Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Laird Abercrombie was born in Port Chester, New York on December 16, 1944. Growing up in the 1950s in Greenwich, Connecticut he was attracted to the rock and roll of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and Bill Haley and the Comets. He also liked the sound of jazz guitarist Mickey Baker of the vocal duo Mickey and Silvia. He had two friends who were musicians with a large jazz collection and they listened to albums by Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis.
The first jazz guitar album he heard was by Barney Kessel, and taking guitar lessons at the age of ten, asked his teacher to show him what Kessel was playing. After high school, John went to Berklee College of Music and while there he was drawn to the music of Jim Hall, Sonny Rollins, and Wes Montgomery. He cites George Benson and Pat Martino as inspirations. His playing around Boston, Massachusetts led to his meeting the Brecker Brothers and organist Johnny Hammond Smith, who invited him to go on tour.
From Berklee in 1967 to North Texas State University to a move to New York City in 1969 where he became a popular session musician. He joined the Brecker Brothers in the jazz-rock fusion band Dreams, followed by recordings with Gato Barbieri, Barry Miles, and Gil Evans. He continued to play fusion in Billy Cobham’s band until an invitation from drummer Jack DeJohnette led to the fulfillment of Abercrombie’s desire to play in a jazz-oriented ensemble.
Around the same time, record producer Manfred Eicher, founder and president of ECM Records, invited him to record an album. He recorded his first solo album, Timeless, with DeJohnette and keyboardist Jan Hammer. who had been his roommate in the 1960s. In 1975 he formed the band Gateway with DeJohnette and bassist Dave Holland.
Between 1984 and 1990, Abercrombie experimented with a guitar synthesizer. Free jaz became a mainstay for him in the 1990s and 2000s as he formed many new associations. Drummer Adam Nussbaum, and Hammond organist Jeff Palmer became his trio and made a free-jazz album, then replaced Palmer with organist Dan Wall and released three albums between 1992 and 1997. Adding trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, violinist Mark Feldman and saxophonist Joe Lovano to the trio he recorded Open Land in 1999.).
He continued to tour and record until the end of his life. who recorded 59 as a leader, 4 with Gateway, 6 with Andy LaVerne and 93 as a sideman for the who’s who in jazz. Guitarist John Abercrombie, whose work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz, passed away of heart failure in Cortlandt Manor, New York, at the age of 72 on August 22, 2017.
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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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