Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alex Acuña was born Alejandro Neciosup Acuña on December 12, 1944 in Pativilca, Peru. He played in local bands such as La Orquesta de los Hermanos Neciosup from the age of ten, then followed his brothers and moved to Lima, Peru as a teenager. At the age of eighteen he joined the band of Perez Prado, and in 1965 moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In 1974 he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and worked with Elvis Presley, The Temptations, and Diana Ross. The following year he joined the jazz-fusion group Weather Report, and while in New York City, Acuña recorded several songs for RCA records. Leaving Weather Report in 1978 he became a session musician in California, recording and playing live with r&b and jazz musicians Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Jackson, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Roberta Flack,Al Jarreau and the list goes on and on.
The Eighties saw Alex recording and touring with the Christian jazz band Koinonia. In 1987 he was summoned back to Perú by producer Ricardo Ghibellini to be the musical producer of Los Hijos del Sol, a group of Peruvians designed to promote Peruvian music worldwide.
Drummer and percussionist Alex Acuña, who has worked as an educator at University of California Los Angeles, and Berklee College of Music, LAMA, Musicians Institute, USC, and CSUN, continues his career of performing and educating.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš was born on December 6, 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He began the violin at age six, switching to piano after about three years, and then to bass at age fourteen. As a young man in Europe, he was a competitive swimmer but one of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his brother Alan on drums and Jan Hammer on keyboards.
He studied music at the Prague Conservatory and won a music contest in Vienna, Austria in 1966 that gave him a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts which he attended one year before going to Chicago, Illinois to play with trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and flugelhorn pioneer Clark Terry.
When Miles Davis saw him playing in Chicago with Brookmeyerin 1967 and invited him to join his group playing at the Village Gate in New York City. It was with Davis that Vitouš first encountered saxophonist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and the Davis-centric scene that was transforming mainstream jazz from late hard bop into what would be known as jazz fusion.
1968 saw the first of Vitouš’s partnerships with Roy Ayers, and Herbie Mann, Bennie Maupin, and Stanley Cowell. The following year, Vitouš recorded his debut album as a bandleader, Infinite Search for Mann’s Embryo label. He recorded with Larry Coryell’s Spaces with John McLaughlin, Corea, and drummer Billy Cobham.
In 1969 he recorded with Shorter, McLaughlin, Jack DeJohnette, Corea, and Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira. The following year he continued as bandleader as he recorded Purple for Columbia, supported by McLaughlin, Cobham and the keyboardist Joe Zawinul. Then Shorter, Zawinul, and Vitouš formed the founding core of the jazz group Weather Report. Creative differences between him and Zawinul facilitated his departure from the group. Leaving the group he moved on to an illustrious career leading his own band and winning respect as a composer.
Double bassist, bass guitarist and composer Miroslav Vitouš continues his performing, recording and composing to this day.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Enos “Butch” Thompson was born on November 28, 1943 in St. Croix, Minnesota, began playing piano at the early age of three, and began taking lessons at age six. At Stillwater Area High School, he played clarinet in the band and in 1962 he joined the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band in Minneapolis, Minnesota and remained with them for twenty years.
>From 1974 to 1986, he was a regular and the original pianist on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion. From its inception in the 1960s he led the Butch Thompson Trio.
The 1970s saw Thompson’s recordings gaining popularity in Europe and he toured the continent extensively during the decade and into the 1980s, both as a solo artist and as a band leader or member.
He wrote for jazz publications and produced a radio show, Jazz Originals, for KBEM-FM in Minneapolis. Pianist and clarinetist Butch Thompson, best known for his ragtime and stride performances, died on August 14, 2022.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Willem Breuker was born on November 4, 1944 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. During the mid-1960s, he played with percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg. He co-founded the Instant Composers Pool (ICP) with which he regularly performed until 1973. He was a member of the Globe Unity Orchestra and the Gunter Hampel Group.
In 1974 Willem led the 10-piece Willem Breuker Kollektief, which performed jazz in a theatrical and often unconventional manner, drawing elements from theater and vaudeville. They toured Western Europe, Russia, Australia, India, China, Japan, the United States, and Canada. In 1974, he founded the record label BV Haast. Beginning in 1977, he organized the annual Klap op de Vuurpijl (Top It All) festival in Amsterdam.
Haast Music Publishers, which he also operated, published his scores. In 1997, he produced with Carrie de Swaan Componist Kurt Weill, a 48-hour, 12-part radio documentary on the life of Kurt Weill. In 1999, BV Haast published the book Willem Breuker Kollektief: Celebrating 25 Years on the Road, which includes two albums.
Bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophonist, and clarinetist Willem Breuker, who was knighted with the Order of the Netherlands Lion, died from lung cancer on July 23, 2010 in Amsterdam.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carolyn Lee Jones was born on October 30, 1950 in Nebraska to parents who were musicians. Always wanting to be a singer, her musical journey began as a child while growing up in Nebraska. During her formative years she sang in her school choirs and studied voice. After graduation, the lure of the big city drew her to Dallas, Texas where she was a retailer for luxury stores. While traveling as a buyer she sought music opportunities.
By 2008 Carolyn had changed direction and pursued music full time as a vocalist and bandleader. That year she recorded her debut release Bon Appetit! In New York City, in which she sings a duet with guest Bob Dorough.
Over the next thirteen years she recorded four more albums, while performing publicly and privately with her group, Fresh Vintage Jazz Ensemble & The Satin Dolls Band. Vocalist Carolyn Lee Jones continues to perform and tour.
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