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Steve Jordan (guitarist)
Steve Philip Jordan (January 15, 1919 – September 13, 1993) was an American jazz guitarist. Career Jordan was born in New York City. He considered himself a rhythm guitarist whose biggest influences were George Van Eps and Allan Reuss. He received lessons from Reuss, who played rhythm guitar for Benny Goodman In the early 1940s Jordan was a member of bands led by Will Bradley, Artie Shaw, and Teddy Powell. After serving with the Navy in World War II, he returned to music as a member of bands led by Bob Chester, Freddie Slack, Glen Gray, Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, and Boyd Raeburn. When jobs for rhythm guitarists disappeared as big bands dwindled, Jordan became a studio musician for NBC. During the 1950s, he worked with Gene Krupa, Mel Powell, Vic Dickenson, Charles Thompson, Buck Clayton, Ruby Braff, and Benny Goodman. In the 1960s, he earned a living as a tailor, but from 1965 to 1972 he performed routinely with Tommy Gwaltney at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C. His last j ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glen Gray
Glenn Gray Knoblauch (June 7, 1900 – August 23, 1963), known professionally as Glen Gray, was an American jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra.''The Mississippi Rag'', "Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra," George A. Borgman, October 2006, page 1 Early years Gray was born to Lurdie P. and Agnes (Gray) Knoblauch in Roanoke, Illinois, United States. His father was a saloon keeper and railroad worker who died when Glen was two years of age. He had an older sister. His widowed mother married George H. DeWilde, a coal miner, and moved her family to Roanoke. Gray graduated from Roanoke High School, in 1917 where he played basketball and acquired his nickname, "Spike". Career Gray attended the American Conservatory of Music in 1921 but left during his first year to go to Peoria, Illinois, to play with George Haschert's orchestra. From 1924 to 1929, he played with several orchestras in Detroit, Michigan. Gray served as leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra thou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Count Basie Orchestra
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 1950s, the band survived long past the Big Band era itself and the death of Basie in 1984. It continues under the direction of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart. Originally including such musicians as Buck Clayton and Lester Young in the line-up, the band in the 1950s and 1960s made use of the work of such arrangers as Neal Hefti and featured musicians such as Thad Jones and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Its recordings of this era included collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. History Early years Count Basie arrived in Kansas City, Missouri in 1927, playing on the Theater Owners Bookers Association (TOBA) circuit. After playing with Walter Page's Blue Devils, in 1929 he joined rival band leader Bennie Moten's band. Upon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddie Green
Frederick William Green (March 31, 1911 – March 1, 1987) was an American swing jazz guitarist who played rhythm guitar with the Count Basie Orchestra for almost fifty years. Early life and education Green was born in Charleston, South Carolina on March 31, 1911. He was exposed to music from an early age, and learned the banjo before picking up the guitar in his early teenage years. A friend of his father by the name of Sam Walker taught a young Freddie to read music, and keenly encouraged him to keep up his guitar playing. Walker gave Freddie what was perhaps his first gig, playing with a local community group of which Walker was an organizer. Another member of the group was William "Cat" Anderson, who went on to become an established trumpeter, working with notable figures such as Duke Ellington. Career It was around this time that Green's parents died, and he moved to New York City to live with his aunt and continue his education. The move opened up a new musical world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Gwaltney
Thomas Oliver Gwaltney III (February 28, 1921, in Norfolk, Virginia, United States – February 11, 2003, in Virginia Beach, Virginia) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. He played clarinet, saxophone, and vibraphone. Biography Gwaltney studied under Ernie Caceres and Peanuts Hucko, playing clarinet in college bands and while serving in the military. Due to lung injuries during World War II, he put down the clarinet and played vibraphone in the 1940s. From 1946 to 1947, he studied at New York University and played in an ensemble with Charlie Byrd and Sol Yaged. Between 1951 and 1955 he seldom played, concentrating on helping a family business in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1956, he joined Bobby Hackett, playing on his album ''Gotham Jazz Scene'' in 1957. He then worked with Wild Bill Davison, Billy Butterfield (1958–59), Buck Clayton (1960), Charlie Byrd again (1962–63), and with his own ensembles. Gwaltney established the nightclub Blues Alley in Washington, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruby Braff
Reuben "Ruby" Braff (March 16, 1927 – February 9, 2003) was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist. Jack Teagarden was once asked about him on the Garry Moore television show and described Ruby as "the Ivy League Louis Armstrong". Braff was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was renowned for working in an idiom ultimately derived from the playing of Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke. He began playing in local clubs in the 1940s. In 1949, he was hired to play with the Edmond Hall Orchestra at the Savoy Cafe of Boston. He relocated to New York in 1953 where he was much in demand for band dates and recordings. He resided in Harwich, Massachusetts and died of complications from emphysema, heart failure, and glaucoma on February 9, 2003, in Chatham, Massachusetts. He had spent a good part of his life living in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, New York City. Discography As leader/co-leader * ''Buck Meets Ruby'' (Vanguard, 1954) with Buck Clayton * ''Jazz a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buck Clayton
Wilbur Dorsey "Buck" Clayton (November 12, 1911 – December 8, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter who was a member of Count Basie's orchestra. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong, first hearing the record "Confessin' That I Love You" as he passed by a shop window. Early years Clayton learned to play the piano from the age of six. His father was an amateur musician associated with the family's local church, who was responsible for teaching his son the scales on a trumpet, which he did not take up until his teens. From the age of 17, Clayton was taught the trumpet by Bob Russell, a member of George E. Lee's band. In his early twenties he was based in California, and was briefly a member of Duke Ellington's Orchestra and worked with other leaders. Clayton was also taught at this time by trumpeter Mutt Carey, who later emerged as a prominent west-coast revivalist in the 1940s. He also met Louis Armstrong while Armstrong was performing at Sebastian's Cotton Club, who taugh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Thompson (jazz)
Charles Phillip Thompson (March 21, 1918 – June 16, 2016) was an American swing and bebop pianist, organist, composer, and arranger. Early life Thompson was born in Springfield, Ohio, United States, on March 21, 1918.DeVeaux, Scott; Kernfeld, Barr"Thompson, Sir Charles."''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'' (2nd ed.). Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved July 7, 2015. His father was a minister and his stepmother played the piano. "He first studied violin and briefly played tenor saxophone, but took up piano as a teenager." He moved with his family to Parsons, Kansas, in the southeastern part of the state. Later Thompson attended a Kansas City high school. By the age of twelve, Thompson was playing private parties with Bennie Moten and his band in Colorado Springs, Colorado. During this time, Count Basie played off and on with Moten's band. During a show, Basie called Thompson up to perform. He was dubbed "Sir Charles Thompson" by Lester ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vic Dickenson
Victor Dickenson (August 6, 1906 – November 16, 1984) was an American jazz trombonist. His career began in the 1920s and continued through musical partnerships with Count Basie (1940–41), Sidney Bechet (1941), and Earl Hines. Life and career Born in Xenia, Ohio, in 1906, Dickenson wanted to be a plasterer like his father, but he abandoned the idea after injuring himself by falling off a ladder.John S. Wilson"Vic Dickenson, a trombonist with Basie band in 40's, dies" ''The New York Times'', November 18, 1984. He studied organ from 1922, then changed to performing trombone with local bands. He made his recording debut in December 1930 as a vocalist with Luis Russell's band. He joined Blanche Calloway's orchestra in the early 1930s. He led his own groups both on the east and west coast between 1947 and the mid-1950s. From then he was a session man. He appeared on the television program ''The Sound of Jazz'' in 1957 with Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Gerry Mullig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mel Powell
Mel Powell (born Melvin Epstein) (February 12, 1923 – April 24, 1998) was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, and the founding dean of the music department at the California Institute of the Arts. He served as a music educator for over 40 years, first at Mannes College of Music and Queens College, then Yale University, and finally at CalArts. During his early career he worked as a jazz pianist. Early life Mel Powell was born Melvin D. Epstein on February 12, 1923, in The Bronx, New York City, the second of Russian Jewish parents Milton Epstein and Mildred (Mollie) Mark Epstein's three children. He began playing piano at age four, taking lessons from, among others, Nadia Reisenberg. A passionate baseball fan, his home was within sight of Yankee Stadium. A hand injury while playing baseball as a boy, however, convinced him to pursue music instead of sports as a career. Powell dreamed of life as a concert pianist until his older brother took him to see jazz pianist Teddy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Krupa
Eugene Bertram Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973), known as Gene Krupa, was an American jazz drummer, bandleader and composer who performed with energy and showmanship. His drum solo on Benny Goodman's 1937 recording of "Sing, Sing, Sing" elevated the role of the drummer from an accompanist to an important solo voice in the band. In collaboration with the Slingerland drum and Zildjian cymbal manufacturers, he was a major force in defining the standard band drummer's kit. Krupa is considered "the founding father of the modern drumset" by ''Modern Drummer'' magazine. Early life The youngest of Anna (née Oslowski) and Bartłomiej Krupa's nine children, Gene Krupa was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Bartłomiej was an immigrant from Poland born in the village of Łęki Górne, southeastern Poland. Anna was born in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and was also of Polish descent. His parents were Roman Catholics who groomed him for the priesthood. He spent his grammar s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
