Ray Drummond Day
November 23, 1946 – November 1, 2025
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Bassist Ray Drummond passed away on Nov. 1, 2025 at the age of 78.
He was born on Nov. 23, 1946 in Brookline, Massachusetts.
After brief stints on trumpet and French horn, Drummond started playing bass when he was 14, earning an MBA from Stanford University.
He began his career playing in San Francisco, started working as an educator in 1975, moved to New York, and played with an endless list of jazz greats.
A reliable and swinging bassist with a large tone, Drummond appeared on hundreds of recordings and taught at many schools in his life.
His first recordings were with Smiley Winters (1970) and violinist Michael White (1971) and, among his 300 appearances on records, were notable sessions with Bobby Hutcherson, Johnny Griffin, Lee Konitz, Pharoah Sanders, Art Farmer, Woody Shaw, David Murray, Tom Harrell, Stan Getz, John Hicks, Hod O’Brien, Kenny Barron, George Coleman, Houston Person and countless others in addition to leading eight albums of his own.
From 2017, Ray Drummond and pianist Kenny Barron play “How Deep Is The Ocean.”
-Scott Yanow
Johnny Mandel Day
November 23, 1925 – June 29, 2020
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Composer and arranger Johnny Mandel passed away on June 29, 2020 at the age of 94.
He was born on Nov. 23, 1925 in New York City.
Mandel had piano lessons and then spent time playing the trumpet and trombone, studying at the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard.
As a trombonist, he worked with the big bands of Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Georgie Auld and Chubby Jackson during 1944-48, later playing with June Christy, Elliot Lawrence (1951-53) and briefly with Count Basie on bass trumpet.
But Mandel’s writing abilities soon overshadowed his playing.
Among his early compositions were “Not Really The Blues” for the Woody Herman band in 1949, “Hershey Bar” and “Pot Luck” for Stan Getz, and “Straight Life” and “Low Life” for Count Basie.
Starting in 1958, Mandel became best known for his writing for movie soundtracks, starting with his jazz score for I Want To Live.
Particularly skilled at composing ballads, Mandel wrote such pieces as “The Shadow Of Your Smile,” “Emily,” “Close Enough For Love,” “A Time For Love” and “Suicide Is Painless” (the theme from MASH).
Mandel, who wrote the soundtracks to 30 films, also arranged for a variety of singers (including Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable and Shirley Horn’s Here’s To Life album) and led an occasional big band in the Los Angeles area up until the time of his passing.
Here is the beautiful arrangement that Johnny Mandel wrote for the opening of The Sandpiper, highlighted by the original version of “The Shadow Of Your Smile” with Jack Sheldon on trumpet.
-Scott Yanow
Willie “The Lion” Smith Day
November 23, 1897 – April 18, 1973
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Pianist William Smith was born on November 23, 1893, in Goshen, New York.
Smith picked up the nickname “The Lion” for his bravery in WWI combat.
Smith, along with James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, was considered one of the masters of stride piano, a solo style born in 1920s Harlem.
Always well-known among musicians, “The Lion” didn’t achieve mainstream popularity until his late 1930s recordings for Commodore.
Of Willie “The Lion” Smith, Duke Ellington once had this to write: “Willie The Lion was the greatest influence of all the great jazz piano players who have come along.” Ellington would write the song “Portrait of the Lion” in tribute.
Here’s The Lion performing his own “Echoes of Spring,” as well as a number from the 1925 musical “No, No, Nanette” called “Tea for Two.” This is as the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1964.
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