Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Barry Doyle Harris was born in Detroit, Michigan on December 15, 1929 and learned to play piano as a child. Mainly influenced by Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, his playing style is similar to Bud Powell.
Moving to New York City in 1960, Harris played with Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Stitt, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon and Max Roach. During the 1970s, Harris lived with Monk and his family at the Weehawken, New Jersey home of the jazz patroness Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter. He performed piano duets with Tommy Flanagan in the 1989 Clint Eastwood documentary Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser and in 2000, he was profiled in the film Barry Harris – Spirit of Bebop.
As an educator Barry established the Jazz Cultural Theater teaching group music and piano lessons and hosting performances. Since 1991 he has collaborated with Toronto-based pianist and teacher Howard Rees in creating a series of videos and workbooks documenting his unique harmonic and improvisational systems and teaching process.
Barry Harris continues to perform and teach worldwide and holds weekly music workshop sessions in New York City for vocalists, students of piano and other instruments when not on the road.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leo Wright was born on December 14, 1933 in Wichita Falls, Texas and studied saxophone under the tutelage of his father. His first recording was made in 1958 with vibist Dave Pike and the next year played the Newport Festival with bassist Charles Mingus’ group. He followed this joining Dizzy Gillespie’s band in 1959, remaining until 1962.
In addition to his sideman work, Wright established himself as a leader in the early ’60s, leading New York-based bands that included the likes of Ron Carter, Junior Mance, Charlie Persip and Kenny Burrell, among others. In 1960 he signed with Atlantic Records and recorded “Blues Shout” with Mance, Persip, Art Davis and Richard Williams.
After leaving Gillespie’s band, Leo went on to play and record with Lalo Schifrin, Jack McDuff, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Johnny Coles, Gloria Coleman and Jimmy Witherspoon. Moving to Europe he spent time working with George Gruntz, Carmell Jones and Lee Konitz in the group Alto Summit. Eventually he moved to Berlin playing in a studio band and freelancing.
Back in New York by 1978, Wright co-led a studio session Red Garland for Muse Records and then retired from music around 1979. He re-emerged in the mid-’80s and was playing gigs in Paris by 1986, working with Grachan Moncur, Kenny Drew Sr. and Nat Adderley. In the years before his death Leo would perform and record with his wife Elly Wright, making his final recording with her titled “Listen To My lea”.
Leo Wright, bop alto saxophonist and one of the finest flutists jazz has known, passed away on January 4, 1991 in Vienna, Austria.
Inspire A Young Mind
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Cranshaw was born Melbourne R. Cranshaw on December 10, 1932 in Evanston, Illinois and started on drums and piano before switching to the tuba and bass in high school. He was a founding member of Walter Perkins’ MJT +3 band in 1957 and it was Perkins who recommended Bob to Sonny Rollins as a replacement bassist for a gig at the first Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago in 1959.
His long association with Rollins has spanned over five decades with their first recording of the album The Bridge in 1962. From the heyday of Blue Note Records to the present, though never a leader, Cranshaw has a long list of accolades performing and recording with such giants as Lee Morgan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dexter Gordon, Duke Pearson, Grant Green, Coleman Hawkins, Jimmy Heath, Joe Henderson, Shirley Scott, Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, Hank Mobley, Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson and the list goes on and on.
One of the early jazz bassists to trade his upright bass for an electric bass, Bob was criticized for this by jazz purists, who either never knew or cared that he was forced to switch due to a back injury incurred in a serious auto accident. Never stopping, he served as the sole session bassist for Sesame Street and The Electric Company and played on all songs, tracks, buttons and cue recorded by The Children’s Television Workshop under the tenure of songwriter and composer Joe Raposo.
Cranshaw has performed on Broadway, on hundreds of television shows such as the David Frost Show band under Dr. Billy Taylor and the original 70s Saturday Night Live, has worked on film and television scores, and appeared on The Blue Note Story documentary of the famous label. He has also recorded for Vee Jay, Prestige and other labels throughout his career as a sought after sideman. He remains an active performer and member of the New York Musicians Union.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Gladden was born on December 6, 1937 in Newark, New Jersey and became interested in drums before he was ten years old. He would bet on the furniture around the house until his mother bought him a drum set. He attended Newark’s Arts High School, majored in music, and eventually got into different groups.
As an up-and-comer, Gladden held down a few jobs outside music but by his early ’20s he was working professionally around Newark. He played jam sessions, gigged and recorded with Larry Young, Freddie Roach, Woody Shaw, Johnny Coles, Connie Lester and Buddy Terry. By 1972 he was touring with James Moody, then worked with Kenny Dorham, Jimmy McGriff, Shirley Scott, Richie Cole and Horace Silver prior to joining Dexter Gordon.
Performing, recording and touring worldwide with Gordon was Eddie’s crowning career achievement with performances on such classic albums as “Live at Carnegie Hall” and “Nights at the Keystone”. Suffering a stroke in 1988 he was sidelined from music and it took several years to recuperate but finally returning to play occasionally. His list of who’s who includes but not limited to Eddie Jefferson, Cecil Payne, David “Fathead” Newman, Jimmy McGriff, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Kirk Lightsey, Clifford Jordan, Albert Dailey and Jimmy Ponder to name a few.
Eddie Gladden, the powerful, fiery and creative drummer who was easy to work with, passed away of a heart attack on September 30, 2003.
Inspire A Young Mind
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jim Hall was born James Stanley Hall on December 4, 1930 in Buffalo, New York. Learning to play guitar as a child, he was educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music. After his matriculation he moved to Los Angeles, California and began to attract national then international attention in the late 50s. It was during this period that he further studied classical guitar with Vincente Gomez.
Hall would play with the Chico Hamilton Quintet and Jimmy Guiffre in the Fifties, Ella Fitzgerald in the early 60s, then played with Ben Webster, Hampton Hawes, Bob Brookmeyer, John Lewis, Zoot Sims, and Lee Konitz, among others. A move to New York led him to work with Sonny Rollins and Art Farmer and his live and recorded collaborations there with Bill Evans, Paul Desmond and Ron Carter have become legendary.
Formal recognition as a composer came in 1997, when Jim won the New York Jazz Critics Circle Award for Best Jazz Composer/Arranger. His pieces for string, brass, and vocal ensembles can be heard on his “Textures and By Arrangement” recordings. He has been commissioned to compose for guitar and orchestra, awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, was one of the first musicians to join the fan-funded label ArtistShare.
Hall changed the way jazz guitar sounded, with his innovation, composition, and improvisation. Apart from Metheny, he influenced other contemporary artists such as Bill Frisell, Mick Goodrick, John Scofield, and John Abercrombie. He continued to perform, tour and record up until he passed away in his sleep on December 10, 2013 in his Manhattan apartment.
Jazz Is Global – Share
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