Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stefon Harris was born March 23, 1973 in Albany, New York and started playing the piano at age 6 and learned to read music by the time he began elementary school. By the time he reached 8th grade Stefon played nearly twenty different instruments from string bass to trombone. After seeing the Empire State Youth Orchestra on television, he auditioned for the ensemble and was accepted as the principal percussionist.
A few years later, he earned a full merit scholarship to attend Eastman School of Music in Rochester, where his roommate introduced him to jazz via Charlie Parker records. Smitten by the music, Harris moved to New York City and began gigging on the jazz scene as a vibraphone player while finishing his B.A. and Master’s degrees at the Manhattan School of Music.
Harris has released several critically acclaimed albums, composed numerous works and is one of the foremost young artists in demand today having played with such luminaries as Kenny Barron, Steve Turre, Kurt Elling, Charlie Hunter, Joe Henderson, Steve Coleman, Cassandra Wilson, Buster Williams, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. In 2011 he ventured to Havana, Cuba with saxophonist David Sanchez and trumpeter Christian Scott to record their critically acclaimed Ninety Miles. Having performed worldwide, vibraphonist Stefon Harris sits at the forefront of New York music.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Pickwick opened at the 46th Street Theatre on October 4, 1965 and ran 56 performances with the music composed by Cyril Ornadel and Leslie Bricusse. The song that rose to great heights is the Great American songbook and became a jazz standard was If I Ruled The World.
The Story: Set in England in 1828, the story centers on wealthy Samuel Pickwick and his valet Sam Weller, who are in a debtors’ prison where they recall the misadventures that led to their imprisonment. On the previous Christmas Eve, Pickwick introduced his friend Wardle, Wardle’s daughters, Emily and Isabella, and their Aunt Rachael to Nathaniel Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass, and Tracy Tupman, three members of the Pickwick Club. Soon, Alfred Jingle joined them and tricked Tupman into paying for his ticket to a ball that evening. Upon learning Rachael is an heiress, Jingle set out to win her hand and eventually succeeded. Pickwick engages Sam Weller as his valet and, through a series of misunderstandings, he inadvertently leads his landlady, Mrs. Bardell, to believe he has proposed marriage to her. Pickwick is charged with breach of promise and hauled into court, where he is found guilty as charged and sentenced to prison when he stubbornly refuses to pay her compensation.
Jazz History: In 1965 Miles Davis records ESP with his new quintet; pianist/vocalist Nat King Cole dies of cancer; Herbie Hancock records Maiden Voyage, a classic modal tune, with the other members of Miles Davis’ group plus trumpeter Freddie Hubbard; trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis form a rehearsal orchestra that is to last for years and is still in existence today; and John Coltrane records Ascension, a free jazz experiment influenced by Ornette Coleman.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Melvin Sparks was born on March 22, 1946 in Houston, Texas. He got his first guitar when he was eleven and two years later he was sitting in with B.B. King. By 1963 he had joined the “Upsetters”, an R&B show band that backed Little Richard, Sam Cooke and other big names. Following this he did a year stint with Jack McDuff from 1966-67, then became quite in demand for his ability to improvise.
Sparks released his first album as a leader on Prestige in 1970 followed by a number of recording dates for the Prestige and Savant record labels and also appeared as a sideman and guest artist on several recordings with musicians including Lou Donaldson, Houston Person, Jimmy McGriff, Hank Crawford, Charles Earland, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer and Johnny Hammond Smith.
His Grant Green influenced guitar style placed him firmly in the soul jazz, hard bop and jazz blues genres. Melvin Sparks died on March 13, 2011 in Mount Vernon, New York from complications from diabetes.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Toru “Tiger” Okoshi was born in Ashiya, Japan on March 21, 1950. An autodidact on trumpet, he studied at Kwansei Gakuin University prior to moving to the United States in 1972. He then matriculated through the Berklee School of Music.
Okoshi first gained attention with his collaboration in the Seventies with Gary Burton, then played with the Mike Gibbs Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1974. Following this came a tour with Buddy Rich and in the early 90s he played in George Russell’s Living Time Orchestra and recorded with Rakalam Bob Moses.
Tiger has recorded regularly as a leader and sideman with Jay Anderson, Peter Erskine, Bela Fleck, Gil Goldstein, Mike Stern, Jack DeJohnette, Kenny Barron, Mino Cinelu and Bernard Purdie among others. He is currently a professor at Berklee.
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