Then Came Louis the Great

Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. Armstrong defined what it was to play Jazz. His amazing technical abilities, the joy and spontaneity, and amazingly quick, inventive musical mind still dominate Jazz to this day. Only
Like almost all early Jazz musicians, Louis was from New Orleans. He was from a very poor family and was sent to reform school when he was twelve after firing a gun in the air on New Year's Eve. At the school he learned to play cornet. After being released at age fourteen, he worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart. He didn't own an instrument at this time, but continued to listen to bands at clubs. Joe "King" Oliver was his favorite and the older man acted as a father to Louis, even giving him his first real cornet, and instructing him on the instrument. By 1917 he played in an group at bars in New Orleans
In 1919 he left New Orleans for the first time to join a band in St. Louis. When the boats left from New Orleans Armstrong also played regular gigs in parades with brass bands. When King Oliver left the city in 1919 to go to Chicago, Louis took his place in from time to time. In 1922 Louis received a telegram from his mentor Joe Oliver, asking him to join his in Chicago. This was a dream come true for Armstrong and his amazing playing in the band soon made him a sensation among other musicians in Chicago. The New Orleans style of music took the town by storm and soon many other bands from down south made their way north to Chicago. While playing in Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Armstrong met Lillian Hardin, a piano player and arranger for the band. In February of 1924 they were married. Lil was a very intelligent and ambitious woman who felt that Louis was wasting himself playing in Oliver's band. By the end of 1924 she pressured Armstrong to reluctantly leave his mentor's band and move to New York to play in Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra for 13 months. During that time he also did dozens of recording sessions with numerous Blues singers, including Bessie Smith's 1925 classic recording of "St. Louis Blues". He also recorded with the Red Onion Jazz Babies.

By 1929 Louis was becoming a very big star. He toured with the show "Hot Chocolates" and appeared occasionally with Fletcher Henderson. Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930 where he fronted a band called the New Cotton Club Orchestra. In 1931 he returned to Chicago and assembled his own band for touring purposes. In June of that year he returned to New Orleans for the first time since he left in 1922 to join King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Armstrong was greeted as a hero, but racism marred his return when a White radio announcer refused to mention Armstrong on the air and a free concert that Louis was going to give to the cities' African-American population was cancelled at the last minute. In 1932 he went on tour to England where he was a great success. For the next three years Armstrong was always on tour. He crisscrossed the U.S. dozens of times and returned to Europe playing in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland and England. In 1935 he returned to the home for Armstrong to work with a band made up of predominantly New Orleans musicians, many of whom had also played with King Oliver. The band was named Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra and was one of the most popular acts of the Swing era. During the next ten years Armstrong became one of the most famous men in America. The Dixieland Jazz revival was just beginning to end and the Be Bop age had begun. So, in 1947 the orchestra and replaced them with a small group that became one of the greatest and most popular bands in Jazz history. The group was called the Louis Armstrong Allstars and over the years featured exceptional musicians . The band went through a number of personnel changes over the years but remained extremely popular worldwide. They toured extensively travelling to Africa, Asia, Europe and South America for the next twenty years until Louis' failing health caused them to disband. Armstrong became known as America's Ambassador. In 1963 Armstrong scored a huge international hit with his version of "Hello Dolly". . In 1968 he recorded another number one hit with the touchingly optimistic "What A Wonderful World". Armstrong's health began to fail him and he was hospitalized several times over the remaining three years of his life, but he continued playing and recording. On July 6th 1971 the world's greatest Jazz musician died in his sleep at his home in Queens, New York.
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THE ROAD TO JAZZ IS THUR PHILLY

Lee Morgan was born July 10 1938
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Morgan was a jazz prodigy, joining the Dizzy Gillespie big band at 18, remaining a member for two years. In 1956 he began recording as a leader, mainly for the Blue Note label; eventually he recorded twenty-five albums for the company. Morgan’s principal influence as a player was Clifford Brown, having had direct contact with him before Brown’ death.
He was featured trumpeter on several early Hank Mobley records, and John Coltrane’s Blue Train. Joining Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1958 further developed his talent as a soloist and writer. He toured with Blakey for a few years, and was featured on Moanin, which is probably Blakey’s best known recording. When Benny Golson left the Jazz Messengers, Morgan persuaded Blakey to hire Wayne Shorter, a young tenor saxophonist, to fill the chair. This classic version of the Jazz Messengers, The Freedom Rider album was then recorded.

Morgan left the Jazz Messengers in 1961, struggling with heroin addiction, managing to kick his habit in his hometown. He returned to the music scene after a two-year absence, playing on Grachan Moncur III’s essentially avant-garde Evolution album, and experimenting on some of his own recordings such as the title track of Search for the New Land (1964), but the popularity of his famous album, The Sidewinder, featuring Joe Henderson precluded his career developing in this way.
The title track of that record cracked the pop charts in 1964 and served as the background theme for Chrysler commercials during the World Series. In 1964 Morgan rejoined the Jazz Messengers, after his successor Freddie Hubbard departed, which had now become a sextet with the addition of Curtis Fuller to the group.

Alongside this commercial success, Morgan continued to record thur prolifically, producing such works as Search For the New Land which reached the top 20 of the R&B charts. His work became increasingly more modal and free towards the end of the sixties. He had begun to lead his own group, featuring Bernie Maupin as a multi-reedist.

Lee Morgan was murdered by his common-law wife, following an argument between sets at Slug’s, a popular New York City jazz club.

THE YOUNG MASTER

Clifford Brown was born October 30 1930 in Wilmington, Delaware. The teen-aged trumpeter began playing gigs in Philadelphia on graduating in 1948. That same year, he entered the University of Delaware on a music scholarship, but there was one slight snag: the college happened to be momentarily short of a music department.

Brownie remained there a year anyway, majoring in mathematics, and taking up a little spare time by playing some Philadelphia dates with such preeminent bop figures as Kenny Dorham, Max Roach, J.J. Johnson and Fats Navarro. He acquired considerable inspiration and encouragement from Navarro, who was greatly impressed with the youngster's potentialities.

After the year at the University of Delaware, Brownie had a chance to enter a college that did boast a good music department, namely Maryland State. They also had a good 16-piece band, and he learned a lot about both playing and arranging until one evil evening in June 1950 when, on his way home from a gig, he was involved in the first of three automobile accidents, the last of which was to prove fatal.

For a whole year in 1950-51, Clifford Brown had plenty of opportunity for contemplation but precious little for improving his lip. It took just about a year, plus some verbal encouragement from Dizzy Gillespie, to set him back on the path from which he had been so rudely sideswiped.

He had his own group in Philly for a while, then joined the Chris Powell combo, with which he was working at Cafe Society when his first date with Lou Donaldson was cut. There followed a stint with Tadd Dameron in Atlantic city, after which he joined Lionel Hampton, touring Europe with him in the fall of 1953. In 1954 Brownie won the Down Beat critics' poll as the new star of the year. Moving out to California, he formed an alliance with Max Roach .


His style was influenced by Fats Navarro, sharing Navarro's virtuosic technique and brilliance of invention. His sound was warm and round, and notably consistent across the full range of the instrument. He could articulate every note, even at the high tempos which seemed to present no difficulty to him; this served to enhance the impression of his speed of execution. His sense of harmony was highly developed, enabling him to deliver bold statements through complex harmonic progressions (chord changes), and embodying the linear, "algebraic" terms of bebop harmony. As well as his up-tempo prowess, he could express himself deeply in a ballad performance. Clifford Brown was and still is one of the greatest trumpet players of all time !

SMOOTH AND COOL

Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. born Yale, Oklahoma, December 23, 1929 played trumpet, flugelhorn and did a little singing as well. At the age of 12 he learn to play trumpet. He played trumpet through junior high school, and on through college.

In 1946 he was drafted into the Army, and played in the Army band in Berlin.
After returning home, Baker continued his music education at El Camino College.
In 1952 he won an audition with Charlie Parker, then went on to join Gerry
Mulligan's pianoless quartet. The group performed regularly at
Hollywood. In

1953, Baker formed his own band featuring Russ Freeman on piano. The Chet Baker Quartet toured and recorded with great success. As the decade came to a close, Chet was addicted to heroin and his life was filled with arrests and scandals.

Baker's prominence rose during the cool jazz of the 50's. But his success was
badly hampered by drug addiction, particularly in the 1960s, he was
imprisoned for a short period of time.In 1966, Baker was severely beaten after a
gig in San Francisco, sustaining severe cuts on the lips and broken front teeth,
which ruined his embouchure. Accounts of the incident vary from that point on
Baker had to learn to play all over again with dentures.

Between 1966 and 1974, Baker mostly played flugelhorn and recorded music that could mostly be classified as early smooth jazz or mood music.

After developing a new embouchure Baker returned to the straight-ahead jazz that began his career, relocating to New York City and began performing and recording again, notably with guitarist Jim Hall. Later in the seventies, Baker returned to Europe where he was assisted by his friend Diane Vavra who took care of his personal needs and otherwise helped him during his recording and performance dates.

From 1978 until his death, Baker resided and played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the USA roughly once per year for a few performance dates.

From 1978 to 1988 was Baker's most prolific era as a recording artist. However, as his extensive output is strewn across numerous, mostly small European labels, none of these recordings ever reached a wider audience, even though many of them were well-received by critics, who maintain that this was probably Baker's most mature and most rewarding phase.

Kenny's Flavor's

Kenny Dorham was born August 30,1924 in Fairfield.Texas one of the most active bebop trumpeter.

He played in the big bands of Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton
and Mercer Ellington and the quintet of Charlie Parker. He was a charter member
of the original cooperative Jazz Messengers. He also recorded as a sideman with
Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, and he replaced Clifford Brown in the Max
Roach Quintet after Brown’s death in 1956.

In addition to sideman work, he led his own groups, including the Jazz Prophets
(formed shortly after Art Blakey took over the Jazz Messengers name). The Jazz
Prophets can be heard on the 1956 Blue Note live album Round About Midnight at
the Cafe Bohemia.

Dorham’s style was on of smooth melodic full of warm tones and
expression. His technical skill where impeccable and delightfully
tasty. Some say he did not receive the respect he was due however i
believe maybe the media did not show him respect he was due but considering that he
preformed with the greatest jazz musicians of his time and of ours i
serious believe that many musicians did respect his talent and
musicianship. Kenny Dorham is one of those secrets of jazz
once you become a serious jazz aficionado you will discover the pearl inside the
clam and one of those names belong to a trumpet player
called
"Kenny Dorham" .

Clark Terry wasborn December 14, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri nicknamed Mumbles, is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, and NEA Jazz Master.

Clark Terry began his professional career in St. Louis in the early 1940s by playing in local clubs before joining a Navy band during World War II. Afterwards, he played with , Count Basie , Duke Ellington , and Quincy Jones . He also performed and recorded regularly both as a leader and sideman. In all, his career in jazz spans more than sixty years.

His years with Count Basie and Duke Ellington in the late 1940s and 1950s established him as a world-class jazz artist. Blending the St. Louis tone of his youth with contemporary styles, Terry’s sound influenced a generation. During this period, Terry took part in many of Ellington’s suites and acquired a lasting reputation for his wide range of styles (from swing to hard bop), technical proficiency, and infectious good humor. In addition to his outstanding musical contribution to these bands, Terry exerted a positive influence on musicians such as Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, both of whom credit Clark as a formidable influence during the early stages of their careers.

After leaving Ellington, Clark’s international recognition soared when he accepted an offer from the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to become its first African-American staff musician. He appeared regularly for ten years on the Tonight Show sitting in with the Tonight Show Band led by Doc Severinsen, where his unique “mumbling” scat singing became famous when he scored a smash hit as a singer with his irrepressible “Mumbles.”.


Clark Terry album “Having Fun”, a perfect example of his humor. He also continued to play jazz with musicians such as J. J. Johnson and Oscar Peterson, and led a group with Bob Brookmeyer that achieved some popularity in the early 1960s. In the 1970s, Terry began to concentrate increasingly on the flugelhorn, from which he obtains a full, ringing tone. In addition to his studio work and teaching at jazz workshops, Terry toured regularly in the 1980s with small groups and performed as the leader of his Big B-A-D Band . His command of jazz trumpet styles are impressiven muted or unmuted.

From the 70’s through the 90’s, Clark performed at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, and Lincoln Center, toured with the Newport Jazz All Stars and Jazz at the Philharmonic, and he was featured with Skitch Henderson’s New York Pops Orchestra.

WHEN THE WORLD DIZZY BOPPED

John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie WAS born October 21, 1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina. He was a jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. he was one of the a major figures in the development of bebop. Nicknamed "Dizzy" because of his zany on-stage antics, Gillespie, a brass virtuoso, set new standards for trumpet players with his innovative, "jolting rhythmic shifts and ceaseless harmonic explorations" on the instrument during the 1940's period, which ushered in a definitive change in American Jazz music from swing to bebop.

The youngest of nine children, Dizzy's father was a pianist and band leader .
Dizzy's father kept all the instruments from his band in the family home and so
the future trumpet great was around trumpets, saxophones, guitars and his
father's large upright piano most of his young life. Dizzy's father died when he
was ten and never heard his youngest son play trumpet, although he did get the
chance to hear him playing around on the piano at a very early age.

In 1933, after graduating from a secondary school, Gillespie received a music scholarship to attend Laurinburg Institute, in North Carolina. He stayed there for two years, studying harmony and theory until his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1935. In Philadelphia, Gillespie began playing trumpet with local bands, learning Roy Eldridge's solos from records and radio broadcasts: it was in Philadelphia that he picked up his nickname of "Dizzy.". In 1937, "Dizzy" moved to New York and replaced Eldridge in Teddy Hill's Orchestra. After a couple of years Gillespie moved on to Cab Calloway's band in 1939.

In 1937, Gillespie met his future wife, Lorraine, a chorus dancer at the famed Apollo Theater: they were married in 1940 and remained together until his death. Gillespie worked with many bands during the early 1940's (Chick Webb, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, "Fatha" Hines and Billy Eckstine's seminal band ) before teaming up with Charlie Parker in 1945. Their revolutionary band ushered in the bebop era and was one of the greatest small bands of the 20th century. An arranger and composer, Gillespie wrote some of the greatest jazz tunes of his era: songs such as "Groovin' High", "A Night in Tunisia" and "Manteca" are considered jazz classics today..

With his trumpet and its upturned, golden bell, goatee, black horn rim glasses and beret, Gillespie became a symbol of both jazz and a rebellious, independent spirit during the 1940's and 50's. His interest in Cuban and African music helped to introduce those music's to a mainstream American audience. When he died he was famous and beloved everywhere and had influenced entire generations of trumpet players all over the world who loved and emulated his playing and his always positive, upbeat, optimistic attitude.