Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steve Khan was born April 28, 1947 in Los Angeles, California to lyricist Sammy Cahn. As a teenager he was a terrible drummer but grew a love for guitar and switched at around age 19. He would go on to matriculate through U.C.L.A. and move to New York, performing one of his first guitar duos with Larry Coryell in 1974.
During the 80s he was a member of the group Elements. Khan has worked with Jack DeJohnette, Maynard Ferguson, Billy Cobham, Hubert Laws, Steely Dan, Billy Joel, Michael Franks and Weather Report on his short list.
He toured with the CBS Jazz All Stars in Japan, led a band called Eyewitness, authored five jazz books, was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Latin Jazz Album category for his album “Borrowed Time” and recorded over thirty albums as a leader and sideman for such labels as Concord, Arista, Columbia, Flying Dutchman and Novus to name a few. He continues to perform, record and tour.
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Requisites
Dynamic: This 1958 classic boasts the talents of the legendary Pittsburgh jazz and soul vocalist Dakota Staton. Tasteful and swinging, with an alternation between lush orchestra arrangements and intimate combo settings, the album coheres beautifully and represents Staton in fine form. This is her sophomore project on the heels of her critically acclaimed “The Late, Late Show” with an addition four previously unreleased tracks added to the re-mastered compact disc. Staton has redefined jazz singing as pure fun!
Personnel: Dakota Staton – vocal, George Shearing – piano, Harry “Sweets” Edison – trumpet, plus orchestra
Record Date: February 1958
Songs: Let Me Off Uptown, Night Mist, Anything Goes, When Sunny Gets Blue, They All Laughed, I Wonder, Say It Isn’t So Joe, Too Close For Comfort, Little Girl Blue, It Could Happen To You, Some Other Spring, Cherokee, Invitation, The Party’s Over, I’ll Remember April, The Nearness Of You
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harry Miller was born Harold Simon Miller on April 25, 1941 in Cape Town, West Cape, South Africa. He began his career as a bassist with Manfred Mann, and settled in London. He became a central figure in the mixture of South-African township music and free jazz, which became dynamic on the London scene at the end of the Sixties and into the Seventies.
Miller recorded frequently with musicians such as Mike Westbrook, Chris McGregor, John Surnam, Mike Cooper, Louis Moholo, Keith Tippett and Elton Dean. He found work as a session player and appeared on the 1971 album Islands by the progressive rock band, King Crimson. For economic reasons at the end of the 1970s he moved to the Netherlands, working with musicians of Willem Breuker’s circle.
He recorded five albums between 1972 and 1983 for Cuneiform, Reel Recordings, and his Ogun Records that he founded with his wife Hazel Miller. The label was vital for documenting that period, and is still active today. Bassist Harry Miller passed away on December 16, 1983, in the Netherlands.
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Portrait In Jazz: This album contains Bill Evan’s greatest trio with wonderful interplay between piano and bass on Autumn Leaves and it introduces Evans’ Peri’s Scope. This is a gem of an album filled with standards but the interpretations are not the predictable routine.
Personnel: Bill Evans – piano, Scott LaFaro – bass, Paul Motian – drums
Record Date: Riverside / December 28, 1959
Songs: Come Rain or Come Shine, Autumn Leaves (take 1), Autumn Leaves (take 2), Witchcraft, When I Fall In Love, Peri’s Scope, What Is This Thing Called Love, Spring Is Here, Someday My Prince Will Come, Blue In Green (Take 3), Blue In Green (Take 2*)
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anita Gravine was born April 11, 1946 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. An experienced but little-known singer, in the mid-’60s, she sang with the bands of Larry Elgart, Buddy Morrow, and Urbie Green. She made her solo debut with Dream Dancing on the Progressive label in the early ’80s.
This was followed by her release of I Always Knew in 1985 for the now defunct Stash Records that displayed her appealing voice, solid sense of swing, and versatility. Gravine’s third project Welcome to My Dream, although not a critical success, continues to prove she can handle both ballad and up-tempo songs with ease of voice and rhythmic assurance.
She has worked with arranger and pianist Mike Abene, George Mraz, Billy Hart and Tom Harrell. She released Welcome To My Dream for Jazz Alliance in 1993. In 2010 Anita released the last of her four albums “Lights! Camera! Passion! Jazz And The Italian Cinema”, and she continues to perform and tour.
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