Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ferdinand Povel was born on February 13, 1947 in Haarlem, Netherlands. Coming from an artistic family, his father was a cineaste (filmmaker) and his mother a pianist. At an early age, he developed a taste for jazz, when first introduced to as a gift on his twelfth birthday, he received a ticket to a late-night concert by the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
In 1961 he began studying clarinet with Theo Loevendie and teaching himself saxophone because jazz was not yet taught formally in the Netherlands. Ferdinand learned by playing with experienced musicians, such as pianists Rob Madna and Frans Elsen, picking up knowledge of harmony and arrangement as a young member of the orchestras of Kurt Edelhagen and Peter Herbolzheimer, and of the Skymasters.
In 1964 at 17, Povel won the Loosdrecht Jazz Concours with the Martin Haak Quartet. This was the start of his career as a professional musician. 1966 saw him playing with The New Sound Incorporated, giving school concerts and radio and TV broadcasts for Tros and Avro broadcasting companies. He went on to be a finalist at the 1966 International Modern Jazz Festival in Vienna, Austria where the judges included Cannonball Adderley and Mel Lewis.
In the same year, the Netherlands Jazz Orchestra invited Povel to join them as a saxophonist and flutist. Three years later he was in Munich, Germany playing with trumpet player Dusko Goykovich in his Summit Quintet, starring drummer Philly Joe Jones and touring Europe several times.
Ferdinand would go on to play with the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band, the Kurt Edelhagen Orchestra, tour the United States of America with the Maynard Ferguson Big Band, and the Peter Herbolzheimer’s Rhythm Combination and Brass from 1971 to 1985. He was a member of George Grunz’s band, Jiggs Whigham Sextet, and the bands of Rob Madna, Frans Elsen, and Cees Slinger. He has played in the front line with jazz icons such as Art Farmer, Bennie Bailey, Woody Shaw, and Jimmy Knepper.
Throughout his career he was never far from playing in various occasional orchestras for radio and television. As an educator he taught jazz improvisation at the Rotterdam Conservatory and at conservatoriums in Zwolle, Hilversum and The Hague. Since 1990 he has taught exclusively at the Hilversum Music Academy, now named the Conservatory of Amsterdam, as part of Amsterdam School of the Arts.
Saxophonist Ferdinand Povel has a discography that includes over one hundred record and CD albums to which he has contributed as a soloist. He has received several honors and continues to perform and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Martin Drew was born on February 11, 1944 in Northampton, England and started to play the drums when he was six years old. Studying with drummer George Fierstone gave him a solid musical and technical background. He played his first professional engagement at the age of 13.
He was also a member of a trio led by Eddie Thompson. Martin was often heard playing on BBC Radio 2’s Sounds of Jazz program in the 1970s, which was introduced by Peter Clayton on Sunday evenings.
During the 1980s, Drew played simultaneously with the Ronnie Scott Quartet and with the jazz group Morrissey–Mullen, until they disbanded in 1988. He then led a quintet called Our Band with saxophonist Dick Morrissey, guitarist Jim Mullen who replaced original member Louis Stewart, pianist John Critchinson, and bassist Ron Mathewson.
Between 1997 and 2000, he led a quartet with Mornington Lockett on tenor saxophone, Gareth Williams on piano, and Laurence Cottle on electric bass. 2000 saw Martin forming the Celebrating The Jazz Couriers quintet with Mornington Lockett, playing the music of the original Jazz Couriers. They won the 2002 British Jazz Award for Best Small Group.
The New Couriers band reformed in 2003 with Paul Morgan on double-bass and Jim Hart on vibraphone. Lockett and Steve Melling on tenor saxophone and piano. He recorded one album in 1978 titled The Martin Drew Band, British Jazz Artists Vol. 3.
Drummer Martin Drew, who worked with over one hundred musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, transitioned following a heart attack on July 29, 2010, at the age of 66 in Harefield, Hillingdon, England.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Louis Domanico, better known professionally as Chuck Domanico, was born on January 20, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois. Settling in Los Angeles, California in the mid-1960s, for nearly forty years, he was a central jazz figure in Hollywood who contributed to many movies and TV programs.
Domanico worked with Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Carmen McRae, Joni Mitchell, Taj Mahal, Diane Schuur, Natalie Cole, and The Manhattan Transfer. He participated in instrumental jazz performances by Chet Baker, Henry Mancini, Shelly Manne, Oliver Nelson, John Klemmer, Roger Kellaway, Barney Kessel, and Art Pepper.
His bass can be heard in themes for television shows like M*A*S*H, Cheers and Frasier, and he contributed to the soundtracks of more than two thousand films.
Double bassist and bass guitarist Chuck Domanico, who played on the West Coast jazz scene, transitioned from lung cancer on October 17, 2002 at the age of 58.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alain Mion was born of French extraction on January 14, 1947 in Casablanca, Morocco but was raised in Paris, France.Influenced by Bobby Timmons, Ray Charles and Les McCann, his style varies between jazz, soul jazz and funky music. By the time he was 19 he formed his own trio and performed at the Blue Note. This subsequently led to him gigging at various festivals with Hank Mobley and Philly Joe Jones.
1974 Alain created the jazz funk group Cortex and recorded a dozen albums before embarking upon a career under his own name in 1982, recording to date eleven albums, such as Pheno-Men, Alain Mion in New York recorded with David Binney and Marc Johnson, and Some Soul Food recorded in Stockholm, Sweden with Patrik Boman and Ronnie Gardiner.
In 2008, he emerged with a new group, Alain Mion FunKey Combo with drums, bass and a saxophone section consisting of Italian and French musicians. He reinvented his new group Alain Mion & The New Cortex with the singer Adeline de Lépinay reprising the role originally performed by Mireille Dalbray on the Troupeau Bleu album.
In the United States, Alain Mion and Cortex’s songs have been sampled by several hip-hop artists including but not limited to Madlib, Fat Joe, DJ Day, MF DOOM, Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, Mellowhype, Tyler The Creator, Rick Ross, and Lupe Fiasco.
Pianist, composer, arranger, and vocalist Alain Mion continues his exploration of the jazz idiom.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dannee Fullerton was born January 12, 1944 in Los Angeles, California and at the age of four, moved with his mother to Saudi Arabia, joining his father who worked for the Arabian American Oil Company. By 11, he was enrolled at the Institut Montana Zugerberg, an all boys international school in Switzerland. It was here that drums became a strong influence and his very first drum set was a pair of brushes and a set of bongo drums. Along with singing, Dannee played the guitar and the drums.
At 14, he started a band at the Institut and gave concerts 3 to 4 times a year, something that had never before been accomplished on that campus. By 15 Dannee attended a concert and on the bill was the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and the Benny Goodman Orchestra featuring Gene Krupa playing Sing,Sing,Sing. The effect upon hearing this music caused Fullerton to give away all his rock and roll albums and so he could seriously concentrate on jazz.
During these formative years, he taught himself and others to play Jazz and continued to hold jazz concerts at school. Creating the school’s first jazz club, convincing the Director to allow students to attend jazz concerts, he was able to see concerts by the Oscar Peterson Trio, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Ahmed Jamal, Cannonball Adderly, the John Coltrane Quartet and the Dave Brubeck Quartet… Dannee was now hooked on the jazz art form and was intent on learning it.
Graduating from high school, Fullerton attended Berklee College of Music and studied under Alan Dawson, Herb Pomeroy, John La Porta, and Jack Peterson. Later he studied privately with drummer Pete La Roca. He played sessions with Keith Jarrett, Mick Goodrick, Gene Perla, John Abercrombie, Sam Rivers, Sadao Watanabe, Byard Lancaster and other students at the time. He performed with the Keith Jarrett Trio for two years, in his Boston, Massachusetts trio.
Drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam era, he served in various Army bands over the next 24 years, serving in Europe, Korea, Okinawa and many locations within the United States. During his service Dannee performed with Maynard Ferguson, Herb Ellis, The Ink Spots, Bill Watrous, Bill Lohr, “Jazz Express” (Dannee’s own group) John Payne, Don Erdman, Kurt Black, Buddy Tate, Joe Newman, Mike Francis and Curt Warren to name a few.
Retiring from military service in 1989, he settled outside Tacoma, Washington. Drummer Dannee Fullerton, who never recorded professionally, continues to perform locally with Jack Percival, Sid Potter, Tim Eikholt, Tom Russell, Gary Black, Joe Bach, Roger Gard, Pete Lira, Bob McNamara, Ken Upton and Lance Buller, among others.
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