Charlie Rice at Collingswood Community Center

Drummer/bandleader Charlie Rice is a certifiable jazz legend, and from the start, he worked with some of the greats of jazz. Having played with Jimmy Oliver, Rice led the first house band at Philadelphia's famed Club 421, with a lineup that included Vance Wilson, Bob Bushnell, Red Garland and Johnny Hughes. After playing with Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson's and Jimmy Heath's big bands--with a young John Coltrane in both lineups--in 1951 he went with Oscar Pettiford, Rudy Williams, Clifton Best, J.J. Johnson and Howard McGhee on a USO tour to the South Pacific, as part of a unit known as the “Swingin' Jamboree.” The concerts were recorded and released the following year as “Howard McGhee and his Korean All Stars, Jazz at the Battlefront Volume 1.” Back in Philadelphia, he led the Charlie Rice All-Stars, and backed saxophonists such as Sonny Stitt, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis –in a group that again included Coltrane), and Leo Parker. In 1964 and 1965 he toured and recorded with trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker. And remarkably, at the age of 95, he’s still out there swinging. ...

read more

Drummer/bandleader Charlie Rice is a certifiable jazz legend, and from the start, he worked with some of the greats of jazz. Having played with Jimmy Oliver, Rice led the first house band at Philadelphia's famed Club 421, with a lineup that included Vance Wilson, Bob Bushnell, Red Garland and Johnny Hughes. After playing with Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson's and Jimmy Heath's big bands--with a young John Coltrane in both lineups--in 1951 he went with Oscar Pettiford, Rudy Williams, Clifton Best, J.J. Johnson and Howard McGhee on a USO tour to the South Pacific, as part of a unit known as the “Swingin' Jamboree.” The concerts were recorded and released the following year as “Howard McGhee and his Korean All Stars, Jazz at the Battlefront Volume 1.” Back in Philadelphia, he led the Charlie Rice All-Stars, and backed saxophonists such as Sonny Stitt, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis –in a group that again included Coltrane), and Leo Parker. In 1964 and 1965 he toured and recorded with trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker. And remarkably, at the age of 95, he’s still out there swinging.

. For more info call: 856-858-8914, 215-517-8337 or visit online at jazzbridge.org/events/neighborhood-concerts

show less