Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dianne Reeves was born on October 23, 1956 in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father was a singer, mother Vada Swanson played trumpet, her cousin George Duke. Raised in Denver by her mother after her father died, she took piano lessons and sang at every opportunity. Inspired at age 11 to sing, she discovered she wanted to be a singer when a teacher brought students together. Subsequently her uncle, Charles Burrell, a bass player with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, introduced her to the music of jazz singers, from Ella Fitzgerald to Billie Holiday and was especially impressed by Sarah Vaughan.
By 16, Reeves was singing in the high school big band at Denver’s George Washington High School and that same year the band played at the National Association of Jazz Educators, taking first place. It was there she met trumpeter Clark Terry, who became her mentor. A year later she began the study of music at the University of Colorado prior to moving to Los Angeles in 1976. There her interest in Latin-American music grew and she began experimenting with different kinds of vocal music and finally decided to fully pursue a career as a singer. She met Eduardo del Barrio, toured with his group “Caldera”, sang in Billy Childs’ jazz band “Night Flight” and later she toured with Sergio Mendes.
From 1983 until 1986 Reeves toured with Harry Belafonte as a lead singer and immersing herself in world music for the first time. The following year she became the first vocalist signed to the reactivated Blue Note/EMI label. Dianne is well known for her fluent improvisational style that mixes elements of jazz with R&B, for which she has won four Grammy awards since her first release in 1977, “Welcome To My Love”. She has 18 albums to her credit as a leader and more than two dozen collaborations with Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride, Eddie Henderson, Solomon Burke, Tom Browne, Gordon Goodwin, Joe Sample, George Duke, both Chico and Von Freeman, Ronnie Laws, McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter and the list goes on. She was featured prominently as the vocalist performing in the studio adjacent to that of Edward R. Murrow in the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck.
Considered one of the most important contemporary jazz singers, Dianne Reeves continues to perform, tour and record, her latest import album being “Beautiful Life”.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jane Bunnett was born on October 22, 1956 in Toronto and began her musical educational as a classical pianist then switched to woodwinds at the Royal Conservatory. Inspired by Charles Mingus and Rahsaan Roland Kirk in 1979 San Francisco, she was studying jazz at York University. This led her to study with Barry Harris, James Newton, Frank Wess and James Moody and ultimately Steve Lacy in Paris in 1991.
Her debut recording “In Dew Time” featured an ambitious mix of Canadian and American players – pianist Don Pullen, tenor Dewey Redman and Vincent Chancy on French horn. This led to touring Canada and Australia and recording of her sophomore project a year later followed by two more by 1994.
Jane has become one of the foremost jazz musicians in Canada, and has gained recognition around the world for her improvising talents, technical proficiency, and writing and band leading abilities. She has received accolades and won awards from the Village Voice, SOCA, Downbeat Magazine, the National Jazz Awards of Canada, the Smithsonian Institute and the Jazz Journalist Association, her work has been nominated for several Grammy awards and received Canada’s highest award, the Order of Canada.
With sixteen albums under her belt, the saxophonist and outspoken humanitarian, Jane Bunnett continues to perform at jazz clubs, festivals, and concert halls and for broadcast throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Cuba, with her groups, and as a featured solo artist.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
My Fair Lady opened the Mark Hellinger Theatre on March 15, 1956, running for a record 2,717 performances and making it the 7th musical to enter the roster of blockbuster musicals and to date the longest running on Broadway. The musical starred Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Robert Coote performing the compositions of Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Leowe who gave the world I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face, Show Me, On The Street Where You Live, I Could Have Danced All Night and Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.
The Story: When Professor Henry Higgins, from perfect British class snobbishness hears the low born waif bray of flower girl Eliza Doolittle, he places a wager with his colleague Colonel Pickering that by giving her lessons in speech and class, he can pass her off to society. Unwittingly, through all their ups and downs in the learning process, the caterpillar evolves into a beautiful butterfly and Henry falls in love. Fighting his heart every step of the way and frustrating a now society lady Eliza, who has also fallen for him. Finally Henry succumbs to his heart and they find peace in their world.
Jazz History: Outside of the United States the beginnings of a distinct European style of jazz emerged in France with the Quintette du Hot Club de France, which began in 1934. Belgian guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt popularized gypsy jazz, a mix of 1930s American swing, French dance hall “musette” and Eastern European folk with a languid, seductive feel. The main instruments are steel stringed guitar, violin and double bass. Solos pass from one player to another as the guitar and bass play the role of the rhythm section. Some music researchers hold that it was Philadelphia’s Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti who pioneered the guitar-violin partnership typical of the genre,which was brought to France after they had been heard live or on Okeh Records in the late 1920s.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Daniels was born on October 19, 1941 in New York City and grew up in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn. He became interested in jazz as a teenager when impressed by listening to the recordings of the musicians accompanying singers, such as Frank Sinatra. Eddie’s first instrument was the alto saxophone, started on clarinet at 13 and later received his Masters in Clarinet from Julliard. By 15 he would add the Newport Jazz Festival Youth Competition to what would become a long list of credits. By the time he entered college, he was playing alto, clarinet and adding tenor saxophone to his arsenal.
Daniels has led a variety of bands from small combos to orchestras and has toured worldwide, recorded and appeared on television. Since the 1980s he has focused mainly on the clarinet and in 1989 he won one of many Grammy awards for playing on the Roger Kellaway arrangement of “Memos From Paradise”.
Over the course of his career he has captured Down Beat Magazine’s International Critics New Star on Clarinet Award, played and recorded with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra at the Village Vanguard, George Benson, Joe Farrell, Johnny Hammond, Richard Davis, Yusef Lateef, Airto Moreira and Don Patterson Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. Clarinetist Eddie Daniels, who also plays saxophone, flute and piccolo, performs commissioned classical compositions, has revolutionized the blend of classical and jazz and continues to tour and record.
From Broadway To 52nd Street
Plain And Fancy opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on January 27, 1955 and ran for 461 performances. Albert Hague & Arnold B. Horwitt composed the music and the show starred Richard Derr, Shirl Conway, Will Able, Gloria Marlowe, Fletcher Rodgers and Barbara Cook. Bea Arthur was an understudy and Carol Lawrence was in the chorus. A favorite jazz tunes came from this musical was Young And Foolish.
The Story: New York City sophisticates Dan King and Ruth Winters travel to Bird-In-Hand in the Amish country of Lancaster County, PA to sell a piece of property to Jacob Yoder, who in turn intends to present it to his daughter Katie and her intended Ezra as a wedding gift. While there, they become involved with local villagers, including Hilda Miller, who mistakes Dan’s kindness for romantic overtures. Ezra’s banished brother Peter returns to claim the hand of his childhood sweetheart, Katie.
Broadway History: Previously, regardless of the size of the venue, a theatre was not considered Off-Broadway if it was within the “Broadway Box” (extending from 40th to 54th Street, and from west of Sixth Avenue to east of 8th Avenue, and including Times Square and 42nd Street. The contractual definition changed this to encompass theatres meeting the standard, which is beneficial to these theatres because of the lower minimum required salary for Actors’ Equity performers at Off-Broadway theatres as compared with the salary requirements of the union for Broadway theatres. Examples of Off-Broadway theatres within the Broadway Box are the Laura Pels Theatre and the Snapple Theater Center..
A number of Off-Broadway musicals have had subsequent runs on Broadway. These have included musicals such as Hair, Godspell, A Chorus Line, Little Shop of Horrors, Rent and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee to name a few. Other productions such as Stomp, Blue Man Group and Altar Boyz have run for several years Off Broadway. The Fantasticks, the longest running musical in theatre history, spent its original 42-year run Off Broadway.
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