Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rüdiger Carl was born on April 26, 1944 in Goldap, Poland ( formerly East Prussia) and has been involved in improvised music since 1968. He recorded his first record in 1972 and then began playing with a wide range of musicians including Arjen Gorter, Makaya Ntshoko, Louis Moholo, Maarten van Regteren Altena, Tristan Honsinger, Johnny Dyani and Han Bennink.
He maintains a long-standing partnership with Irene Schweizer that began in 1973 and continues to the present day. For a three year period, from 1973 to 1976 Carl was a member of Globe Unity Orchestra. He started giving solo performances in 1977 and the following year started two other long-term professional partnerships, with Sven-Åke Johansson and Hans Reichel.
Rüdiger’s most striking change in improvised music came when he gave up the saxophone and began performing with the accordion in duets with Hans Reichel. Though he continued to play the two instruments virtually side-by-side, adding clarinet to his arsenal, recorded Vorn which featured a version of the McCartney tune Those Were The Days. The COWWS Quintet was formed, continuing his musical relationship with Schweizer along with Philipp Wachsmann, Jay Oliver and Stephen Wittwer.
In addition to the COWWS, he performs with the Canvas Trio, in duos with Mayo Thompson of the Red Crayolas and Joëlle Léandre. During the Eighties he organized concerts of Musik im Portikus and beginning in 1994 has led the F.I.M. Orchester in Frankfurt/M.
Accordionist Rüdiger Carl is also an arranger and composer and continues to record and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alan Richard James Skidmore was born the son of saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore on April 21, 1942 in London, England. He began his professional career in his teens, and early on toured with comedian Tony Hancock. In the 1960s, he appeared on BBC Radio, then worked with Alexis Korner, John Mayall, and Ronnie Scott.
Starting a band with Harry Miller, Tony Oxley, John Taylor, and Kenny Wheeler, they won awards at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. In the early Seventies, Alan started a saxophone-only band with John Surman and Mike Osborne.
He has worked with Mose Allison, Kate Bush, Elton Dean, Georgie Fame, Mike Gibbs, George Gruntz, Elvin Jones, Van Morrison, Stan Tracey, Charlie Watts, and Mike Westbrook.
Tenor saxophonist Alan Skidmore, who has recorded seventeen albums as a leader, continues to pursue the boundaries of his musc.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Cully was born on April 19, 1949 in Manhattan, New York. He began his musical journey at the age of 16 studying with James Rago, Professor of Percussion at the University of Louisville. While still in high school, he formed a very popular quartet, The Charades, then went on to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. There he studied with Alan Dawson and continued his studies with former “Tonight Show” drummer Ed Shaughnessy.
Early in his career Dick performed a variety of musical styles, pop, rock, disco, jazz and country. However, in 1982, he formed the Dick Cully Big Band, a high energy, exciting unit performing a wide variety of arrangements for all age groups. In 1984, he became an artist/endorser for the world famous Slingerland Drum Company.
Cully has worked with Toni Tennille, Sandy Duncan, Florence Henderson, Frank Gorshin, Ray Anthony, Buddy Morrow, Skitch Henderson, Patti Page, Nanette Fabray, Les Elgart, Connie Haines, Bobby Rydell, comedians Foster Brooks and George Kirby. In 1989, the Dick Cully Big Band was chosen as “One of the best bands in the nation” by Down Beat magazine and featured on Black Entertainment Network’s “Jazz Discovery” television program.
Recognized as an educator and clinician, he is the author of Instructional Drum Videos The Workout, Secrets of the World’s Greatest Drummer and More Secrets of the World’s Greatest Drummer, which are in-depth analysis of the late Buddy Rich. Drummer Dick Cully continues to perform and lead his band.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Han Bennink was born April 17, 1942 in Zaandam, Netherlands, the son of a classical percussionist. He began playing the drums and the clarinet during his teens. He also went on to learn to play the violin, banjo and piano, which feature him on some of his recordings.
Through the 1960s, while in his t,wenties he was the drummer with a number of American musicians visiting the Netherlands, including Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, Sonny Rollins and Eric Dolphy.
He subsequently became a central figure in the emerging European free improvisation scene. In 1963 he formed a quartet with pianist Misha Mengelberg and saxophonist Piet Noordijk which performed at the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival. The following year Han co-founded the Instant Composers Pool with Mengelberg and Willem Breuker, which sponsored Dutch avant garde performances. Late in the decade he played in a trio with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove, which became a duo after Van Hove’s departure in 1976.
From the late 1980s through the early 2000s, Bennik collaborated closely with Dutch post-punk band The Ex, simultaneously playing through the 1990s in Clusone 3, a trio with saxophonist/clarinetist Michael Moore and cellist Ernst Reijseger.
He has recorded twenty albums as a solo or leader and recorded over a eight dozen albums as a sideman with the likes of Derek Bailey, Conny Bauer, Don Cherry and Alexander von Schlippenbach, Steve Lacy, Lee Konitz, Ray anderson, Gary Bartz, Jckie McLean, Paul Bley, Annette Peacock, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Uri Caine, Myra Melford, and Sonny Rollins. (partial list)
His style is wide-ranging, running from conventional jazz drumming to highly unconventional free improvisation. Drummer Han Bennink is best known as one of the pivotal figures in early European free jazz and free improvisation, and he continues to push forward the envelope of his music at 80.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Phillip Robert Lee was born on April 8, 1943 in London, England and studied guitar with Ike Isaacs as a teenager. He was a member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and performed at the 1960 Antibes Jazz Festival.
Later in the 1960s he played with John Williams and Graham Collier, as well as in a band with Bob Stuckey, Dudu Pukwana, and John Marshall.
During the 1970s, Phil moved into jazz-rock playing in bands such as Gilgamesh and Axel with Tony Coe and with Michael Garrick, Henry Lowther, and John Stevens.
Lee recorded Twice Upon a Time in 1987) with Jeff Clyne. Later in his career he worked with Gordon Beck, Andres Boiarsky, Benny Goodman, Lena Horne, Marian Montgomery, Annie Ross, and the London Jazz Orchestra.
Guitarist Phil Lee continues his exploration of jazz music.
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