Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ali Haurand was born Alfred Josef Antonius Haurand on November 15, 1943 in Viersen, Germany. After an apprenticeship as a confectioner and a business manager, he studied from 1966 to 1973 at the Folkwang School and the Rhineland Music Academy. He initially played with his own trio and from 1967 in the trio and quintet of pianist George Maycock. In 1968 he also toured with Philly Joe Jones, Jacques Pelzer, René Thomas and Jan Huydts.
He performed with Ben Webster, Don Byas, John Handy, Bobby Jones and Wilton Gaynair. This was followed by his own groups, Third Eye, the European Jazz Quintet with Leszek Zadlo, Gerd Dudek, Alan Skidmore and Pierre Courbois. Together with Alan Skidmore and Tony Oxley, they formed the trio SOH. Haurand played with his long-time companions, the saxophonist Gerd Dudek and the pianist Rob van den Broeck, in the formation The Trio.
Since 1982, the European Jazz Ensemble, which he formed out of the European Jazz Quintet with varying lineups that included Allan Botschinsky, Stan Sulzmann, Joachim Kühn and Daniel Humair. In the 2000s, he took part in several jazz and poetry projects.
For decades he was a presenter and consultant to the WDR television jazz editorial team, and for twelve years he was artistic director of the Düsseldorf Jazz Rally. From 1987 he was the founder, director and organizer of the Viersen Jazz Festival until 2014. For over 20 years he organized the jazz concerts in the Süchtelner Weberhaus.
Double bassist and bandleader Ali Haurand, who was also a television presenter, music producer and festival manager, died on May 28, 2018.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Franklin “Ellington” Blair was born November 8, 1943 in Toledo, Ohio. He grew up in California and began taking violin lessons as a child, graduating with honors from Lincoln High School in San Diego, California in 1961.
Blair became a heavy academic, holding degrees from Eastman and Curtis conservatories. He even founded a school, The Universal Natural System. He is best known as the inventor of the Vitar, an acoustic combination of violin and guitar.
He was featured on many jazz funk records in the early 1970s and released a few sought after psych-funk releases on Mercury, Columbia and CTI. During the 1980s Ellington disappeared off of the map, never to return.
Violinist & guitarist Ellington Blair, suffered from heart failure and was homeless when he died on June 3, 2006 in New York City, New York
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Panton was born on October 20, 1946 in the Midlands, England where his formative musical experience revolved around singing in the local church choir and later with a mixed voice choir and an amateur operatic society. He began teaching himself classical piano from the age of twelve and by fifteen had begun to compose by improvising at the keyboard. At seventeen he joined the army as a bandsman, taking up the oboe and being posted for a year in 1964 to Kneller Hall, the Military School of Music. He later attended Birmingham School of Music for piano tuition under the late William Fellowes for a year from 1966. His composing took on a more modern direction which was largely unintelligible to his military colleagues.
After four years as bandsman he resigned to pursue a musical career back in civilization, taking up the alto saxophone as a result of hearing some of the American and British free jazz players of the time such as Ornette Coleman and Mike Osborne. He formed several groups and gave solo performances at the Birmingham Arts Lab, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham and Midlands Institue as well as numerous pubs. He made contact with London based musicians John Stevens, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Maggie Nichols which led to occasional appearances around the city.
He ventured into folk music with the group Forest, followed by the experimental theatre group Chameleon Laboratory Theatre. In 1979 he received an Arts Council jazz bursary, allegedly the first provincal based musician to do so, with a second following in 1981. By 1989 he abandoned music and started up an audio cassette duplication business. When the demise of the audio cassette undermined business viability, David opted to take up a civil service post in the late Nineties from which he retired in 2006.
In 2009 he was awarded the MA in Music from the Open University and has continued to pursue music activities in academia.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mervyn Africa was born on October 18, 1950 in Cape Town, South Africa and studied music there and sang in the boys choir. Moving to the United Kingdom in 1981 he searched for work in the bands of fellow exiles, trumpeter Hugh Masekela, percussionist Julian Bahula and saxophonist Dudu Pukwana. With drummer Brian Abrahams and Russel Herman he was a co-founder of the Afro/jazz group District Six.
He put together a quartet consisting of bassist Michael Mondesir, trumpeter Dave Defries and percussionist Nana Tsiboe. Drawing from his rich cultural and musical background, he created a strong reputation as a solo performer, band leader and big in African jazz.
As a composer he is known for his piano improvisations and unique compositions, Mervyn’s influences range from classic and carnival music through to township jazz and Malay musical heritage.
Pianist and composer Mervyn Africa, also known for his 2010 portrayal in Master Harold and The Boy, remains a major presence on the London scene.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Yoshiaki Masuo was born in Tokyo, Japan on October 12, 1946. The son of a jazz bandleader and pianist, he grew up surrounded by jazz. Never having any formal training, by the time he was 15 he started playing the guitar and his influences were Wes Montgomery and Grant Green.
Discovered by alto saxophonist Sadao Watanabe in 1967 he joined the group and started his professional career with one of Japan’s leading groups. During the three years he was with the group Masuo was Swing Journal’s reader’s poll #1 guitarist and went on to win it five more times.
A move to New York City in ‘71 saw him playing with Teruo Nakamura, Lenny White, Michael Brecker, Chick Corea, Elvin Jones, Ashford & Simpson and was a member of Lee Konitz’s group. Two years later he joined up with Sonny Rollins and recorded four albums and toured the U.S., Japan and Europe. Forming his own electric fusion group he began recording and touring Japan, the West Coast and played in New York City.
In Soho, New York City he began experimenting with electronic instruments and it turned into a self-titled album Masuo in which he was composer, arranger, engineer and mixer. He produced dozens of albums over the next ten years and his performing was put on hold the deeper he got into producing. By the end of the century he closed his studio in New York.
Guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo returned to performing in 2008, recording two albums in successive years and continues to performa and record.
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