Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wyatt Robert Ruther was born on February 5, 1923 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Playing trombone in high school before picking up the double-bass, he studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Pittsburgh Musical Institute.
From 1951 to 1952 he played in New York City with Dave Brubeck and Erroll Garner from 1951-55. A sought after bassist Wyatt toured with Lena Horne in 1953 and recorded an album under his own name alongside Milt Hinton in 1955 for RCA Records entitled Basses Loaded. Following this he played with Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1956, then studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada.
While in Canada he played with the Canadian Jazz Quartet for two years beginning in 1956 and then in 1957 with Peter Appleyard. During the same period back in the States, Ruther played with Ray Bryant, Zoot Sims, Bob Brookmeyer, and Chico Hamilton. From the end of the Fifties to the mid~Sixties he toured with George Shearing, went on a world tour with Buddy Rich, played in Gerry Mulligan’s quartet, then joined Count Basie.
In the late 1960s, Wyatt worked freelance in the San Francisco area, and played at the Olympic Hotel in Seattle, Washington in the early Seventies. Moving to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada he played with Fraser MacPherson from 1975 to 1979. He went on to play at the Ankor Hotel in Vancouver in the early 1980s, and while there worked with Sammy Price, Jay McShann, and Dorothy Donegan. Returning to San Francisco in 1984, he played with Stan Getz, Lou Stein, John Handy, Benny Carter, and Jerome Richardson late into thedecade and early Nineties. Bassist Wyatt Ruther played until he passed away of a heart attack at age 76 on October 31, 1999 in San Francisco, California.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
OPEN ON ALL SIDES IN THE MIDDLE
Having settled into a routine over the past year of wearing masks and social distancing life is so much easier for this jazz voyager. So continuing my uninterrupted time to kick back, relax and listen to music, I have selected the album Open On All Sides In The Middle, the 1986 recording by pianist Geri Allen. The recording session was in December 1986 at Sound Suite Recording Studio in Detroit, Michigan. The album was produced by Allen, who also composed all the songs, and released on the German Minor Music label.
Track List | 43:47
- “Open on All Sides / The Glide Was in the Ride…” – 6:45
- “Forbidden Place” – 4:24
- “The Dancer” – 2:33
- “In the Middle” – 4:01
- “Ray” – 4:17
- “I Sang a Bright Green Tear for All of Us This Year…” – 12:46
- “Drummer’s Song” – 2:24
- “In the Morning” – 5:03
- “The Dancer Part 2” 1:34
The Players
- Geri Allen – piano, keyboards, backing vocals
- Rayse Biggs – trumpet, flugelhorn
- Robin Eubanks – trombone
- David McMurray – soprano saxophone, flute
- Steve Coleman – alto saxophone
- Jaribu Shahid – bass
- Tani Tabbal – drums
- Shahida Nurullah – lead vocals
- Marcus Belgrave – flugelhorn (track 8)
- Mino Cinelu – cymbals, bells, congas, timbales, electronic drums, udu
- Lloyd Storey – tap dance
This pandemic is here for the long haul. In the meantime, stay vigilant, wear masks and remain healthy and we’ll all be jet setting sooner than we think.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harold Andrew Dejan was born on February 4, 1909 into a Creole family in New Orleans, Louisiana and took clarinet lessons as a child before switching to the saxophone. He became a professional musician in his teens, joining the Olympia Serenaders and then the Holy Ghost Brass Band.
He played regularly in Storyville, at Mahogany Hall, and on Mississippi riverboats. He also worked in the mail office of the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company for 23 years. In World War II, he played in Navy bands, then returning to his day job and his parallel musical career after the war, he led his own band, Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band, from 1951, was considered one of the top bands in New Orleans.
The band often appeared at Preservation Hall, recorded nine albums, and also toured internationally, making 30 concert tours of Europe and one of Africa. It was featured in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die, and as well as in many TV commercials.
Suffering a stroke in 1991 left him unable to play the saxophone, but he continued as a band leader and singer until shortly before his death. Alto saxophonist and bandleader Harold Dejan, known affectionately as Duke, passed away on July 5, 2002 in New Orleans.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Stewart was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on February 3, 1945. He received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts and his master’s degree in education from Lehman College Graduate School.
Stewart taught music in Pennsylvania public schools and at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. He is now a professor at the Juilliard School and is a distinguished lecturer at Lehman College.
Stewart has toured and recorded with such artists as Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, Muhal Richard Abrams, David Murray, Taj Mahal, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Don Cherry, Nicholas Payton, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Haden, Lester Bowie, Bill Frisell and many others in the United States, Europe, and Eastern Asia.
He was a frequent collaborator with saxophonist Arthur Blythe from the 1970s into the early 2000s, often taking the place of the string bass that traditionally supports a jazz ensemble. In their review of Blythe’s album Lenox Avenue Breakdown, the editors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz called Stewart’s title track solo “one of the few genuinely important tuba statements in jazz. Tubist Bob Stewart continues to be a part of the jazz scene.
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Three Wishes
Nica asked Buddy Montgomery what his three wishes were and he simply said:
- “I can use a whole lot of things! One thing I would like is to get my mind and my hands attached to what I am trying to do, musically. I need to think some more about the others.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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