Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eric Ross was born on May 14, 1948 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania and began studying piano at the age of seven under Jean Krantz-Thomas. Ten years later he started to write his own compositions and in the late 1960s and early 1970s he studied guitar and attended the electronic music composition course with Charles Dodge at Columbia University.
1972 saw him finishing college and beginning his career as a musician by playing and working in recording studios. Three years later Eric began playing the theremin and the following year he played his music exclusively, allowing him to develop it as a voice in his compositions. In 1982 he released his first album, Songs for Synthesized Soprano, and performed in concert at the Lincoln Center in New York.
He has performed throughout the United States and toured Europe, in addition to performing on radio, television and film. For over twenty years Eric’s ensemble featured John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins, Youseff Yancy, Lydia Kavina, and Robert Dick, among others.
Along with his wife Mary, the couple created memorable multimedia performances that intertwined music with images, video projections, and dance. As an educator he has lectured on the theremin, piano, guitar, and electronic music at colleges, universities and schools in the USA and Europe.
Pianist and guitarist Eric Ross, who also plays synthesizers and is a master of the theremin, continues to blend classical, jazz, serial and avant-garde in his performances.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jim Douglas was born Robert James Elliot Douglas on May 13, 1942 in Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. He played drums in his youth before switching to guitar and in his teens he accompanied clarinettist Pete Kerr.
As part of a Dixieland band, he performed in Germany in 1960 and soon after Jim began playing with Alex Welsh. In 1971 he appeared on the album Freddy Randall and His Famous Jazz Band. Other than Kerr and Welsh, he worked with Alan Elsdon, Lennie Hastings, Ed Polcer, and Keith Smith.
Douglas wrote and self-published a semi-autobiographical book, Tunes, Tours and Travel-itis – Eighteen Years of Facts, Faces and Fun with the Alex Welsh Band. He followed this up three years later with Teenage to Travel-itis – Growing Up in a World of Jazz. The sequel chronicles his adventures in the Jazz world before and after his time with the Alex Welsh Band.
Guitarist, banjoist, and author Jim Douglas, who played with Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Ruby Braff from 1962 until 1981 while in the Welsh band, continues to perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ronnie Foster was born May 12, 1950 in Buffalo, New York and was attracted to music at the age of four. Attending Public School 8, then Woodlawn Jr. High for a year, he took music more seriously from his early teens while at McKinley Vocational High School for two years, and having his first professional gig aged fifteen, playing in a strip club. He spent his final year at Lafayette High School. The only formal musical instruction he received was a month of accordion lessons.
Foster initially performed with other local musicians before moving to New York City with his own band, and acquired a publishing company. He has performed as a sideman with a wide range of musicians, frequently working with guitarist George Benson and playing on the guitarist’s album Breezin’.
He has played organ with Grant Green, Grover Washington, Jr., Stanley Turrentine, Roberta Flack, Earl Klugh, Harvey Mason, Jimmy Smith, and Stevie Wonder. His music Mystic Brew has been sampled by A Tribe Called Quest and J. Cole.
Organist Ronnie Foster, who is also a record producer, continues to perform, record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Laura Ellis was born on May 11, 1972 and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She had the fortune to become a protégé of The Manhattan Transfer founding member Alan Paul which guided the honing of her vocal skills. Steeped in the Great American Songbook she ventured on a four year run of The Vintage Voice, and toured with The Wonderelles, covering the music of the famous girl groups.
Ellis has a penchant for cinema noir of the 40s and 50s and replicates those vintae tunes by bringing those seedy characters to life. Her Cinema Sweethearts celebrate the days of teen idols and her cabaret performances transport listeners back in time. Her blend of jazz and nostalgia has entertained audiences across the nation..
She has recorded a contemporary vocal jazz album, Here Lies Love, produced by Alan Paul, and Femme Fatale, featuring the classic songs from the dangerous dames of film noir. In 2016 she released Broken Lovely, a compendium of love songs of the broken, mended, and free.
Now calling Los Angeles, Californiar home, vocalist Laura Ellis has lent her voice to History Channel’s Route 66, Modern Marvels documentaries, the HBO series Carnivale, a commercial appearance with the late Della Reese, and ABC’s Modern Family.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles William Porter was born May 10, 1978 in Boynton Beach, Florida. He studied trumpet at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Paris Conservatory. His mentors include Wynton Marsalis, Mark Gould, Raymond Mase, Guy Touvron, and Laurie Frink.
Porter started in the New York jazz scene in the 1990s while studying classical music under Wynton Marsalis at the Juilliard School. He became a long-standing member of the Absolute Ensemble, and is a frequent member of the Charlie Porter Quintet, The Alan Jones Sextet and the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra.
As a bandleader, he has toured as both a jazz and classical musician, and released his debut self-titled album, Charlie Porter, and a sophomore project Immigration Nation. As a sideman he has recorded some two dozen albums with Philip Glass, Absolute Ensemble, Paquito D’Rivera, Tristan Murail, Billy Martin, Anthony Coleman, Russ Spiegel, Majid Khaliq, Chuck Israels, Alan Jones, and Derek Hines.
As an educator he is currently based in Portland, Oregon and presently holds the position of adjunct professor of jazz trumpet at Portland State University. Trumpeter, composer and music educator Charlie Porter, who has won several trumpet competitions and awarded a Grammy for his collaboration on the Joyce DiDonato album Songplay, continues to perform, record and teach.
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