Daily Dose Of Jazz…
April Barrows was born on April 28, 1954 in Milford, Connecticut and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area where she moved with her family when she was five. The first music she heard came from listening to her mother’s collection of boogie-woogie 78s by such pianists as Meade “Lux” Lewis, Albert Ammons and Pinetop Smith. Singing along with the records and imitating the sounds she learned the formats. She became a record collector herself as a teenager and was always interested in older styles.
She played violin for a few years and in high school sang and played rhythm guitar. Barrows performed duets with a country singer, frequently performing roots music, and learned both steel guitar and electric bass. For a time she had a regular day job as a chemist but her main dream was to become a professional musician.
In the late ’70s she spontaneously quit her job and headed for Nashville where her talents were quickly recognized. She played electric bass in a variety of bands for the next six years working with the Judds’ first band, the Memphis Horns, Vassar Clements, and even Woody Herman. In 1985 she switched her focus and became a songwriter and while she had success writing country, bluegrass, and blues songs, her true love was writing and performing her own new swing tunes.
In addition to her jazz inspirations of Ella Fitzgerald, the Boswell Sisters, Mildred Bailey, Louis Armstrong, Ivie Anderson, Bing Crosby, Ruth Etting, Annette Hanshaw and Cliff Edwards, she listened to Bob Dylan, country music and rock of the ’60s. While continuing in the commercial field, she has recorded as a leader, her debut release of original swing tunes on My Dream Is You followed by her sophomore project All You Need Is the Girl. Vocalist, guitarist and composer April Barrows is currently working on a third project with clarinetist Evan Christopher and cornetist Duke Heitger, and continues to compose and perform.
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Atlant Jazz Festival…2012
It was May 26th and the 31 Days of Jazz was a success for the city of Atlanta and the neighborhoods and communities that represented. The weekend ran through the 28th the the crowds of jazz fans, enthusiasts and aficionados laid blankets, pitched tents and sat in lawn chairs to enjoy another year in Piedmont Park. Jazz was in the air and the adoring throng waited with anticipation as each act that came to the stage.
The Kickoff Cabaret performers were Jennifer Freeman and Johnny O’Neal with Jason Orr hosting the Late Night Jazz Jam. The 2012 Youth Jazz Band Competition winners opened each day of the festival on two stages and were Benjamin E. Mays Jazz Orchestra taking 1st Place, Woodland High School Jazz Band in 2nd Place, Martin Luther King, Jr. High School Big Band held down 3rd Place, and J.C. Young Middle School Jazz Ensemble was the 4th Place.
Performing over the weekend and following each youth jazz band were Andre Rievers, Cyrus Chestnut Trio, Dwight Andrews, Edy Martinez Jazz Orchestra, Ernest EC3 Coleman, Grace Kelly Quintet, Grégoire Maret, Kathleen Bertrand, Laura Coyle Quintet, Lionel Loueke Trio, Mace Hibbard, Marea Alta, Mausiki Scales & the Common Ground Collective, Melvin Jones, Mushy Widmaier, Nadav Remez / Omer Avital Quintet, Ojeda Penn, Rialto Jazz for Kids, Robert Glasper Experiment, Roy Ayers, Russell Gunn and Elektrik Butterfly, Saunders Sermons, Son Jazzy Orchestra, Tito Puente, Jr. & Orchestra, Tropical Breeze Steel Band, and Yolanda Rabun. #AJF40
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edwin Calvin Newborn (was born on born April 27, 1933 in Whiteville, Tennessee and is the brother of pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. with whom he recorded between 1953 and 1958. They formed an R&B band, with their father Phineas Newborn Sr. on drums and Tuff Green on bass, trumpeter Willie Mitchell and tenor saxophonist Ben Branch. The group was the house band at the Plantation Inn Club in West Memphis, Arkansas, from 1947 until 1951 and recorded as B. B. King’s band on his first recordings in 1949, and also the Sun Records sessions in 1950.
Calvin gave guitars lessons to Howlin’ Wolf and was friends with Elvis Presley, who frequented his gig at the Plantation Inn Club two nights a week. Presley also used to eat at the Newborns’ house and browse their music store for gospel records. The group left West Memphis in 1951 to tour with Jackie Brenston as the Delta Cats in support of the record Rocket 88. It was considered by many to be the first rock and roll record ever recorded, and was the first Billboard number one record for Chess Records.
Following his R&B period he transitioned into jazz and played with Earl Hines starting in 1959. The early Sixties saw him touring with Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Forrest, Wild Bill Davis, Al Grey, Freddie Roach, Booker Little, George Coleman. Frank Strozier, and Louis Smith. Newborn also worked with Ray Charles, Count Basie, Hank Crawford, Sun Ra, Lou Donaldson, Bobby Hutcherson and David “Fathead” Newman among others. His 1980 album Centerpiece hit No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard jazz albums chart, but much of his earlier material was not reissued on CD until 2005.
Since the 1970s he remained mostly in Memphis, Tennessee, where he played regularly in local clubs well into the 1990s. Guitarist Calvin Newborn currently resides in Jacksonville, FL and continued to perform throughout Northeast Florida until his transition on December 1, 2018, aged 85.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ken Gregory was born on April 26, 1950 in Atlanta, Georgia and began playing trumpet at age nine, playing in the Northside Highlander Concert Band for three years beginning in 1960. After four years of private training, during his time in high school he sat 1st chair trumpet in the concert band from 1963 to 1968. He went on to work as conductor and lead trumpeter for the Six Flags Over Georgia orchestra until 1971, then learned to play guitar, electric bass and keyboards.
Gregory started playing the nightclub circuit in 1971 for the next nine years. By the Eighties as performance venues transitioned from clubs to private parties, he partnered with an electronics technician and moved into the professional studio business.
As a composer he has been commissioned to write for Warner Bros. Films, CNN, the Weather Channel, numerous radio and television advertisers, songwriters and lyricists. He has added trombone to his arsenal of instruments and has been recorded on thousands of studio sessions and has engineered audio and MIDI programming.
He performs original compositions with his band Solid State and has been featured on some of Atlanta’s best radio stations, on PBS Television’s Jazz Atlanta, and has performed at the Montreux Jazz, Atlanta Jazz and Inman Park festivals. Trumpeter and engineer Ken Gregory continues to be active in the professional music and record business in Atlanta.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rick Henderson was born in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 1928 and studied composition while in high school and in the late 1940s played the saxophone locally. After serving in the Army from 1951 to 1953, he joined Duke Ellington’s Orchestra upon recommendation by Clark Terry.
During Ellington’s years on Capitol Records, Rick sat in the saxophone section, created arrangements, and in addition composed tunes such as Carney for the Ellington band. Leaving Ellington’s employ in 1956, he returned to Washington, where he led the Howard Theatre’s house band until 1964.
Following this he worked as an arranger and composer for jazz orchestras as well as military bands and school ensembles. Among those who used Henderson’s charts, in addition to Ellington, were Count Basie, Illinois Jacquet, and Billy Taylor. He continued to lead bands into the 1990s, including the University of Maryland Jazz Ensemble from 1977 to 1978.
Saxophonist and arranger Rick Henderson passed away of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease on May 21, 2004 in the District of Columbia.
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