Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ronnie Ross was born Albert Ronald Ross on October 2, 1933 in Calcutta, India. A move to London at 13 was where he began his interest in playing saxophone and started out on the tenor. In the ‘50s he played with Tony Kinsey, Ted Heath and Don Rendell and it was during his tenure with Rendell that he switched to the baritone.

Ross played the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 and formed his own group that year called the Jazz Makers with drummer Allan Ganley. In 1959 he toured the United States and later Europe with the Modern Jazz Quartet. From 1961 to 1965 he played with Bill LeSage, Woody Herman, John Dankworth, Friedrich Guida and Clark Terry.

Ronnie was a saxophone tutor for a young David Bowie, and years later was the soloist on the Lou Reed song “Walk On The Wild Side”, which was co-produced by Bowie. He also had guest appearances as a soloist on several Matt Bianco albums.

Baritone saxophonist Ronnie Ross passed away on December 12, 1991 in London, England. He was 58.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Tony Dumas was born in Los Angeles, California on October 1, 1955. By the age of 14, he started playing bass first crafting his sound in his high school orchestra. After graduation he went on to study music at Pasadena City College.

Dumas’ first started playing professionally with organist Johnny Hammond Smith followed by a stint with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. 

To say he was sought after would be an understatement as his list of credentials as a sideman is impressive to say the least.

Tony has been privileged to have toured, played and recorded with such luminaries as Herbie Hancock, Carmen McCrae, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams, Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins, Rufus Reid, Chick Corea, Eddie Gladden, George Cables and Art Pepper as well as The Manhattan Transfer, Joe Farrell, Etta James, Mariah Carey, Bill Cosby and the Playboy Jazz Festival Band, Patrice Rushen, Bob Berg, and the list goes on and on.

Bassist Tony Dumas continues to add to the legacy of jazz through his performing and recording.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Buddy Rich was born Bernard Rich on September 30, 1917 in New York City to vaudevillians. His father first noticed his musical talent to keep a steady beat with spoons at the age of one. He began playing drums at eighteen months in vaudeville billed as “Traps the Drum Wonder”. At the height of his childhood career he was reportedly the second-highest paid child entertainer in the world, after Jackie Coogan.

By age 11 he became a bandleader without any formal drum instruction, claiming that instruction would only degrade his musical talent; never admitted to practicing, played drums only during performance, and was not known to read music. Buddy’s first major jazz gig was in 1937 with Joe Marsala and guitarist Jack Lemaire was followed with Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw, Vic Schoen Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra.

In 1942 he enlisted in the Marines and two years later was back with Dorsey. With financial backing from Sinatra in ’46 he formed his own band and continued to lead different groups into the early fifties. In addition he performed with Benny Carter, Harry James, Les Brown, Charlie Ventura, Jazz at the Philharmonic and led several successful big bands in an era that didn’t popularize them, played on sessions with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong for their late-career comeback recordings, Oscar Peterson and his famous trio with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis.

Rich always have a drummer there during rehearsals to read and play the parts initially on new arrangements. He’d listen to a chart once, have it memorized, run through it and he’d know exactly how it went, how many measures it ran and what he’d have to do to drive it.

Buddy, once billed as “The World’s Greatest Drummer”, was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove and speed and remained an active performer until the end of his life. On April 2, 1987 in Los Angeles, California drummer, bandleader and songwriter Buddy Rich succumbed to heart failure following surgery for a malignant brain tumor. He was 69.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dave Kikoski was born on September 29, 1961 in New Brunswick, New Jersey and learned to play the piano from his father who started him out at age six. In his early teens he played with his father, jazz and rock bands, and won “The New Jersey Allstate Jazz Competition”. Graduating from high school he headed to Boston’s Berklee School of Music, had a stream of trio gig while matriculating, met Pat Metheny who sat in on a gig and later recorded with him along with Roy Haynes.

Mid 80s found Dave in New York performing and recording several different dates through the end of the decade with Roy Haynes, Randy Brecker, Bob Berg and Billy Hart. In 1989 he recorded “Presage”, his first date as a leader with Eddie Gomez and Al Foster. His sophomore project “Persistent Dreams” featured a larger ensemble with Randy Brecker and Billy Hart. Since the nineties he has been kept busy as a sideman, session player and leader working with the likes of John Patitucci, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Red Rodney, Craig Handy, Ralph Moore, Didier Lockwood, Joe Locke, the Mingus Big Band, Victor Lewis, Roy Hargrove, Dave Holland and others.

Pianist Dave Kikoski has recorded sixteen albums as a leader and four as a sideman and co-collaborator, toured worldwide, played prestigious festivals and continues to perform, record, compose and expand his own voice.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Kenneth David “Kenny” Kirkland was born September 28, 1955 in Newport, New York and when only six sat down at a piano keyboard. Following years of Catholic school Kenny enrolled in the Manhattan School of Music and studied classical piano performance, theory and composition. He first worked professionally touring through Europe with Polish fusion violinist Michal Urbaniak in 1977 and recording with him on “Urbaniak” and “Daybreak”. His next high-profile gig was with Miroslav Vitous with subsequent recording dates on “First Meeting” and “Miroslav Vitous Group”.

In the early 80s, Kirkland toured Japan with trumpeter Terumasa Hino, met Wynton Marsalis and their long association began with him playing on Marsalis’ self-titled debut album and sharing duties with Herbie Hancock. He became the sole pianist on Marsalis’ subsequent releases “Think Of One”, “Hothouse Flowers” and “Black Codes (From The Underground)”. Following this stint he joined Branford’s band After his association with Wynton Marsalis, Kirkland joined Branford Marsalis’ band and is featured on the albums “Royal Garden Blues”, “Renaissance”, “Random Abstract”, “Crazy People Music”, “I Heard You Twice The First Time”, “Buckshot Lefonque”.

Kenny worked for a short period as The Tonight Show pianist during Branford’s tenure but returned to the East coast and session work. Contrary to jazz orthodoxy Kirkland stretched to include keyboards and synthesizers coupled with straying from traditional jazz to work with Sting, on the documentary “Bring On The Night”, and in 1991 released his debut “Kenny Kirkland” for GRP and “Thunder and Rainbows/J.F.K.” on Sunnyside followed.

Leading up to June 1998, Kirkland worked diligently with long-time associate Jeff “Tain” Watts on the drummer’s debut recording “Citizen Tain” but his health was failing due to abuse and neglectful physical exercise. Jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland, most often associated with Sting, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, and Kenny Garrett, passed away quietly in his Queens apartment of congestive heart failure on November 12, 1998.

In his more than twenty-year career, Kirkland performed or recorded with such artists as Don Alias, Carla Bley, Terence Blanchard, Michael Brecker, Stanley Clarke, Kevin Eubanks, Charles Fambrough, Chico Freeman, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Arturo Sandoval and the list of jazz greats continues along with Ben E. King, Angela Bofill, Youssou N’Dour, Stephen Stills and David Crosby.

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