Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Issi Rozen was born on April 20, 1967 in Haifa, Israel, his family moved to Tel Aviv during his childhood. His earliest musical memories were lullabies his mother sang. He began playing guitar at age 10, and as a teenager was practicing several hours a day. In 1991, after completing his service in the Israeli Defense Forces, he moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music.
After finishing his studies at Berklee, Rozen settled in the Boston suburb of Brookline, released his debut album Red Sea in 1998for Brownstone Records. A year later he released Homeland Blues and in 2003, he released Dark Beauty.
Issi is clearly influenced by jazz guitarists Pat Metheny and Jim Hall but utilizes musical components from his native Israel leaning towards traditional Hebrew song sung primarily by Mizrah Jews while juxtaposing the bebop of the Charlie Parker tune Segment and his original compositions. This hybrid of different genres has given guitarist Issi Rozen critical acclaim as he continues to perform, record and tour.
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Requisites
Forest Flower & Soundtrack: This 1967 release was recorded when Charles Lloyd brought his band to Monterey for an unprecedented performance. A set of far-reaching, sophisticated progressive jazz that was rich and accessible was what a floored audience heard that day. The hippie and college-aged audience were witness to superb interplay, melodic gifts that skirted the edges of what was going on at the time, pushed the boundaries and the talents of this young band. This is decidedly one requisite for the budding initiate of jazz.
Personnel: Charles Lloyd – saxophone, Keith Jarrett – piano, Jack DeJohnette – drums, Cecil McBee – bass
Record Date: September 8, 1966
Songs: Forest Flower – Sunrise, Forest Flower – Sunset, Sorcery, Song Of Her, East Of The Sun, Sombrero Sam, Voice In The Night, Pre-Dawn, Forest Flower ‘69
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mary Louise Knutson was born on April 19, 1966. The Minneapolis based jazz pianist and composer released her debut CD “Call Me When You Get There” in 2001 charted in the Top 50 in the U.S. and Canada that brought her national recognition. Knutson’s 2011 sophomore project on her Meridian Label, “In The Bubble”, charted in the Top 10 on JazzWeek and stayed for an unprecedented 19 weeks straight.
Mary received Lawrence University’s distinguished Nathan M. Pusey Alumni Achievement Award, was a Top 5 finalist in the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams “Women In Jazz” Pianist Competition, has been nominated for Jazz Artist of the Year and Pianist of the Year by the Minneapolis Music Awards, and has won two composition awards from Billboard Magazine.
As an educator she has sat on the faculty of Carleton College instructing jazz piano and improvisation, and currently teaches privately and conducts a variety of master classes such as Intro to Composition, Freedom From the Written Page: Beginning Improv for Pianists, and Making Sense of Jazz, among others.
Knutson has performed and toured with jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby McFerrin, Dianne Reeves, Kevin Mahogany, Nicholas Payton, Ernie Watts, Slide Hampton, Greg Abate, Bobby Shew and Von Freeman to name a few and has crossed over into other genres to play with Smokey Robinson, Trisha Yearwood, Donny Osmond, Phyllis Diller, Rob Schneider and more. The pianist regularly performs with her group, with area vocalists Connie Evingson and Debbie Duncan; and with the JazzMN Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Chuck Lazarus Quartet.
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Jazz In Film
ZIG-ZAG: aka False Witness is a competently directed 1970 film by Richard A. Colla, starring George Kennedy, Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach.
A dying man frames himself for the kidnapping and murder of an industrialist so his wife and daughter can benefit from the reward money. However, his plan goes awry when he is cured! Though an ingeniously plotted thriller, it lets itself down by failing to compel interest in its two-dimensional characters.
The music is composed, arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson and features pianist Artie Kane, saxophonist Buddy Collette, bassist Joe Mondragon, drummers John Guerin and Victor Feldman with Anita O’Day making an appearance.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steve Davis was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on April 14, 1967 but was raised in Binghamton, New York. He grew up with jazz music being played in the household listening to his father’s record collection and his grandparents played. With mentors Doug Beardsley and Al Hamme, he was fortunate to play with his peers Kris Jensen, Tony Kadleck, Tom Dempsey, Dena DeRose and John Hollenbeck among many others.
He went on to study jazz under Dr. Jackie McLean at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford in Connecticut. While in school, Davis also gained valuable experience sitting-in and gigging with Hotep Galeta, Nat Reeves, Don DePalma, Larry DiNatale and others at The 880 Club. A recommendation to Art Blakey saw Steve joining the Jazz Messengers at Sweet Basil in New York City in 1989. Following Blakey’s death, he joined the Hartt faculty in 1991 where he continues to teach today, and taught at The Artist’s Collective in Hartford.
He gained further international recognition playing with McLean’s sextet for five years and for four in Chick Corea’s Origin. Trombonist Steve Davis has played and recorded with Freddie Hubbard and The New Jazz Composers Octet, Benny Golson’s New Jazztet, Hank Jones, Cecil Payne, Horace Silver, Cedar Walton, Harold Mabern, Larry Willis, Eddie Henderson, Roy Hargrove, Avishai Cohen, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and Michael Weiss.
Davis has been a member of the cooperative sextet One for All since its inception in 1996, alongside Eric Alexander, Jim Rotondi, David Hazeltine, John Webber and Joe Farnsworth. He also currently plays with Larry Willis’s Quintet, The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band/Septet, leads The Steve Davis Quintet and remains a fixture on the New York and Hartford jazz scenes.
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