Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cecilia Smith was born on August 17th, in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Cleveland Heights. She began her musical odyssey at age eight with piano lessons and by age twelve, she had added drums to her repertoire. At fourteen, she was on to mallet percussion, studying in her early teens music theory with graduate students at the Cleveland Music Institute. This led to her discovery that music would be her life’s quest.
Upon graduating from high school, Cecilia attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and while there she pursued composing, arranging, film scoring and her instrument of choice, the vibraphone. Earning a Bachelor of Music degree in Professional Music from Berklee, Smith continued in a teaching capacity for four years before moving to New York City.
As a professional composer and recording artist, Cecilia Smith has received numerous commissions and grants. She is an avid midi programmer, is currently one of the leading vibraphonist of the Four-Mallet Technique, the first woman to release material on vibraphone on a national and international level and has performed in concert halls, nightclubs and festivals throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Vibraphonist Cecilia Smith has frequently been highlighted on national radio and television broadcasts and she continues to compose, arrange and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Walter Blanding Jr. was born on August 14, 1971 in Cleveland, Ohio to a musical family and began playing the saxophone at age six. In 1981, he moved with his family to New York City, and by age 16, he was performing regularly with his parents at the Village Gate.
Blanding attended LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and continued his studies at the New School for Social Research. Living in Israel for 4 years he had a major impact on the music scene, inviting great artists such as Louis Hayes, Eric Reed and others to perform. He also taught in several Israeli schools and toured the country with his ensemble.
Walter’s first recording, Tough Young Tenors, was acclaimed as one of the best jazz albums of 1991. He has performed or recorded with numerous musicians, such as Cab Calloway, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Marcus Roberts, Illinois Jacquet, Eric Reed and Roy Hargrove among others. His latest release, The Olive Tree, features fellow members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Clarinetist, tenor and soprano saxophonist Walter Blanding Jr. currently performs as a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roberta Donnay was born on August 10, 1966 in Washington, DC and began singing professionally at sixteen, knapsack wandering through Europe and borrowing guitars. Moving to San Francisco and sang with different bands, studied Latin and vocal jazz along with guitar and released her first indie album Catch The Wave in the Bay area.
She sat on the Board of Governors of the San Francisco chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences alongside Orrin Keepnews, produced the temp track for the documentary Journey of the Universe, and her songs have been featured on such television shows as The Unit, Nash Bridges, The Young and the Restless, One Life To live, All My Children and That’s Life.
She has appeared with Ernestine Anderson, Booker T, Peter Coyote, Johnny Lange, Tommy Castro, Eddie Money, Neil Young and Huey Lewis among others. Her song “One World” was selected as the theme for the 2003 World Aids Day in South Africa. An avid activist she composes about the human condition, not limited to women’s issues, racial injustice, government and environmental destruction. With seven albums as a leader or collaborator, vocalist Roberta Donnay continues to perform, record and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Regina Carter was born on August 6, 1966 in Detroit, Michigan and is the cousin of jazz saxophonist James Carter. She began piano lessons at the age of two after playing a melody by ear for her brother’s piano teacher. After deliberately playing the wrong ending note at a concert, the piano teacher suggested she take up the violin, was enrolled at the Detroit Community Music School when she was four years old and she began studying the violin, piano, tap and ballet.
As a teenager, she played in the youth division of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and took master class with Itzhak Perlman and Yehudi Menuhin. Carter attended Cass Technical High School with jazz vocalist Carla Cook who introduced her to Ella Fitzgerald. She also played with the Detroit Civic Orchestra and the group Brainstorm.
She went on to study at the New England Conservatory of Music, switched to jazz, transferred to Oakland University, studied with Marcus Belgrave, in addition to taking viola, oboe and choir lessons. After graduating, she taught strings in Detroit public schools, moved to Europe and spent two years in Germany making connections, working as a nanny and teaching violin on a U.S. military base.
In 1987 Carter came to prominence in the all female pop-jazz quintet Straight Ahead. After three albums she went solo and moved to New York City working with Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Billy Joel, Dolly Parton, Max Roach, and Oliver Lake and became a member of the String Trio of New York. She released her debut self-titled album in 1995 and has since followed up with a series of acclaimed recordings.
Regina is an active educator and mentor, has taught at numerous institutions, including Berklee College of Music and Stanford Jazz Workshop among others. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellows grant, has created her own violin voice and currently leads a quintet.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eric Alexander was born August 4, 1968 in Galesburg, Illinois and began as a classical musician studying piano at six, clarinet at nine, switching to alto saxophone three years later. While at Indiana University he switched to the tenor saxophone and jazz before transferring to William Paterson University where he studied with Harold Mabern, Rufus Reid, Joe Lovano, Gary Smulyan, Ralph LaLama, Norman Simmons, Steve Turre and many others.
Alexander first achieved fame by finishing second behind Joshua Redman and ahead of Chris Potter at the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. He was quickly signed and began recording his more than three-dozen albums as a leader and collaborator.
Influenced primarily by Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon and George Coleman, playing in the hard bop and post-bop styles, he has worked with such notables as Ron Carter, Joe Farnsworth, Pat Martino, Peter Bernstein, Vincent Herring, Grant Stewart and Mike LeDonne among others. Alto saxophonist Eric Alexander continues to record and tour as a leader, extensively with the sextet One For All.
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