Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harold Land Jr. was born April 25, 1950 in San Diego, California to Harold and Lydia Land. Five years later the family moved to Los Angeles, California where he was raised in a world of jazz through his father’s acclaimed career. His earliest influences were drummer Frank Butler, bassist Curtis Counce, pianist Elmo Hope, trumpeters Carmell Jones and Jack Sheldon. But what really turned him onto jazz piano was a pair of albums by Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’ and Leapin’ and Lopin‘.
He began piano lessons at the age of seven and began performing in jazz clubs by the age of 16. Crusaders pianist Joe Sample introduced Harold to Wayne Henderson which led to his first professional gig, and to his first two album appearances, including the cult favorite People Get Ready. He credits bandleader Gerald Wilson with giving him his first traditional Jazz gig, which came shortly after his time with Henderson. He accumulated important credits touring with guitarist Kenny Burrell and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders.
Over a career, spanning jazz, funk, and jazz fusion, Land has worked with Marvin Gaye, Roy Ayers, Gerald Wilson, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Morgan, Eric Gale, and Roland Kirk.
He has recorded with Dwight Trible, Fela Kuti, Justo Almario, Gerald Wilson, Roy Ayers, Gene Ammons, Anna Fisher, Spiders Webb, The Freedom Sounds, Paul Humphrey. He performed often with his father and has recorded on three of his albums, Choma (Burn), Damisi, and Xocia’s Dance.
As an educator Land has taught and given workshops at several Los Angeles based music schools and high schools, such as Washington Prepatory High School, Alain LeRoy Locke College Preparatory Academy, Alta Loma Music, and The World Stage.
Pianist Harold Land Jr., who also played with his father, currently performs with his trio.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cecilia Wennerström was born on April 21, 1947 in Stockholm, Sweden. Educated at the music academies in Malmoe and Gothenburg. She was influenced by Archie Shepp, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette, and Charlie Haden. She took part in a workshop led by David Murray and has allied herself with the music since the Eighties.
From 1979-91 she was the leader of Salamander, a jazz group that toured a lot in Sweden and Europe on festivals and clubs. Salamander made its debut 1981 at the Women’s Jazz Festival in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 1990 she started working with the talented singer and voice art performer Marie Selander in several creative and exciting projects, like for instance Maries composition “Blåst-Tuuli-Wind” that was performed in Kallio-Kuninkala Festival, Finland in 1996. She would go on to tour many times between 1997 to 1999. During the decade she was a member of the all nordic women big band April Light Orchestra
Cecilia is a member of Wennerstrom Larsson Explicity with her husband Sven Larsson. They released their first CD Tussilago in 2011, and she is in the octet LARS 8 which plays compositions by Lars Gullin and other Swedish jazz icons.
Saxophonist, composer and arranger Cecilia Wennerström has won several awards over the three decades and continues to perform, record and compose.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Czesław Kazimierz Bartkowski was born April 19, 1943 in Łódź, Poland and has been dealing with music since the age of 6. A percussion class graduate of the Secondary Music School in Wrocław, he made his official debut in 1960 as a drummer for Jerzy Pakulski ‘s Far Quartet.
In 1963, he met Zbigniew Namysłowski and became a musician in his band Zbigniew Namysłowski Quartet. He also played with other well-known jazz groups, e.g. with Czesław Niemen’s Niemen Enigmatic or Michał Urbaniak’s Group, and in trios with various musicians. He has also collaborated with the Polish Radio Jazz Studio and Sławomir Kulpowicz’s Mainstream and InFormation bands .
In addition, he participated in the recording of such singers as Ewa Bem, Urszula Dudziak and Stanisław Sojka, and such foreign musicians as: Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry, Joe Newman, Art Farmer, Ben Webster, and the Polish band Novi Singers.
Not only has he performed in Poland, but abroad in India, USA, New Zealand, Australia and numerous European countries. In the winter of 1976, he took part in the jazz workshop Radost ’76 in Mąchocice, Poland near Kielce, which was immortalized in the documentary titled We’re Playing Standard!.
In 1993 he became a lecturer at the Secondary School of Music. Fryderyk Chopin in Warsaw, Poland and the Warsaw Jazz Studio. Drummer and pedagogue Czesław Bartkowski continues his endeavors in music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Peter Brötzmann was born on March 6, 1941 in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement but grew dissatisfied with art galleries and exhibitions. He experienced his first jazz concert when he saw Sidney Bechet while still in school at Wuppertal, and it made a lasting impression.
He taught himself to play clarinets, then saxophones and finally the tárogató. Among his first musical partnerships was with double bassist Peter Kowald. His debut recording, For Adolphe Sax, released in 1967 featured Kowald and drummer Sven-Åke Johansson. In 1968 Machine Gun, an octet recording, was released and self-produced under his BRO record label which he sold at concerts. Atavistic reissued the album in 2007.
His 1969 album Nipples, wasn’t followed with another recording as a leader until 1976 which was followed by sixty-one more releases through 2020. Brötzmann was a member of Bennink’s Instant Composers Pool, a collective of musicians who released their own records and that grew into a 10-piece orchestra.
The logistics of touring with the ICP tentet or his octet resulted in Peter reducing the group to a trio with Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove. Bennink was a partner in Schwarzwaldfahrt, an album of duets recorded outside in the Black Forest in 1977 with Bennink drumming on trees and other objects found in the woods.
In 1981, Brötzmann made a radio broadcast with saxophonists Frank Wright and Willem Breuker, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, trombonists Hannes Bauer and Alan Tomlinson, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, drums Louis Moholo, and bassist Harry Miller. This was released as the album Alarm.
During the Eighties, Brötzmann flirted with heavy metal and noise rock, recording with Last Exit and the band’s bass guitarist and producer Bill Laswell. His has released over fifty albums as a bandleader and has appeared on dozens more. His Die Like a Dog Quartet (with Toshinori Kondo, William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake) is loosely inspired by saxophonist Albert Ayler, a prime influence on his music. Since 1997, he has toured and recorded regularly with the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet which he disbanded after an ensemble performance in November 2012 in Strasbourg, France.
He has recorded or performed with Cecil Taylor, Keiji Haino, Willem van Manen, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Conny Bauer, Joe McPhee, Paal Nilssen-Love and Brötzmann’s son, Caspar Brötzmann.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Peter Brötzmann, who has not abandoned his art training and has designed most of his album covers, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joyce Breach was born in Alameda, California on February 27, 1944 and was raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She grew up listening to and admiring Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Sarah Vaughan, Abbey Lincoln, and Frank Sinatra. She gleaned from their phrasing and inflections to develop her own indelible style.
After attending West Virginia University she settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she made a name for herself in the ’80s and enjoyed a loyal following in Steel Town. Relocating to New York City, where she has made even bigger strides wowing audiences and reviewers at some of Manhattan’s top clubs.
She recorded her debut album Confessions in 1990 on Audiophile Records, and has gone on to record Lovers After All, Songbird, Nothing But Blue Skies, This Moment, Reel Songs, and Love Is the Thing. She has been featured on Loonis McGlohon & Friends’ A Christmas Memory.
As a songwriter Joyce often collaborates with pianist/arranger Keith Ingham and he usually accompanies her live appearances in the New York area, and has performed across the country. She continues to write, performa nd record.
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