The Jazz Voyager
This Jazz Voyager is jumping a plane for the streets of The Big Apple famous for Broadway, Harlem, Wall Street and Greenwich Village. It is the latter destination that I am ultimately spending the evening within the walls of the Zinc Bar. Live jazz headlines this subterranean club known for its African, Latin & Brazilian rhythms.Within this beautiful, small jazz club lies everything you want in a classic New York jazz experience. Dress up or dress down, it kind of doesn’t matter. But you know I’ll honor the music.
This Thursday I will be in the company of pianist Axel Tosca and his mother, international vocalist Xiomara Laugart. This will be a rousing jam session of Cuban rhythms that will keep the crowd enthused well into the morning hours. I trust there will be some afro rhythms included also but I look forward to the surprise of what I will hear.
The Zinc Bar is located at 82 W 3rd St, New York, NY 10012. For more information visit https://www.zincbar.com.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph Bowie was born October 17, 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri and was greatly influenced by his older brothers, saxophonist Byron and trumpeter Lester. His first international tour was with Oliver Lake of the Black Artists Group in 1971. During this time in Paris, France he worked with Alan Silva, Frank Wright, and Bobby Few. He also worked with Dr. John in Montreux, Switzerland in 1973.
Moving to New York City, and with the help of Off Broadway Theater impresario Ellen Stewart he established La Mama children’s theater. He performed with Cecil Taylor, Human Arts Ensemble, Nona Hendryx, Leroy Jenkins, Vernon Reid, Stanley Cowell, Sam Rivers, Philippe Gaillot, Dominique Gaumont and Ornette Coleman.
In 1976 Joseph relocated to Chicago, Illinois where he led bands for Tyrone Davis and other R&B artists. Returning to New York City in 1978 he began singing with punk and funk musician James Chance and the Contortions. Defunkt was born during that time and over the next 25 years, Defunkt recorded 15 albums.
Bowie has collaborated with Jean-Paul Bourelly and Jamaaladeen Tacuma. He has performed “big band funk” arrangements with Ed Partyka at Music School Lucerne, Barbary Coast Ensemble at Dartmouth College, JazzArt Orchestra, and the HR Frankfurt Radio Big Band. The first Defunkt Big Band debuted in 1999 in New York City at the Texaco Jazz Festival sponsored by the Knitting Factory.
In 2003, he moved to the Netherlands where he met Hans Dulfer and was introduced to the Dutch music scene. He has performed with Hans, Candy Dulfer, Saskia Laroo Band, Naked Ears, Monsieur Dubois, Emergency Room, Funkateer, Seven Eleven, and Almost Three.
In 2014 he produced Sax Pistols Allergy for the U.S (ZIP Records) with lyricist Hilarius Hofstede. The album Defunkt Mastervolt was released in 2015 on ZIP Records. Robin van Erven Dorens directed the documentary In Groove We Trust about Bowie’s life.
Trombonist and vocalist Joseph Bowie continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Funkhouser was born on October 16, 1966 in Boston, Massachusetts and studied classical piano from the age of seven, and classical bass starting at nine. He earned a B.A. in Musicology at Cornell University and returned to Boston to earn a Master’s degree from New England Conservatory in jazz piano, bass and composition in 1995. After a year performing in Singapore and four years performing and teaching in New York City, he again returned to Boston in 2000. This move was to raise a family, perform, and accept a job at Berklee College of Music, where he taught ear training, piano, bass, harmony, and ensembles until 2021.
Performing a wide spectrum of music, including all types of jazz, funk, rock, hiphop, Indian classical music, reggae, other world music and Western classical music, John is in equal demand as a jazz bassist and pianist. He has performed and/or recorded with Grammy winners Joe Lovano, Charles Neville, Steve Gadd, Abe Laboriel Sr., Luciana Souza, Mark Walker, Max Weinberg and Grammy nominees Bobby Watson, Francisco Mela, and Tierney Sutton.
In addition he has performed with among others Geri Allen, Bill Pierce, Joe Hunt, Herb Pomeroy, Francisco Mela, and Rebecca Cline. He leads Piandia, a duo specializing in Indian classical music, with tabla player Jerry Leake and the John Funkhouser Group, and has toured the U.S., Europe, Africa and Asia several times with both bands.
Pianist, bassist, arranger, and producer John Funkhouser, whose discography catalogue includes over 80 compact discs, currently resides, performs and teaches in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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Jazz Poems
HERE WHERE COLTRANE IS
Soul and race
are private dominions
memories and modal
songs, a tenor blossoming,
which would paint suffering
a clear color, but is not in
this Victorian house
without oil in zero degree
weather and a forty-mile-an-hour wind;
it is all a well-knit family:
a love supreme.
Oak leaves pile up on walkway
and steps, catholic as apples
in a special mist of clear white
children who love my children.
I play”Alabama”
on a warped record player
skipping the scratches
on your faces over the fibrous
conical hairs of plastic
under the wooden floors.
Dreaming on a train from New York
to Philly, your hand out six
notes which become an anthem
to our memories of you:
oak, birch, maple,
apple, cocoa, rubber.
For this reason Martin is dead;
for this reason Malcolm is dead;
for this reason Coltrane is dead;
in the eyes of my first son are the browns
of these men and their music.
MICHAEL S. HARPER | 1938 ~ 2016
from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thore Jederby was born October 15, 1913 in Stockholm, Sweden and received his formal training in music at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He began playing jazz in the mid-1930s, playing with Arne Hülphers’s band from 1934 to 1938, and then with Thore Ehrling’s ensemble from 1938 through the end of World War II.
Thore led his own group, the Swing Swingers, for studio recordings in the mid-1930s, and led smaller ensembles for recording sessions in the 1940s.
Later in his life, Jederby became active in the capturing of the history of Swedish jazz. He was involved in reissues of early Swedish recordings, curated radio shows devoted to Swedish jazz, and participated in a national commission on the history of jazz in Sweden.
Double bassist, record producer, and radio broadcaster Thore Jederby died on January 10, 1984 in his city of birth.
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