Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Purrenhage was born on June 21, 1966 and grew up outside the Detroit, Michigan area where he picked up an interest in classic rock, jazz and blues. His formal training was minimal with only a couple of years of piano lessons at a young age and percussion in the high school band. However, he started to teach himself the bass, guitar, keyboards and synthesizer programming.
Enlisting in the Air Force he met many musicians with different infuences and styles. After the Air Force, Joe focused on starting an all original band with some friends and had some limited success with a pop/rock band called Earthbound. In the early 1990s Joe met drummer Marcus McGlown and a musical friendship was started that continues today.
Marcus and Joe started something that had a little more of the ’70s fusion flavor to it. Calling guitarist Craig Wisper they sowed the seeds to the modern fusion group Fuze. Their improvisational approach to music was heard at the Saturday Night Jam where all boundries were dropped for a unique blend of rock and jazz.
By 2000, Doug Nolls joined the band and after building a studio released their debut project across social media garnering 100,00 plus plays over three years.
Joe Purrenhage and Fuze continue to create new music and self-produces their works to keep the fusion spirit alive.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thomas Jefferson was born on June 20, 1920 in Chicago, Illinois. He played drums and French horn while young before switching to trumpet and was strongly influenced by Louis Armstrong. His professional career began when he was 14 playing with Billie and De De Pierce.
He played with Papa Celestin’s orchestra in 1936, as well as with New Orleans jazz musicians Sidney Desvigne and Armand “Jump” Jackson. The 1950s saw him working with Johnny St. Cyr, Santo Pecora, and George Lewis. In 1966, Andrew Morgan recruited Jefferson to play lead trumpet for the Young Tuxedo Brass Band. Subsequently, Jefferson led a jazz band which performed at the New Orleans jazz club Maison Bourbon.
Thomas recorded sparingly as a leader; sessions include dates for Southland Records in the 1960s and Maison Bourbon Records in the 1970s. Jefferson had a cameo as a jazz musician in the 1975 film Hard Times.
Trumpeter Thomas Jefferson, who recorded six albums as a leader and played Dixieland, died in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 13, 1986.
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The Jazz Voyager
The Jazz Voyager is on his way across the pond once again to the City of Lights to a little venue located in the heart of Paris, between the Forum des Halles and the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Sunset/Sunside Jazz Club, which was created in 1982 by Michèle and Jean-Marc Portet.
The restaurant was transformed upon the request of musicians and regulars who patronized, thus the basement with vaulted ceilings and great acoustics made the area perfect for an intimate club. It was the first club to open on rue des Lombards.
This week I’m landing in Paris to hear a new voice from Kansas City called Eboni Fondren. She comes to Sunside as the lead singer of the famous Kansas City Big Band. Because she has often been compared to Nancy Wilson, my all time favorite vocalist, I have to hear her unique sensual voice tinged with gospel and R&B and an innate sense of swing for myself.
Showtimes: 9:30pm ~ 11:00pm
Cover: 20.00 € ~ 30.00 €
Sunset / Sunside is located at 60 Rue des Lombards 75001 Paris, France. For more information contact the venue at https://www.sunset-sunside.com.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Hollenbeck was born June 19, 1968 in Binghamton, New York and earned degrees in percussion and jazz composition from the Eastman School of Music. He moved to New York City in the early 1990s. He has worked with Bob Brookmeyer, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Kenny Wheeler, Pablo Ziegler, and Meredith Monk.
In 1998, he composed The Shape of Spirit, a piece for wind ensemble on Mons Records. The following year he composed Processional and Desiderata for wind ensemble and orator. This composition, written for and featuring the voice and trombone of Bob Brookmeyer, was released on Challenge Records in 2001.
Hollenbeck went on to receive several commissions from the Bamberg Choir and the Windsbacher Knabenchor in Germany, Bang on a Can, the People’s Commissioning Fund, the IAJE Gil Evans Fellowship, and in addition he composed and performed the percussion score to the following Meredith Monk works: Magic Frequencies, Mercy and The Impermanence Project.
His 2000 debut release Static Still with Theo Bleckmanne began his recording as a leader and in 2001 his sophomore project No Images landed on Gary Giddins’ Village Voice Top Ten list. He has gone on to record nine more albums to date as a leader and nine albums with the Claudia Quintet.
Drummer John Hollenbeck, who was an eleven year professor of jazz drums and improvisation at the Jazz Institute Berlin and in 2015 joined the faculty of Schulich School of Music, continues to perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mat Mathews was born Mathieu Hubert Wijnandts Schwarts on June 18, 1924 in The Hague, Netherlands and learned to play accordion while the country was still under the Nazi rule during World War II. It was after hearing Joe Mooney on a radio broadcast after the war that he decided to play jazz.
Moving to New York City in 1952, Mat formed a quartet which included Herbie Mann. He also worked and or recorded with Kenny Clarke, Art Farmer, Percy Heath, Carmen McRae, Oscar Pettiford, Joe Puma, Milt Jackson and Julius Watkins.
He worked mainly as a session musician in the late 1950s, and returned to the Netherlands in 1964, where he worked as an arranger, session musician, and record producer. In the 1970s, he again worked in the United States with Charlie Byrd, Doug Duke, Marian McPartland, and Clark Terry.
Accordionist, arranger, record producer Mat Mathews, who recorded eight albums as a leader, died on February 12, 2009 in Clarence Center, New York.
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