Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Django Bates was born Leon Bates on October 2, 1960 in Beckenham, Kent, England where he attended Sedgehill School. While at this school, for six years he also attended the Centre for Young Musicians in London, England, where he learned trumpet, piano, and violin. In 1977 he studied at Morley College. The following year he enrolled at the Royal College of Music to study composition but left after two weeks.
He founded Human Chain in 1979 and, in the 1980s, he rose to prominence in a jazz orchestra called Loose Tubes. In 1991, Django started the 19-piece jazz orchestra Delightful Precipice. He also assembled the Powder Room Collapse Orchestra and created Circus Umbilicus, a musical circus show. As a sideman he was a member of Dudu Pukwana’s Zila, Tim Whitehead’s Borderline, Ken Stubbs’s First House, Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, Sidsel Endresen, and in the bands of George Russell and George Gruntz.
As an educator, he has tutored at the Banff Centre jazz program, and was appointed Professor of Rhythmic Music at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. Bates was appointed visiting professor of jazz in 2010 at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the next year was appointed Professor of Jazz at HKB Bern Switzerland.
He has performed with Michael Brecker, Tim Berne, Christian Jarvi, Vince Mendoza, David Sanborn, Kate Rusby, and Don Alias. Pianist, keyboardist, tenor hornist Django Bates continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mark Helias was born October 1, 1950 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He started playing the double bass at the age of 20, graduating from Yale University’s School of Music with a Masters degree in 1976 and also studied at Rutgers University.
He has performed with a wide variety of musicians, first and foremost with trombonist Ray Anderson, with whom Helias led the ironic 1980s avant-funk band Slickaphonics. He also led a trio with drummer Gerry Hemingway, formed in the late 1970s, which was later renamed BassDrumBone.
Helias has performed with members of Ornette Coleman’s band, Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, and Ed Blackwell, and with musicians affiliated with the AACM, such as Anthony Braxton and Muhal Richard Abrams.
>Since 1984 Mark Helias has released six recordings under his own name and further six albums leading the archetypal improvising trio Open Loose since 1996. The group comprises Helias on bass, first Ellery Eskelin, then Tony Malaby on tenor saxophone and Tom Rainey on drums.
Double bassist and composer Mark Helias continues to perform and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, The New School, and SIM (School for Improvised Music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jon Eardley was born on September 30, 1928 in Altoona, Pennsylvania and first started on trumpet at the age of 11. His father played in Paul Whiteman’s orchestra. From 1946 to 1949 he played in an Air Force band in Washington, D.C., then led with his own quartet in D.C. from 1950 to 1953.
Moving to New York City in 1953 and the following year saw him playing with Phil Woods, then with Gerry Mulligan for three years, and with Hal McIntyre (1956). Following this he returned to his hometown and played there until 1963, when he moved to Belgium.
In 1969 he moved to Cologne, Germany, playing there with Harald Banter and Chet Baker. Working through the 1980s, the last years before death he played in the WDR Big Band Cologne, Germany.
He recorded with Gerry Mulligan, Teo Macero, J. R. Monterose, Airto Moreira, Charlie Parker, Manfred Schoof, and Zoot Sims. Trumpeter Jon Eardley, who recorded four albums as a leader and ten albums as a sideman, passed away on April 1, 1991 in Lambermont, near Verviers, Belgium.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Loonis McGlohon was born on September 29, 1921 in Ayden, North Carolina, and graduated from East Carolina University. After a spell in the Air Force during World War II, he played with the Jimmy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden orchestras and became involved with broadcasting in Charlotte, North Carolina, working as music director for radio and television.
An accompanist to many well-known singers that included Judy Garland, Mabel Mercer and Eileen Farrell. He co-hosted the Peabody Award-winning NPR radio series American Popular Song with his friend and collaborator, Alec Wilder. He also composed and wrote lyrics for several songs with Wilder.
For his hometown of Charlotte he wrote the music for The Hornet’s Nest, and in 1980, Frank Sinatra recorded two of his songs with Alec Wilder, South to a Warmer Place and A Long Night on the album She Shot Me Down. He received a commission to write a piece in celebration of North Carolina’s 400th birthday, which resulted in North Carolina Is My Home. a symphonic work. McGlohon was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 1999.
NationsBank Performance Place in Charlotte’s Spirit Square was named Loonis McGlohon Theatre in 1998, and the following year he was inducted into the North CArolina Music Hall of Fame. A 2004 biography, Loonis! Celebrating a Lyrical Life by Jerry Shinn was published posthumously by the East Carolina University Foundation in 2004. Pianist and songwriter Loonis McGlohon passed away at the age of 80 following a long-term battle with lymphoma on January 26, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gerhard Rochus “Gerd” Dudek was born September 28, 1938 in Wrocław, Poland. He studied clarinet privately and attended music school in the 1950s before joining a big band led by his brother Ossi until 1958.
During the early 1960s, Dudek played in the Berliner Jazz Quintet, in Karl Blume’s group and in Kurt Edelhagen’s orchestra until 1965. He then became interested in free music and joined Manfred Schoof’s quintet. He took part in the first sessions of The Globe Unity Orchestra in 1966, and played with them at various times into the 1980s.
He also worked with many other European free musicians and composers, including Alexander von Schlippenbach, Loek Dikker and The Waterland Ensemble And European Jazz Quintet.
He is best known for his work with Manfred Schoof, Wolfgang Dauner, Lala Kovacev, the Globe Unity Orchestra, Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, Albert Mangelsdorff, Don Cherry and George Russell. Tenor and soprano saxophonist, clarinetist and flautist Gerd Dudek continues to be involved in music.
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