#red callender

Lester Young Jammin' The Blues 1944

“Beautifully filmed in glorious black and white it's a recreation of a jazz jam session from 1944. Superstar lineup featuring Lester Young, Red Callender, Illinois Jacquet, Jo Jones etc... Marie Bryant is the vocalist on Sunny Side of the Street.”

Introduction: Charles Mingus, a towering figure in jazz, was more than just a virtuoso bassist and composer—he was a visionary whose music transcended genres and boundaries. Born one hundred and two years ago today on April 22, 1922, in Nogales, Arizona, Mingus grew up in Watts, Los Angeles, where he was exposed to music at an early age. Despite his mother’s insistence on only allowing…

1946 - Jazz at the Philharmonic - Masonic Temple - Detroit

Charlie Parker - The Bird Blows The Blues

Rickie Lee Jones: Rickie Lee Jones

Warner Bros. WB 56 628, 1979

JAMMIN’ THE BLUES (1944)

CharlesTolliver (trumpet) - 1942 :: Jazziversary greetings to trumpeter Charles Tolliver. Charles is an American jazz trumpeter and composer. Tolliver was born in Jacksonville, Florida, where, as a child, he received his first trumpet as a gift from his grandmother. He attended Howard University in theearly 1960s as a pharmacy student, when he decided to pursue music as a careerand moved to New York City.

He came to prominence in 1964, playing andrecording on Jackie McLean’s Blue Note albums. In 1971, he and Stanley Cowell founded Strata-East Records, one of the pioneer artist-owned jazz record labels. Tolliver himself released many albums and collaborations on Strata.

Following a long hiatus, he reemerged in the late 2000s (decade), releasing two albums arranged for big band. With Love was nominated in 2007 for a Grammy award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble.

Palle Mikkelborg (trumpet) - 1941 :: Happy jazziversary  to Palle Mikkelborg. Palle is a Danish jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger and record producer.

He started playing professionally in 1960, and has since been a dominant figure on the Danish and international progressive jazz scene. He has released several solo records, and recorded with various co-founded groups, as well as appearing as sideman or arranger on numerous international records.

Among notable international collaborations, one finds appearances with Gil Evans Big Band, George Russell Big Band, Gary Peacock, Jan Garbarek and Miles Davis (for whom he composed and produced the 1985 (released 1989) record Aura). In 2001 he was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize.

Furry Lewis (guitar, acoustic) - 1893-1981 :: was an American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. Lewis was one of the first of the old-time blues musicians of the 1920s to be brought out of retirement, and given a new lease of recording life, by the folk blues revival of the 1960s.

Lewis acquired the nickname “Furry” from childhood playmates. By 1908, he was playing solo for parties, in taverns, and on the street. He was also invited to play several dates with W. C. Handy’s Orchestra.

His travels exposed him to a wide variety of performers including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Alger “Texas” Alexander. Like his contemporary Frank Stokes, he tired of the road and took a permanent job in 1922. His position as a street sweeper for the City of Memphis, a job he would hold until his retirement in 1966, allowed him to remain active in the Memphis music scene.

In 1927, Lewis cut his first records in Chicago for the Vocalion label. A year later he recorded for the Victor label at the Memphis Auditorium in a session with the Memphis Jug Band, Jim Jackson, Frank Stokes, and others. He again recorded for Vocalion in Memphis in 1929. The tracks were mostly blues but included two-part versions of “Casey Jones” and “John Henry”. He sometimes fingerpicked, sometimes played with a slide.[3] He recorded many successful records in the late 1920s including “Kassie Jones”, “Billy Lyons & Stack-O-Lee” and “Judge Harsh Blues” (later called “Good Morning Judge”).

In 1969, Lewis was recorded by the record producer, Terry Manning, at home in Lewis’ Beale Street apartment. These recordings were released in Europe at the time by Barclay Records, and then again in the early 1990s by Lucky Seven Records in the United States, and again in 2006 by Universal.

Red Callender (bass, acoustic) - 1916-1992 :: George Sylvester "Red" Callender was a jazz bass and tuba player, famous for turning down a chance to work with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and the Louis Armstrong All-Stars.

In the early 1940s, he played in the Lester and Lee Young band, and then formed his own trio. In the 1940s Callender recorded with Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon and many others. After a period spent leading a trio in Hawaii, Callender returned to Los Angeles, becoming one of the first black musicians to work regularly in the commercial studios, including backing singer Linda Hayes on two singles.

On his 1954 Crown LP Speaks Low, Callender was one of the earliest modern jazz tuba soloists. Keeping busy up until his death, some of the highlights of the bassist’s later career include recording with Art Tatum and Jo Jones (1955–1956) for the Tatum Group, playing with Charles Mingus at the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival, working with James Newton’s avant-garde woodwind quintet (on tuba), and performing as a regular member of the Cheatham’s Sweet Baby Blues Band.

He also reached the top of the British pop charts as a member of B. Bumble and the Stingers.