Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Steve Davis was born March 14, 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The youngest of 10 children, he became interested in music as a young teenager and was inspired by his older brother who also played the bass. He was part of a group of young Philadelphia jazz musicians that included saxophonists Benny Golson and John Coltrane. At age 16 he began playing with local big bands and dropped out of high school a year later to pursue a music career.

During the 1940s and 1950s he worked frequently playing with Philly Joe Jones and Jimmy Oliver among others. In 1960, he was briefly a part of the John Coltrane Quartet, before being replaced temporarily by Reggie Workman and permanently by Jimmy Garrison. He was the double bassist on the recordings of  My Favorite Things, Coltrane Plays The Blues and Coltrane’s Sound.

He also recorded as a sideman with Chuck and Gap Mangione on Hey Baby! In 1961 and with quartet fellow and brother-in-law McCoy Tyner on the 1963 album Nights of Ballads & Blues. Davis went on to play on several of James Moody’s groups. He worked throughout the 1960s as a freelancer in New York and as a side man appearing on albums by Kenny Dorham and others.

Moving to Rochester, New York in 1970 Steve played bass with the Gap Mangione Trio, Spider Martin Group and other local bands. He was a mentor to younger jazz musicians in Rochester and enjoyed passing on his knowledge. 1980 saw him beginning to suffer from emphysema and returned to Philadelphia.

Bassist Steve Davis, who was also known by his Muslim name Luquman Abdul Syeed, died on August 21, 1987 at the age of 58.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dana Hall was born on March 13, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York where he spent the first few years of his life, then relocated with his family to his mother’s hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he was exposed to jazz and soul music at an early age through the family’s record collection. The family interest in creative music, and their open door policy toward Philly jazz musicians of the era sparked his curiosity, passion and ultimately career in music.

At the age of 12, Dana’s family moved from Philadelphia to Voorhees Township, New Jersey and began studying drums under renowned drum instructor Vincent “Jim” Hurley at Voorhees Middle School. Following study was with award-winning educator and bassoonist Dennis MacMullin at Eastern Regional High School where he also began playing the oboe and throughout college.

He attended Iowa State University with a double major in aerospace engineering and percussion. At ISU, Hall cultivated his interest in music, studying marimba, vibes, timpani, hand percussion, and drum set. After completing his education in aerospace engineering at Iowa State University, he received his Bachelor of Music degree from William Paterson College and a master’s degree in Composition and Arranging from DePaul University. He is presently a distinguished Special Trustees Fellow pursuing his Doctorate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Chicago.

As a jazz drummer, he is primarily influenced by the work of Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, and Roy Haynes, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Ralph Peterson, Jr., and Kenny Washington, among many others. The list of artists that Hall has performed, toured, and/or recorded with is too long to mention here but it reflects the diverse, varied approaches of his music-making in the fields of jazz and popular music.

He’s both a member of the Terell Stafford Quintet and the Music Director of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. He has been a member of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, and the Des Moines and the Cedar Rapids Symphonies.

As an educator he has been on the faculty of several colleges and universities including DePaul, Jazz at Lincoln Center Band Director’s Academy, Essentially Ellington faculties. Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazzand the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s Artists Residency Program.

Drummer, percussionist, composer, bandleader, and ethnomusicologist Dana Hall has released one album as a leader and continues to teach, perform, and record.

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Jazz Poems

FALL DOWN in memory of eric dolphy All men are locked in their cells. Though we quake In fist of body Keys rattle, set us free. I remember and wonder why? In fall, in summer; times Will be no more. Journeys End. I remember and wonder why? In the sacred labor of lung Spine and groin, You cease, fly away To what? To autumn, to Winter, to brown leaves, to Wind where no lark sings; yet Through dominion of air, jaw and fire I remember! Eric Dolphy, you swung A beautiful axe. You lived a clean Life. You were young– You died. Calvin Hernton 

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Quin Davis was born Quinn Hall Davis on March 12, 1944 in Artesia, California. He toured and recorded with Buddy Rich in 19966 to 1967 and again from 1969 to 1970.

Leaving Rich in 1970, Quin was the solo alto saxophonist with Stan Kenton for three years followed by another three year residency with Harry James until 1976.

Little is known or written about alto saxophonist and flutist Quin Davis after this point in his life.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Patty Waters was born on March 11, 1946 in Iowa and started singing semi-professionally in high school. After school, she sang for the Jerry Gray Hotel Jazz Band, then her family moved to Denver, Colorado. There she started listening to Billie Holiday, whose life and singing had a profound influence on her.

The early 1960s saw her following the recommendation of friends to move to New York City. Albert Ayler heard her in a dining club and introduced her to Bernard Stollman, the owner of the experimental jazz label ESP-Disk. Her most influential albums, Sings released in 1965) and College Tour in 1966 were recorded on this label.

In the late 1960s, she spent time in Europe and then left the music world in 1969 to raise her son in California. Almost 30 years later she recorded the album Love Songs in 1996 and began performing in public again. In 2004 she released You Thrill Me: A Musical Odyssey, a collection of rare and unissued recordings from the years 1962–1979.

She returned in 2019 with the album Live recorded at the First Unitarian Congregational Church in Brooklyn. The album was followed in 2020 by another live recording entitled An Evening In Houston. That same year she released an unissued 1970 LP titled Plays via her own label.

Vocalist Patty Waters, best known for her free jazz recordings in the Sixties and her recording of the nearly fourteen minute version of the traditional song Black Is the Colour (Of My True Love’s Hair from Sings, which is rendered in a haunting, anguished wail, continues to record,  perform and tour.

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