Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Douglas Ewart was born on September 13, 1946 in Kingston, Jamaica and emigrated to the United States in 1963. Settling in Chicago, Illinois he became associated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1967, studying with Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell. He served as that organization’s president from 1979 to 1986.
Douglas recorded eight albums as a leader and has performed or recorded fifteen with J. D. Parran, Muhal Richard Abrams, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, Alvin Curran, Anthony Davis, Robert Dick, Von Freeman, Joseph Jarman, Amina Claudine Myers, Roscoe Mitchell, James Newton, Rufus Reid, Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor, Richard Teitelbaum, Henry Threadgill, Hamid Drake, Don Byron, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Muhal Richard Abrams, Spencer Barefield, Tani Tabbal, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Joëlle Léandre, Bernard Santacruz, Michael Zerang, Chico Freeman, Dennis González, Yusef Lateef, Adam Rudolph,
In 1992 he collaborated with Canadian artist Stan Douglas on the video installation Hors-champs which was featured at Documenta 9 in Kassel, Germany. The installation features Ewart in improvisation of Albert Ayler’s Spirits Rejoice with musicians George Lewis, Kent Carter, and Oliver Johnson.
Douglas Ewart has lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 1990 and plays sopranino and alto saxophones, clarinets, bassoon, flute, bamboo flutes, panpipes, and didgeridoo; as well as Rastafarian hand drums.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steve Davis was born on September 10, 1958 in Santa Barbara, California. With Shelly Manne as his godfather, he became interested in the drums at a young age. Following the advice of drum teacher Alan Dawson, he moved to New York City in the early 1980s to begin his career as a jazz drummer.
Once there Steve met jazz educator Jamey Aebersold, and by 1982 joined the Aebersold clinic faculty. Throughout the 1980s while studying privately with Joe Morello he worked in New York City, meeting pianist Lynne Arriale at a jam session soon after she moved to the city in 1991.
As an educator, Davis holds a faculty position at the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Summer Schools in the US and the Jazzwise Summer Schools in the UK. He has taught at Triton College, Webster University, Washington University, Berlin Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, and the University of South Florida.
He has recorded five albums as a leader, and eighteen as a sideman with Arriale, Aebersold, Joe Beck, Ali Ryerson, Manfredo Fest, Monika Herzig, Wolfgang Lackerschmid, and Walt Weiskopf. Drummer Steve Davis, who is a recording engineer, continues to perform and record as a musician.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Phillip Sanford Wilson was born on September 8, 1941 in St. Louis, Missouri and was a third-generation musician. His grandfather, Ira Kimball, was a riverboat percussionist on the Mississippi to New Orleans.
His recording debut was with Sam Lazar, noted for having one of the first interracial bands in the St. Louis area. After moving to Chicago, Illinois he became a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and performed with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
He joined up with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1967 at a time when the band membership changed greatly, including an added horn section. He recorded three albums with the group. Wilson’s song Love March, written with Gene Dinwiddie, was performed at Woodstock and released in 1970 on the live album from the festival.
Wilson, along with Dinwiddie and fellow former Butterfield Band member Buzz Feiten, formed the jazz-rock band Full Moon in the early 1970s. They recorded a self-titled album which is considered one of the finest early examples of jazz fusion. He was part of the loft jazz scene in 1970s New York City, worked as a session musician for Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee and with Jimi Hendrix at the Cafe Au Go Go and Generation Club in 1968. They recorded with The Last Poets, Fontella Bass, Olu Dara, David Murray, Anthony Braxton, and Carla Bley. He worked extensively with Lester Bowie. In 1985, along with Bill Laswell co-produced the album Down by Law under the group name Deadline.
He recorded four albums as a leader and as a sideman recorded twenty-one albums with Hamiet Bluiett, Lester Bowie, Anthony Braxton, Paul Butterfield, Julius Hemphill, Sam Lazar, Frank Lowe, Roscoe Mitchell, and David Murray.
Drummer Phillip Wilson, while pursuing his musical career, was stalked and murdered in New York City on March 25, 1992. As a result of America’s Most Wanted television program, Marvin Slater was convicted for premeditated murder in 1997 and sentenced to 33 1/3 years in state prison. The reason for his murder has never been revealed.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stephanie Crawford was born on August 30, 1942 in Detroit, Michigan and divided her childhood between living with her mother in Detroit’s Black Bottom, called that due to its dark soil, and with an aunt in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She grew up surrounded by jazz, blues, R&B, and gospel music, from which she draws from.
Although singing was her first love from childhood she did not sing in public until she was 36, after working on a Chrysler assembly line and as a short-order cook, and earning a bachelor’s degree in painting from Wayne State University.
Her first live performance in front of an audience was accidental while taking in a rather bad pianist/vocalist in a local dive. Whe she would forget the words, Stephanie would call out the lyrics. Fed up, the woman challenged her to come up and sing and the rest is history. The invite to come back was given and she found her home.
A move to New York City, while working on her master’s in fine arts, Crawford became so immersed in the Manhattan jazz scene that she dropped out of school in order to devote more time to sitting in at jam sessions. She found herself seeking out and studying with Frank Foster and Barry Harris.
Her next stop was Paris, France where she won the prestigious Django d’Or award for Best International Jazz Vocalist in 1993. Singing did not pay the bills, so to support herself Stephanie taught jazz singing at two music schools. Returning to New York City she found work with a Portuguese wine importer.
Vocalist Stephanie Crawford, is clear that talent and fame are not synonymous, and though she continues to sing, helping to keep the fading local jazz scene alive, and continues with her passion for art. Just prior to the pandemic she performed in New York City at the Laurie Beechman Theater.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Fambrough was born on August 25, 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He originally studied classical piano but switched to bass when he was 13. In 1968, he began playing with local pit bands for musicals and after some freelancing in 1970, he joined Grover Washington, Jr.’s band, staying with him until 1974.
Moving on he worked with Airto from 1975 to 1977), followed by McCoy Tyner for two years in 1978 and then on to be a part of the Jazz Messengers under Art Blakey from 1980 to 1982. Leaving the Messengers Charles freelanced as a sideman and led three CTI recordings with Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Kenny Kirkland, Jerry Gonzalez, Steve Turre, Donald Harrison, Kenny Garrett, Abdullah Ibrahim, Grover Washington, Jr., Jeff “Tain” Watts, Stephen Scott, Billy Drummond, Bobby Broom, and Steve Berrios.
As a sideman, he worked and recorded sixteen albums with Kei Akagi, Craig Handy, Eric Mintel, and Roland Kirk among others. Reportedly been suffering from a number of serious ailments including end-stage renal disease and congestive heart failure, and benefit concerts had been held over the preceding several years in the Philadelphia area to help the bassist and his family defray the costs of his mounting medical bills.
Bassist, composer, and bandleader Charles Fambrough passed away at the age of 60 of a heart attack at his home in Allentown, Pennsylvania on January 1, 2011.
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