Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Red Holloway was born James Wesley “Red” Holloway on May 31, 1927 in Helena, Arkansas and started playing banjo and harmonica, switching to tenor saxophone when he was 12 years old. He graduated from DuSable High School] where he had played in the school big band with Johnny Griffin and Eugene Wright. He attended the Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Illinois and then joined the Army when he was 19 and became bandmaster for the U.S. Fifth Army Band.
After completing his military service returned to Chicago and played with Yusef Lateef and Dexter Gordon, among others. In 1948 he joined blues vocalist Roosevelt Sykes, and later played with other rhythm & blues musicians such as Willie Dixon, Junior Parker, and Lloyd Price.
In the 1950s he played in the Chicago area with Billie Holiday, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Ben Webster, Jimmy Rushing, Arthur Prysock, Dakota Staton, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Wardell Gray, Sonny Rollins, Red Rodney, Lester Young, Joe Williams, Redd Foxx, B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and Aretha Franklin. During this period, he also toured with Sonny Stitt, Memphis Slim and Lionel Hampton. He became a member of the house band for Chance Records in 1952. He subsequently appeared on many recording sessions for the Chicago-based independents Parrot, United and States, and Vee-Jay record labels.
From 1963 to 1966, he was in organist “Brother” Jack McDuff’s band, which also featured a young guitarist, George Benson. In 1974, Holloway recorded The Latest Edition with John Mayall and toured Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. From 1977 to 1982, Holloway worked with Sonny Stitt, recording two albums together, and following Stitt’s death, played and recorded with Clark Terry.
As a leader/co-leader he recorded with Big John Patton, Eric Gale, Shuggie Otis, Horace Parlan, Cedar Walton, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Matthias Bätzel Trio, T.C. Pfeiler, Norman Simmons, Phil Upchurch, O.C. Smith, Plas Johnson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Melvin Sparks, Sacha Boutros, Henry Johnson, Chris Foreman, Greg Rockingham, Bernhard Pichi Trio
As a sideman he has performed and recorded with Gene Ammons, George Benson, Joe Dukes, Wade Marcus, Joe Williams, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Carmen McRae, Atle Hammer, Knut Riisnæs, Clark Terry, Freddy Cole, Horace Silver, Junior Mance and Etta James among others.
Saxophonist Red Holloway passed away in Morro Bay, California, aged 84 of a stroke and kidney failure on February 25, 2012, one month after Etta James, with whom he had worked extensively.
Sponsored By
#preserving genius
More Posts: saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harry Beckett was born Harold Winston Beckett on May 30, 1935 in Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados and learned to play music in a Salvation Army band. Moving to the United Kingdom in 1954, he already had an international reputation and in 1961, he played with Charles Mingus in the film All Night Long. The 1960s saw Harry working and recording as a member of bassist and composer Graham Collier. By 1970 he was leading his own groups and recording for Philips, RCA and Ogun Records among other labels.
He was a key figure of important groups in the British free jazz/improvised music scene, including Ian Carr’s Nucleus, the Brotherhood of Breath and The Dedication Orchestra, London Jazz Composers Orchestra, London Improvisers Orchestra, John Surman’s Octet, Django Bates, Ronnie Scott’s Quintet, Kathy Stobart, Charlie Watts, Stan Tracey’s Big Band and Octet, and Elton Dean’s Ninesense.
He has also recorded with Keef Hartley, Jah Wobble, David Sylvian, Barry Guy/The London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, Oliver Nelson and David Murray. Not limiting himself to jazz , Beckett toured abroad with Johnny Dyani, Chris McGregor, Keith Tippett, John Tchicai, Joachim Kühn, Dudu Pukwana’s Zila, George Gruntz’s Bands, Belgian quintet The Wrong Object, Pierre Dørge’s New Jungle Band and Annie Whitehead’s Robert Wyatt project, Soupsongs, which also featured Phil Manzanera and Julie Tippetts, among other jazz and rock luminaries.
In 1972 he won the Melody Maker Jazz Poll as Top Trumpeter in Britain and was a member of the Orchestre National de Jazz between 1997 and 2000. His dub-oriented album, The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett, was released on On-U Sound in 2008. Trumpeter and flugelhornist and composer Harry Beckett passed away on July 22, 2010 after suffering a stroke.
#preserving genius
More Posts: flugelhorn,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenny Washington was born May 29, 1958 in Staten Island, New York and grew up in the Stapleton Projects, attending P.S. 14. He went on to study at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and privately with former Dizzy Gillespie drummer Rudy Collins. While still in his teens he worked with Lee Konitz, recording with the saxophonist’s nonet in 1977. He worked with Carter from 1978-9 and Griffin from 1980.
One of the many young hard-bop revivalists that arrived on the jazz scene in the late ’70s and early ‘80s, Kenny was in particular demand by much older musicians. He has worked with among others Ronnie Mathews, Betty Carter, Johnny Griffin, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, George Cables, Phil Woods, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Sonny Stitt, James Spaulding, Bill Charlap, Bobby Watson, Curtis Lundy, and Tommy Flanagan.
A prolific freelancer not related to bassist Peter Washington, he has compiled an enormous discography, performing on dozens of sessions by many of jazz’s most prominent figures. With a strong interest in jazz history, he has written liner notes for and/or helped prepare classic jazz re-releases by Art Blakey and Count Basie, among others.
Drummer Kenny Washington taught jazz drumming at the New School in New York City, worked as an announcer at the New Jersey jazz radio station WBGO and currently plays with Ahmad Jamal, replacing Idris Muhammad.
Sponsored By
Voices From The Community
#preserving genius
More Posts: drums
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tricky Lofton was born Lawrence Lofton on May 28, 1930 in Houston, Texas. Not much is documented about him but he studied trombone with Kid Ory and J. J. Johnson.
He recorded several recordings with Carmell Jones, Ron Jefferson, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Wayne Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Leroy Vinnegar, Frank Strazzeri, Bill Berry’s LA Big Band, Jimmy Cleveland, Les McCann and Ben Webster. He worked with arranger Gerald Wilson and recorded on Pacific Jazz, Fresh Sound Records.
Trombonist Tricky Lofton passed away on December 15, 1993 in San Francisco, California.
Sponsored By
www.whatissuitetabu.com
#preserving genius
More Posts: trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gonzalo Rubalcaba was born Gonzalo Julio González Fonseca in Havana, Cuba into a musical family on May 27, 1963. He adopted his great grandmother’s name, Rubalcaba, for professional use as did his father. He began studying classical piano and drums at the age of eight. Earning his degree in music composition from Havana’s Institute of Fine Arts in 1983, he began playing in clubs, music halls and toured France with Orquesta Aragón.
Discovered by Dizzy Gillespie in 1985, he garnered international attention in jazz circles and it was soon afterwards that he began performing regularly at major festivals. That same year he formed his own ensemble, Grupo Projecto. Emigrating to America in 1993, since then he has released twenty-nine albums as a leader on Blue Note, Impulse and 5Passion labels, and another so fifteen albums as a sideman with Ignacio Berroa, Ron Carter, Francisco Céspedes, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Richard Galliano, Charlie Haden, Katia Labèque, Tony Martinez, David Sanchez and Pat Martino among others.
Grammy Award-winning Afro-Cuban pianist and composer Gonzalo Rubalcaba has been nominated eleven five times for a Grammy Award, Billboard Music Award, and the Latin Grammy Award and brought home two Grammy Awards and two Latin Grammy Awards for Best Latin Jazz Album at both ceremonies. Settling in South Florida in 1996 he balances touring, recording, composing and teaching as a faculty member of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Sponsored By
#preserving genius
More Posts: piano