Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thomas Joseph Gumina was born on May 20, 1931 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He began playing accordion at age eleven, and took lessons on the instrument in Chicago, Illinois throughout the second half of the 1940s.
He began his professional career working with Harry James on television in 1952 as an accompanist for popular tunes, and in 1955 Gumina began working solo and as a leader with an ensemble. He recorded with Buddy DeFranco and Willie Smith in the 1960s.
Tommy started experimenting with modifying an electric accordion, whose amplified sound resembled that of an electronic organ. During the Seventies he was occasionally active as a performer, working with Art Pepper in 1974, but he increasingly turned his concentration to his amplifier manufacturing business, Polytone Musical Instruments which was based in North Hollywood, California.
Along with guitarist Joe Pass, they co-founded Polytone Records in 1987. Accordionist Tommy Gumina, who was also a musical instrument builder, transitioned on October 28, 2013.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
If you don’t know what to do by now to keep yourself and your family safe and healthy, there’s nothing else I can say to change your perspective. So, with that said, this week the Jazz Voyager is pulling from the stacks a 1965 hard bop studio album titled Spunky released by Monty Alexander. The session was produced by Richard Bock and recorded at World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles, California and Plaza Sound Studios in New York the year of its release. It was offered on Pacific Jazz LP record ST-20094 in stereo and PJ-10094 in mono.
- Monty Alexander: piano (all tracks)
- Victor Gaskin: bass (all but 4, 6)
- Bob Cranshaw: bass (tracks 4, 6)
- Paul Humphrey: drums (all but 4, 6)
- Bruno Carr: drums (tracks 4, 6)
- Gene Bertoncini: guitar (tracks 4, 6)
- Scott Turner: guitar (track 9)
- Cover design by Woody Woodward
- Cover Photography by Les McCann
- Back Cover Photography by Eddie Rio
- Liner Notes written by Paul Compton
- Spunky (Monty Alexander) ~ 2:39
- Naturally (Nat Adderley) ~ 3:35
- Jamaica Shake (Monty Alexander) ~ 2:25
- Heart Strings (Milt Jackson) ~ 3:33
- Taggie’s Tune (Junior Mance) ~ 4:14
- Rattlesnake (Monty Alexander) ~ 2:30
- Whisper Not ( Benny Golson) ~ 3:58
- I’m An Old Cowhand (Johnny Mercer) ~ 2:32
- Little Children Of Peru (Scott Turner) ~ 2:50
- Spirit Of Foo (Monty Alexander) ~ 4:45
- Monty Alexander: piano (all tracks)
- Victor Gaskin: bass (all but 4, 6)
- Bob Cranshaw: bass (tracks 4, 6)
- Paul Humphrey: drums (all but 4, 6)
- Bruno Carr: drums (tracks 4, 6)
- Gene Bertoncini: guitar (tracks 4, 6)
- Scott Turner: guitar (track 9)
- Cover design by Woody Woodward
- Cover Photography by Les McCann
- Back Cover Photography by Eddie Rio
- Liner Notes written by Paul Compton
Tracks | 33:10
- Spunky (Monty Alexander) ~ 2:39
- Naturally (Nat Adderley) ~ 3:35
- Jamaica Shake (Monty Alexander) ~ 2:25
- Heart Strings (Milt Jackson) ~ 3:33
- Taggie’s Tune (Junior Mance) ~ 4:14
- Rattlesnake (Monty Alexander) ~ 2:30
- Whisper Not ( Benny Golson) ~ 3:58
- I’m An Old Cowhand (Johnny Mercer) ~ 2:32
- Little Children Of Peru (Scott Turner) ~ 2:50
- Spirit Of Foo (Monty Alexander) ~ 4:45
- Monty Alexander: piano (all tracks)
- Victor Gaskin: bass (all but 4, 6)
- Bob Cranshaw: bass (tracks 4, 6)
- Paul Humphrey: drums (all but 4, 6)
- Bruno Carr: drums (tracks 4, 6)
- Gene Bertoncini: guitar (tracks 4, 6)
- Scott Turner: guitar (track 9)
- Cover design by Woody Woodward
- Cover Photography by Les McCann
- Back Cover Photography by Eddie Rio
- Liner Notes written by Paul Compton
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Allen Nicholas Farnham was born May 19, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts and first played piano when he was 12. In 1983 he graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio.
Moving to New York City in the following year Allen freelanced before signing with Concord Records in 1986. Between 1986 and 1990 he led his own quartet, with either Joe Lovano or Dick Oatts on saxophone and Drew Gress and Jamey Haddad filling out the rhythm section and from 1990 he was pianist and music director for Susannah McCorkle.
He has produced more than fifty albums, is on the faculty of New Jersey City University and has recorded several albums under his own name. Pianist, record producer, educator, composer and arranger Allen Farnham continues to pursue all his musical endeavors.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ettore Carucci was born on May 18, 1969 in Taranto, Italy and began playing the piano at the age of four. Graduating in classical piano he went on to join a jazz band named Taras Jazz Forum in 1989 and played with a jazz quintet composed of experienced jazz musicians from his area. By 1993/94 he attended two workshops, Siena Jazz and Umbria Jazz, where he won two scholarships. He studied jazz with Danilo Rea, Ray Santisi, and Paul Schmelling.
Throughout his career Ettore has had the opportunity to perform with a who’s who list of American musicians not limited to Benny Golson, Jerry Bergonzi, Eric Marienthal, Dennis Chambers, Christopher Thomas, Greg Hutchinson, Mike Moreno, Tony Scott, Bob Mintzer, Sonny Fortune, and Rachel Gould, as well as Anne Ducros, Maria Pia De Vito, Massimo Moriconi, Maurizio Giammarco, Marco Tamburini, Philip Catherine, Massimo Manzi, Fabrizio Bosso, Tullio De Piscopo, the Jazz Studio Orchestra and numerous others.
By 2001 he was participating in the Umbria Jazz Festival workshops where he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Ettore had the opportunity to perform with the Berkee College of Music Trio. In the same year he participated at the jazz festival in Orvieto with the Berklee Award Group during the edition of Umbria Jazz Winter.
2005 saw him playing at the Blue Note in Milan, Italy with the Sonny Fortune Quartet and two years later was playing with his peers in New York City. Pianist, composer and educator Ettore Carucci has recorded nine albums as a leader, thirty-eight as a sideman and has released twenty compilations. He continues to compose, teach, perform and work on various artistic projects..
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Three Wishes
Carl Pruitt had three simple answer to the question of three wishes posed by Pannonica:
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“Health.”
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“Wealth.”
- “Power.
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*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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