Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Lloyd was born on March 15, 1938 in Memphis, Tennessee and from an early age was exposed to jazz and immersed in the city’s rich musical culture. Beginning saxophone at age 9, he took lessons from pianist Phineas Newborn and hung out with his closest friend Booker Little. Being in the blues city started gigging with B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Bobby Blue Bland and others.
In ’56 he moved to Los Angeles earning a music degree from USC, playing with Gerald Wilson due this period. By 1960 he became Chico Hamilton’s music director, revolutionizing then chamber jazz to a more progressive post-bop sound. From thee he went on to join Cannonball working with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, then leading his own quartet with Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette that signed with Atlantic Records.
This group brought an interesting fusion of straight-ahead post-bop, free jazz and soul jazz to their music catching on with both fans and critics. Crossing over with young rock fans Lloyd became the first jazz group to play the Fillmore West in San Francisco. The subsequent album Forest Flower, recorded at the 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival, became a huge commercial success.
Entering a period of semi-retirement in 1968 he recorded several albums in the seventies and appeared occasionally as a sideman. During the ’70s he backed and toured with the Beach Boys and a member of Celebration comprised of members of the band. In the early eighties he resumed playing actively after being approached by Michel Petrucciani and by the end of the decade was touring and recording again. This period of recording showcased his sensitivity to playing ballads.
His tenor is soft-toned, reminiscent of a variation of Coltrane but his flute is original. Throughout his career Lloyd’s style has remains unchanged and he continues to play and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Shirley Scott was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 14, 1934. She began her musical journey with piano and trumpet in high school but her admiration for Jimmy Smith moved her to the Hammond organ as her primary instrument, though she continued to play piano.
In the Fifties she came to prominence working with saxophonist Eddie Davis, but by the ‘60s Scott married Stanley Turrentine and the subsequent musical collaboration was fruitful with releases.
A very melodic player, Shirley graduated to an aggressive, highly rhythmic approach of organ player blending intricate bebop harmonies with blues and gospel with soul jazz. Her visibility waned in the seventies as labels interest in organ combos was replaced by fusion and pop jazz.
By the 1980s she would become a jazz educator and recording for Muse with the new found interest in organ late in the decade. Scott, a superb pianist, exclusively played piano during the Nineties in Philly jazz clubs and recorded trio projects for Candid.
By the turn of the new century with her health declining, she was diagnosed with heart damage due to adverse effects from the diet pill “fen-phen”. She was awarded $8 million in a lawsuit against the drug manufacturers. Shirley Scott died of heart failure on March 10, 2002.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Blue Mitchell was born Richard Allen Mitchell on March 13, 1930 and was raised in Miami, Florida. He didn’t begin playing trumpet until high school, where he received his nickname “Blue”. In the years following he played in the rhythm and blues bands of Paul Williams, Earl Bostic and Chuck Willis but upon returning to Miami caught the ear of Cannonball Adderley, with whom he recorded in 1958 for Riverside.
He joined the Horace Silver Quintet playing alongside Junior Cook, Gene Taylor and Roy Brooks until 1964 and then formed his own band replacing Silver with Chick Corea an ailing Brooks with Al Foster. By 1969 Mitchell disbanded the group and joined Ray Charles, touring till ’71.
This stint was followed by Jazz Blues Fusion with John Mayall and throughout the seventies he recorded and worked as a session player, performed with Louis Bellson, Bill Holman, Lou Donaldson, Grant Green, Philly Joe Jones, Jackie McLean, Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley and a host of other major players.
On May 21, 1979 the multi-faceted trumpeter Blue Mitchell, who delivered a light and swinging tone and known for his jazz, rhythm and blues, passed away from complications of cancer at age 49 in Los Angeles, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hugh Lawson was born on March 12, 1935 in Detroit, Michigan. Inspired by Bud Powell, Hampton Hawes and Bill Evans he gained recognition for his more than ten year association with Yusef Lateef during the late ‘50s. During the Sixties he would record with Harry “Sweets” Edison, Roy Brooks and again with Lateef on several sessions.
During the Lawson performed with “The Piano Choir”, a group of several pianists including Stanley Cowell, and Harold Mabern. He went on to tour with Charles Mingus, record with Charlie Rouse, George Adams and as a leader, recording Prime Time, Colour, Jazzcraft Studio recording 1977-78, Beat-EP and Constellations.
Pianist Hugh Lawson was diagnosed with colon cancer and succumbed one day before his 62nd birthday on March 11, 1997 in White Plains, New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert “Bobby” McFerrin, Jr. was born March 11, 1950 in Manhattan, New York to the late Metropolitan Opera baritone Robert McFerrin and Broadway singer Sara Cooper. He spent his childhood surrounded by jazz, blues, R&B, classical, pop and world music, playing in jazz and cabaret bands until the age of twenty-seven.
Developing a vocal technique that switches rapidly and fluidly between normal and falsetto registers to create polyphonic effects, McFerrin performs both the main melody and the accompanying parts of songs. His use of percussive effects with his voice and tapping on his chest compliments his ability to overtone singing.
In 1984 McFerrin released his first solo album The Voice without accompaniment or overdubbing but he came to worldwide prominence with his 1988 hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” that garnered him two Grammys for Song and Record of the Year.
The ten-time Grammy winning vocalist and conductor has collaborated with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Tony Williams and Yo-Yo Ma. In addition he has lent his voice to the Cosby Show, to film and the 1989 Oscar winning documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt in which his ten-person Voicestra was featured.
He is the creative chair of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and has been a guest conductor for symphonies and philharmonics in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Vienna and London. He has performed with comedian Robin Williams, consorted with the Muppets, interpreted Beatles songs and demonstrated with audience participation the power of pentatonic scale that became a viral Internet phenomenon.
Bobby McFerrin defies convention and categorization as he draws from all genres to showcase his matchless improvisational skill with an ability to create new vocabularies on the fly as he continues to explore and discover new territory in music.
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