Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gary Giddins was born on March 21, 1948 in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, New York. He graduated from Grinell College in Iowa in 1970 and began freelance work as a music and film critic. By 1974 he landed a position as a columnist with the Village Voice writing a column called Weather Bird, a position he held until 2003.
In 1986 Gary along with John Lewis, pianist and music director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, created the American Jazz Orchestra, which presented concerts using a jazz repertory with musicians such as Tony Bennett.
Of his many accolades and honors in writing, film and broadcasting Giddins has won a Grammy for liner notes on Sinatra: The Voice, six ASCAP–Deems Taylor Awards, Jazz Times Readers Poll, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Peabody Award in Broadcasting, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, ARSC Award for Excellence in Historical Sound Research and the Bell Atlantic Award for Visions of Jazz: The First Century in 1998.
He has authored Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams-The Early Years 1903-1940, Weatherbird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century, Faces in the Crowd, Natural Selection, and biographies of Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker.
Jazz and film critic, author, and director, Gary Giddins is currently the Executive Director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Meredith D’Ambrosio was born into a musical family in Boston, Massachusetts on March 20, 1941. She studied piano and voice from age six and ultimately studied at the Boston Museum School in 1958-59, pursuing a career in painting as well as music.
Meredith was offered the chance to tour Japan with John Coltrane but turned down the offer. Her first major recording for Spring Records didn’t happen for more than a decade later with her husband Eddie Higgins. Two more albums followed her debut recording three years later in the early Eighties for Shiah and Palo Alto Records. She has since released a dozen albums on the Sunnyside Records label from 1985 to 2006. During this period she recorded with Lee Konitz, Fred Hersch, Ben Riley, Erik Friedlander, Jay Leonhart and Gene Bertoncini among others.
She was voted in the Top Five for Talent Deserving Wider Recognition category for Female Vocalist in Down Beat International Critics Jazz Poll from 1982 to 1985 and from 1987-1991. In 1994, D’Ambrosio was the featured guest on Marian McPartland’s syndicated radio program Piano Jazz. Although she worked primarily as a jazz singer and pianist, she is also well known as a composer, lyricist, and teacher.
A respected visual artist, watercolorist, creator of eggshell mosaics and calligrapher, she took off from recording to concentrate on painting, touring, performing at festivals and teaching. She re-emerged in 2012 recording By Myself, a collection of 14 songs by the late composer Arthur Schwartz, her only album of 19 dedicated to a single composer and her solo piano accompaniment. Vocalist Meredith D’Ambrosio continues to perform, record, tour, teach and paint.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lem Winchester was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 19, 1928. He played piano, baritone and tenor saxophone before settling on the vibraphone. Formerly a police officer, he pursued music as a hobby in Wilmington, Delaware. He turned to music full-time after an appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. He was soon working with some of the top names in jazz, making his debut recording with pianist Ramsey Lewis.
Winchester recorded a handful of albums as a leader, mostly for Prestige Records and made sideman appearances with Oliver Nelson, Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott, Benny Golson, Tommy Flanagan and Johnny “Hammond” Smith.
The career of hard bop vibraphonist Lem Winchester was cut short when he passed away from an unsuccessful demonstration of a trick with a revolver on January 13, 1961 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was 32 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill Frisell was born William Richard Frisell on March 18, 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland, but spent most of his youth in the Denver, Colorado area. He studied clarinet with Richard Joiner of the Denver Symphony Orchestra as a youth, graduated from Denver East High School, and went to the University of Northern Colorado to study music. His original guitar teacher in Denver was Dale Bruning, then after studying with Johnny Smith and graduating from Northern Colorado, Bill went to Berklee College of Music and studied with Jon Damian and Jim Hall.
Frisell’s major break came when guitarist Pat Metheny was unable to make a recording session, and recommended Frisell to Paul Motian who was recording Psalm in 1982 for ECM Records. This led to his becoming ECM’s in-house guitar player, and worked on several albums. His first solo release was In Line, featuring solo guitar and duets with bassist Arild Andersen.
Frisell’s first group to receive much acclaim was a quartet with bassist Kermit Driscoll, drummer Joey Baronon and Hank Roberts on cello. Many other albums with larger ensembles were recorded with this trio as the core after the departure of Roberts.
In the 1980s he lived in Hoboken, New Jersey and his access to New York City had him active in the city’s music scene. He forged an early partnership with John Zorn, was a member of the quick-change band Naked City, and became known for his work in Motian’s trio, along with saxophonist Joe Lovano. By 1988 he moved to Seattle, Washington and in the early 1990s Bill made two of his best-reviewed albums: his survey of Americana with Have A Little Faith and This Land, a complementary set of originals.
Frisell has recorded with Jan Garbarek, Douglas Septemberon, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Rickie Lee Jones, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, Arto Lindsay, Loudon Wainwright III, Vic chestnut, Van dyke Parks, Buddy Miller, Ron Sexsmith, Chip Taylor, Fred Hersch, John Pizzarelli, Matt Chamberlain, Tucker Martine and Lee Townsend among others.
He has branched out by performing soundtracks to silent films of Buster Keaton, provided music for his friend Gary Larson’s TV version of The Far Side, contributed music to the 2000 film Finding Forrester, and has won a Grammy in 2005. Over the past decade guitarist Bill Frisell, who also plays clarinet and tenor saxophone, has continuously performed, recorded and toured.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jessica Williams was born on March 17, 1948 in Baltimore, Maryland. She began her music career young, taking piano lessons at the age of four and began classical training at the Peabody Conservatory of Music when she was seven. She moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during her teens and began playing with the quintet of former Miles Davis drummer, the Philly Joe Jones.
In 1977, moving to San Francisco, California, she played in various house bands, such as Eddie Harris, Dexter Gordon, Tony Williams and Stan Getz. She also became the house pianist for the Keystone Korner. Over the course of her career Williams has recorded for Candid, Fantasy, Timeless, Concord, Jazz Focus, Hep and MaxJazz record labels.
Jessica began her own record label in 1997, called Red and Blue Recordings, to release her own original material. In addition, she established her own publishing company, JJW Music, and runs her own Internet CD mail-order business.
She is a three-time Grammy nominated pianist, was awarded a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for composition and has performed at the 2004 and 2006 Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Festivals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Pianist and composer Jessica Williams continues to perform, tour and record.
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