The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
OPEN ON ALL SIDES IN THE MIDDLE
Having settled into a routine over the past year of wearing masks and social distancing life is so much easier for this jazz voyager. So continuing my uninterrupted time to kick back, relax and listen to music, I have selected the album Open On All Sides In The Middle, the 1986 recording by pianist Geri Allen. The recording session was in December 1986 at Sound Suite Recording Studio in Detroit, Michigan. The album was produced by Allen, who also composed all the songs, and released on the German Minor Music label.
Track List | 43:47
- “Open on All Sides / The Glide Was in the Ride…” – 6:45
- “Forbidden Place” – 4:24
- “The Dancer” – 2:33
- “In the Middle” – 4:01
- “Ray” – 4:17
- “I Sang a Bright Green Tear for All of Us This Year…” – 12:46
- “Drummer’s Song” – 2:24
- “In the Morning” – 5:03
- “The Dancer Part 2” 1:34
The Players
- Geri Allen – piano, keyboards, backing vocals
- Rayse Biggs – trumpet, flugelhorn
- Robin Eubanks – trombone
- David McMurray – soprano saxophone, flute
- Steve Coleman – alto saxophone
- Jaribu Shahid – bass
- Tani Tabbal – drums
- Shahida Nurullah – lead vocals
- Marcus Belgrave – flugelhorn (track 8)
- Mino Cinelu – cymbals, bells, congas, timbales, electronic drums, udu
- Lloyd Storey – tap dance
This pandemic is here for the long haul. In the meantime, stay vigilant, wear masks and remain healthy and we’ll all be jet setting sooner than we think.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harold Andrew Dejan was born on February 4, 1909 into a Creole family in New Orleans, Louisiana and took clarinet lessons as a child before switching to the saxophone. He became a professional musician in his teens, joining the Olympia Serenaders and then the Holy Ghost Brass Band.
He played regularly in Storyville, at Mahogany Hall, and on Mississippi riverboats. He also worked in the mail office of the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company for 23 years. In World War II, he played in Navy bands, then returning to his day job and his parallel musical career after the war, he led his own band, Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band, from 1951, was considered one of the top bands in New Orleans.
The band often appeared at Preservation Hall, recorded nine albums, and also toured internationally, making 30 concert tours of Europe and one of Africa. It was featured in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die, and as well as in many TV commercials.
Suffering a stroke in 1991 left him unable to play the saxophone, but he continued as a band leader and singer until shortly before his death. Alto saxophonist and bandleader Harold Dejan, known affectionately as Duke, passed away on July 5, 2002 in New Orleans.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Stewart was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on February 3, 1945. He received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts and his master’s degree in education from Lehman College Graduate School.
Stewart taught music in Pennsylvania public schools and at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. He is now a professor at the Juilliard School and is a distinguished lecturer at Lehman College.
Stewart has toured and recorded with such artists as Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, Muhal Richard Abrams, David Murray, Taj Mahal, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Don Cherry, Nicholas Payton, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Haden, Lester Bowie, Bill Frisell and many others in the United States, Europe, and Eastern Asia.
He was a frequent collaborator with saxophonist Arthur Blythe from the 1970s into the early 2000s, often taking the place of the string bass that traditionally supports a jazz ensemble. In their review of Blythe’s album Lenox Avenue Breakdown, the editors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz called Stewart’s title track solo “one of the few genuinely important tuba statements in jazz. Tubist Bob Stewart continues to be a part of the jazz scene.
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Three Wishes
Nica asked Buddy Montgomery what his three wishes were and he simply said:
- “I can use a whole lot of things! One thing I would like is to get my mind and my hands attached to what I am trying to do, musically. I need to think some more about the others.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Emanuel Paul was born on February 2, 1904 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He did not begin playing music until late in his youth, picking up the violin at age 18 and then switched to banjo. In the middle of the 1920s he settled on the tenor saxophone, where his instrument often substituted for the baritone horn in a brass band.
Becoming a member of the Eureka Brass Band in 1940 and remained with them into the 1960s; he also played often with Kid Thomas Valentine from 1942 and recorded with Oscar Celestin, Emanuel Sayles, and the Olympia Brass Band. He led three recording sessions for the European Jazz Macon label in 1967. His sidemen on these records include Valentine, George Lewis, and Butch Thompson.
Tenor saxophonist Emanuel Paul, who was one of the first tenor saxophonists to hold regular work in the New Orleans jazz scene, passed away on May 23, 1988 in New Orleans.
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