Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rico Belled was born in the Netherlands on May 9, 1970 to Spanish/Swiss parents. Growing up in a multicultural environment, with a pianist father, he was exposed to many styles of music. He started playing piano at age 11, exploring everything from classical music to jazz. At 15 he started playing gigs with local bands doing pop and blues, while slowly getting interested in the bass, which he started practicing at age 17.
In 1989, while studying electrical engineering at the TU Delft, Rico met Roy Cruz in The Hague and joined his weekly Sunday night band at De Pater, exploring the world of Funk and Jazz playing Fender Rhodes. During these sessions they broke down all stylistic walls from playing Weather Report tunes to full on James Brown Funk, featuring as many as 10 people on the little stage. Here he got an education in the art of jamming.
Realizing music was his passion, in 1992 Belled gave up engineering and moved to Los Angeles, California and attended the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. Post graduation he was already playing with a few different groups in the Los Angeles area and in the following years made a name for himself as a bass and keyboard session musician. His breakthrough came when he joined Wrecking Crew pianist Don Randi and the house band at the Baked Potato in 1994. A two year residency offered the opportunity to lead his own group performing his original music at the club.
This led to him performing and recording with Marc Antoine, The Dan Band, Sound Assembly, Jeff Robinson, Leslie Paula’s Latin Soul Band, Liza Minelli, Chris Standring, Scott Grimes, Keiko Matsui and many others. He has co-written and published music with Mindi Abair and Jeff Robinson. All this led to him being asked to join the Rippingtons, starting with recording the album ‘Modern Art’, for which he received a Grammy Nomination in 2010. Still a member, bassist Rico Belled remains one of the top bassists in Los Angeles, known for his deep groove and versatility, staying busy live and in the studio.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jon-Erik Kellso was born on May 8, 1964 in Dearborn, Michigan and began playing jazz music very young in life, while receiving some formal training in classical idioms.
He moved from Detroit, Michigan to New York City in 1989 to join Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. He has recorded many movie and TV soundtracks with the group, including the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack for Boardwalk Empire, The Aviator, Bessie, Ghost World, and Revolutionary Road.
He has performed and/or recorded with J.C. Heard, Catherine Russell, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Kat Edmonson, Milt Hinton, Ruby Braff, Marty Grosz, Bob Haggart, Dick Hyman, Wynton Marsalis, Ken Peplowski, Bucky Pizzarelli, Bob Wilber, Howard Alden, Wycliffe Gordon, and Kenny Davern among other jazz musicians.
Not limited to the genre he has also played and recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Leon Redbone, Maria Muldaur, Elvis Costello, Dave Van Ronk, and many others, appearing on over one hundred records. Since 2007 Kellso has led The EarRegulars at the historic Ear Inn in Manhattan on Sunday nights, and has recorded two acclaimed albums. Trumpeter Jon~Erik Kellso, who is a prolific session player, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pete Edward Jacobs was born on May 7, 1899 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He played in the Musical Aces, then joined the band of Claude Hopkins from 1926 to 1928. He left Hopkins to play with Charlie Skeete in 1928, then returned to play with Hopkins from 1928 until 1938.
During this ten-year tenure in Hopkins’s orchestra, Pete recorded extensively with the group on Brunswick Records, particularly during the period 1927 to 1932. Additionally, he appeared with the band in the short films Barbershop Blues and By Request.
He fell ill in 1938 and had to quit the group, and never returned to active performance. Drummer Pete Jacobs transitioned in 1952.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marc Buronfosse was born on May 6, 1963 in Paris, France. His musical training commenced with classical guitar studies at the age of ten, then he began lessons on the upright bass in 1982 with Thierry Barbé while achieving studies in sound engineering and musicology. After receiving a prize at the Conservatoire de Paris XII, he started playing more and more jazz, working with bass players such as Cesarius Alvim, Charlie Haden, Reggie Workman and Henri Texier. He also worked with symphonic orchestras such as the Opéra de Paris and chamber music orchestras on a tour in Japan with the Solistes de Versailles.
1991 saw him obtaining a grant from the French Ministry of Culture and attending for one year in New York at The New School of Music. During this time he worked regularly with Gary Peacock, Marc Johnson and Mark Dresser. He also met and played with Jimmy Cobb, Steve Kühn, John Abercrombie, Lew Soloff, Jim Hall, Tim Berne, Dave Liebman, and Billy Harper and numerous others.
Returning to Paris he plays with Stéphane Guillaume Quartet + Brass Project, René Aubry Septet, Michel Elmalem Quartet, and Gueorgui Kornazov “Horizons” Quintet. As an educator he teaches jazz at the Conservatoire National de Région of Paris. Bassist Marc Buronfosse presently leads a quartet with musicians Benjamin Moussay, Jean Charles Richard and Antoine Banville.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kaoru Abe 阿部 薫 was born on May 5, 1949 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. Self-taught at a young age, at 17 he dropped out of highschool in 1967 to focus on perfecting his playing. The following year he played his first performance at a jazz spot named Oreo.
He generally performed solo but played with notables Motoharu Yoshizawa, Takehisa Kosugi, Yosuke Yamashita, Derek Bailey, and Milford Graves. In 1970, Laoru met guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi and recorded with him.
Abe was prolific, appearing almost every day to jazz spots and concerts. His library consists almost entirely of archival and live recordings, however he has done studio recordings.
His later years saw Kaoru playing different instruments like the bass clarinet throughout his career. By 1976 for two years he was mostly explorative with the harmonica. He was portrayed in Kōji Wakamatsu’s film Endless Waltz by novelist and punk rock singer Kō Machida.
Avant-garde alto saxophonist Kaoru Abe transitioned on September 9, 1978 from Bromisoval overdose causing an acute gastric perforation.
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