Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Terumasa Hino was born in Tokyo, Japan on October 25, 1942. His initial exposure to music began at four was with his father, a step dancer and trumpeter, taught him tap-dancing. He soon began performing with the trumpet when he was 9 years old, later adding flugelhorn to his arsenal. In the Fifties, Hino began his career as a professional jazz musician and by 1965 after working with several noted jazz artists, he joined Hideo Shiraki’s Quintet. He remained with the band till 1969, leaving to lead his own band full-time, which he formed in 1964.

1969 saw Hino releasing his successful third album “Hi-nology” to critical acclaim and was soon performing at jazz festivals and clubs worldwide before settling in New York City in 1975. Once there he found work with numerous jazz musicians including among others Gil Evans, Elvin Jones, Jackie McLean, Ken McIntyre, Dave Liebman, Hal Galper, Carlos Garnett, Greg Osby and Sam Jones in between leading his own group, which is credited by the jazz guitarist John Scofield for him turning from fusion to jazz.

From the 1980s, he spent more time in Japan and helped incorporate several elements such as avant-garde and fusion into his music. Trumpeter Terumasa Hino has a current catalogue of fifty-one albums and he continues to perform, record and tour around the world.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Odean Pope was born October 24, 1938 in Ninety Six, South Carolina to musical parents but was reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when the family moved when he was ten. His lifelong study of music began at the Graniff School of Music and the Benjamin Franklin High School music program.

Pope grew up in a rich musical environment with other Philadelphia jazz luminaries as John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Kenny Barron, Jimmy and Percy Heath, Clifford Brown, Philly Joe Jones, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Golson to name a few. Early in his career, the young tenor saxophonist, while at Philadelphia’s Uptown Theater, played behind a number of noted rhythm and blues artists including James brown, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, however, it was Coltrane who chose him as his replacement in Jimmy Smith’s group when he left to join Miles Davis in New York.

 He went on to play briefly with Jimmy McGriff in the 1960s and late in the decade began working with Max Roach and touring Europe. Odean was a member of Philadelphia group Catalyst in the early and mid-1970s, and in 1977 assembled the “Saxophone Choir” consisting of nine saxophones and a rhythm section. He became a regular member of Roach’s quartet in 1979 and has recorded extensively with him, in addition to numerous releases as a leader.

His never-ending quest to study his craft led him to study orchestration, modern harmony, African rhythms, be-bop art forms and arrangement with Kenny Clarke at the Paris Conservatory.  He would go on to study with Ray Bryant, Jimmie Merritt, and Hasaan Ibn Ali and with Max Roach for some twenty-two years. Pope is known for saying, “Studying with Max was like going to the highest institution in the world.”

Odean perfected the techniques of circular breathing and multiphonics, both allowing him to stretch his solo improvisations from dazzling elevations to the throbbing, husky sounds for which he is so well known, to all kinds of delicacy in getting from one to the other.

Pope has won “Best Tenor Saxophone Player” at the North Sea Jazz Festival, received numerous citations from the City of Philadelphia, and has received awards from the Pew Fellowship, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Chamber music America. He started the jazz studies program at the Settlement Music School and he continues to give master classes in the Philadelphia School District as well as nationally and internationally.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dianne Reeves was born on October 23, 1956 in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father was a singer, mother Vada Swanson played trumpet, her cousin George Duke. Raised in Denver by her mother after her father died, she took piano lessons and sang at every opportunity. Inspired at age 11 to sing, she discovered she wanted to be a singer when a teacher brought students together. Subsequently her uncle, Charles Burrell, a bass player with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, introduced her to the music of jazz singers, from Ella Fitzgerald to Billie Holiday and was especially impressed by Sarah Vaughan.

By 16, Reeves was singing in the high school big band at Denver’s George Washington High School and that same year the band played at the National Association of Jazz Educators, taking first place. It was there she met trumpeter Clark Terry, who became her mentor. A year later she began the study of music at the University of Colorado prior to moving to Los Angeles in 1976. There her interest in Latin-American music grew and she began experimenting with different kinds of vocal music and finally decided to fully pursue a career as a singer. She met Eduardo del Barrio, toured with his group “Caldera”, sang in Billy Childs’ jazz band “Night Flight” and later she toured with Sergio Mendes.

From 1983 until 1986 Reeves toured with Harry Belafonte as a lead singer and immersing herself in world music for the first time. The following year she became the first vocalist signed to the reactivated Blue Note/EMI label. Dianne is well known for her fluent improvisational style that mixes elements of jazz with R&B, for which she has won four Grammy awards since her first release in 1977, “Welcome To My Love”. She has 18 albums to her credit as a leader and more than two dozen collaborations with Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride, Eddie Henderson, Solomon Burke, Tom Browne, Gordon Goodwin, Joe Sample, George Duke, both Chico and Von Freeman, Ronnie Laws, McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter and the list goes on. She was featured prominently as the vocalist performing in the studio adjacent to that of Edward R. Murrow in the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck.

Considered one of the most important contemporary jazz singers, Dianne Reeves continues to perform, tour and record, her latest import album being “Beautiful Life”.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jane Bunnett was born on October 22, 1956 in Toronto and began her musical educational as a classical pianist then switched to woodwinds at the Royal Conservatory. Inspired by Charles Mingus and Rahsaan Roland Kirk in 1979 San Francisco, she was studying jazz at York University. This led her to study with Barry Harris, James Newton, Frank Wess and James Moody and ultimately Steve Lacy in Paris in 1991.

Her debut recording “In Dew Time” featured an ambitious mix of Canadian and American players – pianist Don Pullen, tenor Dewey Redman and Vincent Chancy on French horn. This led to touring Canada and Australia and recording of her sophomore project a year later followed by two more by 1994.

Jane has become one of the foremost jazz musicians in Canada, and has gained recognition around the world for her improvising talents, technical proficiency, and writing and band leading abilities. She has received accolades and won awards from the Village Voice, SOCA, Downbeat Magazine, the National Jazz Awards of Canada, the Smithsonian Institute and the Jazz Journalist Association, her work has been nominated for several Grammy awards and received Canada’s highest award, the Order of Canada.

With sixteen albums under her belt, the saxophonist and outspoken humanitarian, Jane Bunnett continues to perform at jazz clubs, festivals, and concert halls and for broadcast throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Cuba, with her groups, and as a featured solo artist.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Don Byas was born Carlos Wesley Byas October 21, 1912 in Muskogee, Oklahoma into a musical family, his mother a pianist and father playing clarinet. He started training in classical music, first on the violin, then clarinet and finally the alto saxophone, which he played until the end of the 1920s. He started playing in local orchestras at the age of 17, with the likes of Bennie Moten, Terrence Holder and Walter Page’s Blue Devils.

In 1931 while at Langston College in Oklahoma he founded and led his own college band, “Don Carlos and His Collegiate Ramblers”. Switching to the tenor saxophone when he moved to West Coast, through the Thirties he played with various Los Angeles bands such as Bert Johnson’s Sharps and Flats, Lionel Hampton, Eddie Barefield, Buck Clayton, Lorenzo Flennoy and Charlie Echols bands.

By 1937 Byas moved to New York working with Eddie Mallory and his wife Ethel Waters, went on to work with Don Redman, recorded his first solo in 1939, played with the bands of lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk, Edgar Hayes and his childhood idol Benny Carter. He played and recorded with Billie Holiday, Pete Johnson, Hot Lips Page, Big Joe Turner, Charlie Christian, Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke in after hour sessions.

However Byas’ big break came in early 1941 when Count Basie selected him to fill the seat vacated by Lester Young. Through the forties he played the best New York nightspots, had some success with a few hits, collaborated with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, George Wallington, Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach. Despite his bebop associations, Byas always remained deeply rooted in the sounds of swing. He started out by emulating Coleman Hawkins, but always cited Art Tatum as his greater influence: “I haven’t got any style, I just blow like Art”.

In 1946 Byas went to Europe and forgot to return to America. A bon vivant in the true sense he was seen on the Riviera, St. Tropez often sporting mask and flippers, sport fishing, shooting pool or dishing up Louisiana style menus for his female admirers all while recording and playing regularly throughout Europe.

Settling in Amsterdam he continued to tour and play with the likes of Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, Bud Powell, Jazz At The Philharmonic and Ben Webster to name a few. He returned once to the U.S. to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival. Tenor saxophonist Don Byas died on August 24, 1972 from lung cancer in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the age 59.

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