Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marilyn Middleton Pollock, born October 25, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois began singing folk music professionally at the age of fifteen. Expanded her repertoire to include rock & roll and blues, she then turned to jazz.
By the end of the 1980s Marilyn had moved to England where she worked with Max Collie, touring with him internationally. Their album Nobody Knows You received the Music Retailers Association Award for Excellence in 1988. She appeared in the theater show A New Orleans Mardi Gras and then in her critically acclaimed solo shows Those Women of the Vaudeville Blues and Jazz Me Blues.
From 1994 she produced the series Vaudeville, Red Hot and Blue for BBC Radio 2 with her jazz band The Chicago Hoods. She toured Great Britain several times with her band.
Vocalist Marilyn Middleton Pollock continues to perform, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rozanne Levine was born on October 19, 1945 in New York City, New York. She was introduced to the jazz/new music community as a performer with William Parker and Patricia Nicholson Parker’s Centering Music/Dance Ensemble during the late Seventies.
Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s Levine performed in saxophonist/clarinetist Mark Whitecage’s Glass House Ensemble, playing both clarinet and Whitecage’s sound sculptures. In 1993 she rejoined the Parkers as a founding member of their New York-based Improvisors Collective, performing in the Collective Orchestra and with Collective members in smaller ensembles. During her three year tenure with the Collective she formed two ensembles, Crystal Clarinets and the Clarinet Choir, which performed in New York City and Connecticut.
In 1999 Rozanne and Whitecage formed a touring duo, RoMarkable, to showcase their acoustic and electronic forays. They performed at numerous clubs and festivals around the country. She led Chakra Tuning, with Mark Whitecage, clarinetist Perry Robinson and violinist/vocalist Rosi Hertlein. Her compositions form the thematic material from which the musicians improvise, each artist adding their distinct voice to the mix. The group released their highly-praised debut album, Only Moment, in 2009, on her and Whitecage’s label, Acoustics.
Levine performed with Mark Whitecage and The Bi-Coastal Orchestra, Anthony Braxton, The New Reed Quartet, Jason Kao Hwang, Jackson Krall, Theo Jorgensmann, Blaise Siwula, and Who Knows?, among others.
Alto clarinetist, bamboo flutist and composer Rozanne Levine, who became a noted photographer that were incorporated into her performances, transitioned in Morristown, New Jersey on June 18, 2013.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Raymond Matthews Brown Jr. was born August 13, 1949 in New York City, New York to Ella Fitzgerald’s half-sister Frances. Ella and her then husband, Ray Brown, adopted the baby and raised him as their own. During his childhood Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and many others were regular visitors during his childhood.
After moving to California when he was 10, Ray discovered a passion for the drums and for singing. He attended Beverly Hills High School where he sang with school groups which toured local festivals and hospitals. His father arranged for him to study with jazz percussionists Bill Douglass and Chuck Flores. Despite his jazz roots he admits that his interest in performing rock music was an act of rebellion.
Moving to Seattle in 1971 he studied with drummer Bill Coleman Sr. and during this time he began writing songs in addition to playing drums and piano. By the late 1980s Brown was touring the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Alaska, Japan, Korea and Guam performing for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Ray recorded his debut album Slow Down for Love in 2001 on SRI Jazz, reaching the top 50 of the Gavin Report. He released his sophomore album, Committed From The Heart, two years later and he wrote and arranged all the songs on both albums. He also debuted on the Las Vegas Strip at the Riviera hotel and casino.
In 2007 he released the album Stand by Me, the following year a duets album Friends and Family, that included Jane Monheit, Melba Moore, James Moody, Maria Muldaur, Dr. John, Dionne Warwick, Freda Payne, Sophie B. Hawkins, Paul Williams, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Dave Somerville, Kim Hoyer, and Sally Kellerman.
He lent instrumental performances on some of the album tracks with artists David “Fathead” Newman and Terry Gibbs. He attended ceremonies honoring his mother, appearing in a BBC documentary about his mother, and the U.S. postage stamp.
Jazz and blues singer Ray Brown Jr., whose mother’s 1964 single Ringo Beat was inspired by his interest in rock music, continues to perform, tour, and record.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Evans Osborne was born in Hereford, England on September 28, 1941 and attended Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire and the Guildhall School of Music.
From 1962 to 1972, Osborne was a bandmate in the Mike Westbrook band. During this period he also worked with Michael Gibbs, Mike Cooper, Stan Tracey, Kenny Wheeler, Humphrey Lyttelton, Alan Skidmore, John Surman, Harry Miller, Alan Jackson, John Mumford and Lionel Grigson.
During 1974–75, Osborne was part of the saxophone trio S.O.S. with John Surman and Alan Skidmore. They recorded an album, BBC radio and television sessions, and toured extensively in Europe.
Health issues hastened the end of his career in 1982, and returning to Hereford, alto saxophonist, pianist, and clarinetist Mike Osborne, who was a member of Brotherhood of Breath, transitioned while living under care at the time on September 19, 2007, aged 65.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David W. Bargeron was born September 6, 1942 in Atho, Massachusetts. He became the lead trombonist with Clark Terry’s Big Band and played bass trombone and tuba with Doc Severinsen’s Band between 1968 and 1970.
In 1970 he joined Blood, Sweat, and Tears after Jerry Hyman departed and first appeared on the album B, S & T; 4. While with this group, he recorded the jazz-rock solo on the tuba in And When I Die/One Room Country Shack on the album Live and Improvised. His recording credits with BS&T include eleven albums. A break in their schedule allowed him to join the Gil Evans Orchestra in 1972.
After leaving Blood, Sweat, and Tears he became a freelance musician recording with Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Mick Jagger, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, David Sanborn, Carla Bley, and Pat Metheny.
He has performed with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band from Switzerland, the George Russell Living Time Orchestra, and was a long-time member of Jaco Pastorius’s Word of Mouth Band. He has recorded and toured with Tuba Tuba, a jazz tuba band which includes Michel Godard, Luciano Biondini, and Kenwood Dennard.
He is a member of Howard Johnson’s Gravity, a six-tuba group that has been together since 1968. Trombone and tubist David Bargeron, who has released several albums as a soloist and collaborator, at 80 still performs.