The Jazz Voyager

Bennetts Jazz Club: 25 Bennetts Lane, Melbourne, Australia / Telephone: 03 9663 2856 Fax: 613 03 96506244 An award winning contemporary live jazz venue. Open every night, Bennetts Lane hosts local, national and international world class talent and has seen some of the worlds greatest musicians including Prince (twice), Maceo Parker, Kenny Kirkland, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jnr., and many more grace its stages.

Opened in 1992, Bennetts Lane prides itself on being a musical oasis, quintessentially located in one of Melbourne’s mysterious laneways, its staff maintain a passion for the art form and the atmosphere to enhance it. Bennetts Lane has been the site of many live recordings and releases and has played a significant role in making Melbourne one of the worlds great jazz capitals. As the key venue in Victoria’s many music festivals, Bennetts Lane consistently programs an exciting array of performers that span the standards to the extreme cutting edge. We serve light snacks, have a fully licensed bar, and make great cocktails – some of which are named after our exceptional performers.

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ROBYN B. NASH

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Raymond Mantilla was born on June 22, 1934 in New York City and his early drumming inspiration came from Afro-Cuban jazz. He played with a number of Latin jazz ensembles from the 1950s including the La Playa Sextet, Xavier Cugat, Lou Perez, Rene Touzet, Miguelito Valdez and Monguito Conjunto.

He played behind Eartha Kitt in 1955 and by 1960 was touring with Herbie Mann and recording with Max Roach. He recorded with Al Cohn, Freddie Hubbard, Buddy Rich and Larry Coryell in the early Sixties and then led his own band in Puerto Rico from ’63 to ’69. This was followed with Ray becoming a founding member of Max Roach’s M’Boom percussion ensemble in 1970.

Mantilla was a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the 70s and toured the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He then recorded with Gato Barbieri, Joe Farrell, Richie Cole, Don Pullen, Charles Mingus, Walter Bishop, Jr., and Morgana King and toured Cuba with Dizzy Gillespie.

By the end of the decade he once again founded his own ensemble, the Ray Mantilla Space Station, and through the 1980s toured or recorded with Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Burrell, Shirley Scott and Warren Chiasson. In 1991 the noted session player and bandleader put together a new ensemble, the Jazz Tribe and has been recording, performing and touring ever since.


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Take A Dose On The Road

 

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Hollywood On 52nd Street

Moon River is another jazz standard originally composed for Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Henry Mancini for music with lyrics written by Johnny Mercer. Blake Edwards directed this 1961 American romantic comedy that starred Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard with support from Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam and Mickey Rooney. The film is loosely based on Truman Capote’s novella of the same name.

Hepburn’s portrayal of Holly Golightly as the naïve, eccentric café society girl is generally considered to be the actress’ most memorable and identifiable role. However, Hepburn regarded it as one of her most challenging roles, since she was an introvert required to play an extrovert.

The song received an academy Award for Best Original Song for its first performance by Hepburn, won Mancini the 1962 Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Mercer a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

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SUITE TABU 200

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dewey Jackson was born on June 21, 1900. A trumpeter and cornetist, he began playing professionally at an early age, with the Odd Fellows Boys’ Band in 1912, then Tommy Evans from 1916-17 and George Reynold’s Keystone Band.

He played the riverboats with Charlie Creath and then led his own Golden Melody Band from 1920 to 1923. He continued to be a regular performer on riverboats into the early 1940s, heading his own groups and working as a sideman for Creath and Fate Marable. His only major stint off boats during this time was in 1926, when he played for four months with Andrew Preer at the Cotton Club in New York City.

Jackson played little in the 1940s but returned to work in the 1950s with Singleton Palmer and Don Ewell. He recorded only four sides as a leader in 1926. Among his sidemen were Pops Foster, Willie Humphrey, Don Stovall, Morris White and Clark Terry.

Dewey Jackson passed away on January 1, 1994.


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Dose A Day – Blues Away

 

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Paul Wesley “Doc” Evans was born on June 20, 1907 in Spring Valley, Minnesota and learned piano and drums as a child. He went on to play saxophone in high school and during his college years played with the Carleton Collegians. By the late Twenties gave up saxophone for the cornet to play Dixieland in Minneapolis.

Doc played through the Great Depression, turning down offers to play outside of the Midwest. In 1947 he recorded for Disc Records and led the band that played for the opening of Chicago Jazz Limited club. He stayed in Chicago until 1952, and then embarked on nationwide tours, recording frequently along the way, particularly for Audiophile Records.

He returned to Minneapolis and continued playing jazz up until his last recordings in 1975. He founded the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and conducted it until his death on January 10, 1977 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His legacy was marked in 1999 with the yearly Doc Evans Jazz Festival, founded in Minnesota.


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Inspire A Young Mind

 

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