Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jim Hall was born James Stanley Hall on December 4, 1930 in Buffalo, New York. Learning to play guitar as a child, he was educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music. After his matriculation he moved to Los Angeles, California and began to attract national then international attention in the late 50s. It was during this period that he further studied classical guitar with Vincente Gomez.

Hall would play with the Chico Hamilton Quintet and Jimmy Guiffre in the Fifties, Ella Fitzgerald in the early 60s, then played with Ben Webster, Hampton Hawes, Bob Brookmeyer, John Lewis, Zoot Sims, and Lee Konitz, among others. A move to New York led him to work with Sonny Rollins and Art Farmer and his live and recorded collaborations there with Bill Evans, Paul Desmond and Ron Carter have become legendary.

Formal recognition as a composer came in 1997, when Jim won the New York Jazz Critics Circle Award for Best Jazz Composer/Arranger. His pieces for string, brass, and vocal ensembles can be heard on his “Textures and By Arrangement” recordings. He has been commissioned to compose for guitar and orchestra, awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, was one of the first musicians to join the fan-funded label ArtistShare.

Hall changed the way jazz guitar sounded, with his innovation, composition, and improvisation. Apart from Metheny, he influenced other contemporary artists such as Bill Frisell, Mick Goodrick, John Scofield, and John Abercrombie. He continued to perform, tour and record up until he passed away in his sleep on December 10, 2013 in his Manhattan apartment.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Edward “Corky” Cornelius was born in Indiana on December 3, 1914 but was raised in Binghamton, New York. Learning music from his father who worked as a drummer in regional Texas dance bands, he began his professional career in the early 1930s.

The trumpeter was first hired by Les Brown, Corky would go on to play with Frank Dailey and Buddy Rogers but by 1039 was playing alongside Gene Krupa in Benny Goodman’s band. Following his short tenure Cornelius left with Gene Krupa when the later decided to form his own band.

It was during this period that Cornelius met and married popular vocalist Irene Daye and left Krupa for the Casa Loma Orchestra from 1941 until his sudden death from kidney failure at age 28 on August 3, 1943.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Amina Figarova was born on December 2, 1966 in Baku, Azerbaijan and began studying music as a child. She started learning piano and expanded into composition and arrangement. Attending the Baku Conservatory as a youth, her immediate plans were to become a classical concert pianist.

A course in jazz performance at the Rotterdam Conservatory, however, led to Amina matriculating through Berklee College of Music. She recorded the first of her ten CDs in 1995 titled Attraction on the Media Music label then signed with Munich Records and has had a prolific and collaborative relationship releasing nine albums for the label.

Pianist Amina Figarova has toured extensively, developing a tight-knit ensemble that, despite inevitable personnel changes, has attained a distinctive and inimitable voice by concentrating on all-original repertoire for almost 18 years.

With a dozen albums under her belt the pianist continues to perform, record and tour with her husband, flautist Bart Platteau, who is a member of her international sextet.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Lou Rawls was born Louis Allen Rawls on December 1, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. Raised on the South side he began singing in church at age seven, and then started singing with local groups where he met Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield.

After graduating from Dunbar Vocational High School he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony followed by a stint with the Holy Wonders. He replaced Cooke in the Highway QC’s when Cooke went to the Soul Stirrers. He was recruited by the Chosen Gospel Singers, moved to Los Angeles and was subsequently joined the Pilgrim Travelers.

After serving in the Army he returned to the Travelers touring the South with Sam Cooke, was in a serious crash and off the music scene for a year. He returned to perform at the Hollywood Bowl, signed with Capitol Records, released his first jazz album Stormy Monday in 1962 and four years later opened for The Beatles in Cincinnati. His Live album went gold but it wasn’t until Love Is A Hurtin’ Thing winning his first Grammy Award for Dead End Street.

He would go on to co-host the Dean Martin Show, performed at the Monterey Pop Festival, left Capitol for MGM, then Bell and finally settling in at Philadelphia International Records, releasing his gold album All Things In Time that featured “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”, followed by a string of albums.

Over the course of his career he would act in motion pictures and on television, voiced-over cartoons and animated television series, receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1982, perform the national anthem at the Ernie Shavers-Muhammad Ali fight and several the World Series, and would start the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon in 1980 raising over $200 million in 27 years for the United Negro College Fund.

Lou Rawls, jazz, soul and blues singer known for his smooth vocal style, once lauded by Frank Sinatra as having “the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game”, passed away from cancer on January 6, 2006.

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