Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gato Barbieri was born Leandro Barbieri on November 28, 1932 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina into a family of musicians. He began playing music after hearing Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time”, first playing the clarinet and later the alto saxophone while performing with his fellow countryman pianist Lalo Schifrin in the late 1950s.
By the early 1960s in Europe he worked with Don Cherry, became influenced by John Coltrane’s later recordings as well as free jazz saxophonists Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders. He developed a warm and gritty sound that became Gato’s trademark and by the late Sixties began fusing music from South America and contributed to Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra and Carla Bley’s Escalator Over The Hill.
Barbieri earned a Grammy for the score of Last Tango In Paris, which led to a recording deal with Impulse Records. By the mid-70s, he was recording for A&M Records and moved his music towards soul-jazz and jazz-pop with albums like “Caliente!” and “Ruby Ruby”. As a leader he has recorded some thirty albums and as a sideman has played and recorded another nine with Dollar Brand, Gary Burton, the Jazz Composers Orchestra among others. The saxophonist has received the UNICEF Award and continued to compose, perform and record until his passing on April 2, 2016 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jacky Terrasson was born Jacques-Laurent Terrasson on November 27, 1966 in Berlin, Germany to French and American parents, but grew up in Paris, France. He started learning piano at 5 years old and after studying classical piano in school, he studied jazz, in particular with Jeff Gardner. His encounter with Francis Paudras played an important role his initiation into jazz.
He studied at Berklee College of Music before playing in Chicago and New York clubs. He gained increased attention on winning the 1993 Thelonious Monk Piano Competition and began touring with Betty Carter. A year later he was named by the New York Times Magazine one of the 30 under 30 to change American culture in the next 30 years.
He has recorded for Blue Note, Venus, EMI, Concord and Universal France amassing a total of 15 records. He has worked with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Michael Brecker, Dianne Reeves, Jimmy Scott, Charles Aznavor, Cassandra Wilson, Ry Cooder, and his trios with Leon Parker and Ugonna Okegwo or Eric Harland, Ben Williams, Jamire Williams and Justin Faulkner.
Pianist Jacky Terrasson plays festivals all over the world and works regularly in Japan, South Korea and in China, as well as in Europe and the United States. He mingles and melts the colors and the inventions of the great pianists of yesterday and today creating his own style.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Art Themen was born Arthur Edward George Themen on November 26, 1939 in Manchester, England. In 1958 he began his medical studies at the University of Cambridge, going on in 1961 to complete his studies at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, qualifying in 1964. He specialized in orthopedic medicine and eventually became a consultant.
Themen started playing saxophone with the Cambridge University Jazz Group, and then in London playing with blues musicians Jack Bruce and Alexis Korner. In 1965 he played with the Peter Stuyvesant Jazz Orchestra in Zurich, going on to play with such English luminaries as Michael Garrick and Graham Collier’s Music.
In 1974 Art entered into what was to be one of his central musical relationships when he started playing with Stan Tracey that took him throughout the United Kingdom and all over the world. He has also played and toured with musicians such as Nat Adderley, Ian Carr, George Coleman and Al Haig. In 1995 he formed a quartet with pianist John Critchinson.
Themen’s style originally owed much to the influence of Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins, but later influences included such disparate saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Evan Parker and John Coltrane.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Terell Stafford was born in Miami, Florida on November 25, 1966 and raised in Chicago, Illinois and Silver Spring, Maryland. He went on to get a degree in music education from University of Maryland in 1988 branching out from classical trumpet to jazz with their jazz band. He went on to obtain a degree in classical trumpet performance from Rutgers University.
His career in jazz soon picked up and has played with McCoy Tyner, Shirley Scott, Christian McBride, John Clayton, Steve Turre, Stephen Scott, Bobby Watson, Dave Valentin, Lafayette Harris, Cecil Brooks III, Cornell Dupree, Ed Wiley, Victor Lewis, Melissa Walker, Herbie Mann and Russell Malone among others. He has graced the stages such as Carnegie Hall and The Tonight Show.
Stafford’s educator hat has him as the Director of Jazz Studies at Temple University and has also worked with the Juilliard School’s jazz program, at the Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington program, and with the 2006 All-Alaska Jazz Band. He has recorded eight albums to date and continues to perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Serge Chaloff was born on November 24, 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts to noted piano teachers, Margaret and Julius. He was among the few major jazz performers on his instrument, and until his arrival on the jazz scene the only prominent baritone player was Harry Carney of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
Originally influenced by Charlie Parker, Serge became the first major bebop baritone saxophonist, opening the way for others to follow. He first became well known as one of the “Four Brothers” reed section in Woody Herman’s Second Herd. He also played with Boyd Raeburn, Georgie Auld, Jimmy Dorsey and Count Basie.
Recording as a leader Chaloff produced five records working with Stan Kenton, Sonny Clark, Leroy Vinnegar, Philly Joe Jones and the metronome All-Stars, however, his career was greatly limited by addiction to heroin. After successfully giving up drugs, baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff developed cancer of the spine which caused his early death on July 16, 1957 at he young age of 33.
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