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(b Paris, Jan 16, 1920; d Suresnes, Hautes de Seine, France, March 29, 2020). French clarinetist and bandleader. In 1941 he put together a jazz band which by 1943 had been joined by Boris Vian and was considered the first revival band in France. At its peak, in the years 1944–6, Abadie introduced such musicians as Claude Luter, Jef Gilson, and, from 1945, the Fol brothers, who may be heard on Tin Roof Blues (1946, Swing 212) and I’ve found a new baby (1946, Pathé 1013 [EP]). The band was strongly influenced by the Chicagoans and Bix Beiderbecke. In 1949 Abadie assembled a new band with such young players as Benny Vasseur and Jean-Claude Fohrenbach. He then retired from music (1952–63), but from 1965 led a modern-jazz nonet or tentet, which included the tenor saxophonist Paul Vernon (playing in a style influenced by Lester Young), with a repertory consisting of compositions by Ahmad Jamal, John Lewis, John Coltrane, and others. Abadie continued to lead this group for the remainder of his life, to age 100, directing and playing clarinet solos; they perform compositions of Thelonious Monk in the video ...

(Alexander)

(bMinneapolis, May 7, 1900; dMinneapolis, Sept 15, 1975). Americanbandleader and violinist. He began his career playing light and classical music as a member of J. Rosamond Johnson’s orchestra (1920–25). In 1925 he recorded as a soloist with Clara Smith (If you only knowed, Col. 14058D, and You better keep the home fires burning, Col. 14062D) and began to lead his own band. The following year he directed the Savoy Bearcats, and in 1927 he reorganized the group for a tour of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay; he also took a band to England. Between 1928 and 1939 he toured extensively in Europe and visited India twice. After returning to the USA he organized a band in 1940 for Ethel Waters, toured with a small group, and then settled in Chicago, where he played regularly with a trio until 1964. Although he was not a jazz soloist, Abbey employed excellent sidemen, including Fletcher Allen, Emile Christian, Bill Coleman, Peter DuConge, and Crickett Smith. His jazz recordings as a leader remain unissued except for ...

[Giovanni]

(bSan Girolamo di Lusiana, province of Vicenza, Italy, May 15, 1898; dMilan, Aug 1960). Italianbandleader, saxophonist, and violinist. He was brought up in Switzerland, where he formed a café orchestra with his brother Felice, who played banjo and violin. From 1925 to 1932 he toured Italy, Germany, and Switzerland and made several recordings as a leader for Homocord (1927–8, including Just Once Again, 2514, and Say it with a Red Rose, 2524, both 1928), in which Arthur Briggs may have taken part. Abriani held an engagement in Calcutta from 1932 to 1934, during which time he recorded for HMV’s Twin label. After returning to Europe he toured (1934–9) and made further recordings (1937–9), and then settled in Italy. Although he was not himself a jazz soloist, he often employed excellent jazz players as his sidemen. (A. Mazzoletti: Il jazz in Italia: dalle origini al dopoguerra...

(bSydney, March 31, 1922; dSydney, Aug 11, 1987). Australiansaxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader. He began to play saxophone in 1933 and joined George Fuller before working as a freelance musician and in wartime entertainment units. Following the war he performed in nightclubs and pit orchestras, and in coffee lounges in Melbourne (1948), then worked in Sydney with the trombonist George Trevare and as a freelance musician. From 1955 he led bands in Sydney hotels, among them the Criterion (1958–65), the Windsor Castle, and the Bellevue. Later he was a member of bands led by Dick Hughes (1979–85) and Alan Geddes (1984–6) and led his own group at the Canberra Hotel in Paddington, Sydney. He retired in 1986 because of ill-health. Acheson’s playing, which was chiefly in dixieland and swing styles, is heard to advantage on Merv Acheson 60th Birthday Concert...

(b Turin, Italy, March 21, 1952). Italian tenor and baritone saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and leader. He first played jazz in the Turin area in the early 1970s. In 1974 he was a founding member, with the guitarist Claudio Lodati, the double bass player Enrico Fazio, and the drummer Fiorenzo Sordini, of the quartet Art Studio, for which all four members provide compositions and arrangements; the group plays throughout Europe in a style mixing free improvisation techniques, extended forms, and contrapuntal work. In 1984 Actis Dato formed his own quartet, consisting of the saxophonist Piero Ponzo, Fazio, and Sordini; it toured internationally through the 1990s, from the USA to Africa to Japan. He was also a member of the Democratic Orchestra (1982–5), Mitteleuropa Orchestra (1982–90), Pino Minafra’s quintet (1984–9) and Sud Ensemble (from 1994), and the Italian Instabile Orchestra (from 1990). In ...

[Dominique, Albert]

(bNew Orleans, Aug 5, 1908; dSan Antonio, Jan 1980). Americantrumpeter and bandleader, nephew of Natty Dominique. His father was a singer and violinist with whom Albert began to take voice and violin lessons at the age of eight; his cornet studies got underway the following year and involved several teachers, including Papa Tio, A. J. Piron’s elder brother Milford Piron, and Manuel Perez, to whom he turned when Milford Piron disapproved of his having taken professional work in a Mardi Gras parade at the age of 14. He played with Perez’s band and on the steamer Susquehanna. From the age of 16 he became active in the Southwest and toured with one of Alphonso Trent’s bands (1925) and Troy Floyd (1926–9). While with Floyd he also recorded as a soloist, playing muted and open trumpet, in a small group accompanying the singer Hattie Burleson; among the results of this session was the pairing ...

(Lee )

(b Milwaukee, April 25, 1961). American drummer and leader, brother of Eddie Allen. His mother was a gospel singer and an elder brother also played drums. He took up drums around the age of ten, was a member of a drum and bugle corps when he was 13, and organized his first jazz group a year later. The director of his high school band, who was himself a drummer, introduced him to recordings by Sid Catlett, Baby Dodds, Roy Haynes, and Philly Joe Jones. Allen performed locally with Sonny Stitt and Red Holloway at the age of 16 and then worked with James Moody. In 1979 he declined an offer from Mel Lewis to join Count Basie’s orchestra because he thought he was not good enough, and instead he studied classical percussion at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; in 1981 he transferred to William Paterson College, Wayne, New Jersey, where he earned a degree in jazz studies and performance (...

[Viniello, Daniel Alvin ]

(b New York, Nov 29, 1902; d Chicago, Dec 6, 1958). American drummer and bandleader. He began playing professionally in New York with a white vaudeville singer known as Aunt Jemima (1918) and recorded there with Sophie Tucker (1919–22). His jazz career centered on Chicago, where he performed with Jules Buffano (1922), Charlie Straight, Elmer Schoebel, and Frankie Quartell (with whom he recorded in 1924); he later worked in commercial bands and briefly as a bandleader before joining Art Hodes (1933). In 1936 he returned to New York to work with musicians who were profiting by the revival of interest in dixieland. As a member of a small group led by Wingy Manone he recorded regularly in 1937–8 and again in January 1940; he also recorded with Joe Marsala (1937) and Bud Freeman’s Summa cum Laude Orchestra (...

(b São Paulo, 1892; d Rio de Janeiro, 1979). Brazilian bandleader, violinist, and saxophonist. He studied music in Rio de Janeiro (1917–19) and directed his own dance orchestra, gradually changing its repertory from Latin American music to jazz. He recorded prolifically on the Odeon label (1919–24) and although he did not perform as a soloist he became one of the pioneers of jazz in Brazil. While touring Europe (1924–34) he played for a time with the dancer and bandleader Grégor Kélékian. He made several recordings for Grammophon in Berlin (including Everything is hotsy totsy now, 20338, and Big Bad Bill, 20340, both 1926), some of which show to advantage the hot trumpet playing of Mickey Diamond and the blue blowing on kazoo of Sydney Sterling. (R. E. Lotz: “Eduardo Andreozzi: the Jazz Pioneer from Brazil,” Sv, no.122 (1985–6), 62 [incl. discography])...

(b Bentleyville, PA, Jan 20, 1922). Trumpeter and bandleader. He first played professionally in the late 1930s, then worked with bands led by Glenn Miller (1940–41) and Jimmy Dorsey (1942). During World War II he led a navy band for two years. After being discharged he formed a band in 1946 which had a hit single, Bunny Hop, in 1952. This started a national dance craze that contributed considerably to Anthony’s success. As well as continuing to record he performed with his band on television (1953–5) and in several films. He also appeared without the band in other films, including The Five Pennies (1959), a biography of Red Nichols in which he portrayed Jimmy Dorsey, and later in Story of the Big Band Era (1963), in which the jazz element of his studio big band’s performance is enhanced by the participation of such soloists as Frank Rosolino, Dave Pell, and Joe Maini, with Nick Ceroli on drums. After ...

(Noah )

(b Berkeley, CA, Aug 21, 1960). American bandleader, tenor saxophonist, composer, percussionist, and pianist. He played percussion and piano from an early age, took up drums while in elementary school, and began piano lessons when he was nine. In 1975 he formed his own improvisation group, the Berkeley Arts Company, and in 1977 he founded the Hieroglyphics Ensemble, which initially consisted of 16 reed and brass players and himself on drums; the following year he added other instruments to form a rhythm section. Having moved to New York state (c1979) he played percussion and drums in Karl Berger’s Woodstock Workshop Orchestra, and he toured and recorded with the group in Europe with Don Cherry as guest soloist (1979). Under Warren Smith (ii) he performed in the Composer’s Workshop Ensemble, and he played keyboards in Carla Bley’s Burning Sensations and worked briefly with Eddie Jefferson. In ...

(b Porus, Jamaica, June 2, 1903; d 2000). Jamaican tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader. He was a bandsman with the West India Regiment at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924 and later returned to Great Britain and played in dance bands there and in Europe until the early 1930s. He led his own band in London in 1931–2 and in November 1932 relocated to the Netherlands with the pianist and singer Lily Jemmott, Welsh born of mixed African American and Bajun parentage, whose stage name was “Spadie Lee.” They remained in Europe until 1935. From 1936 he played in London with West Indian jazz musicians, including Leslie Thompson’s Emperors of Jazz (1936), and in 1937 he led his own band. In the 1940s he worked mainly with Cyril Blake and also with Jiver Hutchinson (1944–5). Appleton’s clarinet playing may be heard on Muscat Ramble...

(b Hälsingborg, Sweden, Aug 7, 1920; d Stockholm, Feb 11, 1971). Swedish bandleader, arranger, and saxophonist. He led a big band in Malmö (1942–9), was a member of Thore Ehrling’s orchestra in Stockholm (1949–52), and worked as a studio musician. From 1956 to 1965 he was the leader of Radiobandet (the Swedish Radio Big Band), which achieved considerable success in the USA. First presented there as the Jazztone Mystery Band (an invention of the writer George T. Simon), it was mistaken by several critics and well-known musicians for one of the leading American big bands, and it received considerable further acclaim through albums released under Arnold’s own name. The ensemble played in a modernized swing style and included such prominent Swedish and Norwegian musicians as Arne Domnérus, Bengt Hallberg, Bjarne Nerem, Åke Persson, Carl-Henrik Norin, Egil Johansson, and Georg Riedel. Benny Bailey, living in Sweden at that time, was also an intermittent member, and he recorded as a soloist with the group, as did Nat Adderley and Coleman Hawkins as guests (all on ...

[William Michael Allingham]

(b Blackpool, England, Dec 6, 1936). English bandleader. He began playing saxophone and clarinet in school, and after service in an RAF band he organized two jazz bands while studying at Oxford University (1955–62). In the early 1960s he performed in several clubs in London. In 1965 he formed the London Schools Jazz Orchestra, which was later known as the London Youth Jazz Orchestra and then the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO); it became a professional organization in 1974 and is the only full-time big band of its kind in Great Britain. Through its ranks have passed some of Britain’s finest young musicians, including Julian and Steve Argüelles, Guy Barker, Chris Biscoe, Paul Lytton, Dave O’Higgins, Gerard Presencer, and Jamie Talbot. It has toured with Shorty Rogers (1982, 1983), and John Dankworth (1986), made regular appearances at Ronnie Scott’s Club in London, and made a large number of recordings, among them ...

[Altwerger, John ]

(b Toronto, May 19, 1919; d Palm Springs, CA, Jan 8, 1990). American tenor saxophonist and bandleader. His family moved to New York in 1919. He first played professionally on alto saxophone, but changed to the tenor instrument because of Coleman Hawkins’s influence. He led his own band at Nick’s, New York, and worked with Bunny Berigan (1937–8) and Artie Shaw (c December 1938 – November 1939). Following Shaw’s first retirement he led the latter’s band briefly, then played for a short time with Jan Savitt and was a member of Benny Goodman’s orchestra and sextet (November 1940 – c June 1941); during the same period he recorded in Benny Carter’s band, accompanying Billie Holiday (September–October 1940), and again under Carter’s leadership (October 1940). After a second period with Shaw (to January 1942) Auld resumed bandleading (February 1942...

(b Cleveland, OH, 13 July 1936; d ?New York, NY, between 5 and 25 Nov 1970). American jazz tenor saxophonist and bandleader.

He began on alto saxophone and was playing professionally in rhythm-and-blues bands by his mid-teens. While serving in army concert bands, he switched to tenor saxophone. He occasionally played in Paris clubs while stationed in France from 1959 to 1961. After his discharge, he remained in Europe, leading a bop trio for eight months in Sweden and playing with Cecil Taylor in Copenhagen (1962–3). In 1963 he moved to New York, and the following year he formed a quartet with Don Cherry, Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray.

Ayler was never able to find a steady audience for his radical music—his group performed perhaps only three times in 1965—and although his albums were well received by the critics, he had trouble landing gigs. He made no effort to clarify his music for listeners, discouraging musical interpretations of his recordings and instead stressing their social and spiritual themes; the inconsistent and confusing titles to his pieces further obscured his work. Nevertheless, in studios, New York clubs (...

[Mr. Swing]

(b Paris, April 16, 1931). French tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, pianist, composer, and leader. His father was a lyric singer, and he grew up in a musical family; he studied classical singing as a child and took up clarinet in 1950. After playing traditional jazz with Michel Attenoux (from 1952) and working with Bill Coleman, Peanuts Holland, Lil Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Jimmy Archey, he joined Claude Bolling’s trio (1955) and toured Europe, Africa, and the Middle East with Bolling and with Jazz aux Champs Elysées, led by Jack Diéval. From 1958 his principal instrument was the tenor saxophone, which he played for many years with Bolling and as a freelance in studios. He also worked with Roger Guérin and Geo Daly (both 1957), Alice Babs and Duke Ellington (1963), Jean-Claude Naude (1963–4), Cat Anderson (recording in 1965), Paul Gonsalves (...

(b Stevensville, MT, March 20, 1916; d San Francisco, Oct 26, 1989). American pianist and bandleader. As a teenager he went with his family to Santa Clara, California, and in 1938 he moved to San Francisco, where he immediately began working professionally. He played traditional jazz with Turk Murphy (1942) and, after a brief period of army service, Lu Watters (1943) and performed and recorded with Bunk Johnson (1943–4). He led his own bands (1944–9), performed and recorded with Bob Scobey and Murphy again (December 1947, 1949–50), rejoined Watters (1949), and later worked with Marty Marsala (1954). Bales recorded as a leader in 1949, 1950, and 1957, and in 1958 and 1959 led bands at the first two Monterey jazz festivals, accompanying Lizzie Miles in the latter year. As an unaccompanied soloist he made recordings in ...

[Kenneth Daniel]

(b Ilford, England, May 22, 1930; d Basildon, England, March 7, 2013). English trumpeter and bandleader. He took up trumpet at the age of 14 and first worked professionally when he was 17. In the early 1950s he played dixieland with several bands, notably those of Charlie Galbraith and the drummer Eric Delaney, and in 1953 he joined a group led by Sid Phillips, with whom he played a stylized brand of dixieland characterized by elaborate arrangements. Ball recorded as a leader from 1957, and after leaving Phillips’s group he worked briefly as a freelance and was a member of Terry Lightfoot’s ensemble. In November 1958 he formed the Jazzmen, with which he made several recordings that achieved great popularity (Samantha, 1961; Midnight in Moscow, 1961; So do I, 1962) and many tours, including one of the USSR (1985); the band remained busy in the 1990s. Ball’s full, muscular tone and strong sense of melody display the influence not only of Armstrong but also of Bunny Berigan and Bix Beiderbecke; in his performances he revealed a warm, extroverted personality. With John Bennett he published a memoir: Kenny Ball’s and John Bennett’s Musical Skylarks: a Medley of Memories (Clacton-on-Sea, England, 2011)...

(b Palestine, TX, Jan 21, 1902; d Fort Worth, May 2, 1984). American singer and bandleader. He led his own band in Dallas (c1925) and toured Texas, then briefly led the Wolverines. In 1928 he worked as a banjoist in New York, but from 1929 he specialized as a singer. He made a large number of recordings as a leader (1929–31, 1934), as well as with such musicians as the Dorsey Brothers (1928–9), Irving Mills, the Goofus Five, and Ben Pollack (all 1929), the California Ramblers, Joe Venuti, and Frankie Trumbauer (all 1929–30), the violinist Ben Selvin (1929–31), Duke Ellington (1930, notably Nine Little Miles from Ten-Ten-Tennessee, Vic. 22586), and Red Nichols and Benny Goodman (both 1931). During the early 1930s his band held many residencies in New York, and Ballew also led an all-star group which included Bunny Berigan and Glenn Miller. Later he appeared in many films....