Results for "Percy France"

Percy France

Born: August 15, 1928

Percy France was born August 15th, 1928, he died January 4th, 1992. Percy was actually hit by a car as a pedestrian and that is how he lost his life but as many of those who were following his condition in the last couple of years knew, he was fighting a very valiant but difficult battle with cancer.

He was raised in New York City and lived in both of the prominent black communities of San Juan Hill and Sugar Hill. He studied the clarinet and the piano, the piano first then very strenuous studies on clarinet and emerged as a fluid reed player, buying his own tenor saxophone at the age of 13, and admiring players like Don Byas in particular.

Percy France: Live from the West End

by Daniel Gould
August 27, 2026

 If you know Percy France, most likely you are a fan of “greasy" organ jazz, particularly on Blue Note Records during their classic era. He was an integral part of Jimmy Smith's Home Cookin' (1959) and Freddie Roach's Down to Earth (1962). Or perhaps you came to jazz through r&b acts like the Bill Doggett combo. The ...

Phil Schaap: A Life in Jazz

by Daniel Gould
July 28, 2026

Phil Schaap, a jazz historian, radio host, record producer, archivist, six-time Grammy Award winner, and 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, called himself “a Johnny Appleseed through the transmitter." Of course, the subject of his proselytizing was jazz, and few did it as long, or through so many different media--broadcasting, teaching, audio engineering, and ...

Honky Tonk at Seventy

by Daniel Gould
May 17, 2026

Seventy years ago this summer, a group of jazz men made a record that became the genre's first million-seller. The group was the Bill Doggett Combo, and the track was “Honky Tonk, Parts 1 & 2" (King, 1956). It sold 4 million copies worldwide and went to #2 (Pop) and #1 (R&B). While Bill Doggett always ...

Ten Terrific Sax Plus Organ Combinations

by Artur Moral
February 12, 2025

OK, maybe the electric guitar was its first and most celebrated love affair, but the organ's alliances with the saxophone's family members are undoubtedly among the richest musical combinations, both in terms of sound and the intense interrelationships that typically develop in such encounters. Whether it be a tenor with a Hammond, a soprano with an ...

Mike LeDonne: Where There’s Smoke

by Bob Kenselaar
August 27, 2012

Mike LeDonne has more than made his mark in jazz over the years, on both piano and organ. One of the New York jazz scene's premier instrumentalists, he's long been a favorite of fellow musicians. “He is incredible," said the late Oscar Peterson, who once described how he would rush to hear LeDonne play every night ...

Home Cookin'

By Jimmy Smith

Label: Blue Note
Released: 1961
Track listing: See See Rider; Sugar Hill; I Got A Woman; Messin' Around; Gracie; Come On Baby; Motorin' Along.