Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Darek “Oles” Oleszkiewicz was born on February 20, 1963 in Breslau, Poland. He had five years of piano lessons at the State Conservatory in his hometown, later learning guitar, electric bass and upright bass. As a teenager, he played pop styles of rock music, blues and jazz-rock and jazz. In the early 1980s he performed at numerous jazz festivals and national competitions. In 1983 in Krakow and was awarded the first place for jazz composition and a second for ensemble playing at the Youth Jazz Competition.
Subsequently, he joined saxophonist Ptaszyn Wroblewski’s quartet and in the following years worked with several bands. In 1988, he moved to Los Angeles where he received a fellowship at the California Institute of the Arts and studied with Charlie Haden. After his graduation in 1992, he taught at the Institute and has performed in Los Angeles Jazz Quartet with Chuck Manning and managed various jazz ensembles. He has been a lecturer at the University of California since 2002.
In addition to teaching, he worked with a number of American jazz musicians such as Brad Mehldau, Billy Higgins, Pat Metheny, Joe Lovano, Charles Lloyd, John Abercrombie, Bennie Maupin and Lee Konitz.
In 2004 he released his debut album Like A Dream, which he recorded with Mehldau and Bennie Maupin for Cryptogramophone. He was selected Best Acoustic Bass in the 2005 Reader Poll the European Jazz Forum. He recorded a duo album Raindance with Adam Czerwinski, and a trio album with Peter Erskine and Alan Pasqua titled The Interlochen Concert in 2010. Bassist, composer and educator Darek Oles continues to perform and record.
Take A Dose On The Road
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jackie Allen was born on February 19, 1959 in Brown Deer, Wisconsin and raised in McFarland. She first became interested in music through her father, Louis (Gene) Allen, an accomplished tuba player.[3] Growing up she sang in choirs and played French horn, but was not exposed to modern jazz until she attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Limited by the available majors offered at the time, she moved to Milwaukee where she performed five nights a week for four years in a duo with Mel Rhyne at the Wyndham Hotel.
Moving to Chicago in 1990 she began to compose and self-produced her first release, Never Let Me Go, for the short-lived Lake Shore Jazz label. Hitting the top twenty of the Gavin Jazz Charts where it drew the attention of Grammy winning producer Ralph Jungheim who brought her to Naxos Records. out to Los Angeles to record Which with Red Holloway, Gary Foster and Bill Cunliffe. Success sent Jackie on an Asian tour and made her the first jazz artist to perform at the Beijing Music Festival.
By the late 90’s Allen again began enjoying the interactive possibilities in duo settings. She began a collaboration with pianist Judy Roberts, started a series of successful holiday duet concerts, released “Autumn Leaves” the following year. In 1999 she began performing in a voice-bass duo with Hans Sturm and record for the Red Mark label.
Since 2002 Jackie Allen has performed and recorded primarily with the same core rhythm section of bass, guitar and percussion and adding piano, trumpet or woodwinds. She produced The Men in My Life, was picked up by the Chicago label A440, and followed with Love Is Blue. Again success brought her to Michael Cuscuna, Bruce Lundvall, John Clayton Frank Proto, Bill Cunliffe, Mark Buselli and Matt Harris. In 2008 Allen was approached by the Muncie Symphony Orchestra to create a project for their 60th Anniversary Season that resulted in the 2009 live release Starry Night.
Jackie has taught at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, the Old Town School of Folk Music, Elmhurst College, Roosevelt University, Ball State University, The Cornerstone Center for the Arts, E.B. Ball Center, Doane College, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has taught privately, conducted master classes and community outreach projects teaching small groups of adult students learn to sing in public. She continues to record, perform and tour.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of jazz…
Veronica “Randy” Crawford was born on February 18, 1952 in Macon, Georgia. She first performed at club gigs from Cincinnati to Saint-Tropez but made her name in mid 1970s in New York, where she sang with jazzmen George Benson and Cannonball Adderley. She signed with Columbia Records and released her first single, “Knock On Wood” / “If You Say the Word” in 1972. Adderley invited her to sing on his album Big Man: The Legend Of John Henry in 1975. During her brief tenure at Columbia, she recorded “Don’t Get Caught in Love’s Triangle”. In 1977 she was one of the vocalists on Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns – A Blow For Me, A Toot To You album.
1978 saw Crawford performing on the second solo album of former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, singing vocals on “Hoping Love Will Last”, the opening song on side two of Please Don’t Touch. The following year she led R&B veterans The Crusaders on the transatlantic hit “Street Life” that ended up on the soundtracks of Sharkey’s Machine and Jackie Brown. and appeared in commercials in the early 2000s. She later recorded for Warner Bros. Records.
Randy follow-up solo efforts included “One Day I’ll Fly Away”, You Might Need Somebody, and “Rainy Night In Georgia” which became soul standards. By the mid ‘80s her star lost its luster and though she continued to record for Warner Bros. she was unable to score crossover success. In 1995 her recording of Naked And True brought Crawford back to her roots: it included George Benson’s “Give Me The Night and confirmed her soul heritage.
She enjoyed her highest profile of the decade when rising starlet, Shola Ama had a worldwide hit with her 1997 cover of “You Might Need Somebody”. She recorded a live session with Joe Sample in 2007 at Abbey Road Studios for Live From Abbey Road. She would record with Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Bootsy Collins, Johnny Bristol, and the Yellowjackets among others. Vocalist Randy Crawford has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist. She has had multiple top five hits in the UK, including her 1980 number 2 hit, “One Day I’ll Fly Away”. She continues to perform, record and tour.
Inspire A Young Mind
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Klaus Weiss was born February 17, 1942 in Gevelsberg, Germany and his influences were Big Sid Catlett and Buddy Rich. He began playing professionally at age 16. His first gigs, with a group called the Jazzopators, provided accompaniment for trumpeter Nelson Williams and vocalist Inez Cavanaugh.
Klaus worked with the Klaus Doldinger Quartet, played the Paris Blue Note with Bud Powell, Kenny Drew and Johnny Griffin. He led a trio beginning in 1965, with pianist Rob Franken and bassist Rob Langereis, recorded his first LP Greensleeves as a leader and won the International Jazz Competition in Vienna in 1966. He would go on to win several Twen Jazz Polls as well. During the late ’60s, he also played with the Erwin Lehn Big Band, the Bayerischer Rundfunk Jazz Ensemble and Friedrich Guida.
Weiss recorded half a dozen LPs during the early ’70s, several with a quintet or sextet including work by trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, bassist George Mraz and pianist Walter Norris. He also led an international all-star big band with Slide Hampton, Herb Geller, Philip Catherine and Don Menza among others for the live 1971 album I Just Want To Celebrate
During the late ’70s and early ’80s, Klaus worked mostly with his quintet, but also toured with Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Clifford Jordan and Horace Parlan while making frequent quintet albums as a leader. He recorded two albums during the ’90s, including the trio outing L.A. Calling and the Christmas album A Message from Santa Klaus with the NDR Big Band.
Later in his career, as his extensive discography continued to grow, he began composing music for movies and television. Drummer Klaus Weiss, who played with American expats and led his own bands in trio, quartet, sextet and big band settings from the ‘60s through the ‘90s, passed away unexpectedly, reportedly of heart failure, on December 10, 2008 in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Germany.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeff Clayton was born February 16, 1954 in Venice, California and studied oboe at California State University and undertook a tour with Stevie Wonder. Following this he recorded with Gladys Knight, Kenny Rogers, Michael Jackson, Patti Labelle, Madonna B. B. King, Joe Cocker and Ray Charles.
No stranger to jazz, joining his brother, bassist John Clayton, they founded the Clayton Brothers in 1977 and later formed the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra with drummer Jeff Hamilton. Clayton has performed and recorded with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Ethan Smith, Lena Horne, Kurt Elling, Diana Krall, and the Count Basie Orchestra under the leadership of Thad Jones. From 1989 to 1991 he was a member of the Phillip Morris Superband, and has toured with Gene Harris and Dianne Reeves.
In 2009 Brother To Brother by The Clayton Brothers received a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group. Alto saxophonist and flautist Jeff Clayton continues to perform, record and tour.
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