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.
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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.
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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.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jemeel Moondoc was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 5, 1946 and studied clarinet and piano before settling on saxophone at sixteen. He became interested in jazz largely due to Cecil Taylor and at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and was a student of Taylor’s.
After his time at the university he moved to New York City, where he founded “Ensemble Muntu” with William Parker, Roy Campbell, Jr., and Rashid Bak. The group had its own Muntu record label, but eventually faced financial difficulties.
In 1984, he formed the Jus Grew Orchestra, which secured a residency at the Neither/Nor club on the Lower East Side. He worked with Parker again in 1998’s album, New World Pygmies.
Alto saxophonist, clarinetist and pianist Jemeel Moondoc, a proponent of a highly improvisational style, died on August 29, 2021, at the age of 75 from the effects of sickle cell anemia.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Adrian Tilbrook was born on July 20, 1948 in Hartlepool, Co. Durham, England. The son of a tenor saxophone/clarinet player, he studied drums for two years with Max Abrams. In 1974 he replaced Tony Hicks in the blues-influenced rock trio Back Door and toured extensively in Germany and the UK in the 70s with British blues giant Alexis Korner.
Tilbrook formed Full Circle with trombonist Rick Taylor in 1984 and ventured into jazz. Throughout his freelance career, played with many American musicians, including Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, Al Grey, James Moody, Jimmy Witherspoon and Al Casey, as well as British artists such as Ian Carr, Allan Holdsworth, Don Weller and Stan Tracey.
A powerful and tasteful technician, he has been influenced by Elvin Jones and Billy Higgins. Drummer Adrian Tilbrook, who has taught percussion for many years and since 1986 has worked with Northern Arts/Yorkshire Arts as Jazz Development Officer based at Jazz Action in Darlington, continues to perform and record.
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