Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Whitlock was born on January 21, 1931 in Roosevelt, Utah and began playing bass as a teenager. After relocating to Los Angeles, California was active as a session musician from the early 1950s. He was heard working with Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Buddy DeFranco, Joe Albany, Jack Sheldon, Warne Marsh, and numerous others.
Late in the Fifties decade Bob led his own small group while attending the University of California. He went on to work in France in the early 1960s, playing with Zoot Sims, Vi Redd, Curtis Amy, Peggy Lee and Victor Feldman. Towards the end of the Sixties he worked with Joe Pass and extensively with George Shearing. In the 1970s he worked with Albany once again.
Between 1957 and 1972 he recorded fourteen albums as a sideman, never as a leader. Double-bassist Bob Whitlock transitioned on June 20, 2015 in Long Beach, California
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Three Wishes
What Reggie Workman told Nica his three wishes would be were the following:
- “Complete health, which includes peace of mind.”
- “Everlasting happiness with my wife and family.”
- “That the art of jazz will find its rightful place all over the world, which will be a sign of man’s disregarding things that have kept people unhappy.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Georg Riedel was born January 8, 1934 in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia, and in 1938, when he was four years old, the family fled to Sweden following the German annexation of the Sudetenland. He attended school in Stockholm, Sweden and at the Adolf Fredrik’s Music School.
The best known recording featuring Riedel is probably Jan Johansson’s Jazz på svenska (Jazz in Swedish), a minimalist-jazz compilation of folk songs recorded between 1962–1963. He recorded with other leading Swedish musicians including trumpeter Jan Allan and Arne Domnérus.
As a composer, George worked almost exclusively writing music for Astrid Lindgren movies, including the main theme from the Emil i Lönneberga (Emil of Maple Hills) movies. He also composed the music for several films by Arne Mattsson in the 1960s as well as for film adaptations of novels by Stig Dagerman.
Double bassist and composer George Riedel, played on Jazz at the Pawnshop in 1977, at 87 continues his involvement with jazz.
Bestow upon an inquiring mind a dose of a Karlovy Vary double bassist to motivate the perusal of the genius of jazz musicians worldwide whose gifts contribute to the canon…
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chuck Flores was born Charles Walter Flores on January 5, 1935 in Orange, California, and grew up in Santa Ana, California. Best known for his work with saxophonist Bud Shank in the 1950s, he also had a two-year stint with Woody Herman from 1954 to 1955.
Throughout his career Chuck performed and recorded with, among others, Carmen McRae, Art Pepper, Maynard Ferguson, Al Cohn, and Shelly Manne. His drum teacher Manne and others considered him an underrated drummer.
In his later years, Flores became a highly sought after and renowned educator who was a longtime faculty member at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, California.
A few of his students were Danny Seraphine, Chad Wackerman, John Wackerman, Brooks Wackerman, Ray Mehlbaum, Pete Parada, Jamie Wollam, Jose Ruiz and Zack Stewart.
Drummer Chuck Flores, who was one of the relatively small number of musicians associated with West Coast jazz who were actually from the West Coast, transitioned on November 24, 2016.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Brian Smith was born on January 3, 1939 in Wellington, New Zealand and studied piano in his youth but was primarily an autodidact on reeds. He played locally in pop and jazz groups before moving to England in 1964, where he played with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated.
Following this stint he played at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club from 1966 to ‘67 and in the big bands of Tubby Hayes and Maynard Ferguson from 1969 to 1974. Smith went on to work with the group Nucleus from 1969 to 1982. During the next two decades he also performed with Mike Westbrook, Neil Ardley, Mike Gibbs, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Keith Tippett, Pacific Eardrum and Paz.
1982 saw the return to New Zealand, where Brian began playing with his own quartet. His 1984 album Southern Excursions was named Australian Jazz Record of the Year. Based out of Auckland, working with Frank Gibson, Jr. later in the Eighties, his Moonlight Sax albums were chart successes in New Zealand. Saxophonist and flautist Brian Smith continues to perform and record.
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