Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Susanne Alt was born April 15, 1978 in Würzburg, Germany to Hans-Joachim and Maria Alt. Her father is a composer, poet and piano teacher, and mother a guitar teacher. After studying classical piano and guitar with her parents, she began playing the saxophone at thirteen and successfully participated in several saxophone competitions.
While still in high-school she started taking lessons in classical saxophone at the Meistersingerkonservatorium Nuremberg between 1993 and 1995, becoming a full-time student there in the 1995–96 academic year. During this period Susanne began practicing jazz and after winning the Siemens-Jazz-Förderpreis, she moved to the Netherlands to continue her studies at the Hilversums Conservatorium. Returning to Germany for postgraduate studies, she enrolled in the Berlin University of the Arts in 2000.
Forming the Susanne Alt Quartet in 2003, in the following year she released her debut album, Nocturne at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Five jazz albums later, she released the funk album Saxify in 2016, preceded by the 7-inch single Saxify. The album features 36 musicians, amongst them are Fred Wesley, Michael “Clip” Payne, Michael Hampton, Rodney “Skeet” Curtis, and Roger Smith of Tower Of Power.
Alt has collaborated with a number of notable musicians and ensembles and has also toured worldwide. Saxophonist and composer Susanne Alt is based in Amsterdam, and continues to pursue her desire for new musical experiences.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kathleen Gorman was born on February 18, 1967 and grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia in a musical family where creative expression was encouraged. Piano lessons started at age six, and years of classical studies gave her a solid musical foundation. She began performing and writing in her teens and after composing a theme for CTV for the Winter Olympics, she moved to Montreal, Canada to pursue jazz piano, arranging and composition studies. Completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Concordia University, Montreal she followed this by McGill for advanced study in composition and orchestration.
She continuously worked as a pianist/vocalist for several years in Montreal clubs before settling in Toronto, Canada where she began performing weekly, and set up a home studio, for recording projects and teaching. She is a Toronto based pianist/vocalist, as well as a composer/arranger and jazz educator, teaching jazz piano, theory and composition. She has trained with Jan Jarczyk, Jon Ballantyne, Hilario Duran, Sheila Jordan, Barry Harris, Kurt Elling, and Jeri Brown.
Pianist, vocalist and bandleader Kathleen Gorman continues to record, arrange, compose and educate, performing often in Toronto.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ron Kobayashi was born February 8, 1962 in Southern California. He has worked with Kenny Burrell, Tom Scott, Margaret Whiting, Peter Frampton, the Modernaires, Peter White, Mel Tormé, and Tim Weisberg.
He has led the Ron Kobayashi Trio since its formation in 1994. They have recorded Live at Steamers for DVD and four compact discs and received global airplay. In 1996 the trio was voted Best Jazz Group in Orange County by Orange County Weekly readers. In 2012, the trio was nominated for Best Jazz at the Orange County Music Awards.
He served as music director of the Hollywood Diversity Awards for five years. Pianist Ron Kobayashi is a faculty member at The Orange County School of the Arts and Biola University and continues to perform.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeffrey Ovid Clyne was born on January 29, 1937 in London, England and taught himself double bass from the age of 17. He played in the 3rd Hussars military band during his national service from 1955 to 1957, and on demobilisation found himself at the cutting edge of the British modern-jazz and bebop movement.
Clyne worked with Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott in their group the Jazz Couriers for a year from 1958, and was part of the group of musicians who opened Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in November 1959. He was a regular member of Hayes’ groups from 1961. He accompanied Blossom Dearie, Stan Tracey on his Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood album, Ian Carr, and Gordon Beck on Experiments With Pops, with John McLaughlin.
Jeff would go on to perform with Dudley Moore, Zoot Sims, Norma Winstone, John Burch and Marion Montgomery. He was a member of Nucleus, Isotope, Gilgamesh, Giles Farnaby’s Dream Band and Turning Point during the 1970s. He often worked with drummer Trevor Tomkins.
Bass guitar and double bassist Jeff Clyne died on November 16, 2009 from a heart attack at the age of 72.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Anthony Meldonian was born January 27, 1930 in Providence, Rhode Island. He first began playing the clarinet when he was eight years old and by eleven was proficient on the tenor saxophone. In 1944 he led his first band that he formed.
1949 saw Dick working as a professional musician in the bands of Freddie Slack, and into the Fifties with Charlie Barnet and as an alto saxophonist with Stan Kenton alongside Bud Shank and Art Pepper. He also played with Shorty Rogers, Nat Pierce, Elliot Lawrence and Bill Russo.
Moving to New York City in the mid 1950s, Meldonian worked as a studio and session musician, among other things. with Phil Sunkel, Sam Most and Erroll Garner. In 1957 he was a member of Paul Quinichette’s band with Gene Roland and John Carisi. In 1960 he joined the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band.
He became better known as the leader of his own quartet, The Jersey Swingers , in the late 1970s and through the big band that he led with drummer Sonny Igoe in the early 1980s. During this time, Dick also recorded with the big band and smaller formations under his own name for the Progressive, Circle and Statiras labels. In 1992 he was still working with Harry DiVito and Marty Grosz.
Soprano and tenor saxophonist Dick Meldonian died on January 25, 2017.
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