Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Patti Wicks was born Patricia Ellen Chappell on February 24, 1945 and began playing the piano at the age of three. She later attended the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam.
Influenced by Bill Evans, she began to perform professionally and moved to New York City, where she played in small ensembles. She founded her own trio featuring bassists such as Sam Jones, Richard Davis, Brian Torff, and Mark Dresser, and drummers Curtis Boyd, Louis Hayes, Mickey Roker, and Alan Dawson.
In the 1970s, Wicks moved to Florida where she worked as a musician with, among others, Clark Terry, Larry Coryell, Frank Morgan, Ira Sullivan, Flip Phillips, Anita O’Day, Rebecca Parris, Roseanna Vitro and Giacomo Gates.
As an educator she taught jazz piano at colleges and gave private lessons. In 1997, Patti released her debut album Room at the Top: The Patti Wicks Trio. She was a guest on Marian McPartland’s NPR program Piano Jazz.
Vocalist and pianist Patti Wicks died on March 7, 2014.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Barry Martyn was born Barry Martyn Godfrey in London, England on February 23, 1941. He began learning drums in 1955 and was leading his first band the following year. His first recordings were made in 1959.
His first visit to New Orleans, Louisiana was in 1961 where he studied under Cie Frazier, and founded Mono Records. He toured Europe with many famed New Orleans jazz personnel, including George Lewis, Albert Nicholas, Louis Nelson, Captain John Handy, and Percy Humphrey.
Moving to Los Angeles, California in 1972 he founded the Legends of Jazz, an ensemble which made several worldwide tours and recorded extensively. Returning to New Orleans in 1984 he worked with George Buck, reissuing much of the Circle Records back catalogue. He played with Barney Bigard in 1976, and recorded many dates as a leader.
Drummer Barry Martyn died on July 17, 2023 at the age of 82.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jimmy Jewell was born on February 18, 1945 in the United Kingdom and began his career in 1962, participating in several jazz and rhythm and blues bands including Eddie Marten and the Sabres. Going professional the following year he joined the band Kris Ryan and the Questions after the band’s drummer Geoff Wills recommended his inclusion. With Jewell’s participation, Questions shifted genres, from rock to something more soul-oriented. Owing to artistic differences with Ryan, he left the band after final gigs in Germany during 1965.
In 1966 he moved to London, England played for a while in the Freddie Mack Sound and subsequently toured Germany with Chris Andrews and the Paramounts. Jimmy joined the Magics, a Berlin band, and toured Germany. In 1967, back in London, he played gigs with Lord “Caesar” Sutch & the Roman Empire, and the joined soul band Stewart James Inspiration, with whom he toured until their dissolution 1968.
After joining the Keef Hartley Band, Jewell played Woodstock and a couple of albums were released with his saxophone sound: The Battle of North West Six and The Time Is Near. A was a prolific session musician and band member during the 1970s, he recorded during 1973 and 1974 appearing on Ronnie Lane’s Anymore for Anymore. He recorded with the Hollies on their self-titled album. In the Seventies he recorded for Maggie Bell and Andy Fairweather Low, toured with Gallagher and Lyle and appeared on two of their albums.
He recorded with Fairport Convention, Chris de Burgh, performed with Roger Daltrey, John Lodge and with the Hollies. Jimmy went on to release two albums: I’m Amazed and From the First Time I Met You. By the Eighties work became occasional, including small jazz bands and collaboration with bluesman Lonnie Brooks on the 1981 album Turn On The Night.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pekka Eerik Juhani Sarmanto was born February 15, 1945 in Helsinki, finland. He first studied classical violin at the Sibelius Academy from 1958 to 1964 before switching to upright bass. He initially played dance music but was soon invited to perform in jazz clubs by bandleaders like Eero Koivistoinen and Esa Pethman.
1967 saw him joining the house band of Down Beat Club where he played with musicians like Ben Webster and Dexter Gordon. In 1975 Sarmanto founded UMO, abbreviation of Uuden Musiikin Orkesteri, (New Music Orchestra) and the group accompanied many international jazz musicians visiting Finland. As a result Pekka was able to meet and play with Charles Mingus in Belgrade, Serbia; Gil Evans, Edward Vesala and Sonny Rollins.
Sarmanto received the Georgie Award of the Finnish Jazz Federation in 1978. In 1982 he worked on the album To a Finland Station with Dizzy Gillespie and Arturo Sandoval, released on the Pablo label in 1983. He considers this to be his most successful recording.
In 1996 the bassist founded the Pekka Sarmanto Trio and in 2007 he retired from UMO but he still keeps performing actively with different groups, including with his own trio..
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louiz Banks was born Dambar Bahadur Budaprithi to Nepali parents on February 11, 1941 in Calcutta, West Bengal, British India and grew up in his hometown of Darjeeling. His early music education was at the hands of his father, a trumpeter, and his neighbour Mrs. Myers. He did his schooling at St. Roberts School, Darjeeling and around age thirteen he became interested in western music and he started playing the guitar and the trumpet. His father gave him piano lessons and played in his band. He went to college at St. Joseph’s College in Darjeeling, where he continued to study piano.
After college Banks moved to Kathmandu, Nepal with his father’s band and decided to become a full-time musician, it was there he discovered jazz music. In the late 1960s he had a three year residency at the Soaltee Hotel in Kathmandu. Moving back to Calcutta in 1971 he met singer Pam Craine and saxophonist Braz Gonsalves and formed The Louis Banks Brotherhood. They played hotel rooms and night clubs and he got work composing advertisement jingles and stage musicals.
In 1977 Louiz was in Mumbai with the R.D. Burman troupe and got introduced to world music. Popularizing live jazz he cemented his place and reputation in the city. Two years later along with Goan saxophonist Braz Gonsalves he formed the Indo-Jazz Ensemble, composing music on Indian classical scales and Jazz rhythms, incorporating Indian instruments like ghatam and thavil. In 1980, he was a member of the jazz quartet which was part of the orchestra to perform with Ravi Shankar in his noted suite Jazzmine at the ‘Jazz Yatra’ Festival.
He would go on to form several groups with vocalists, tabla and sitar. In addition he has composed music for several short films. He has performed at various concerts and with well-known jazz artists such as Radha Thomas and Joe Alvares. He worked on a progressive fusion jazz album titled Labyrinth with his son’s band Nexus.
He collaborated as co-producer, arranger and pianist and keyboards on the album Miles From India, a tribute to the founder of modern jazz Miles Davis was nominated for the 2008 Grammy Awards in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category. In the same category, John McLaughlin’s fusion album Floating Point was also nominated, Banks was the featured keyboardist on the album.
Keyboardist, singer, film composer, record producer Louiz Banks, who has often been acknowledged as the Godfather of Indian Jazz, continues to perform, compose and produce.
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