Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Barry Miles was born Barry Miles Silverlight on March 28, 1947 in Newark, New Jersey and grew up in North Plainfield, New Jersey. In 1956 he joined the musicians union at age nine as a child prodigy on drums, piano and vibraphone appearing with Miles Davis and John Coltrane among other talents of the day. He appeared live and on television shows including To Tell the Truth, Dick Van Dyke’s variety show, and The Andy Williams Show.

In 1961 at age fourteen he made his solo artist debut recording, “Miles of Genius”, as drummer and composer with sidemen Al Hall and Duke Jordan. Miles continued to perform with his own band in the early 1960s in which he composed the material that enabled up and coming talents such as Woody Shaw, Eddie Gómez and Robin Kenyatta to display their talents.

While a student at Princeton University he concentrated on his piano playing, recording a live album in 1966 entitled Barry Miles Presents His Syncretic Compositions. He followed in 1969 with the eponymously titled album, Barry Miles, incorporating electric instruments.

The Seventies saw him recruiting his brother Terry Silverlight on drums along with guitarists Pat Martino and John Abercrombie to record his White Heat album, which is regarded as one of the pioneering fusion jazz recordings. For the next decade, Miles recorded several albums in which he developed the principle of fusing styles together in jazz.

In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Barry went on to work as Roberta Flack’s musical director for a stint that lasted fifteen years. During that time he composed, produced and recorded songs that Flack recorded in the film Bustin’ Loose, and on her album Oasis. He established a long-lasting relationship with Al Di Meola as his  performing, recording and co-producing keyboardist.

He wrote the instruction book, “Twelve Themes With Improvisations”, and is currently out of print. In 2013, he released Home and Away, Volume One, his first album as a leader in 27 years. Pianist, record producer and author Barry Miles continues to perform, record and produce.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Robert Philip Militello a.k.a. Bobby M. was born on March 25, 1950 in Buffalo, New York. He was groomed by the legendary Sam Scamacca at Buffalo’s iconic Lafayette High School in the 1960s.

During the Seventies, Militello went on tour with Maynard Ferguson and returned to Buffalo in the early 1980s to work as a freelance musician.

Moving to Los Angeles, California he spent the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s as a member of orchestras led by Bill Holman and Bob Florence. He toured and recorded with Dave Brubeck from 1982 to 2012.

Saxophonist and flautist Bobby Militello leads a quartet that performs concerts dedicated to Brubeck.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jon Ivar Christensen was born March 20, 1943 in Oslo, Norway. In the late 1960s he played alongside Jan Garbarek on several recordings by the composer George Russell. He also was a central participant in the jazz band Masqualero, with Arild Andersen, and they reappeared in 2003 for his 60th anniversary.

He appears on many recordings on the ECM label with such artists as Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Bobo Stenson, Eberhard Weber, Ralph Towner, including the seminal 1975 Solstice, Barre Phillips, Arild Andersen, Enrico Rava, John Abercrombie, Michael Mantler, Miroslav Vitous, Rainer Brüninghaus, Charles Lloyd, Dino Saluzzi Jakob Bro, and Tomasz Stanko.

Christensen was a member of the Keith Jarrett “European Quartet” of the 1970s, along with Jan Garbarek and Palle Danielsson, which produced five jazz recordings on ECM Records.

Drummer Jon Christensen died on February 18, 2020, at the age of 76 in his hometown.

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Jazz Poems

MAY 12

From The Daily Mirror

A book could be written on the moment swing turned into bop the moment Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, and Teddy Wilson gave way to Bird, Dizzy, Miles, Bud and Monk in fact it would be a great movie at least the sound track would be “beyond category” as Duke Ellington would have put it the life of a jazz musician (about which I know so little) is the life for me I felt on the afternoon Jamie and I visited his father who sat at the piano and talked and played I was tongue-tied and wanted him to play a song as if Helen Merrill were there and her voice and his fingers were about to have an intimate talk

DAVID LEHMAN | 1948

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charles E. Clark was born on March 11, 1945, in Chicago, Illinois and studied bass with Wilbur Ware. He embarked on a professional career in 1963 and went on to play with Muhal Richard Abrams in his Experimental Band between 1966 and 1968, recording with the ensemble on the album Levels and Degrees of Light.

He was a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Clark played live with Joseph Jarman in the late 1960s, sometimes employing percussion, koto, and cello as well as bass. He recorded on Jarman’s Delmark Records releases, Song For in 1966 and again on As If It Were the Seasons in 1968.

With the death of Clark and pianist Christopher Gaddy, Jarman disbanded his ensemble and joined the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Double-bassist Charles Clark, who during his extremely short career never recorded as a leader, died April 15, 1969 in Chicago.

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