Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ron Mathewson was born 19 February 1944 Lerwick, Shetland Isles, Scotland into an unusually musical household. At eight years old he was studying classical piano, continuing his studies and performing classical piano until he reached sixteen. A year earlier he started playing bass guitar and his talent was noted and encouraged by Shetland musician, Peerie Willie Johnson.
In 1962, Mathewson was in Germany playing professionally with a Scottish Dixieland band, then in London he also performed with various jazz and R&B bands through to the middle of the decade. Around this time he was also a member of the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band.
By1966 Ron became a member of the Tubby Hayes band, with which he performed until 1973. From 1975 on in to the 1990s, he was frequently a participant in various Ronnie Scott recordings and concerts.
In 1983, he appeared on Dick Morrissey’s solo album After Dark with Jim Mullen, John Critchenson, Martin Drew and Barry Whitworth. In 2007 a benefit concert was held for him after he had an accident that left him recovering from two broken hips, a broken wrist and a burst artery.
Best known for his years spent with Scott, the double bassist and bass guitarist has recorded with Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, Ben Webster, John Taylor, Gordon Beck, Philly Joe Jones, Roy Eldridge, Tony Oxley, Kenny Wheeler, Oscar Peterson, John Stevens, Terry Smith, Bill Evans, Phil Woods and His European Rhythm Machine, Acoustic Alchemy, Ian Carr, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Ray Nance and Charles Tolliver, among numerous others.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Butler was born on February 18, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri. A drummer from childhood he later moved west, becoming associated in large way with the West Coast school.
Never becoming well known or publicly popular Butler was highly regarded by fellow musicians. He performed and recorded with Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane and Art Pepper in the decades of the Fifties and Sixties.
In the mid-to-late 1950s, he was a member of the Curtis Counce Quintet and recorded with Joyce Collins, Ben Webster, Hampton Hawes, Elmo Hope, Fred Katz and Harold Land. By the Sixties he was co-leading a group with Curtis Amy, and recording with Phineas Newborn, Miles Davis on Seven Steps To Heaven.
However, sidelined for many years by his heroin addiction, he did not record an album under his own name until the 1970s. During this period he also recorded with Dolo Coker, Kenny Drew and Teddy Edwards. Drummer Frank Butler passed away on July 24, 1984 in Ventura, California at the age of 56.
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Daily DoseOf Jazz…
Spike Heatley was born February 17, 1933 in North London, England. Studying the bass as a child by the time he was twenty-five he was playing with the Vic Ash Sextet along with Ian Hamer, Johnny Scott and Alan Bascombe. He went on to join The Jazz Couriers just before they disbanded, then played briefly with the Tubby Hayes Quartet with Terry Shannon and Phil Seaman.
Heatley then joined pianist Eddie Thompson’s house trio for the opening year at the original Ronnie Scott’s on Gerrard Street. During this period he also played with John Dankworth staying with him until 1962, then joining the Tony Coe Quintet, and touring with trumpeter Kenny Baker. In 1963 he was with the Bill Le Sage and Ronnie Ross Quartet, with Allan Ganley.
It was around this time that Spike stretched out and began session work in the same rhythm section as Jimmy page and John McLaughlin. He was an early member of Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated and between 1970 and 1974 he was part of successful jazz-rock fusion group CCS, and played on recording sessions for Rod Stewart.
In the 1970s he was in the house band for the children’s TV show Play Away. During the 1980s and early 90s, he was with the American all star group the Great Guitars featuring Herb Ellis, Charlie Byrd and Barney Kessel which also sometimes featured British player, Martin Taylor.
He went on to play in Kessel’s trio with Malcolm Mortimore and then with Canadian pianist Oliver Jones. These days, bassist Spike Heatley spends most of his time in France.
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Alec Wilder was born Alexander Lafayette Chew Wilder in Rochester, New York on February 16, 1907 into a prominent family that now has a building bearing the family name. As a young boy, he traveled to New York City with his mother and stayed at the Algonquin Hotel that would later become his home for the last 40 or so years of his life. Unhappily attending several prep schools as a teenager, he hired a lawyer and essentially “divorced” himself from his family, gaining for himself some portion of the family fortune.
Wilder was largely self-taught as a composer; he studied privately with the composers Herman Inch and Edward Royce, who taught at the Eastman School of Music in the 1920s, but never registered for classes, never received his degree but eventually was awarded an honorary degree in 1973. While there, he edited a humor magazine and scored music for short films directed by James Sibley Watson.
Alec would eventually become good friends with Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett and others in the American pop canon. He wrote hits like his most famous song “I’ll Be Around” (lyrics also), as well as “While We’re Young”, “Where Do You Go” and “Trouble Is A Man”.
Over the years Alec worked with lyricists Loonis McGlohon, William Engvick, Fran Landesman and Johnny Mercer. Not tied to popular song, Wilder composed classical pieces, operas, jazz influenced numbers for television, songs for a theme park and arranged a series of Christmas carols. He wrote the definitive book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900–1950.
His love of puzzles led him to create his own cryptic crosswords and spend hours on jigsaw puzzles. He would compose music for twelve operas, four musicals, six films, two large ensembles, and twenty-two songs. His octet, that included Eastman classmate Mitch Miller, would record many of his compositions.
Composer Alec Wilder passed away on December 24, 1980 at age 73 in Gainesville, Florida and is buried in Avon, New York, outside his hometown of Rochester.
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Dena DeRose was born on born February 15, 1966 in Binghamton, New York and began playing the piano at age three and soon became a fan of jazz. As a child she also played the organ and percussion, and played the piano in school bands. By her teenage years, she would to drive to New York City to see jazz musicians like Hank Jones and Mulgrew Miller.
After high school, Dena was offered a scholarship to Concordia College but chose to attend Binghamton University. At 21,she was diagnosed with capel tunnel syndrome and arthritis cusing her suffering severe pain in her right hand. Forced to stop playing the piano for close to a year she became depressed and turned to drugs and alcohol to help her cope. One night she was in a bar listening to Doug Beardsley’s trio when someone suggested that she get up and sing and she started singing regularly with the trio.
After approximately another 18 months, she had two surgeries on her right hand that enabled her to begin playing piano again. She moved to New York City in 1991 to further her career. Her debut album Introducing Dena DeRose came in 1995 on the Amosaya Records label and a year later was renegotiated and leased to the Sharp Nine label. Her sophomore album, Another World, was released in 1998 with a septet of musicians including Steve Davis, Steve Wilson, Ingrid Jensen and Daniel Sadownick, followed by two more releases. Moving to the MaxJazzlabel she released her fifth album with Martin Wind and Matt Wilson.
She has worked with Ray Brown, Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Bill Henderson, Houston Person, Bruce Forman, Judy Neimack, John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, Steve Turre, Mark Murphy, Gene Bertoncini, Wycliffe Gordon, Marvin Stamm, Jay Clayton, Alex Riel, Billy Hart and Ken Peplowski, to name a few.
As an educator, DeRose has been the Vocal Professor and Head of Jazz Vocals at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria, a regular teacher at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and also teaches periodically at other summer camp and workshop programs including the Litchfield Summer Camp, Taller de Musics in Spain and the Prince Claus Conservatoire in Groningen, Holland.
Discography[edit]
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