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[Rama IX Bhumibol; Phoemipol Aduldej]

(b Cambridge, MA, Dec 5, 1927; d Bangkok, Oct 13, 2016). Thai clarinetist and reed player. He was brought up in the USA and in Switzerland, where he learned to play clarinet; he later mastered the whole family of reed instruments, favoring soprano saxophone. Although he was interested in early jazz he was influenced predominantly by Benny Goodman, and participated in jam sessions with Goodman and other jazz musicians who visited Thailand, notably Jack Teagarden and Lionel Hampton. He occasionally played with his court orchestra in a swing style of the 1940s that was modified by the strong influence of traditional Thai music, but, on account of his official status as the king of Thailand, no recordings by him have been authorized for distribution. (H. Esman and V. Bronsgeest: “Een jazz king: Koning Phoemipol,” ...

(Vilhelm)

(bLapinjärvi, nr Lovisa, Finland, Dec 10, 1918; d Finland, Aug 19, 2002). Finnish trumpeter and trombonist. He began his career in dance bands in the late 1930s in Helsinki and played with Eugen Malmstén and others. During World War II he led a band that introduced the big-band swing style to Finland; as the Rytmiorkesteri it made a series of recordings in ...

(b Boston, Sept 25, 1935; d Brooklyn, NY, June 14, 2006). American tenor and soprano saxophonist. He was born into a musical family and attended the Boston Conservatory (BM). In 1956 he recorded with Paul Chambers as a pianist. Having moved to New York in 1958, he worked with John Coltrane, Matthew Gee, and Sonny Rollins, and recorded with Charli Persip and Howard McGhee (both 1960), Max Roach (1965), the organist Freddie Roach (1967), Eric Gale (1969), the trombonist John Gordon (1975), and the orchestras of Archie Shepp (1972) and Sam Rivers and Clifford Thornton (both 1974). From 1972 to 1974 he worked with Abdullah Ibrahim’s large ensembles – the Dollar Brand Orchestra and the African Space Program – and in 1978 he performed and recorded as the leader of a six-piece group which included Malachi Thompson, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, and John Betsch. Except for his having taken part as a tenor saxophone soloist in a recording session with James Spaulding in ...

(b New York, Dec 25, 1939; d New York, March 28, 2006). Drummer and percussionist. In 1957 he played with Dizzy Gillespie’s band at the Newport Jazz Festival, accompanying the singer Eartha Kitt. He studied biochemistry at the Carnegie Institute in Boston, but after graduating he focused on music, working locally with Chick Corea, Alan Dawson, Tony Williams, and, from 1964, Gene Perla. Having returned to New York in 1967, he played in salsa groups before working with Perla again in bands led by Nina Simone and Elvin Jones. He gained recognition through his work with Miles Davis on the albums Bitches Brew (1969, as Charles Alias) and On the Corner (1972), and on tour from November 1971 into 1972; he also made an important album with Weather Report (c1976). During the 1970s and 1980s Alias worked with many jazz, rock, and Latin artists, including Mongo Santamaria (recording in ...

(Creede)

(bWinnemucca, NV, May 26, 1915; dSan Francisco, Oct 3, 2004). Americandouble bass player. He grew up in San Francisco, played clarinet through his primary and high-school years, and took up double bass while at Sacramento Junior College. At the beginning of the 1940s he performed and made recordings with Lionel Hampton on double bass and electric bass guitar (1940–42; including Attitude, 1940, Vic. 27316) and with Count Basie (September–November 1942), with whom he may be seen in the film Reveille with Beverly (1943); at some point he also briefly accompanied Fats Waller at Sweet’s Ballroom in Oakland, California. After serving in the navy from November 1942 to 1947 he returned to San Francisco, where he led small bands and hosted the program “Down Vernon’s Alley” on both radio and television. His most important position was as leader of the house rhythm section and music director at the Blackhawk during the 1950s, though he played briefly with Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington and recorded with a dixieland band led by the cornetist and trombonist Jack Sheedy (...

[Allen, DavidDeLella, Albert David Robert]

(b Hartford, CT, July 19, 1919; d West Haven, CT, Nov 21, 2012). American singer. Details of his name, birth, and death are in the Connecticut Death Index, the 1920 census (incorrectly transcribed there as “Defella”), and a family tree. He sang on radio as Al DeLella in Connecticut in the late 1930s, then transferred to a New York City radio station to sing with the bandleader Buddy Rocco, who persuaded him to take the name David Allen. He performed and recorded with Jack Teagarden’s big band (1940–42); by this time he was using both forms of his new surname, Allen and Allyn. Drafted into the army in April 1942, he was discharged after being injured in March 1943. From 1944 he worked with Boyd Raeburn, sometimes singing complicated arrangements by George Handy; his style is well represented by I only have eyes for you, which he recorded with Raeburn in ...

(Jefimowitsch)[Misha]

(b Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine [then USSR], Nov 7, 1956; d Oslo, May 11, 2018). Moldavian pianist. Although he was born in Ukraine, he grew up in Bessarabia, in the eastern part of Moldavia, where he studied composition and piano while playing with local folk musicians. In 1980 he became a member of the Moldavian Jazz Ensemble, led by the saxophonist and violinist Semjon Shirman, and started to play jazz piano – listening for the first time to such pianists as Art Tatum and Keith Jarrett and transcribing, for the piano, solos by Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and other saxophone and brass players. In 1983 he moved to Moscow, where he formed a duo with the french horn and flugelhorn player Arkady Shilkloper, with whom he began to synthesize elements of Moldavian folk music with improvised jazz; the duo played regularly at Moscow’s Blueberry Jazz Club. A member of the Moscow Art Trio, with Shilkloper and the singer and clarinetist Sergey Starostin, Alperin also performed with many Russian and foreign musicians; his first album as an unaccompanied soloist, ...

[William ]

(b London, Aug 20, 1911; d London, December 19, 2005). English clarinetist and saxophonist. He took up piano when he was ten and taught himself alto saxophone from the age of 13. Although he began playing professionally in Glasgow, in 1930 he moved to London. In 1931 he played with the bandleader Roy Fox, and in September of that year he joined Bert Ambrose; after changing to tenor saxophone he became a principal soloist with the band (1932). He remained with Ambrose until summer 1940, apart from a period from April to July 1939, when he was with the bandleader Jack Harris. Having joined the RAF, he played in service bands (through 1943), then worked with the bandleader Geraldo (1944 – September 1945) and again with Ambrose (October 1945 – March 1947). Amstell spent six years in the dance orchestra of the BBC, after which he was active as a session musician with such leaders as George Chisholm. He also played on cruise ships. In the 1980s and 1990s he concentrated on playing clarinet and made recordings with his own quartet (including ...

(Edward )

(b Houston, Oct 11, 1927; d Los Angeles, June 5, 2002). American tenor and soprano saxophonist and leader. Published sources have given his year of birth as 1929, but the Texas birth index gives 1927, and Amy confirmed that the earlier year is correct. He learned to play clarinet as a child, took up tenor saxophone while playing in an army band, and attended Wiley College (Marshall, Texas) (1946–7), Texas Southern University (1950), and Kentucky State College (BS 1952). Later he studied television and film scoring at the University of Southern California (1968). He worked as a schoolteacher in Tennessee, performed in clubs in the Midwest, and in 1955 moved to Los Angeles, where he joined the sextet led by the rhythm-and-blues pianist Amos Milburn and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie. From 1960 to about 1967 he led groups which played hard bop, soul jazz, and modal jazz, at first with the organist Paul Bryant as his co-leader; members of these quartets, quintets, and sextets included at various times Carmell Jones, Marcus Belgrave, Dupree Bolton, Jimmy Owens, Roy Ayers, Bobby Hutcherson, Frank Strazzeri, Victor Feldman, Kenny Barron, Jimmy Bond, and Frank Butler. His group made two television appearances in ...

(b Monroe, LA, March 22, 1929; d Evanston, IL, June 24, 2010). American tenor saxophonist. He took up tenor saxophone while living in Evanston, Illinois, and also studied theory; his influences were Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Gene Ammons, and later Ornette Coleman. Around 1962 he led a quartet which included Bill Brimfield. In 1965 he was a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in Chicago and led a number of its groups, variously involving Brimfield, Joseph Jarman, Charles Clark, and Steve McCall; he also recorded as a sideman with Jarman (1966, 1968). In 1974 he toured Europe with his own quintet, in which Douglas Ewart was a sideman. He opened his own nightclub, the Birdhouse, in Chicago in May 1977, but it was active only intermittently until it closed in June 1978. In the latter year he performed in Germany with a new group, another quintet, among the members of which were Brimfield, Ewart, and George Lewis (ii). In Germany he also recorded with the group Neighbors (...

(Julius)

(b Manchester, CT, Nov 17, 1931; d New York, Aug 26, 2003). American trombonist. His full name appears in the Social Security Applications and Claims Index. After studying at the Schillinger House in Boston (1949–50) he performed and recorded with Charlie Spivak (1950–51). During the Korean War he served in an Air Force band (September 1951 – June 1955) and began writing arrangements. Following his discharge he performed and recorded with the Sauter–Finegan Orchestra (July 1955 – December 1956), and Woody Herman (Dec 31, 1955 – July 1956) and recorded with Kai Winding’s septet (July 1956 – May 1958). He also composed and arranged for Winding, and he plays a solo in his own piece Nutcracker on Winding’s Trombone Sound (1956, Col. CL936). He then studied at the Manhattan School of Music (BA 1962) and began working as a studio musician in New York (from ...

(b Pforzheim, Germany, Oct 6, 1929; d Königsbach-Stein, Germany, Aug 5, 2015). German soprano, tenor, and bass saxophonist. After receiving three lessons on guitar from a member of the Reinhardt clan he played in dance bands until 1950. He then contacted Sidney Bechet in Paris and learned to play soprano saxophone. He played in Germany with the arranger and bandleader Ernst Simon and also with American soldiers. In 1952 he founded the Quartier Latin Jazz Band, which he led to at least 2009; among its recordings is Dieter Antritter’s Quartier Latin Jazz Band (1996, Jazzpoint 1046). It gave concerts with many visiting musicians, including Mezz Mezzrow, Michel Attenoux, Benny Waters, Nelson Williams, and Peanuts Hucko. Antritter visited Canada in 1989 and worked with local musicians. His playing was influenced by the creole New Orleans jazz musicians and by swing musicians. He also wrote many articles for various newspapers and magazines....

(Richard)

(b Wallington, England, May 26, 1937; d Milford, Derbs., England, Feb 23, 2004). English composer. He first played piano and tenor saxophone, and after graduating from Bristol University (1959) he studied arranging and composition with Raymond Premru (1960–61) and Bill Russo (1962). From 1964 to 1968 he directed the New Jazz Orchestra, an ensemble that provided a forum for its members to perform their own compositions; among the musicians in the group were Harry Beckett, Jack Bruce, Ian Carr, Mike Gibbs, Jon Hiseman, Don Rendell, Barbara Thompson, and Norma Winstone. Several of these played in the occasional orchestra that Ardley subsequently led under his own name (1969–81). He wrote music for both orchestras, notably Greek Variations, incorporating small groups led by Carr and Rendell (1969); A Symphony of Amaranths (1971); and the multi-movement work Kaleidoscope of Rainbows (1976). From the 1970s Ardley also pursued a career as a writer; among his publications were ...

(b Prague, April 13, 1934; d New York, May 13, 2017). Czech double bass player. He first studied violin and trombone (1945–52), then double bass and theory (1957), in the interim earning a degree in mechanical engineering at České vysoké učení technické v Prazehe (Czech Technical University in Prague). In the early to mid-1960s he recorded many albums in Prague with Zdenek Bartak’s big band, Karel Vlach (1962–3), Karel Velebný’s quartet and quintet (1962–5), Jan Konopasek (1963), and the pianist Milan Dvořák (1964). In 1965 he toured with the Reduta Quintet and as director of the Czechoslovak National Jazz Orchestra, and played with Leo Wright and Booker Ervin in West Germany and France. Arnet smuggled his wife, hidden in a bass drum, and his daughter, in a suitcase, through Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin; their story is the subject of the television documentary ...

(Kenneth )

(b Kansas City, MO, March 27, 1925; d Manhattan, June 13, 2003). American tenor saxophonist. He took up clarinet and then alto saxophone as a teenager, but ceased playing while serving in the navy (1943–5). From 1946 he worked with Tommy Douglas and the singer Walter Brown in Kansas City (first recording with Brown in 1949), then in the early 1950s moved to Chicago, where he played with a number of blues bands. In 1957 he went to New York and performed with Milt Larkin and Mercer Ellington; he also deputized occasionally for Duke Ellington. He recorded with Ben Webster (1958), Johnny Hodges (1960), Paul Gonsalves (1961), and Lawrence Brown (1965). In July 1968 he became a regular member of Duke Ellington’s orchestra and, although he replaced the clarinet virtuoso Jimmy Hamilton, continued to be principal tenor saxophone soloist, taking up clarinet for ensemble parts only. Ashby remained with the band until ...

[Charles; the Man with the Moves]

(b Birmingham, AL, Sept 30, 1913; d Las Vegas, NV, April 19, 2003). American dancer. Tennessee Birth Records, a 1944 marriage certificate, and the Nevada Death Index document his vital records. His parents moved to Buffalo when he was four, and he later began his professional career in the area as a singing waiter. In 1933 he met the dancer Bill (William) Porter, and the two men formed an act, the Rhythm Pals; in 1935 they went to New York, after which they toured widely until 1939, incorporating a residency at Sebastian’s New Cotton Club in Los Angeles in 1938. In 1936 Atkins married the Cotton Club dancer Catherine Gayle Williams, who enjoyed a distinguished career in social work in Iowa after her retirement from show business in 1942. In 1939 he returned to New York and began dancing with and choreographing for the Cotton Club Boys, appearing with them in the show ...

[Josef]

(b Munich, June 14, 1928; d Munich, March 29, 2013). German pianist. After playing accordion in a youth orchestra in 1936, he taught himself vibraphone and in 1945 worked in American clubs in Munich. He changed to piano in 1949 and from 1954 played with Freddie Christmann’s group, becoming its leader in 1956. Over the next three years he worked with the jazz ensemble of Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt am Main; he also toured with Freddie Brocksieper (1957–8) and the German All Stars (1958). Having at first shown a liking for the cool idiom, at the beginning of the 1960s his style grew closer to that of Horace Silver and Bud Powell. During this decade Auer played with Stan Getz, Eric Dolphy, Don Menza, Benny Bailey, Miriam Klein, and others. From 1962 he worked in Munich as a studio musician, composer, and arranger. Despite his importance among German pianists of the 1950s, Auer never recorded as a leader....

[Ernest Harold ]

(b Cleveland, Aug 13, 1925; d Amsterdam, April 14, 2005). American trumpeter. After learning piano and flute he took up trumpet and studied at the Cleveland Conservatory of Music and privately with George Russell. In the early 1940s he played with Bull Moose Jackson and the drummer and singer Scatman Crothers, and then toured with Jay McShann and played with Teddy Edwards. He joined Dizzy Gillespie’s big band in 1947 and toured Europe with it the following year. After leaving Gillespie he was one of the principal soloists with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra (1948–53), with which he appears in a number of short films, most notably Air Mail Special. In 1953 Bailey settled in Europe; he lived for several years in Sweden and became an important musician there. He was a member of Harry Arnold’s band (1957–9), recorded with Stan Getz (1958), and joined Quincy Jones (...

(b Sheffield, England, Jan 29, 1932; d London, Dec 25, 2005). English guitarist. His grandfather and uncle were both professional musicians, and Bailey was first involved in commercial music and conventional jazz. In 1966 he moved to London to play free jazz with John Stevens, Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford, and others. He joined the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, and from 1968 to 1973 belonged to Tony Oxley’s sextet; together they explored technical innovations and new sound resources, Oxley on acoustic and amplified percussion and Bailey on acoustic and electric guitars. Concurrently from 1968 to 1971 he was a member of the Music Improvisation Company. In 1970 Bailey formed the trio Iskra 1903 with Rutherford and Barry Guy, and founded the record label Incus with Oxley and Parker. In 1976 he formed the ensemble Company, bringing together groups of British and international improvisers for unstructured improvisation; an annual Company Week was held in London most years from ...

[George Edward ]

(b Camden, NJ, Dec 26, 1917; d Philadelphia, PA, October 1, 2011). American drummer. He played with Fats Waller and performed and recorded with Cootie Williams (1942). After navy service he recorded with Williams and Louis Armstrong (both 1946), worked with Illinois Jacquet, and toured and recorded with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis (1947–8). He joined Mercer Ellington (1948), then played and made recordings with Count Basie (October 1948–1949, including The Slider, 1949, Vic. 20-3542). In 1950 he toured Europe with Duke Ellington, recording in Paris with Shorty Baker, Ernie Royal, Nelson Williams, and Johnny Hodges (all sidemen with Ellington), and recorded in the USA with Arnett Cobb; he rejoined Ellington in 1953, and made further recordings with Basie and Davis in 1957. Ballard then led his own band, mainly in Philadelphia, where, from the early 1980s, he concentrated on teaching. From ...