Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nina Moffitt was born on March 3, 1987 in Brooklyn, New York and began piano lessons at the age of five. She took up percussion in her father’s church ensemble and finally became a vocalist by leading the church congregation throughout her formative years. Attending the LaGuardia Arts High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, she studied classical music, gospel, jazz, and new music composition. Simultaneously she studied jazz voice privately at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.
By 2005 Moffitt was singing with the All City Jazz Band at Lincoln Center, was granted an Honorary Mention from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts in the category of jazz voice, and performed as a backup singer with pop star Josh Groban.
Graduating from Oberlin College with honors for her work in cultural and linguistic anthropology, not only did Nina study with world renowned Oberlin Conservancy professors like Lorraine Manz and Marcus Belgrave, she performed with the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble for four years, led jazz worship services at First Church of Oberlin and Trinity Church in Cleveland.
She cites Joni Mitchell, Sarah Vaughan, Wayne Shorter, and Nina Simone as her influences and has added bossa nova phrasing to her arsenal having studied Portuguese in Brazil. Vocalist Nina Moffitt has recorded her debut album Where I Have Been with her quintet and continues to perform with her band in the New York area.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gavin Barras was born on March 2, 1981 in Kendal, Cumbria in Northwest England. Due to his tuition benefactors, Roberto Carillo-Garcia and Corin Long, he was afforded the opportunity to study music at the University of Manchester. Whilst studying classical music, he continued developing his love for jazz and received lessons from Steve Berry in jazz bass.
Barras notes his bass influences include Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Wilbur Ware, Charlie Haden, Christian McBride, George Mraz, Hein van de Geyn and electric bassist Jaco Pastorius. Notwithstanding, he is heavily influenced by Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Enrico Pieranunzi and Billy Higgins.
Performing around the world has lent his talents to play jazz festivals and clubs Ronnie Scott’s, Dizzy’s Jazz Club and the Royal Festival Hall with the likes of Tim Garland, Iain Dixon, Ed Jones, Neil Yates, Steve Waterman, Les Chisnall, Dan Whieldon, Zoe Rahman, Mike Walker, Stuart McCallum, Gary Boyle Luke Flowers, Dave Walsh and Eryl Roberts to name a few.
A founding member of the jazz quartet EU4, Gavin is currently a member of the Dan Whieldon Trio, Jadid Ensemble, Sarah Ellen Hughes Band, 6Pac Jazz Sextet, Nat Birchall Band, Matthew Halsall Band, Unfurl and Steve Plews Trio.
Keeping busy is not an option for Gavin having recorded as a leader his debut album in 2008, and a second in 20011 while taking the sideman chair on bass for recordings on three albums with the Matthew Halsall Quintet that required him to put on his composer hat. He has appeared on Jamie Cullum’s BBC Radio 2 jazz show, been involved in several live sessions for BBC 6 Music and for Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Show on BBC Radio One with both the Matthew Halsall and Nat Birchall Bands.
In between performing, recording and touring Gavin is committed to teaching and, in addition to a large portfolio of students at his home, he has worked as a tutor at the Dartington Jazz Summer School for the last five years and has been involved in Live Music Now as a member of 6Pac Jazz Ensemble delivering regular education workshops in schools, prisons, young offenders institutions and hospitals.
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Daily Dose Of jazz…
Ralph Towner was born on March 1, 1940 in Chehalis, Washington. Born into a musical family, his mother a piano teacher and his father a trumpet player, Towner learned to improvise on the piano at the age of three. He started trumpet lessons at the age of five, but did not take up guitar until attending the University of Oregon.
Ralph first played jazz in New York City in the late 1960s as a pianist and was strongly influenced by the renowned jazz pianist Bill Evans. He began improvising on classical and 12-string guitars in the late 1960s and early 1970s; and formed alliances with musicians who had worked with Evans, including flautist Jeremy Steig, Eddie Gomez, Marc Johnson, Gary Peacock ad Jack DeJohnette.
He began his career as a conservatory-trained classical pianist, who picked up guitar in his senior year in college, then joined world music pioneer Paul Winter’s Consort ensemble in the late 1960s. Leaving Winter along with band mates Paul McCandless, Glen Moore and Colin Walcott, they formed the group Oregon, mixing folk, Indian classical, avant-garde jazz and frr improvisation.
Around the same time, Towner began a longstanding relationship with ECM Records, releasing virtually all of his non-Oregon recordings since his 1972 debut as a leader Trios / Solos. As a sideman he has ventured int jazz fsion with Weather Report on the 1972 album I Sing The Body Electric.
Unlike most jazz guitarists, Ralph only uses 6-string nylon-string and 12-string steel-string guitars. He tends to avoid high-volume musical environments, preferring small groups of mostly acoustic instruments that emphasize dynamics and group interplay. He make significant use of overdubbing, allowing him to play piano or synthesizer and guitar on the same track. During the Eighties he used more synthesizer but has returned to the guitar in recent years.
Composer, arranger, bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Ralph Towner, who plays 12 string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion and trumpet, has an impressive catalogue of some five-dozen recordings spread between his role as a leader, with Oregon, and as a sideman with Paul Winter and Weather Report among others. He continues to perform, record and tour.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
I Fall In Love Too Easily is a 1944 song composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Sammy Cahn. Frank Sinatra introduced the song in the 1945 film Anchors Aweigh. The film won an Academy Award for its music; the song was nominated for Best Original Song but lost. The other stars of the film were Kathryn Grayson and Gene Kelly.
The Story: Two Navy sailors, Joe Brady and Clarence Doolittle on a four-day leave in Hollywood. Joe has his heart set on spending time with his girl, the unseen Lola. Clarence, the shy choirboy turned sailor, asks Joe to teach him how to get girls. Enter Susan, aunt to a small boy who wants to join the Navy and Clarence is smitten with her at first sight. Susan goes on to tell them that she has been trying to find work in music, and longs to perform with José Iturbi. Trying to impress her with Clarence, Joe tells her that he has arranged an audition. That night, they go out to a cafe, where Clarence meets a girl from Brooklyn, and they hit it off.
With no audition in sight they decide to come clean. Susan gets her screen test on her own, it’s successful and in they end all is forgiven and the lovers kiss as a choir sings the theme song.
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www.whatissuitetabu.com
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Liam Sillery was born in Northvale, New Jersey, a suburb across the river from New York City on February 28, 1972. Introduced to music and the trumpet at an early age by his uncle, also a trumpet player, he considers himself fortunate to have been surrounded through the years by fine teachers and musicians.
Matriculating through the undergraduate program at the University of South Florida was most significant as he studied with tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson. Before going on to attend the Manhattan School of Music, he performed as a freelance musician. Once in New York at the Manhattan School, he studied with Ccil Bridgewater, Dave Liebman, Phil Markowitz, Joan Stiles, Mark Soskin, and Garry Dial.
In 2004 Liam released his first recording as a leader, Minor Changes, followed by his sophomore project On The Fly with the Dave Sills Quartet in 2006. The next summer he recorded a third CD, Outskirts, in which he moved away from his traditional style to explore freer material. Pursuing his expansion of style and knowledge of his instrument he combines textures, rhythms and sonorities to the details and intricacies of his playing.
Trumpeter and composer Liam Sillery has performed with is quintet at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam and continues to play in and around metropolitan New York City.
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