Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bobby Hutcherson was born January 27, 1941 in Los Angeles, California and studied piano with his aunt as a child. Not enjoying the formality of the training he tinkered with it on his own, especially since he was already connected to jazz through a brother’s high school friendship with Dexter Gordon and a singing sister who later dated Eric Dolphy. But it was hearing Milt Jackson that made everything clicked for Hutcherson during his teen years, working until he saved up enough money to buy his own set of vibes.

He began studying with Dave Pike and playing local dances in a group led by his friend, bassist Herbie Lewis. Parlaying his local reputation into gigs with Curtis Amy and Charles Lloyd in 1960. And joined an ensemble led by Al Grey and Billy Mitchell. A year later he’s in New York at Birdland and ends up staying on the east coast as his reputation of his inventive four mallet playing spread.

Attracted foremost to more experimental free jazz and post-bop, he made early recordings in this style for Blue Note with Jackie McLean, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill, Granchan Moncur, but ironically his debut recording for the label in 1963, The Kicker, not released until 1999, demonstrated his background in hard bop and the blues.

His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodic nature, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern. Easily one of jazz’s greatest vibraphonists, Bobby Hutcherson helped modernize the vibes by redefining what could be done with it — sonically, technically, melodically, and emotionally. In the process, he became one of the defining voices in the “new thing” portion of Blue Note’s glorious ’60s roster.

Throughout his career Hutcherson has performed or recorded with a who’s who list of avant-garde, free improvisation, modernist post-bop, straight-ahead, mainstream, fusion and bop jazz players on the scene, staying ever current in his message.  As a leader he has recorded nearly four-dozen albums for Blue Note, Landmark, Columbia, Cadet, Timeless, Evidence, Atlantic and Verve. Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson maintained his reputation as one of the most advanced masters of his instrument until he passed away on August 15, 2016 in Montara, California.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Drummer Aldo Romano was born in Belluno, Italy on January 16, 1941. As a child his family moved to France and was influenced by Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins. By the 50’s he was playing guitar and drums professionally in Paris. It wasn’t until 1963 that his career took off when he started working with cornetist Don Cherry. He recorded with Steve lacy and go to tour with Dexter Gordon among others. In the 70’s his playing evolved into rock-influenced jazz-fusion and in 1978 he formed his own group.

During the 1980s Aldo returned to his earlier style of playing for several albums. Although he has lived most of his life in France, he retained affection for Italy and has set up a quartet of Italian jazz musicians. Romano also played a role in starting the career of the late Italian-French pianist Michel Petrucciani. In 2004 he won the Jazzpar Prize, in Copenhagen from among five nominees of internationally recognized performers of jazz. Considered to be the Nobel Prize of jazz, it was at the awards concert that he wowed the audience with his vocal rendition of Estate.

Over the course of his career Aldo Romano has performed or recorded with Joe Lovano, Baptiste Trotignon, Philip Catherine, Keith Jarrett, Johnny Griffin, Jackie McLean, Chet Baker, Steve Kuhn and Steve Swallow, just to name a few. He continues to pursue his life in jazz.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Drummer Thurman Barker was born January 8, 1948 in Chicago, Ilinois. His first professional gig was at the age of 16 with Mighty Joe Young but went on to finish his studies at Empire State College, the American Conservatory of Music and Roosevelt University.

Thurman has accompanied Billy Eckstine, Bette Midler, and Marvin Gaye; was the house percussionist at the Shubert Theatre in the 60’s. Late in the decade and through the 70’s he played with Muhal Richard Abrams, Pheeroah Aklaff, Anthony Braxton, Billy Bang, Henry Threadgill and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre.

Barker reunited with Braxton, recording and touring with him from 1978-80 and with Sam Rivers from 1979-80. In 1985 he joined the Jarman/Rivers trio and in 1987 played marimba with Cecil Taylor.

Since 1993 he has been an Associate Professor at Bard College.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Barry Altschul was born on January 6, 1943 in New York City was a major contributing drummer to the avant-garde movement that had been steadily evolving since the innovations of Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. Gaining fame as a drummer in the late 60’s playing in the “outside” style of jazz, his first major gig in pianists Paul Bley’s trio. By 1969 he joined up with Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Anthony Braxton forming the group Circle, which arguably might be the most technically adept free jazz ensemble ever.

At the time, he made use of a high-pitched Gretsch kit with add-on drums and percussion instruments, which he integrated seamlessly in a whirlwind of sound. His drumming was stylistically all encompassing – in his own words “from ragtime to no time” – thanks to his foundation in traditional jazz styles. No one sounded quite like him at the time, and his nuclear energy served him well when he teamed up with Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton throughout the 1970s.

Much of Altschul’s power as a rhythm player stemmed from his subtle touch, his sound being very tight and well defined with a strict attention to rhythmic and tonal detail. He also made albums as a leader but by the mid-80’s he was rarely seen in concert or on recordings. He recently has become a little more visible as a sideman with the FAB trio with violinist Billy Bang and guitarist Joe Fonda, and with bassist Adam Lane. He has played and recorded with Roswell Rudd, Dave Liebman, Andrew Hill, Sonny Criss, Hampton Hawes and Lee Konitz.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Woody Shaw born December 24, 1944 in Laurinburg, North Carolina with a photographic memory and perfect pitch. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey from the age of one, he began playing bugle at age 9 and performed in the Junior Elks, Junior Mason, and Washington Carver Drum and Bugle Corps. Though not his first choice of instrument, wanting to play the violin, he began studying classical trumpet at Cleveland Junior High School at the age of 11.

Shaw skipped two grades and began attending Newark Arts High School, pursuing an education at Julliard School and his interest in jazz, as his first influences were Louis Armstrong and Harry James. As a teenager, he worked professionally at weddings, dances, and nightclubs. He eventually left school but continued his study of the trumpet under the influence of Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Booker Little, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard.

In 1963, after many local professional jobs, Woody worked for Willie Bobo with Chick Corea and Joe Farrell before moving to Paris at age 19. There he gigged with Nathan Davis, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Johnny Griffin and Art Taylor. In England he played with Davis, and childhood friends Larry Young and Billy Brooks.

Returning to the States in 1964, Shaw began his career as one of Blue Note Records’ formidable “house” trumpet players. He replaced Carmel Jones in the Horace Silver Quintet, and made his first Blue Note debut on Larry Young’s famed Unity album (1965), upon which three of his compositions “Zoltan”, “Moontrane”, and “Beyond All Limits” would appear.

Over the course of his career he would collaborate frequently and record with Chick Corea, Jackie McLean, Booker Ervin, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Max Roach, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Onaje Allan Gumbs, Mulgrew Miller, Steve Turre and others. He travelled all over Europe, performed with Max Roach in Iran in 1969, toured Japan, England, Italy, Germany Sweden, Switzerland, Egypt, Sudan, UAE, and India.

He would work as a studio musician and in pit orchestras and on Broadway musicals. He released several albums for Muse and Columbia record labels, was nominated for two Grammy Awards, and was voted Best Jazz Trumpeter of the Year among other accolades and honors. As an educator he taught countless clinics, master classes and private lessons to students around the world, was on the faculty of Jamey Aebersold’s jazz camp, taught Wynton Marsalis, Ingrid Monson, Chris Botti, Wallace Roney and Terence Blanchard among others.

Trumpeter Woody Shaw passed away at age 44 of kidney failure on May 10, 1989, leaving a memorable catalogue of more than sixty albums as a leader and sideman.

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