Thomas ‘Papa’ ‘Mutt’ Carey [1891 - September 3, 1948] was a New Orleans cornetist who played with Kid Ory during the 1910s and 20s. He is also recognized for his work as a bandleader during the revival of traditional jazz during the late 1940s.

Thomas Carey was born in Hahnville, Louisiana in 1891, and moved to New Orleans with his family early in his life. He started on drums, later trying the guitar and the alto horn before finally settling on the cornet. By 1912, he was playing cornet with his older brother, Jack Carey, who was the trombonist and bandleader of the Cresent City Orchestra.

He joined with Kid Ory in 1914, and later toured the vaudeville circuit and played in Chicago in 1917, returning to New Orleans in 1918. The next year he toured with Kid Ory in California, and took over leadership of Ory’s band when Ory left in 1925. He would rejoin with Kid Ory from 1944 until he left in 1947 to make recordings as a bandleader in New York, in which his New Yorkers band was one of the more influential bands in the revival of traditional jazz in the later 1940s. He died in Elsinore, California (near San Francisco) on September 3, 1948.

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Charles ‘Buddy’ Bolden (September 6, 1877-November 4, 1931) was the first important name is jazz history and was a cornetist and pioneer of the kind of New Orleans rag time music that eventually came to be known as jazz.

Very little is known but much is rumored about the life of Buddy Bolden. What is known is that he was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 6, 1877. His band (pictured below) was quite popular from 1900-07 until Bolden suffered an episode of acute alcoholic psychosis in 1907 and was diagnosed as a schizophenic (called Dementia praecox at the time). He then spent the remainder of his life in a mental institution until his death on November 4, 1931 when he was buried in a pauper’s grave at Holt graveyard in New Orleans.

The rumors and legends about ‘King’ Bolden, as he was frequently called, include stories of Buddy holding a day job as a barber or even publishing a scandal-sheet (much like a modern tabloid) called the Cricket and have been perpetuated by time and by works of fiction that include Bolden as a character such as Michael Ondattje’s book Coming Through the Slaughter an interesting work of fiction which features Boldon as a main character.

Bolden’s Band from circa 1905. Bolden is in the back row, second from the left. Click the picture for a larger view.

There are, very unfortunately, no recordings of Buddy Bolden that exist, although it is rumored that he recorded at least one phonograph cylinder (a method of recording used prior to the record disc). What is known about Bolden’s sound is from secondary sources which speak of his powerful, loud, and clear tone on the cornet and that Bolden was ‘one of the finest horn players around.’

His band began playing around 1895 in New Orleans and eventually became one of the most popular groups in the city, being famous for their more bluesy and improvised brand of rag time music. Some of the songs associated with the Bolden band are the traditional songs Careless Love and My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It, as well as the originals Get Out of Here and Go Home and his most famous ‘Funky Butt,’ a song that would inspire the jazz standard ‘Buddy Bolden’s Blues (I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say…)’ and was one of the many songs in Bolden’s repetoire known for their rude and off-color lyrics.

Bolden’s music would be a great influence on some of jazz’s earliest musicians such as Joe ‘King’ Oliver, Freddie Keppard, and Bunk Johnson. The man himself would be honored musically by Sidney Bechet’s Buddy Bolden Stomp and Duke Ellington’s 1957 suite A Drum is a Woman. A monument was erected in Holt cemetary in 1998 in Bolden’s honor although his exact gravesite remains unknown.

For more information about Buddy Bolden:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/buddy.html
http://www.southernmusic.net/buddybolden.htm

William ‘Bill’ Edward Chiaiese (Chase) (October 20, 1934 – August 9, 1974) was the legendary trumpeter and bandleader of the jazz-rock fusion band Chase, and is also known for his lead trumpet work with Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd during the 1960s.

William Edward Chiaiese was born on October 20, 1934 in Boston, Massachusetts to his parents John and Emily Chiaiese, who later changed the name ‘Chiaiese’ to Chase to make it easier to pronounce. His father played the trumpet in the Gillette Marching Band and encouraged Bill’s musical interests which included violin and percussion before he finally settled on the trumpet during his mid-teens. After graduating high school, Bill studied classical trumpet at the New England Conservatory but would shortly transfer to the Berklee School of Music under John Coffey, who taught both the trombones and the trumpets at the school.

“Coffey’s whole teaching was correct embouchure. That was one thing he corrected me on right away. I was definitely not using my lips properly. The placement of the mouthpiece on my lips was wrong and he corrected that for me.”

It was while Bill attended Berklee in 1952 that he attended his first Stan Kenton concert, which featured Maynard Ferguson on lead trumpet.

“My ears opened up like a parachute. I couldn’t believe him! All that night and next day I was making noises to myself, trying to recapture Maynard’s sound.”

Soon after, Bill was a member of a Boston orchestra led by one of his Berkeley instructors. “One night,” Chase recalled, “Maynard Ferguson came into the club, I told him, if you ever need a trumpet player call me up, and to my amazement, not long afterward he did.” Bill would play with Maynard for about year, later gaining experience with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, until he joined Woody Herman’s band The Thundering Herd, where Chase spent most the early and middle 1960’s.

“That was hard work – I had to play lead trumpet and set fire to the whole band. Even when we saw nothing but buses and hotel rooms and ballrooms, when my chops were beat and swollen, I just forced myself to keep going. Woody (Herman) was an inspiration; he’s a true pro. He showed me that my primary duty was never to let the public down.” The respect was mutual with Woody Herman recalling Bill Chase to be the best lead trumpet ever to pass through his band.

Chase: The Band

In 1970, he started his own band, Chase, which consisted of four trumpets, a rhythm section, and a vocalist. Joining Bill on trumpet were Ted Piercefield, Alan Ware, and Jerry Van Blair. The trumpets were backed up by Phil Porter on the keyboards, Angel South on guitar, Dennis Johnson on Bass, and Jay Burrid on percussion. The group released its self-titled debut album in 1971, which featured Terry Richards on lead vocals. The album featured the group’s most well known song “Get It On,” which was released as a single and spent thirteen weeks on the charts beginning in May of 1971. The album would even earn the band a best new artist grammy nomination.

The band released its second album, Ennea, in 1972. The album’s title was taken from the Greek word for nine, a reference to the band’s nine members. The line-up for the album was altered slightly with Gary Smith taking over on percussion and G.G. Shinn on lead vocals. The album itself featured the ‘Ennea Suite’ on side two with tightly chorded jazz arrangments and lyrics based on Greek Mythology and was not as well received by the public as the previous album had been.

After an extended hiatus, Chase released a third album named Pure Music in 1974. The album featured a new line-up, but with Chase’s familiar four trumpet section with Jim Peterik from the Ides of March as songwriter and back-up vocalist as well as Dartanyan Brown on lead vocals and bass. Pure Music was another step away from rock and was considered by Variety magazine to be Chase’s ‘most commercial effort yet’ and that ‘their brand of jazz could have a commercial impact.”

On August 9, 1974, while enroute to a performance in Minnesota, Bill Chase died when his plane went down along with keyboardist Wally Yohn, drummer Walter Clark, and guitarist John Emma. The last song Chase ever recorded was Close Up Tight, the first was Open Up Wide. In 1977, A Chase tribute band, primarily composed of original members, recorded an album entitled Watch Closely Now in tribute to Bill Chase.

This is a video of Bill Chase performing ‘Weird Song #1′ in 1974. This is the only commercial recording of the Chase band that I know of. The entire performance can be purchased at www.seeleymusic.com

For Information about Bill Chase:
http://www.great-music.com/bill-chase
http://www.jazztrumpetsolos.com/Chase.htm
http://www.seeleymusic.com/chase/

To order Chase’s music:
http://www.great-music.net/chase.htm

Copyright Information: All videos and pictures posted on this site are believed to be either listed under a CC, GNU license or are in the public domain.  If you are the owner of a video or picture posted on this site and would like to see it removed, please email me.

Arturo Sandoval: Trumpet Evolution (2003). The legendary Arturo Sandoval pays tribute to nineteen of the greatest and most influential trumpeters in both jazz and classical music from the last century in this journey through the development of the trumpet. The album features Arturo’s mastery of the styles of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Wynton Marsalis just to name a few.

Tracks: Dipper Mouth Blues – Joseph ‘King’ Oliver (2:15), When It’s Sleepy Time Down South – Louis Armstrong (3:02), At the Jazz Band Ball – Bix Beiderbecke (2:56), La Virgen de la Macarena – Rafael Mendez (3:06), I Can’t Get Started – Bunny Berigan (4:35), Concerto for Cootie – Charles ‘Cootie’ Williams (3:51), Little Jazz – Roy Eldridge (2:40), Man With a Horn – Harry James (3:30), Manteca – Dizzy Gellespie (3:23), Tee Pee Time – Clark Terry (4:07), Concerto for Soprano Coloratura by Reinhold Gilere, First Movement - Timofei Dokschitzer (3:41), Nostalgia – ‘Fats’ Novarro (3:31),  Round Midnight – Miles Davis (5:42), Maynard Ferguson – Maynard Ferguson (4:16), My Funny Valentine – Chet Baker (4:25), Joy Spring – Clifford Brown (4:17), Concerto in D Major by Giuseppe Tartini, First Movement – Maurice Andre (3:57), Up Jumped Spring – Freddie Hubbard (4:11), Later – Wynton Marsalis (4:01).

Here is Arturo Sandoval performing ‘A Night in Tunisia’ live at the Montreal Jazz Festival back in 1991. If you are interested in more of Arturo’s music visit his homepage: http://www.arturosandoval.com/

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The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out (1959). The album features some of the finest rhythmic innovations from Dave Brubeck and his quartet, including the simple yet elegant masterpiece Take Five. Consisting of nothing but tracks with irregular or changing meters, Time Out is one the finest and most unusual examples of West Coast Cool Jazz.

Tracks: Side 1: Blue Rondo a la Turk (6:44), Strange Meadow Lark (7:22), Take Five (5:24). Side 2: Three to Get Ready (5:24), Kathy’s Waltz (4:48), Everybody’s Jumpin’ (4:23), Pick Up Sticks (4:16).

The Quartet: Dave Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto sax), Eugene Wright (double bass), Joe Morello (drums). Personnel: Teo Macero (producer), Fred Plaut (engineer), Mark Wilder (engineer), Cozbi Sanchez-Cabrera (art direction), Seth Rothstein (project director).

The Dave Brubeck Quartet playing Take Five live in 1961.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet playing Blue Rondo a la Turk live.

Copyright Information: All videos and pictures posted on this site are believed to be either listed under a CC, GNU license or are in the public domain.  If you are the owner of a video or picture posted on this site and would like to see it removed, please email me.

In my experiences with music, I have learned that the best way to learn jazz is to experience it: listen to it, play it, go and watch it. You can learn far more about jazz by going to a jazz concert than you could ever hope to learn from a book. But once you’ve heard the what that is a jazz musician’s sound, you should want to know the why, the reason why that musician sounds the way they do. Why does John Coltrane sound like Coltrane and not like Charlie Parker or Dizzy Gillespie or Theolonius Monk? And it’s not just because they play different instruments.

Something else I have learned is that no one should ever stop learning, and music is certainly no exception. There is always something else out there: some things are old, and there’s always something new. Music cannot be perfected because no one is perfect, it can always be better, and that’s what I like most about it. Jazz is a perfect example of this because even as new genres of jazz are born, all the old styles are still alive and kicking.

My main goal with this blog is to share my knowledge and love of jazz music. In the upcoming weeks, I will be writing new posts about different jazz musicians, genres of jazz, and charts that changed the jazz world, as well as a few articles about jazz in music education, jazz in technology, as well as a few other topics. Until then, God Bless.