Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dave Stryker was born March 30, 1957 and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. At ten years old he was inspired by the Beatles to start playing guitar. His interest was rock and roll until he heard the albums My Favorite Things by John Coltrane and Beyond the Blue Horizon by George Benson. By seventeen, he was a jazz guitarist in town.
In 1978 he moved to Los Angeles, California where he took lessons from another Omaha native, Billy Rogers, and met organist Jack McDuff. After moving to New York City, he toured with McDuff in 1984 and1985, then spent ten years with saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.
Forming a band with Steve Slagle and a trio with Jared Gold and Tony Reedus he went on to work with Kevin Mahogany as sideman, composer, and arranger. Dave appeared with him at Carnegie Hall, and toured with him in Europe and Japan. He has also worked with Eliane Elias, Javon Jackson, and Andy LaVerne.
As an educator he teaches jazz guitar at Indiana University, Montclair State University, at the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop, the Litchfield Jazz Camp, and the Veneto/New School Workshop in Italy.
He recorded 38 albums as a leader, 5 with the Stryker/Slagle band, 2 with Trio Mundo and as a sideman he recorded 34 albums with Jared Gold, Steve Slagle, Allan Botschinsky, Don Braden, Kendall “Keyz” Carter, Rondi Charleston, Royce Campbell, Mike Freeman, Spellbound, Giacomo Gates, Craig Handy, Javon Jackson, Matthew Kaminski, Andy LaVerne, Pete Levin, Kevin Mahogany, Jorge Nila, Tony Reedus, Larry Schneider, Stanley Turrentine, Charenee Wade, and Matthew Whitaker.
Guitarist Dave Stryker, who has been named Top Ten Guitarists and Rising Star by Down Beat magazine, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lisa Lindsley was born March 27, 1957 in Ogden, Utah. Growing up she listened to her father’s records of jazz greats like Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Her mother, a film actress who had to leave Hollywood in the 1950s because of the McCarthy-era blacklist, imbued in her a love of theater.
While as a young teen attending Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Utah Lindsley gravitated to the rock and pop music of the day, she discovered musical theater in high school, a passion that carried through to college. After graduating from the California Institute for the Arts theater program, she spent a decade touring and performing with The Imagination Company. However, raising two daughters put her performing ambitions on hold for years, but she developed a successful career as a voice over artist, cast in national ad campaigns, radio shows and video games.
Comin to jazz singing in mid-life, she earned national attention with her stellar 2010 debut release Everytime We Say Goodbye, featuring bassist Fred Randolph and pianist George Mesterhazy. At the behest of her high school contortionist daughter’s desire to hone her French while studying at the Fratellini Circus School, she moved to Paris, France in 2013. This was the next natural step in her musical evolution. Settling in the 19th arrondissement filled with cultural vitality Lisa quickly developed a network of regular gigs with skilled accompanists. These relationships on her sophomore album, Long After Midnight, with pianist Laurent Marode, drummer Mourad Benhammou, Esaie Cid on flute, clarinet and tenor saxophone, and Bay Area bassist Jeff Chambers.
Back in the States and living in the San Francisco Bay area, Lindsley has been working steadily around the Bay Area over the past decade. She has honed her skills with Roger Letson at Contra Costa College, and studied with Maye Cavallero, Laurie Antonioli and Pamela Rose at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley.
Vocalist Lisa Lindsley, who received essential on the job training from Bay area pianist/drummer Kelly Park, continues her career of performance and recording.
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Jazz Poems
JAZZ I’d like to know everything A jazz artist knows, starting with the song “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.” Like to make some songs myself “Goodbye Rickshaw,” “Goodbye Lemondrop,” “Goodbye Rendezvous.” Or maybe even blues: If you fall in love with me I’ll make you pancakes All morning. If you fall in love with me I’ll make you pancakes all night. If you don’t like pancakes We’ll go to the creperie. If you don’t like pancakes We’ll go to the creperie. If you don’t like to eat, handsome boy, Don’t you hang around with me. On second thought, i’d rather find The fanciest music I can, and hear all of it. I’d rather love somebody And say his name to myself every day Until I fall apart. ANGELA BALLfrom Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Maria Viana was born on March 17, 1958, Lisbon, Portugal and was the daughter of famous actor and painter, José Viana; and Brazilian singer and actress Jujú Baptista. A meeting with jazz critic and missionary José Carlos Monteiro Costa introduced her Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Anita O’Day. He also introduced her to the producers of Cascais Jazz Festival, Luis Villas-Boas and Duarte Mendonça who took an immediate interest in her, arranging for rehearsals and jam sessions.
It was not until 1983 that she vigorsly pursued her professional ambitions in Jazz, because previously she had been an actress and a famous popsinger. She became the host-singer at the jazz bar, Drogaria Ideal, where dozens of soloists, amateurs and professionals performed. Within months Maria’s career progressed and revealed unquestionable talent and abilities.
She would go on to do television, festivals, record, and work with Al Grey, Bernardo Sasseti, and David Gausden. She created the Maria Viana Quintet, and toured the country for the National Secretary of Culture. 1995 Produces / features in concert, Around the World, Around the Forties, for the celebration of fifty years since the Second World War ending; an initiative of C.M. de Cascais. Tours Portugal with her quintet, and tours with Bill Goodwin quintet.
Maria’s work is rewarded with a Declaration of Manifest Cultural Value, has guested on several recordings and concerts, and became the Artistic Director for Hotels with Jazz. She produced Jazz na Casa da Guia, and Blues for Cascais, benefiting an ecological organization in Cascais.
Through the years vocalist Maria Viana has been featured on over sixty national television shows and concerts and continues to perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jayna Nelson was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on March 16, 1958. She began to study piano as soon as she could reach the keyboard. At age 9 she began to study the flute as well and by age 17 had won both the Baldwin Junior Keyboard award and the l Music Teachers’ National Association Competition.
Graduated from the University of Toronto in Flute Performance, for the next two years, she served on the faculty at University of Toronto teaching chamber music. There she also premiered a work by Mario Davidovsky, and was principal flutist with the Union College Orchestra, the Wesleyan College Orchestra, Opera Omaha Orchestra and Symphony Canada. In 1983 she attended the Banff Centre Jazz program headed by Dave Holland and studied and performed with Anthony Braxton, Don Thompson, Dave Liebman and John Abercrombie.
A move to New York City in 1989 saw her continuing to work in the classical and jazz genres as a performer, producer, composer, arranger and educator. She designed and implemented integrated arts curriculum for New York area schools and summer camps. She has lectured and given seminars, maintained a private teaching studio for over 20 years and has been a flute technician and consultant for Anthony Braxton, Dave Liebman, Joe Giardullo, Jeanne Baxtresser, Joannie Maddon, Carlos Malta, Hermeto Pascoal, and James Moody.
Nelson has recorded and performed with a host of musicians including Karl Berger, Hilliard Green, Howard Johnson, Silvana Malta, Francois Moutin, Hermeto Pascoal, Sirius String Quartet, Petula Clark, Ingrid Jensen, Marty Morrell, Dave Valentine, and numerous others.
Flutist Jayna Nelson continues to perform, tour, compose, record and educate.
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