Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anthony Tillmon Williams was born of African, Portuguese, and Chinese descent on December 12, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied with drummer Alan Dawson at an early age, and began playing professionally at the age of 13 with saxophonist Sam Rivers. Saxophonist Jackie McLean hired Williams when he was 16.
At 17 Williams gained attention when he joined Miles Davis in what was later dubbed Davis’s Second Great Quintet. A vital element of the group, his playing helped redefine the role of the jazz rhythm section through the use of polyrhythms and metric modulation.
He recorded his first two albums as leader at nineteen for the Blue Note label, Life Time in 1964) and Spring in 1965.. He also recorded as a sideman for the label including, in 1964, Out to Lunch! with Eric Dolphy and Point of Departure with Andrew Hill.
By 1969, he had formed his trio, the Tony Williams Lifetime, with John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ. Lifetime was a pioneering band of the fusion movement. Disbanding the group, in 1975 he put together a band he called The New Tony Williams Lifetime, featuring bassist Tony Newton, pianist Alan Pasqua, and English guitarist Allan Holdsworth, which recorded two albums for Columbia Records..
In mid-1976, Tony reunited with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Wayne Shorter. Freddie Hubbard replaced Miles Davis who was in the midst of a six-year hiatus. The resulting record was later released as V.S.O.P. and the group toured for several years and produced a series of live albums released under the name V.S.O.P. or V.S.O.P.: The Quintet.
1979 saw Williams, McLaughlin and bassist Jaco Pastorius united for a one-time performance at the Havana Jazz Festival. This trio came to be known as the Trio of Doom. In 1985, returning to Blue Note he released six albums through 1993, playing his compositions almost exclusively ubtil he left Blue Note for the final time.
He lived and taught in the San Francisco Bay Area, was one of the pioneers of jazz fusion, and was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1986. On February 20, 1997 he checked into Seton Medical Center in Daly City, California, suffering from stomach pain. Three days later, while recuperating from gallbladder surgery, drummer Tony Williams passed away of a heart attack at 51 on February 23, 1997.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gary Winston Boyle was born November 24, 1941 in Patna, Bihar, India. He attended the Leeds College of Music in the early 1960s and then joined the folk-rock band Eclection. He also played in The Echoes, Dusty Springfield’s band in the mid-1960s, and recorded with Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll.
In the early 1970s he worked as a session musician with musicians Keith Tippett, Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook, Stomu Yamashta, Bert Jansch and Norma Winstone.
In 1973, Boyle founded the jazz fusion band Isotope with bassist Jeff Clyne, keyboardist Brian Miller and drummer Nigel Morris. This line-up gigged around the United Kingdom extensively. Fusion guitarist Gary Boyle continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alan Lawrence Turnbull was born November 23, 1943 in Melbourne, Australia and after taking drum lessons from Graham Morgan he commenced his professional career at the age of 14. He played with top local jazz musicians such as Graeme Lyall, Keith Hounslow and Brian Brown while filling in for drummer Stewart Speer at Horst Liepolt’s Melbourne jazz venue, Jazz Centre 44.
Moving to Sydney in the late 1960s, Turnbull soon became very active in the jazz scene and worked regularly as a freelance musician, including a number of years with the Don Burrows quartet which worked regularly at various clubs, concerts, festivals and other venues throughout Australia and in the United States.
His partnership of drums/double bass with American double bassist Ed Gaston set a new standard for swing jazz rhythm sections in Australia that would influence Australian rhythm sections for decades.
In the following years he worked with the likes of Milt Jackson, Joe Henderson, Gary Burton, Sonny Stitt, Barney Kessell, Richie Cole, Cleo Laine, Billy Eckstine, Cab Calloway, Billy Field, and Neil Sedaka as well the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Pops Orchestra.
Appearing on numerous recordings, including those of Don Burrows, Rolf Stube’s Jazz Police, Graeme Norris Band, The Jazz Co-op, The Two with Paul Macnamara, Neil Sedaka and Billy Field, drummer Alan Turnbull, who was also a freelance professional musician, passed away on August 28,2014.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Geoff Simkins was born on October 13, 1948 in London Borough of Ealing, England. He started playing jazz in his early teens and his first instrument was drums, but he quickly changed to the alto saxophone.
In 1977 Geoff turned professional and his early work included time with the Harry Strutters Hot Rhythm Orchestra and the Temperance Seven. His principal stylistic influences have been the altoist Lee Konitz and tenor saxman Warne Marsh.
Simkins has played at concerts, clubs and festivals in all parts of the UK, in Europe and beyond. Often working with visiting American musicians his list has included Art Farmer, Bobby Shew, Al Cohn, Tal Farlow, Slide Hampton, Warren Vache, Al Grey, Howard Alden, Ruby Braff, Bill Coleman and Conte Candoli, among others. He has recorded with UK tenor saxophonist Danny Moss and US trumpeters Billy Butterfield and Yank Lawson. Since the 1980s he has worked regularly with UK guitarist Dave Cliff.
As an educator Geoff is a respected teacher, and runs improvisation courses in Brighton, UK. He has been a regular tutor at the famous Glamorgan Jazz Summer School in Wales before moving it to Trinity College of Music in London. Since 2012 he has taught at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.
Alto saxophonist Geoff Simkins, who has recorded as a leader also eight albums as a sideman with Nikki Iies, Dave Cliff, Allan Ganley and Howard Alden, continues to perform, record and teach.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steve Elmer was born on October 6, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. He began his musical training as a drummer in a Brooklyn junior high school when he was thirteen years old. He briefly attended Manhattan School of Music before he became the featured jazz drummer with the All American Big Brass Band’s 16-country three-month tour of Africa.
On his return, he spent the next two years playing drums with the Pepe Morreale Trio and cornetist Bobby Hackett. Elmer then earned his B.S in Music Education from Hofstra University and took a job teaching music in a Passaic, New Jersey elementary school followed by a year-and-a-half at Manhattan Vocational- Technical High School.
At age 25, Steve took the first of many formal piano lessons with the brilliant jazz pianist and teacher Lennie Tristano. After six years of intense training, Elmer decided to move away from the Tristano influence and follow his own musical instincts.
In 1969 Steve attended Queens College where he received a Master’s degree in Music Composition, and accepted an invitation to become an assistant professor. He developed a BA in Jazz Studies program where he and Count Basie alumnus Frank Foster served as the faculty.
Elmer stopped playing professionally from 1976-1991 until he met a young drummer named Myles Weinstein and discovered they were both on the same musical wavelength. He and Myles formed a group called The Jazz Mentality Chris Potter on saxophones and Ralph Hamperian on bass. The group recorded two CDs, Maxwell’s Torment and Show Business Is My Life featuring many of Steve’s original compositions.
In 2006, Steve recorded I Used To Be Anonymous, featuring nine original compositions. The trio toured Japan, recorded Fire Down Below, their second CD, in 2008 featuring ten more of his original compositions and a lot of classic jazz playing. Pianist and drummer Steve Elmer is looking forward to a return to Japan and recording his first solo piano album.
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