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Karen Borca was born September 5, 1948 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The jazz bassoonist studied music at the University of Wisconsin where she met Cecil Taylor and became his teaching assistant during her senior year. She went on to play in his Cecil Taylor Unit.
By 1974 she was the teaching assistant to longtime Taylor sideman Jimmy Lyons, who Karen married and played with until his passing in 1986. She has continued to perform on the Lower East Side of New York City with musicians like William Parker, Marco Eneidi, Joel Futterman, Sonny Simmons, Alan Silva and Jackson Krall, while also leading her own band.
An accomplished sideman, she has recorded on albums with Joe Morris, Alna Silva, Paul Murphy, Bill Dixon and with Earth People. She has an impressive facility, playing with the litheness and imagination of a first-rate free jazz saxophonist. Bassoonist Karen Borca is one who has mastered an extremely difficult instrument and adapted it to free jazz that she continues to perform.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
The King and I opened at the St. James Theatre on March 29, 1953 and entered into the pantheon of blockbuster musical hits with one thousand two hundred and forty-six performances. What made this a great musical were the actors – Yul Brynner, Gertrude Lawrence, Dorothy Sarnoff Doretta Morrow and Larry Douglas. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein composed the music and lyrics from which evolved the jazz standards Hello Young Lovers, I Have Dreamed and We Kiss In A Shadow. It ran nearly three years, then the fourth longest-running Broadway musical in history, and has had many tours and revivals.
The Story: Anna, a widowed teacher who goes to Siam to tutor the King’s children, hiding her fears of the new land. She finds the King a despot and is especially sympathetic to the furtive youngsters who would marry without permission. The lovers are caught and sentenced to death. Anna and the King fight but finally come to understand each other. She perseveres and on his deathbed, the King confesses he has begun to see the wisdom of her more civilized ways
Broadway History: Broadway theatre had entered a golden age with the blockbuster “Oklahoma!”. According to John Kenrick writing of Broadway musicals, “Every season saw new stage musicals send songs to the top of the charts. Public demand, a booming economy and abundant creative talent kept Broadway hopping. To this day, the shows of the 1950s form the core of the musical theatre repertory.”
In 1950, theatrical attorney Fanny Holtzman was looking for a part for her client, veteran leading lady Gertrude Lawrence. Holtzmann realized that Landon’s book would be an ideal vehicle and contacted Rodgers and Hammerstein, who were initially reluctant but agreed to write the musical. The pair initially sought Rex Harrison to play the supporting part of the King, a role that he had played in the 1946 movie made from landon’s book, but he was unavailable. They settled on actor and television director Yul Brynner.The musical was an immediate hit, winning Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Actress (for Lawrence) and Best Featured Actor (for Brynner). Lawrence died unexpectedly of cancer a year and a half after the opening, and several actresses played the role of Anna during the remainder of the Broadway run of 1,246 performances.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Branford Marsalis was born August 26, 1960 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana into a musical family led by the patriarch, Ellis. In the summer of 1980, while still at Berklee College of Music, Marsalis toured Europe playing alto and baritone saxophone in an art Blakey large ensemble that led to big band experience with Lionel Hampton and Clark Terry with a return the Art Blakey in the Jazz Messengers with his brother Wynton.
By 1985 he released his first recording, Scenes in the City, as well as guest appearances with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1985 he joined Sting and The Police along with jazz drummer Omar Hakim, bassist Darryl Jones and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, recording and performing until 1999.
Branford is primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of his own quartet, with original member Jeff “Tain” Watts drums, bassist Eric Revis replacing Robert Hurst on bass and pianist Joey Calderazzo replacing Kenny Kirkland after his death. The quartet has toured and recorded extensively, receiving a Grammy in 2001 for its album “Contemporary Jazz”.
After a two-decade association with Columbia Records serving as Creative Consultant and producer for jazz recordings between 1997 and 2001, Marsalis founded his own Marsalis Music label in 2002. producing and releasing his own band along with Harry Connick Jr., Miguel Zenon, Doug Wamble, Alvin Batiste, Michael Carvin, Jimmy Cobb, Bob French and soon to be released Claudia Acuna.
Marsalis has placed great emphasis on his classical music endeavors since the 2001 release of the album “Creation” and symphony orchestra and chamber ensemble performances worldwide became a significant part of his itinerary, touring the U.S. with Philarmonia Brasileira. He has won a 2010 Drama Desk Award for “Outstanding Music in a Play” and was nominated for a 2010 Tony for August Wilson’s Broadway revival of Fences.
Branford has been an educator on the university level at Michigan State, San Francisco State and presently at North Carolina Central University. After Hurricane Katrina he joined forces with Harry Connick Jr. and created the Musician’s Village, undertaken by New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity in the upper 9th ward, providing dozens of musicians of modest means with the opportunity to own decent, affordable housing. They received the Jefferson Awards for Public Service.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
The music composed for Guys & Dolls by Frank Loesser was first heard on the stage at the 46th Street Theatre on January 24, 1950. It became a part of the blockbuster club with a total of 1200 performances. The show starred Robert Alda, Sam Levene and Vivian Blaine, the latter who would go on to star in the 1955 movie version with Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Stubby Kaye. Coming out of the play into jazz prominence were the songs If I Were A Bell, I’ll Know, I’ve Never Been In Love Before and Luck Be A Lady Tonight.
The Story: New York gambler, Nathan Detroit, tries to set up a floating crap game since the highest of the high rollers, Sky Masterson, is in town. All the while the police are putting on the heat to prevent the game from happening. Nathan bets Sky that he cannot woo any girl he chooses. He picks Salvation Army’s Sister Sarah and off to Cuba she and Sky go. Ultimately the game takes place in the empty Salvation Army headquarters. Nathan has promised his girl Adelaide that he has quit gambling and will marry her. Romance ensues for all and both Nathan and Sky marry in the end.
Although Guys and Dolls was selected as the winner of the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the prize was not awarded because writer Abe Burrows was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Do to these troubles with HUAC, the Trustees of Columbia University vetoed the selection, and no Pulitzer for Drama was awarded that year.
Jazz History: In 1950, Charlie Parker, despite a severe drug problem, was at the height of his career. It was during that same year that he became the first jazz musician to record with a string ensemble, which produced the album Charlie Parker With Strings. The year also saw the beginning point were a series of singles on Capitol Records of a nonet led by trumpeter Miles Davis, collected and released first on a ten-inch and later a twelve-inch as the Birth of the Cool. Cool jazz recordings by Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Stan Getz and the Modern Jazz Quartet usually have a “lighter” sound that avoided the aggressive tempos and harmonic abstraction of bebop. Cool jazz later became strongly identified with the West Coast jazz scene, but also had a particular resonance in Europe, especially Scandinavia, with emergence of such major figures as baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin and pianist Bengt Hallberg. However, blind Chicago pianist Lennie Tristano set out the theoretical underpinnings of cool jazz. Its influence stretches into such later developments as bossa nova, modal jazz, and even free jazz.
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Bobby Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas on August 23, 1953 but grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He attended the University of Miami along with fellow students Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius and Bruce Hornsby. After graduating in 1975, he moved to New York City and joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He performed with the Jazz Messengers from 1977 to 1981, eventually becoming the musical director for the group. He also founded the 29th Street saxophone Quartet with alto saxophonist Ed Jackson, tenor saxophonist Rich Rothenberg, and baritone saxophonist Jim Hartog.
Following his tenure as a Jazz Messenger, Watson became a much-sought after musician, working along the way with many notable musicians, including: drummers Max Roach and Louis Hayes, fellow saxophonists George Coleman and Branford Marsalis, multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers and his trumpeter brother Wynton. In addition Bobby supported vocalists including Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls, Betty Carter and Carmen Lundy as well as being a sideman for Carlos Santana, Rufus & Chaka Khan, Bob Belden and John Hicks.
Watson along with Curtis Lundy and Victor Lewis started “Horizon” an acoustic quintet; led the a tribute band to Johnny Hodges called the “High Court of Swing”; and the “Tailor-Made Big Band”. He composed a song for the soundtrack of Deniro’s “A Bronx Tale”; has been an adjunct professor at William Patterson University and the Manhattan School of Music; and is currently involved with the Thelonious Monk Institute’s “Jazz in America” high school outreach program.
Watson was selected as the first William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri, Distinguished Professorship in Jazz Studies. The past six years he has served as the director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and the alto saxophonist, composer, producer and educator still manages to balance recording of 26 albums as a leader, hundreds of co=led or sideman recordings, along with live engagements around the world with his teaching responsibilities. Watson’s ensembles at UMKC have garnered several awards and national recognition.
Bobby Watson, post-bop jazz alto saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator, now has 26 recordings as a leader. He appears on nearly 100 other recordings as either co-leader or in a supporting role and has recorded more than 100 original compositions and his long-time publisher.
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