Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jimmy Witherspoon was born on August 8, 1920 in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford’s band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II. Witherspoon made his first recordings with Jay McShann’s band in 1945.

By 1949 Jimmy was recording under his own name with the McShann band and had his first hit and signature tune with “Ain’t Nobody’s Business”. In 1950 he had several more with “No Rollin’ Blues” and “Big Fine Girl”, as well as “Failing By Degrees” and “New Orleans Woman” recorded with the Gene Gilbeaux Orchestra. These Gilbeaux recordings are from a live performance on May 10, 1949 at a “Just Jazz” concert in Pasadena, CA sponsored by Gene Norman.

Witherspoon’s style of the “blues shouter” became unfashionable in the mid-1950s, but he returned to popularity with his 1959 album, “Jimmy Witherspoon at the Monterey Jazz Festival” featuring Roy Eldridge, Woody Herman, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Earl Hines and Mel Lewis among others.

The early 60s saw Witherspoon touring Europe with Buck Clayton, recording in the UK, the 70s recording with Brother Jack McDuff in London, with Eric Burdon, toured with his own band with a host of players such as Joe Sample, Cornell Dupree, Thad Jones and others.  He continued to record and perform well into the Nineties with Gerry Mulligan, Leroy Vinnegar, Teddy Wilson, Pepper Adams, Junior Mance and the list jazz luminaries goes on and on.

Vocalist Jimmy Witherspoon died of throat cancer in Los Angeles, California on September 18, 1997.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Marcus Roberts, born on August 7, 1963 in Jacksonville, Florida achieved fame as a stride pianist committed to celebrating classic standards and jazz traditions. Blind since his youth, he attended the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, also the alma mater of Ray Charles.

Playing piano at an early age, he studied the instrument with world-renown pianist Leonidas Lipovetsky while attending Florida State University. In 1985, he got his big break when Wynton Marsalis chose him as his new sideman. He became a close friend and disciple of Marsalis, and collaborated with him on many projects during the ensuing years.

With Marsalis’ support and soon after joining him, Roberts began cutting his own records. His albums tend to be homage to past jazz giants. However, his ability and technique as a pianist have always been highly regarded and his music has added to the vocabulary of modern jazz piano and the piano trio.

Roberts has provided the soundtrack to the 1999 film Guinevere serves as Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies in the music program at Florida State University and is a Steinway Artist. He has amassed a catalogue of nearly two-dozen albums as a leader with several more as a sideman.

He excels as an improviser and interpreter in his solo performances and creates interesting and daring arrangements as a large band leader, but his chamber work will endure as his true contribution to American music.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dorothy Ashby was born Dorothy Jeanne Thompson on August 6, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan growing up around music where her father, guitarist Wiley Thompson, often brought home fellow jazz musicians. As a young girl, Dorothy would provide support and background to their music by playing the piano. She attended Cass Technical High with fellow students Donald Byrd, Gerald Wilson and Kenny Burrell. While in high school she played a number of instruments including the saxophone and string bass before coming upon the harp.

Attending Wayne State University in Detroit, Ashby studied piano and music education; graduated and began playing piano around the Detroit jazz scene. By 1952 she had made the harp her main instrument, and at first her fellow jazz musicians were resistant to the idea of adding the harp into jazz performances. Overcoming their initial resistance and perception of it being an instrument of classical music and also somewhat ethereal in sound, she built support for the jazz harp by organizing free shows and playing at dances and weddings with her trio.

She recorded with Ed Thigpen, Richard Davis, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess and others in the late 1950s and early 1960s and had her own radio show in Detroit. Ashby played with Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman, was included in Down Beat magazine’s Best Jazz Performances, and produced Black theater in Detroit by starting a theatrical group with her husband John Ashby providing a training ground for actors like Ernie Hudson,

By the late 1960s, the harpist settled in California breaking into the studio recording system with the help of the soul singer Bill Withers who recommended her to Stevie Wonder playing on the former’s +’Justments and the latter’s “If It’s Magic” in the Seventies. As a result, Dorothy played studio sessions for Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Barry Manilow. She was featured in the song “Come Live With Me” on the soundtrack for the 1967 movie Valley of the Dolls.

Along with Alice Coltrane, Ashby extended the popularization of jazz harp past a novelty, showing how the instrument can be utilized seamlessly as much a bebop instrument as the saxophone. Her skill and creativity is recognized today and her musical legacy is enduring as numerous hip-hop musicians have sampled her music.

Dorothy Ashby, harpist and composer, passed away from cancer on April 13, 1986 in Santa Monica, California.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Airto Moreira was born in Itaiopolis, Brazil on August 5, 1941 into a family of folk healers but was raised in Curitiba and Sao Paulo. Showing an extraordinary talent for music at a young age, he became a professional musician at age 13, and his first landmark recording was “Quarteto Novo” with Hermeto Pascoal in 1967. Shortly after, he followed his wife Flora Purim to the U. S., settling in New York City.

Airto began playing regularly with jazz musicians in the city beginning with the bassist Walter Booker and through him began playing with Joe Zawinul, who in turn introduced him to Miles Davis. At this time Miles was mounting the seminal fusion recording Bitches Brew to which Airto became a part of.

After two years with Miles, Airto joined Miles alumni Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter and Miroslav Vitous forming Weather Report and recording their self-titled debut album. He left Weather Report and joined Chick Corea’s new band Return To Forever, drumming on the debut Return To Forever and Light As A Feather, commonly regarded as fusion classics.

Airto has played with many of the greatest names in jazz including Cannonball Adderley, Lee Morgan, George Benson, Donald Byrd, Paul Desmond, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, John McLaughlin, Astrud Gilberto, Keith Jarrett and George Duke just to name a few. He also has played with symphonic orchestras and as a solo percussionist, and during live performances often includes a samba solo, where he emulates the sound of an entire band using just a single pandeiro.

In addition to jazz concerts and recordings, Airto has composed and contributed music scores to both television and film including Apocalypse Now and Last Tango In Paris. The drummer and percussionist has taught at UCLA and the California Brazil Camp and collaborated with his wife Flora and P.M. Dawn on “Non-Fiction Burning” for the Aids benefit album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Terri Lyne Carrington was born on August 4, 1965 in Medford, Massachusetts and by age 7 was given a set of drums that had belonged to her grandfather, Matt Carrington, who had played with Fats Waller and Chu Berry. After studying privately for three years, she played her first major performance at the Wichita Jazz Festival with Clark Terry. At age 11 she received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music and at the ripe age of 12 years old she was profiled on the PBS kids’ biography program “Rebop”.

While attending Berklee College of Music she played with leading musicians such as Kevin Eubanks, Donald Harrison, Greg Osby and others. She also studied under master drum instructor Alan Dawson and made a private recording entitled, TLC and Friends, with Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, George Coleman and her father, Sonny Carrington, before turning 17. Throughout high school Terri traveled across the country doing clinics at various schools and colleges.

In 1983, her mentor Jack DeJohnette encouraged Carrington to move to New York, where she worked with Stan Getz, James Moody, Lester Bowie, Pharoah Sanders, Cassandra Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, David Sanborn and too many others to list. The late 80s saw her moving to Los Angeles where she became the house drummer for the Arsenio Hall show and then again near the close of the century with the Sinbad hosted show “Vibe”.

Carrington is a Grammy nominated musician with several recordings as a leader, and has collaborated with Peabo Bryson on “Always Reach For Your Dreams” commissioned for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. She has toured the U.S. and Europe several times performing her own music and backing other musicians such as numerous configurations of Herbie Hancock’s electric and acoustic groups for a decade beginning in 1997.

In 2003 she received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music, was appointed professor in 2007 and serves as Artistic Director of the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival.

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