Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenny Baldock, was born on April 5, 1932 in the affluent district of Chiswick in London, England. Having studied both piano and bass, he continued on the instruments at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. By the early ’60s he began showing up on jazz bandstands as a bassist in the company of players such as Peter King and the John Dankworth Orchestra, with whom he continued to be associated into the mid Seventies.
In 1972 he joined pianist Oscar Peterson at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and his performance opened opportunities to collaborate with Freddy Randall’s all-star caravan, and many more engagements with Peterson.
Summer in Montreux presented recording circumstances with guitarist Barney Kessel and the following year Baldock was leading own band projects featuring some of Britain’s heavy hitters. He worked in the Ronnie Scott Quartet that led to backup stints at Scott’s club behind many visiting American jazz performers.
By the early 1980s, Kenny seemed most interested in intimacy and stuck to a small group, often using electric guitarists as sidemen. Throughout his career he performed with among others, the Bobby Wellins Quartet, Freddy Randall~DAve Shepherd Jazz All Stars, Gordon Beck + Two, and the Laurie Holloway Quartet.
Active as an educator, bassist Kenny Baldock, whose composition Kosen Rufu garnered him an Arts Council award in 1983, transitioned from cancer on March 22, 2010.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre was born on March 24, 1936 in Clarksville, Arkansas but raised in Chicago, Illinois. He studied at the Chicago College of Music, and during the 1960s began playing with musicians such as Malachi Favors, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Roscoe Mitchell. Along with them he became a member of the ensemble Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1965.
He recorded his first solo album in 1969. During this time he recorded as a session musician for Delmark Records, playing with George Freeman, J.B. Hutto, and Little Milton, among others. The same year, Kalaparusha was convicted for drug offences, serving his sentence in Lexington, Kentucky with fellow inmate and friend musician/composer Tadd Dameron.
Moving to New York City in the 1970s, he played at Sam Rivers’s Rivbea Studios and taught at Karl Berger’s Creative Studio. He and Muhal Richard Abrams toured Europe several times. After his 1981 live album, McIntyre recorded very little, playing on the streets and in the subways of New York. His next major appearance on record was not until 1998, with Pheeroan akLaff and Michael Logan. The following year he played with many AACM ensemble members on the album Bright Moments. He continued releasing albums as a leader into the new century.
Free jazz tenor saxophonist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre transitioned on November 9, 2013, in The Bronx, New York, at the age of 77.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marty Sheller was born March 15, 1940 in Newark, New Jersey. Sheller initially studied percussion, but switched to trumpet as a teenager. He played with Hugo Dickens in Harlem, and arranged for Sabu Martinez, before working with Afro-Latin percussionists such as Louie Ramirez and Frankie Malabe.
In 1962 he became a trumpeter in Mongo Santamaria’s band, and worked with Santamaria for more than forty years as a composer and arranger. He also had an extensive association with Fania Records. As their house arranger Marty worked with Joe Bataan, Ruben Blades, Willie Colon, Larry Harlow, Hector Lavoe, and Ismael Miranda.
Outside of Fania, he arranged for musicians, not limited to, George Benson, David Byrne, Jon Faddis, Giovanni Hidalgo, T.S. Monk, Idris Muhammad, Manny Oquendo, Dave Pike, Tito Puente, Shirley Scott, Woody Shaw, Lew Soloff, and Steve Turre.
In the 2000s, he led his own ensemble, which included the sidemen Chris Rogers, Joe Magnarelli, Sam Burtis, Bobby Porcelli, Bob Franceschini, Oscar Hernández, Ruben Rodriquez, Vince Cherico, and Steve Berrios.
Trumpeter and arranger Marty Sheller, who plays primarily in latin jazz idioms, continues to pursue his musical endeavors.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jean-Claude Naude was born on March 7, 1933 in Amiens, France. He attended the Amiens conservatory and played early in his career as a trumpeter for Raymond Fonsèque’s orchestra and with Georges Arvanitas.
By 1955 Naude was working with Maxim Saury, an association that would last a decade. He also played piano with Raymond Fonsèque in a trio with trombonist Luis Fuentes.
In the second half of the 1960s Jean~Claude led his own big bands and played with Gerard Badini, Jacky Samson, and Andre Paquinet. The 1970s saw him playing with Claude Bolling and in the 1980s with Bob Quibel.
Pianist and trumpeter Jean~Claude Naude transitioned on January 9, 2008.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Trevor Charles Watts was born in York, England on February 26, 1939 and is largely self-taught, having taken up the cornet at age 12 then switched to saxophone at 18.
While stationed in Germany with the RAF from 1958 to 1963, he encountered the drummer John Stevens and trombonist Paul Rutherford. After his service he returned to London, England and in 1965, he and Stevens formed the Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME), which became one of the crucibles of British free improvisation.
Leaving the band to form his own group Amalgam in 1967, Trevor returned to SME for another stretch that lasted until the mid-1970s. Collaborating with bassist Barry Guy and his London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, they performed until their disbandment in the mid-1990s.
Though he was initially strongly identified with the avant-garde, Watts was versatile, working in everything from straight jazz contexts to rock and blues. His own projects blended jazz and African music, notably the Moiré Music ensemble which he led since 1982. He has collaborated with jazz musicians including Archie Shepp, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry, Jayne Cortez and Stephen Grew.
Free-improvising alto and soprano saxophonist Trevor Watts, who recorded 31 albums as a leader, and two as a sideman, continue to explore the music.
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