Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award. He was also honored in 2003 with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award. In 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. On April 13, 2009, the University of Hartford presented Jones with an honorary Doctorate of Music for his musical accomplishments. Jones recorded more than 60 albums under his own name, and countless others as a sideman, including Cannonball Adderley's celebrated album '' Somethin' Else''. On May 19, 1962, he played piano as actress Marilyn Monroe sang her famous "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" song to then U.S. president John F. Kennedy. Biography Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Henry "Hank" Jones moved to Pontiac, Michiga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
Edward F. Davis (March 2, 1922 – November 3, 1986), known professionally as Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. It is unclear how he acquired the moniker "Lockjaw" (later shortened in "Jaws"): it is either said that it came from the title of a tune or from his way of biting hard on the saxophone mouthpiece. Other theories have been put forward. Biography Davis played with Cootie Williams, Lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk, Eddie Bonnemère, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie, as well as leading his own bands and making many recordings as a leader. He played in the swing, bop, hard bop, Latin jazz, and soul jazz genres. Some of his recordings from the 1940s also could be classified as rhythm and blues. In 1940, when Teddy Hill became the manager of the legendary Minton's Jazz club, he put Eddie Davis in charge of deciding which musicians could, or couldn't, sit in during the jam sessions (playing in this Minton's sessions was coveted by many, including mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reuben Phillips (musician)
Reuben Phillips (died February 13, 1974 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) was an American jazz saxophonist, arranger and bandleader, born in Providence, Kentucky. After five years as an alto saxophonist with Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy, he played with Willis Jackson (1950) then Josephine Baker and Louis Jordan (1951). From 1952, Phillips has been a freelance arranger, musician and band leader in the New York area. He made arrangements for Dinah Washington, Lavern Baker, Ruth Brown, Billy Ward, Earl Bostic, Arnett Cobb among others. He also played and recorded with Gene Redd, Sammy Lowe, George Rhodes, Dud Bascomb, and later recorded with Willis Jackson (1970) and Erskine Hawkins (1971). He recorded two albums with his own big band, the house band at the Apollo Theatre on 125th Street in Harlem in the 1960s and 70s. He died in San Juan of an apparent heart attack at the age of 53. Discography As a leader *1960: ''Manhattan...3:00 A.M.'' (Poplar 1003) *1961: ''Big band at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fats Navarro
Theodore "Fats" Navarro (September 24, 1923 – July 6, 1950) was an American jazz trumpet player. He was a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940s. He had a strong stylistic influence on many other players, including Clifford Brown. Life Navarro was born in Key West, Florida, United States, of Cuban, African, and Chinese descent. He began playing piano at age six, but did not become serious about music until he began playing trumpet at the age of thirteen. He was a childhood friend of drummer Al Dreares. By the time he graduated from Douglass High School, he wanted to be away from Key West and joined a dance band headed for the Midwest. Navarro gained valuable experience touring in bands, including Snookum Russell's territory band, where he met and influenced a young J.J. Johnson. Tiring of the life on the road, Navarro settled in New York City in 1946, where his career took off. He met and played with, among others, Charlie Parker. But Navarro was in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Kirk (musician)
Andrew Dewey Kirk (May 28, 1898 – December 11, 1992) was an American jazz saxophonist and tubist who led the Twelve Clouds of Joy, a band popular during the swing era. He was born in Newport, Kentucky, United States. Kirk grew up in Denver, Colorado, where he was tutored by Wilberforce Whiteman, Paul Whiteman's father. Kirk started his musical career playing with George Morrison's band, but then went on to join Terrence Holder's Dark Clouds of Joy. In 1929, he was elected leader after Holder departed. Renaming the band Clouds of Joy, Kirk also relocated the band from Dallas, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri. Although named the Clouds of Joy, the band has also been known as the Twelve Clouds of Joy due to the number of musicians in the band. They set up in the Pla-Mor Ballroom on the junction of 32nd and Main in Kansas City and made their first recording for Brunswick Records that same year. Mary Lou Williams came in as pianist at the last moment, but she impressed Brunswick's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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