Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joni Janak was born August 24 in 1944 in Amarillo, Texas and raised in a musical family. He was taught singing, dancing and piano at the Amarillo College of Music. She gave public recitals from the age of eight and had her first professional singing job at thirteen. Receiving a vocal scholarship to Texas Tech University in Lubbock, he eventually returned to Amarillo and sang with many different bands and with the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra when he was 22.
Heading to Houston, Texas she sang in the Carriage Club at the Sheraton Lincoln Hotel until 1969 when she moved to Denver, Colorado, furthering her career. While there she sang with local and visiting jazz musicians, among them Dale Bruning, Ellyn Rucker, Phil Urso, Peanuts Hucko, Bobby Greene, Todd Reid, the Hot Tomatoes Jazz Band, Howard Davis and Jim Riley.
Meeting Carl Fontana while she worked the El Chapultepec he invited her to Las Vegas, Nevada to work with him. In Vegas she worked with Carson Smith, Tom Montgomery, Vinnie Tano, Bill Berry, Herbie Phillips and Bill Watrous. She also sang on a jazz cruise with the Johnny Carson Tonight Show Allstars, played jazz festivals and concerts
Vocalist Joni Janak continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Warren Daly was born on August 22, 1943 in Sydney, Australia. Early in his career, he visited the United States where he worked with distinguished artists, among them Buddy De Franco.
He co-founder of the Daly-Wilson Big Band with trombonist/arranger Ed Wilson in 1968. In 1975 with corporate sponsorship, the band toured internationally including the Soviet Union. With the band splitting up, Warren formed the Warren Daly Big Band.
In the 1991 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Daly was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) “for service to music as band leader and drummer”.
Drummer Warren Daly continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Daniel Asbury Mixon was born August 19, 1949 in Harlem, New York City. He started off as a tap dancer, attending the Ruth Williams Dance Studio. Later, he attended the High School of Performing Arts with Dance as his major but soon switched to playing the piano after being inspired by visits with his grandfather to see jazz artists playing at the Apollo Theater.
In 1966, at the age of 17, Danny was invited to play with the trumpet player Sam Brown’s band backing Patti LaBelle & the Blue Bells in Atlantic City at Reggie’s Cocktail Lounge. After working with Joe Lee Wilsonfor three years beginning in 1967 then started to play regularly with Betty Carter during the years 1971–72.
Formed his own jazz trio, he recorded with the Piano Choir and worked with a variety of important jazz musicians including Kenny Dorham, Cecil Payne, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Frank Foster, Grant Green, Pharoah Sanders, and singers Joe Williams, Eddie Jefferson and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
1976 saw Mixon playing in Charles Mingus’ band. He then played with Dannie Richmond in the late 1970s, toured the U.S. with Yusef Lateef and played a few years with the Lionel Hampton Big Band. Since his twenties Mixon has worked continuously with Frank Foster as a pianist for the Big Band; Frank Foster’s Loud Minority, and his quartet the Non-Electric Company.
He plays piano on many recordings. He appears with Hank Crawford on Tight and After Dark and has also recorded with The Danny Mixon Trio and has recorded On My Way. In 2004 he was awarded as a legendary pianist by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem during their series Harlem Speaks honoring Harlem Heroes. He was also the musical director of the Lenox Lounge in Harlem, where he also regularly played with his trio, until it closed in 2012.
Pianist Danny Mixon, at 76, continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paulinho Garcia was born on August 16, 1948 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil and began his musical career at the age of nine as a singer in a Sunday children’s program in the city’s principal radio station, Radio Inconfidencia. His teens saw him performing as a house musician in all musical programs of the Radio network, Guarany—TV Itacolomy.
He led his own band, Os Agitadores, and with them recorded his first two albums. Before his arrival in the United States in 1979, Paulinho composed, arranged, produced, and performed jingles for HP Studios. Four of his commercials received national awards.
After his move to Chicago, Illinois he performed and recorded two albums with the band Made in Brazil. In 1991 he founded his own band, Jazzmineiro, and their 1996 recording received excellent reviews in the Chicago Tribune, Jazziz magazine, the Brazilian Music Review, and The Brazilians.
Paulinho has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades for his music and bands. He has toured Japan, Poland, Prague, Bratislava, Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Bangkok and performed at several jazz festivals and jazz cruises. With the addition of Polish singer Grazyna Auguscik, Two for Brazil with Greg Fishman became Three for Brazil.
Garcia released My Very Life to critics and audience praise and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Recording among 25 of the best, and was nominated for the Brazilian International Press Award.
Guitarist and vocalist Paulinho Gatcia continues to perform, tour and record.
More Posts: bandleader,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music,vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marguerita Page was born on August 10, 1950 in Clarksville, Tennessee and first sang in church. At the same time, absorbing the sounds of the blues and R&B, her saxophonist father introduced her to jazz.
Marguerita’s mature style blends her gospel and blues roots with jazz in an elegant original way. She has written lyrics to the works of Charlie Parker and Wes Montgomery. Her 1995 debut release All My Friends features saxophonist Charles McPherson.
Moving to California, Page performed as soloist and director of the One Human Family Community Choir, at the Idyllwyld Jazz Festival and at On Broadway in San Diego. She has been featured on television, is writing music to some of the sacred scriptures of the Baha’i Faith and recording a soundtrack for an interactive autobiography titled The Dawn At My Back by San Diego State University professor Carroll Blue.
Back in Tennessee, Marguerita’s current projects and performances feature pianist/songwriter Will Barrow. Vocalist, composer, voice teacher, and choir director Marguerita Page continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,vocal