NEWS from jazzleadsheets.com June 17, 2011

We get quite a few orders from European musicians. European artists have certainly contributed greatly to the jazz world over the years, so I decided it would be fun to bring you two Belgian artists/composers from different generations, Bobby Jaspar and Jeanfrançois Prins.

Flute Bob by Belgian-born flutist Bobby Jaspar, who was active in the 1950s and who recorded with American jazz legends JJ Johnson, Kenny Burrell, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Chet Baker, etc.

My Main Man by Jeanfrançois Prins, Belgian-born guitarist, composer, producer, educator, active today in Europe and in the US.

Two compositions by well-known artists, established composers at jazzleadsheets.com: Benji’s Bounce by Dexter Gordon and Afrodisia by Kenny Dorham.

And a new composer and brilliant artist who played for a quarter of a century with the Duke Ellington Orchestra: Salute To Charlie Parker by Ellington clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton. In researching the biography of Jimmy Hamilton, I found some fascinating information in the Feather/Gitler Encyclopedia. I had remembered the name Frank Fairfax from reading about Dizzy Gillespie’s start in the jazz world, but I had no idea until I read Feather/Gitler that there were three young trumpet players in the Fairfax band. Dizzy, Charlie Shavers and Jimmy Hamilton, before he started his illustrious career on clarinet and tenor sax. Wow, what a trumpet section! That really perked my interest about the Frank Fairfax band, so in today’s world I thought all I’d have to do is Google Frank Fairfax and I’d find lots of info. Well, all I basically found was that reference to the three young trumpeters. Can anybody help me with more information about Frank Fairfax and his group?

--Don Sickler