Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Carolyn Breuer was born on July 4, 1969 in Munich, Germany, the daughter of jazz musician Hermann Breuer. When she was 19 years old, she studied saxophone as a member of the Bundes Jazz Orchestra at the Konservatorium in Hilversum under Ferdinand Povel. After graduation, she moved to New York City where she took private lessons with George Coleman and Branford Marsalis.

She has worked with Coleman, Fee Claassen and Ingrid Jensen before starting her own label, NotNowMom!-Records. Breuer’s Serenade release won her the “Heidelberger Künstlerpreis” which is Heidelberg’s prize for artists in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She is the first jazz musician to receive this award, previously only given to classical musicians.

Breuer has toured internationally and and performed with WDR’s Big Band, the Berlin Jazz Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival. Her album, Fate Smiles On Those Who Stay Cool, became so popular in the Netherlands that politician Klaas De Vries began a speech in parliament with exactly those words.

Alto and soprano saxophonist Carolyn Breuer has recorded six albums as a leader, two with her father and one with Fee Classen. She continues to perform, record and tour.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ronnell Bright was born July 3, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. Wanting to be a classical pianist, at age nine he won a prize and played with the Chicago Youth Piano Symphony Orchestra. He went on to study at the Juilliard School, completing his studies in the early 1950s. His first encounter with jazz was in a United States Navy band. After his discharge he went back home and worked and recorded with bassist Johnny Pate and it was in the mid 1950s that he became the pianist for singer Carmen McRae.

1955 saw Bright moving to New York City where he performed and recorded with Rolf Kühn, and with Buddy Tate on the Swingville Sessions. Two years later he joined the Dizzy Gillespie big band and formed his own trio with Richard Davis and drummer Art Morgan. From 1958 he was pianist and music director of the orchestra for Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne and Gloria Lynne. In 1964, he became Nancy Wilson’s arranger, pianist and musical director and moved to Los Angeles, California.

Working mainly in the Hollywood studios, in 1972 Ronnell became a member of the Supersax formation for two years, taught at high school for a year and worked as a composer with lyricist Johnny Mercer. He also composed songs performed by Sarah Vaughan, Cal Tjader, Horace Silver and Blue Mitchell and was involved in recordings by Coleman Hawkins, Anita O’Day, Shirley Scott and Frank Wess.

By the beginning of the 1990s he settled in Denver, Colorado and gave himself the title of “Doctor of Divinity”  and with his wife Reverend Dianne Bright, he produced jazz programs for their own church community, the Harmony Church, where local musicians often performed as guests of the Harmony Orchestra.

Pianist, arranger and composer Ronnell Bright who recorded four albums as a leader grooved to modern jazz and swing, continued to play and produce occasionally until he passed away at 91 years old on August 12, 2021.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz

Herbert Harper was born July 2, 1920 in Salina, Kansas and studied trombone in his youth. He first started playing swing music with Benny Goodman and Charlie Spivak in the 1940s and 1950s. A move to Los Angeles, California saw him working on the West Coast jazz scene and  performing with the likes of Stan Kenton, Bill Perkins and Maynard Ferguson, among others.

In 1949, he became a member of the band backing Billie Holiday on her famous Just Jazz radio broadcast for AFRS in Los Angeles. During this period he performed alongside band members trumpeter Neal Hefti, clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Herbie Steward pianist Jimmy Rowles bassist Robert “Iggy” Shevak and drummer Roy “Blinky” Garner.

In 1954, he recorded several sessions as a member of Steve White’s Hollywood-based quartet. As a leader he released his inaugural self titled recording in 1954 and followed up with another trio of albums that same year. With two more during the same decade, Herbie would record again as a leader until the Eighties. He would however record profusely as a sideman with Pete Rugolo and Ferguson.

Trombonist Herbie Harper, who concentrated his playing in the  West Coast jazz school, passed away on January 21, 2012.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Sameer Gupta was born July 1, 1976 in San Francisco, California and is a percussionist, tabla player, and composer. He is the founder of the jazz ensemble The Supplicants and drummer for the Marc Cary Focus Trio.

Gupta has performed with Kosmic Renaissance, vidyA, Grachan Moncur III, Victor Goines, Vincent Gardner, Sekou Sundiata, Sonny Simmons, Marcus Shelby, Calvin Keys, Richard Howell, Dayna Stephens, and Julian Lage.

With his playing has been described as kinetic, bass-heavy, and tender, he made his recording debut in 2006 with Marc Cary on Focus, adding Marc Cary and Focus Trio Live in 2010. He released his debut album as a leader, Namaskar that same year, and has also recorded with Srinivas Reddy and Ross Hammond. Percussionist Sameer Gupta continues to compose, perform and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ken Fowser was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 30, 1982 and began playing the saxophone at age eleven, picking up his father’s old alto he used while in the Air Force band. Playing through elementary school, he studied privately with Tony Salicandro at the New Jersey Conservatory of Music, It was there that his love of jazz developed.

This was followed with studies at the university of the Arts Philadelphia and his insurgence into the local jazz scene where he began making a name for himself. Opportunities came along for him to perform with Mickey Roker, John Swana, Larry McKenna, Bootsie Barnes, Sid Simmons, Byron Landham, Billy James, and others.

Leaving Philly for William Paterson University he received his degree in music in 2005. A move to New York, graduate studies at SUNY Purchase College, private studies with Eric Alexander and Ralph Lalama, and received his degree in 2008. With his already established jazz in-roads in the City, it was an easy translation for Ken to co-lead with Behn Gillece and record his debut album Full View with special guest pianist David Hazeltine the following year on the Posi-tone label.

Saxophonist Ken Fowser hosts a weekly jam session at Small Jazz Club in New York City and continues to perform, compose and record.

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