Willie Smith (alto Saxophonist)
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Willie Smith (alto Saxophonist)
William McLeish Smith (November 25, 1910 – March 7, 1967) was an American saxophonist and one of the major alto saxophone players of the swing era. He also played clarinet and sang. Early life Smith was born in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, and raised in Charleston and attended Avery Institute. His first instrument was clarinet, and his education was in chemistry. He received his chemistry degree from Fisk University, an HBCU. Career In 1929, Smith became an alto saxophonist for Jimmie Lunceford's band, becoming one of the main stars in the group. In 1940, he led his own quintet as a side project. His success with Lunceford had lost its charms by 1942, as he now wanted more pay and less travel. Smith moved to the Charlie Spivak orchestra for a year, and was in the United States Navy for another year. He then switched to Harry James's orchestra, where he made more money, and stayed with him for seven years. After that he worked with Duke Ellington and Billy M ...
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Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the Ashley, Cooper, and Wando rivers. Charleston had a population of 150,277 at the 2020 census. The 2020 population of the Charleston metropolitan area, comprising Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, was 799,636 residents, the third-largest in the state and the 74th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States. Charleston was founded in 1670 as Charles Town, honoring King CharlesII, at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River (now Charles Towne Landing) but relocated in 1680 to its present site, which became the fifth-largest city in North America within ten years. It remained unincor ...
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Billy May
Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet'' (1966), ''The Mod Squad'' (1968), ''Batman'' (with ''Batgirl'' theme, 1967), and '' Naked City'' (1960). He collaborated on films such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1981), and orchestrated '' Cocoon'', and '' Cocoon: The Return'', among others. May wrote arrangements for many top singers, including Frank Sinatra, Yma Sumac, Nat King Cole, Anita O'Day, Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, Sandler and Young, Nancy Wilson, Rosemary Clooney, The Andrews Sisters and Ella Mae Morse. He also collaborated with satirist Stan Freberg on several classic 1950s and 1960s comedy music albums. As a trumpet player in the 1940s Big Band era, May recorded such songs as "Measure for Measure", "Long Tall Mama", and "Boom Shot", with Glenn Mill ...
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Music, Romance And Especially Love
''Music, Romance and Especially Love'' is an album by American jazz drummer Louis Bellson featuring performances recorded in 1957 for the Verve label.Verve Records Catalog: 8200 series
accessed December 15, 2015

accessed December 15, 2015


Reception

awarded the album 3 stars.
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Drumorama!
''Drumorama!'' is an album by American jazz drummer Louis Bellson featuring performances recorded in 1957 for the Verve label.Verve Records Catalog: 8100 series
accessed December 15, 2015

accessed December 15, 2015


Reception

awarded the album 3 stars.


Track listing

''All compositions by Louis Bellson, except as indicated.'' # "A Trip to the Jungle" # "Scene U.S.A." # "D ...
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Skin Deep (Louis Bellson Album)
''Skin Deep'' is an album by American jazz drummer Louis Bellson featuring performances recorded in 1953 and 1954 for the Norgran label.Norgran Records Catalog: 1000 series
accessed December 15, 2015
The tracks were first released on the 10 inch LP's ''The Amazing Artistry of Louis Bellson'' and ''The Exciting Mr. Bellson''.


Reception

The review awarded the album 3 stars stating: "Louis Bellson has long been acknowledged as one of the greatest drummers in jazz history and this release combines two separate sessions that are predominantly features for his incredible solos".


T ...
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Journey Into Love
''Journey Into Love'' is an album by American jazz drummer Louis Bellson featuring performances recorded in 1954 for the Norgran label.Norgran Records Catalog: 1000 series
accessed December 15, 2015
The album is unique among Bellson's catalog as it features orchestral arrangements by Bellson and Buddy Baker of and was also released as ''Two in Love'' under Baker's name in 1956.
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Louis Bellson
Louie Bellson (born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), often seen in sources as Louis Bellson, although he himself preferred the spelling Louie, was an American jazz drummer. He was a composer, arranger, bandleader, and jazz educator, and is credited with pioneering the use of two bass drums.National Endowment for the Arts biography of Louis Bellson
, January 1994; accessed January 2009.
Bellson performed in most of the major capitals around the world. Bellson and his wife, actress and singer (married from 1952 until Bailey's death in 1990), had the second highest numb ...
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Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career in the 1920s, he worked as an arranger including written charts for Fletcher Henderson's big band that shaped the swing style. He had an unusually long career that lasted into the 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, which included receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award. Career Carter was born in New York City in 1907. He was given piano lessons by his mother and others in the neighborhood. He played trumpet and experimented briefly with C-melody saxophone before settling on alto saxophone. In the 1920s, he performed with June Clark, Billy Paige, and Earl Hines, then toured as a member of the Wilberforce Collegians led by Horace Henderson. He appeared on record for the first time in 1927 as a member ...
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Johnny Hodges
Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges (July 25, 1907 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophonist, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years. Hodges was also featured on soprano saxophone, but refused to play soprano after 1946. Along with Benny Carter, Hodges is considered to be one of the definitive alto saxophone players of the big band era. After beginning his career as a teenager in Boston, Hodges began to travel to New York and played with Lloyd Scott, Sidney Bechet, Luckey Roberts and Chick Webb. When Ellington wanted to expand his band in 1928, Ellington's clarinet player Barney Bigard recommended Hodges. His playing became one of the identifying voices of the Ellington orchestra. From 1951 to 1955, Hodges left the Duke to lead his own band, but returned shortly before Ellington's triumphant return to prominence – the orchestra's performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. Biography Early life H ...
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John S
John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Epistle of John, often shortened to 2 John * Third Epistle of John, often shortened to 3 John People * John the Baptist (died c. AD 30), regarded as a prophet and the forerunner of Jesus Christ * John the Apostle (lived c. AD 30), one of the twelve apostles of Jesus * John the Evangelist, assigned author of the Fourth Gospel, once identified with the Apostle * John of Patmos, also known as John the Divine or John the Revelator, the author of the Book of Revelation, once identified with the Apostle * John the Presbyter, a figure either identified with or distinguished from the Apostle, the Evangelist and John of Patmos Other people with the given name Religious figures * John, father of Andrew the Apostle and Saint Peter * ...
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AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Gui ...
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California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7million residents and the latter having over 9.6million. Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state and the second most populous city in the country. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the country. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous, while San Bernardino County is the largest county by area in the country. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, t ...
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