Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Virginia Mayhew was born on May 14, 1959 in San Francisco, California and took up the saxophone as a child. Early in her career she worked with trombonist Al Grey and contributing arrangements for several recordings. In 1987 she became active on the New York jazz scene, playing with the likes of Earl “Fatha” Hines, Junior Mance, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Doc Cheatham, Joe Williams, Kenny Barron, Ingrid Jensen, Chico O’Farrill and the list continues.
She has performed all over the world in concert and festivals, and has twice been a U.S. Jazz Ambassador. Mayhew would go on to work with Brazilian trumpeter Claudio Roditi, become a member of the Howard Williams Big Band, Carl Thompson and Friends, and the Lou Caputo “Not So Big Band” in conjunction with freelancing around New York.
Virginia is currently the Musical Director and saxophonist of the 9-piece Duke Ellington Legacy group, leads her own quartet and septet, recorded and released a Mary Lou Williams project featuring Wycliffe Gordon, and is working on a project that replaces drums with tap dancing.
As an educator she teaches privately, is on the faculty of the summer jazz camps at Stanford Jazz Workshop, Monterey Jazz Festival, Litchfield Jazz Camp along with conducting clinics at U-Mass, University of Louisville, Bloomington University, Williams College among others. She has worked with Don Braden’s “Jazz For Teens” and Melissa Walker’s “Jazz House Kids”. Tenor saxophonist Virginia Mayhew continues to perform, compose, arrange, adjudicate and teach and establish the “Jazz Workshop” at the Greenwich House Music School in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Grégoire Maret was born May 13, 1975 in Geneva, Switzerland. He began playing the harmonica at the age of 17. Upon graduating from the prestigious Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Genève he moved to New York City and studied jazz at the New School University.
Maret has performed with Youssn’Dour, Me’ Shell Ndegeocello, Pete Seeger, David Sanborn, George Benson, Cassandra Wilson, Toots Thielemans, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Gretchen Parlato and the Polish orchestra Sinfonia Viva to name a few. In 2005 he toured with the Pat Metheny Group, received a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for their album The Way Up, and won the Jazz Journalists Association “Player of the Year Award”.
He embarked on a two-year tour with bassist Marcus Miller, and then joined Herbie Hancock’s band. He would co-lead the jazz trio Gaïa with pianist Federico Gonzales Peña and drummer Gene Lake, record the album Scenarios with Andy Milne and play The Concert for the Rainforest with Elton John and Sting.
The harmonica player who has recorded on over six-dozen albums as a sideman, and who has been compared to Toots Thielemans and Stevie Wonder. Grégoire Maret released his self-titled debut album as a leader in 2012 and continues to perform, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Klaus Doldinger was born on May 12, 1936 in Berlin, Germany. By age eleven he entered a Dusseldorf conservatory originally studying piano and then clarinet, graduating in 1957. During his student years, he gained professional performing experience in 1953 with the German Dixieland band The Feetwarmers, recording with them in 1955. Later that same year he founded Oscar’s Trio, modeled on Oscar Peterson’s work.
During the 1960s Klaus worked as a tenor saxophonist, working with visiting American jazz musicians and recording in his own right. Doldinger is perhaps best known for his film scores to the acclaimed German U-boat film Das Boot and The Never Ending Story. He was an honored recipient of the Bavarian Film Awards in 1997.
Doldinger created a recurring jazz project Passport in 1971 that mirrors Weather Report and still enjoys huge success in Germany. He has worked with Johnny Griffin, Brian Auger, Ernst Stroer, Pete York and Michael Hornek among others. Saxophonist Klaus Doldinger died on the evening of October 16, 2025 at his home in Icking, Germany at the age of 89.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
J. C. (Jack) Higginbotham was born on May 11, 1906 in Social Circle, Georgia and learned to play trombone in his youth. He made his start in jazz playing with territory bands in the Midwest and was heard at his best while a member of the Luis Russell Orchestra from 1928 to ’31. He would go on to play with Benny Carter’s, Red Allen’s and Fletcher Henderson’s big band during the swing era.
J. C. played with Louis Armstrong in the late Thirties to the end of the decade, played for a long period in the forties with his ideal partner Red Allen, and then disappeared from the scene for several years. By 1947 he was leading his own groups.
Higginbotham led several bands in the Fifties in Boston and Cleveland, appeared regularly at the Metropole in New York between 1956 and 1959, and led his own Dixieland band there in the Sixties. He went on his first European tour with Sammy Price, appearing in Scandinavia, and worked again briefly in 1964 with Louis Armstrong.
A robust and swinging trombonist he recorded extensively both as a sideman and as a leader. He is considered to be a vital player of the swing trombone and his strong, raucous sound and wild outbreaks are legendary. J. C. Higginbotham, who contributed to the acceptance of the trombone as a melodically capable jazz instrument, died on May 26, 1973 in New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Philip Harper was born May 10, 1965 in Baltimore, Maryland but grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. He started played trumpet when he was ten under the tutelage of his brother Winard and then went on study at the Hartt School of Music with Jackie McLean.
At the age of 18 Philip moved to New York, where he started working and recording extensively, with such musicians as Little Jimmy Scott, Jimmy McGriff, Betty Carter, Etta Jones, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Bill Cosby and Cedar Walton. He became a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Charles Mingus’ Big Band and from 1988 to 1993 was an integral part of The Harper Brothers.
His discography includes The Harper Brothers, You Can Hide Inside The Music, Remembrance: Live at the Village Vanguard and Artistry, along with his two releases as a leader Soulful Sin and The Thirteenth Moon in addition to several live recordings with The Jazz Messengers.
Trumpeter Philip Harper continues to perform and tour worldwide with various groups in conjunction to teaching and conducting workshops in several conservatories in Europe.
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