Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Arturo Sandoval was born in Artemisa, Cuba on November 6, 1949 and began to play music at age 12 in the village band. After playing many instruments, he fell in love with the trumpet. In 1964, he began three years of serious classical trumpet studies at the Cuban National School of Arts. By the age of 16 he had earned a place in Cuba’s all-star national band and was totally immersed in jazz influenced by Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown and with Dizzy Gillespie as his idol and later mentor and colleague.

In 1971 he was drafted into the military. Luckily, Sandoval was still able to play with the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna. In Cuba, Sandoval co-founded the band Irakere with Chucho Valdes and Paquito D’Rivera. They quickly became a worldwide sensation. Their appearance at the 1978 Newport Jazz Festival introduced them to American audiences and garnered them a recording contract with Columbia Records.

Arturo defected to the United States while touring in Spain with Dizzy in 1990, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1999 and has enjoyed a successful career. He has played with Woody Herman, Herbie Hancock, Woody Shaw, Stan Getz, Celine Dion, Tito Puente, Patti LaBelle, Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, Gordon Goodwin and numerous others.

His life was the subject of the 2000 TV film For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story, starring Andy Garcia. He currently continues to perform, tour and record around the globe.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jan Garber was born Jacob Charles Garber on November 5, 1894 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He had his own band by the time he was 21. He became known as “The Idol of the Airwaves” in his heyday of the 1920s and 1930s, playing jazz in the vein of contemporaries such as Paul Whiteman and Guy Lombardo.

It was during World War II that Garber began playing swing jazz with arranger Gray Rains and vocalist Liz Tilton. However, the recording restrictions in America during the war eventually made his ensemble unfeasible, and he returned to “sweet” music after the war, playing violin with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.

Jan formed the Garber-Davis Orchestra with pianist Milton Davis from 1921–1924. After parting with Davis, he formed his own orchestra, playing both “sweet” and “hot” 1920s dance music. He was hit hard by the Great depression and in the thirties he refashioned his ensemble into a big band and recorded a string of successful records for Victor.

Violinist and bandleader Jan Garber continued to lead ensembles nearly up until the time of his death on October 5, 1977 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Hailing from the West Coast, California native, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt was born on November 4, 1976. His primary interest was strictly classical music until he started high school when he began playing in the jazz band. After matriculating Berklee College of Music he set his sights on New York and before long got noticed by many top jazz musicians and got his first professional gig playing with the Mingus Big Band, allowing him to grow and nurture long lasting associations.

Pelt has had the good fortune to play with such jazz luminaries, such as Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess, Charlie Persip, Keter Betts, Frank Foster, John Hicks, Ravi Coltrane, Winard Harper, Vincent Herring, Ralph Peterson, Lonnie Plaxico, Nancy Wilson, Bobby Short, Cedar Walton and many too numerous to list. Coupled with those collaborations he has been a featured trumpeter in the Roy Hargrove Big Band, The Village Vanguard Orchestra and the Duke Ellington Big Band. Currently, he is member of the Lewis Nash Septet, the Frank Foster Loud Minority, and The Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band featuring Louis Hayes.

Jeremy maintains a consistent forward momentum while transmitting a modern-day sense of urgency with his songs. Pelt’s major focus is on writing music for each of his three bands: “Creation”– a sextet, “Noise” – a semi-electric band and “The Jeremy Pelt Quartet”.

He has been voted “Rising Star on the Trumpet” by Downbeat Magazine and the Jazz Journalist Association two years in a row. Jeremy Pelt has toured throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, Virgin Islands and Brazil, and continues to perform and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Joe Turner was born Joseph H. Turner on November 3, 1907 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was a stride and jazz pianist, not to be confused with blues singer Big Joe Turner. He started to learn the piano from his mother at age five and began to make a name for himself in Harlem as a teenager shortly after his move to New York in 1925.

Joe got his first big break in 1928 when Benny Carter hired him as part of his orchestra. He followed this with playing in Louis Armstrong’s group. He was an accompanist to Adelaide Hall with whom he toured Europe in 1931 where he remained through 1939 when war broke out.

Tuner returned to the States and worked as a singer, played with Sy Oliver’s band, then Rex Stewart until after the war. He went back to Europe passing through Hungary and Switzerland before settling in Paris and occasionally returning to the U.S. to perform.

He was the last major stride pianists to survive the era following in the footsteps of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. He had a superb technique and fine sense of swing, recording a handful of albums. Joe Turner passed away of a heart attack on July 21, 1990 in Paris, France at age 82.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Kurt Elling was born November 2, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois who first became interested in music through his father and growing up sang in choirs and played various musical instruments. As a child he listened to Tony Bennett, learned counterpoint from the motets of Bach and sang in his high school choir. He played violin, French horn, piano and drums but wasn’t exposed to jazz until he attended college listening to Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock and Ella Fitzgerald among others. He went on to pursue a master’s in philosophy of religion but left one credit short to pursue a career as a jazz vocalist.

Kurt began to perform around Chicago in basement clubs and jam sessions, scat singing and improvising his own lyrics while working day jobs to survive. He started listening to the minimalism and emotion of Chet Baker and to Mark Murphy exposing him to the poetry of Jack Kerouac. He recorded a demo in the early 90s that resulted in signing with Blue Note and the subsequent releasing of seven albums with the label.

He has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Vocal Jazz Album for 2009’s Dedicated To You. He often leads the Down Beat critics poll and has been awarded the Prix Billie Holiday from the Académie du Jazz. Elling is a baritone with a four-octave range, a writer, and composer who performs vocalese. Kurt Elling has sung and recorded with Bob Belden, Joanne Brackeen, Oscar Brown, Jr., Orbert Davis, Jon Hendricks and Bob Mintzer to name a few. Since 1995, he has collaborated with pianist, composer, and arranger and musical director Laurence Hobgood, regularly leading a quartet.

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