Adolphus Alsbrook

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Adolphus J. Alsbrook Jr. (born February 21, 1912 in Kansas City (Kansas) , † June 2, 1988 in Canada ) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues musician ( double bass , bass guitar , also harp ), arranger and composer .

Live and act

Alsbrook attended Sumner High School and studied classical double bass and harp at the University of Kansas , University of Minnesota, and the Chicago Conservatory of Music. From 1933 to 1954 he lived intermittently in Minneapolis , where he taught and also worked as an arranger. In the early 1930s he played with Boyd Atkins ; he also performed at the town's Cotton Club with Jo Jones in Rook Ganz's band. During this time he also played with Lester Young and Count Basie . In addition to his main instrument, the double bass, Alsbrook also played the bass violin, harp, accordion and guitar; he also wrote several novelty songs . As an arranger he worked in Minneapolis for the orchestras of Red Nichols and Paul Pendarvis . He also taught judo at a police department .

In 1939 Alsbrook was a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra for a short time (as the successor to Billy Taylor ) , where he was followed by Jimmy Blanton . However, no recordings were made with the orchestra.

In the 1940s Alsbrook worked mainly in the Seattle music scene , where he a. a. played with Ernestine Anderson . From the mid-1950s he played in Earl Bostic's R&B band , as well as with Fats Domino ("Country Boy", Imperial 1960) and Amos Milburn . Further recordings were made in Los Angeles with Jesse Belvin ("Where's My Girl", with Bumps Blackwell ), Sam Cooke (1957), Ernie Freeman and Sugarcane Harris . Tom Lord lists his participation in eight recording sessions in 1956/57.

In 1972 Alsbrook performed with Thelonious Monk, who was a guest in Seattle . Alsbrook last lived in Vancouver.

His son is the musician Darryl Alsbrook.

Appreciation

The young Oscar Pettiford was impressed with Alsbrook's bass playing; and Milt Hinton mentioned Alsbrook in his memoirs Charles Mingus and Gene Ramey praised Alsbrooks talent as a musician and arranger.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Jay Goetting: Joined at the Hip: A History of Jazz in the Twin Cities . Minnesota Historical Society, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b c d Another little known Ellingtonian (portrait fragments of the Duke Ellington Music Society)
  3. ^ A b c Robin Kelley: Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original .
  4. ↑ Hillard "Rook" Ganz, born in Kansas in 1906; see. 1940 US census
  5. ^ Frank Büchmann-Møller: You Just Fight for Your Life: The Story of Lester Young . 1990, page 57
  6. ↑ Douglas Henry Daniels: North Side Jazz: Lester "Pres" Young in Minneapolis (pdf)
  7. ^ Robert George Reisner: The Jazz Titans, Including "The Parlance of Hip" . Da Capo Press, 1960
  8. ^ Before Seattle Rocked: A City and Its Music by Kurt E. Armbruster
  9. ^ Roy Porter: There And Back , 1995, p. 198
  10. ^ Radio Recorders - Santa Monica CA
  11. ↑ Peter Guralnick: Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke .- 2015
  12. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed September 25, 2015)
  13. ↑ Chris Sheridan: Brilliant Corners: A Bio-Discography of Thelonious Monk . P. 215
  14. ↑ International Society of Bassists -1985, Volumes 12-13 - page lxxxviii
  15. ↑ Quote: And there was another unbelievable bass player from Minneapolis, Adolphus Alsbrook, who I'd met in Chicago before I went with Cab . I first got to know him in the early '30s when I was working at the Savoy Ballroom with Erskine Tate . Quoted from Milt Hinton, David Garett Berger, Holly Maxson: Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories . 2008, p. 144
  16. ↑ Down Beat , 1966, Volume 33, p. 26
personal data
SURNAME Alsbrook, Adolphus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alsbrook jr., Adolphus J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Kansas City (Kansas)
DATE OF DEATH June 2nd, 1988
Place of death Canada