Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Omar Ruben Rada Silva was born July 16, 1943 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Little is known about his early life but his sound comes from his exposure to the music of his country, a chorus of tamboriles and Uruguayan barrel drums.
In 1965, he and Eduardo Mateo formed the band El Kinto Conjunto. This was the first group in Uruguay to create the beat genre in Spanish and to fuse rock with Latin American musical styles. In 1969 the success of his Candombe song Las Manzanas (The Apples) led to his first solo album and participation in the Festival of Popular Music in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A year later he formed the band Tótem.
In 1977, he traveled to the United States after an invitation by the Fattoruso Brothers to play with the group OPA. Over the next year, he performed with Tom Scott, Ray Barretto, Hermeto Pascoal, and Flora Purim.
Settling in Mexico for three years beginning in 1991, Rubén worked as a composer and arranger for local musicians such as Mijares, Eugenia León, Stephanie Salas, and Tania Libertad. In 1994 he shared the spotlight with Sting and UB40 at the Palacio de Deportes in Mexico City.
Rada’s renown led him to record on international labels and his songs have been played worldwide and have been recorded by Milton Nascimento, Herb Alpert, and Lani Hall. He was invited by Jon Anderson and Joan Manuel Serrat to appear on their albums Deseo and Utopía, respectively.
He has voiced the part of Lucius Best/Frozone in the 2004 Argentinian dubbing of The Incredibles. Ruben has directed radio and TV shows, and has starred in the television sitcom La Oveja Negra (The Black Sheep).In 2010, the third round of the series LifeLines in Berlin paid tribute to Rubén Rada. That same year he recorded a show in the Argentine program Encuentro en El Estudio, which is run by that country’s Ministry of Education.
Percussionist, composer, singer and television personality Ruben Rada, who has recorded more than thirty albums, continues to perform, compose and record.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,percussion,vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Graham Peter Hall, generally known as GP Hall was born July 15, 1943 in Hampton Hill, London, UK. Schooled in classical, flamenco and jazz, he went on to develop his skills as a guitarist in the British blues boom of the late 1960s. As a teenager, he played in the Odd Lot Band and set up the Odd Lot Club as a venue for their music, which in turn attracted more established bands and players for concerts.
As he became better known, Hall went on to play at more celebrated London venues including The Roundhouse, the Middle Earth club and took up residency at the 100 Club. He supported the likes of Deep Purple, The Hollies, and Chris Farlowe and played on stage with original American blues heroes John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson.
In the early 1970s he studied with renowned flamenco guitarist Manitas de Plata and subsequently became involved in more avant-garde work, writing, producing and performing. GP was commissioned by the South Hill Park Arts Centre to write The Estates which was a large and complex musical piece. Scored for a large ensemble, it was recorded and released on album by Prototype Records in 1972. It was his debut recording.
At around this time, Hall’s promising career was cut short by personal trauma. This led to alcoholism, depression, periods of homelessness, loss of confidence and self worth. It would be more than a decade before he returned to music. During the 1980s he began returning to music but it was a slow process to becoming sober.
He would go on to compose, record and release seventeen albums to various labels as well as his own self-releases over the next thirty-three years. His last self-released album in 2019 is titled Be Strong. Guitarist, composer and improviser GP Hall continues to explore the realms of music.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,guitar,history,improviser,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lembit Saarsalu was born July 8, 1948 in Roosna-Alliku, Estonia. He started playing jazz at an early age. He debuted at the Tallinn International Jazz Festival at the age of 16. He worked for many years in the State Philharmonic of the Estonian SSR , where as a paid musician he gave numerous concerts both at home and abroad. In the 1980s, Saarsalu devoted himself completely to jazz.
For decades, he has led local and international ensembles. He worked in a duo with Leonid Vintskevich, started a new international jazz festival Rainbow Jazz with music producer Merle Kollom and a competition for young musicians in Tartu.
As an educator Saarsalu introduced jazz in schools and has performed together with Olav Ehala and other well-known Estonian musicians for more than 40,000 students. Since the fall of 2016, he has been working as a saxophone and ensemble teacher in the rhythm music department of the Tartu Music School.
In the 1980s Eesti Televisioon made two films about Lembit, he has performed on Finnish and Spanish television and has made numerous recordings, numbering 200 recordings for Estonian Radio. His style ranges from blues and swing to free forms of jazz.
He has been repeatedly chosen as the best tenor saxophonist, awarded the annual prize of the Sound Art Endowment Fund of the Estonian Cultural Capital.
Saxophonist , bandleader and composer Lembit Saarsalu, who has been called the saxophone king and the calling card of Estonian jazz, continues to perform, compose and teach.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Simon was born in Kansas City, Kansas on July 5, 1949 and left a comfortable position as a college English professor to take up the upright bass at age 30. He apprenticed with the elder elite of the Los Angeles, California jazz scene, including Red Callender and John Clayton, and soon began working with Buddy Collette, Teddy Edwards, Plas Johnson and Art Hillery, as well as LA Philharmonic’s Abe Luboff.
Richard has played traditional jazz with Pete Fountain, swing with Ken Peplowski, and be-bop with Richie Cole. He has recorded with Al Viola, Houston Person, Rebecca Kilgore, Gerald Wiggins and Chico Hamilton, toured Japan three times and performed twice with the King of Thailand. He worked frequently with vocalists Sue Raney, Maria Muldaur, Maxine Weldon, as well as the late vocalists Ernie Andrews, Lorez Alexandria and Keely Smith, and Rosemary Clooney.
Deeply involved in jazz education, Simonhe is the program director for JazzAmerica, a non-profit organization that provides tuition-free jazz instruction after school and in summer WorkChops.
Bassist Richard Simon continues to perform, record and educate.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mat Marucci was born Mathew Roger Marucci III on July 2, 1945 in Rome, New York into a musical family with his sister Mena, a concert pianist and his brother Ed, a trumpeter. He was classically trained on the piano and switched to drums at the age of 19.
After graduating high school from St. Aloysius Academy in 1963, Marucci studied drums with Dick Howard in Auburn, New York for two years. Receiving a business management degree at Auburn Community College in 1965, he relocated to the west coast four years later. Attending Sacramento City College in California, he received his associate degree in music, in 1973.
In addition to recording and performing, Marucci has authored several books on drumming for both Ashley Publications and Mel Bay Publications. His recordings and books have garnered four and five star reviews in JazzTimes, Jazziz, Modern Drummer, DownBeat and DRUM! magazines. He also wrote articles for several magazines and jazz websites.
In his role as a jazz educator, Mat has been a professor at several California colleges in Sacramento and Berkeley and an applied drum set instructor at the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society.
Drummer Mat Marucci, who has lived between New York City, Los Angeles and Sacramento and has recorded seventeen albums as a leader and eight as a sideman, continues to explore and perform.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,educator,history,instrumental,jazz,music