Eddie Costa, Piano/Vibes, 1930, Atlas, PA
Eddie trained as a classical pianist, but he developed a love of jazz when very young, and taught himself to play the vibraphone. When he was eighteen years old he landed his first major gig by joining Joe Venuti's band. In the mid '40s Eddie spent a couple of years in the army, performing for troops in Korea snd Japan. After his return to civilian life he performed and recorded with Sal Salvadore, Tal Farlow, Kai Winding and Don Elliott. In 1957 Down Beat magazine named him "New Star",on both piano and vibes. At the end of the 1950s Eddie played in Woody Herman's orchestra and also led a group of his own that included Paul Motian and Henry Grimes. He was an excellent sight- reader and was much in demand for studio work. A player of great inventiveness, Eddie understood the intricacies of bop, and played fluently in that idiom. Eddie Costa died an untimely death in 1962, in an auto accident. Around that ime he was exploring and developing styles that were considered post bop and modal jazz.
Stuff Smith. Violin, 1909, Portsmouth, OH
Stuff (Hezekiah) received his early training from his father before performing with his family's band, and later, joined a touring review even though he had won a scholarship to Johnson C. Smith University. During most of the 1920s he performed with Alphonso Trent and for a short time with Jelly Roll Morton' band. He next spent several years in Buffalo, before moving to New York in the mid '30s. In New York he had his own quintet that performed at the Onyx Club. This was a really swinging group that included Jonah Jones and Cozy Cole. It was during this period that he began playing an amplified violin, and when Fats Waller died in 1943, Stuff was chosen to take over the band. After a lull in his career, Stuff returned with a wonderful series of recordings he cut for Norman Grantz in 1957. In 1960 he began touring extensively, and finally, in 1965, he settled in Copenhagen, where he enjoyed great success until his death. Smith was an inovative musician, playing the violin in a raucous style and with a great sense of swing that was of unequaled by other jazzmen playing that instrument. He developed an unorthodox technique to accommodate his wildly inventive ideas. Dizzy Gillespie has cited Smith as a having a profound influence upon his playing. Stuff Smith died in 1967.
Lorez Alexander, Singer, 1929, Chicago, IL
Lorez was part of a musical family, singing in churches during the '40s and '50s. She was well-grounded in spirituals, gospel, jubilee music, and other secular music, which influenced her subsequent choice of repertory as a soloist. Later she sang at jazz clubs in the Chicago area with the pianist King Fleming and others. She recorded four albums between 1957 and 1959 that sold fairly well. In 1958 Lorez had a long-lasting gig with Ramsey Lewis at the Cloister which lasted seven months. From that period on, she began to concentrate on mainstream jazz and popular music. She recorded six albums in the early '60s, using such sidemen as Lewis's trio and members of Count Basie's orchestra. She also performed with Howard McGhee and Wynton Kelly's trio during the mid '60s. Lorez moved to Los Angles in the mid '60s, where she performed on television and at clubs and concerts up and down the West Coast. She continued to perform and record regularly well into the 1980s, many times with such distinguished musicians as Gildo Mahones.
