Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Gene Lake was born Oliver Gene Lake, Jr. on January 12, 1966 in St. Louis, Missouri. He began playing drums when he was five years old, and took lessons with Pheeroan akLaff as a high schooler at The High School of Music & Art in New York City. He attended Berklee College of Music, where he worked with Tommy Campbell, and played in local Boston bands in a variety of styles.

Gene played with his father in New York City in 1987 and 1988, then joined Henry Threadgill’s ensemble in 1990. Later in the Nineties, Gene worked with Steve Coleman, Lunar Crush with David Fiuczynski and John Medeski, Marcus Miller, Brandon Ross, David Sanborn, the World Saxophone Quartet, and Joe Zawinul.

He has recorded seven albums as a leader that includes The Oliver Lake Quartet, Dedication, and At This Time and another ten as a sideman. Outside of jazz, Lake also performed and recorded with R&B musicians Maxwell and Me’Shell Ndegeocello.

Drummer Gene Lake, who is the son of saxophonist Oliver Lake, continues to perform and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Sonya Jason was born on January 10, 1963 in Wayne, Nebraska. By the age of four, she began playing piano and took classical piano lessons for nine years. Joining the school band at age ten she took up the saxophone. At thirteen she joined her first jazz band where she learned the rudiments of swing, the basic ability that all jazz musicians must possess.

Her family’s move to the Southwest enabled Sonya to join the Apollo High School band in Phoenix, Arizona, then voted Arizona’s leading jazz band. It was here that she first heard the passionate recordings of Latin saxophonist Gato Barbieri, and began studying the bebop stylings of Charlie Parker, gaining further inspiration from the saxophone work of Phil Woods and David Sanborn.

She won the Phil Woods Scholarship offered by Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Two years of liberal arts study at Mills College in Oakland California and private lessons with bebopper Hal Stein led to her move to Boston. While at Berklee she studied privately with saxophonists Joe Viola, Jimmy Mosher, George Garzone and Herman Johnson. She honed her arranging skills with Herb Pomeroy and Grammy award-winning arranger Robert Freedman. After graduating summa cum laude from Berklee in 1985, Sonya returned to Arizona to begin her professional career.

Gigging all over Arizona she gained versatility working with bands of varied styles, jazz, latin, top 40, reggae, rock, classical, big band swing, and show bands. In 1987 she formed a quartet that performed as opening act for Natalie Cole, Richard Marx, Chuck Berry, Ramsey Lewis, Janis Siegel, Smokey Robinson, Spyro Gyra, Lionel Hampton, Mose Allison and the Stanley Clarke/George Duke Project, to name a few..

In 1988 she released her debut recording Secret Lover on her Saja Productions label. in December 1988. In 1991 she moved to Los Angeles, California and signed with Warner Music Discovery and two years later her second release Tigress.

In addition, Sonya appeared in the Showtime movie, Lush Life, starring Jeff Goldblum and Forest Whitaker, and was featured in two cable music specials, Music and the Biz and Hurry Up and Wait.

Relocating to the San Francisco, California Bay Area in 1999. Since moving she has recorded a few albums, served as musical director and arranger for theCoastal Theatre Conservatory’s presentation of Cinderella with over a hundred youth of all ages, and was band director and orchestrator of This Side Of The Hill Players.

First-call saxophonist Sonya Jason carries on a thriving music teaching studio, continues to perform as a soloist for several bands and orchestras, tour and record.

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Jazz Poems

IN PRAISE OF BUDDY BOLDEN

1. You have shown me dissipation, the tome, the rhythm, and cool sonorous blue…
2. The right consciousness is always dream, it wakes in us ideology and topos.
3. Not only the blues like melic, like persimmon and soda.
4. Not anything, just blonde sorrow.
5. I can’t wait to choose my own fall, the bass and pica.
6. Did you taste the drug, the white words of sound…
7. Nothing will prepare me, not even drums and delusion. I wander in their halls, their tantrums. But mine was apparatus and rebellion. The plumb edifice of transgression.
8. When we play, nothing else matters, not the placards on the train, not the yet and the how. We find plums and pendulums.
9. I told them that this was not enough. No horses, no shoulders, no fields to drown, only blankcotton testimony and confession.
10. When we leave, we leave the pipe and parts of the body. You whistle like a factory. Me, like an empty room.
11. I would like to test myself, and remove these old tunings and feathers, these tulips.
12. Do it then. Leave for the salty tincture of the city, the North.
13. The leaves were all cankered when I returned. Like a salvo I burned. Not for them. Not for this place. But for this rotten reflection. The only true rejection of process.
14. You meant to leave the phonetic terror of the moon, the New Orleans horn of sand and distraction.
15. Leave me to fall. For this is all that I know. I accept, I accept this black stone of mine, mine own three lives, my crime.

LUCIEN QUINCY

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young

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Requisites

Bill Evans in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert ~ Bill Evans | By Eddie Carter

One of my favorite ways to enjoy jazz while reading is listening to a piano trio and one of my favorite pianists for this is Bill Evans. I was thrilled to pick up a Record Store Day copy of this morning’s album from the library. Bill Evans in Norway – The Kongsberg Concert (Elemental Music 5990547) is a two-record set that captures a never-before-released trio performance at the 1970 Kongsberg Jazz Festival, recorded a few days after the Montreux Jazz Festival. Bill is joined on this date by two gentlemen who have been members of the threesome for a while: Eddie Gomez on bass and Marty Morell on drums. My copy is 4504 of 8850 in the Worldwide limited edition Stereo release.

The album opener, Come Rain or Come Shine, by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, was first performed in the 1946 Broadway musical St. Louis Woman. Bill opens with a short solo introduction, building to the trio’s medium melody. Eddie steps up first and swings with full-toned ease. Bill takes over and captivates the listener with a soulful rendition until the song’s reprise and ending. What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life? by Michel Legrand, Alan and Marilyn Bergman is a hauntingly tender song that opens with the trio’s pretty theme. Evans’s solo is a beautiful interpretation, culminating with a gentle restatement and finale.

34 Skidoo by Bill Evans starts with the trio setting a spirited groove in the melody. Bill kicks off the opening statement with a carefree zest and a display of his virtuosity that will leave the listener in awe. In the following interpretation, Eddie’s bass walks purposefully ahead of the pianist’s reappearance for the song’s conclusion. Turn Out The Stars is one of Bill’s most beautiful compositions. The piano’s introduction begins at a deceptively slow tempo before the pace picks up for the melody. As the song’s only soloist, Bill tells a touching story in a profoundly emotional performance balanced by his bandmates, leading to a peaceful ending.

Side Two starts with Autumn Leaves by Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prévert and Johnny Mercer. The trio breaks into a hard-swinging opening chorus, and then Eddie takes a soaring solo that draws us in immediately while Marty’s brushwork provides the power. Bill takes flight in a vigorous reading preceding a rousing theme reprise and climax. Quiet Now by Denny Zeitlin is a gorgeous ballad, beginning with a short piano introduction which blossoms into an elegant melody. In the song’s only reading, Bill again has the spotlight and gives a beautifully conceived performance, leading to a tender ending that will linger in the listener’s memory long after the song ends.

The tempo moves upward again for So What by Miles Davis. It kicks off with Eddie’s introduction to the ensemble’s upbeat theme. Bill stretches himself ambitiously to the edge of bop, modal and free jazz in the opening statement. Marty gets his first chance to solo next and gives a short workout, then Eddie catches fire in the closer before the song concludes. Gloria’s Step is by Scott LaFaro, a member of one of Evans’s best trios until he died in a tragic 1961 auto accident. The trio opens the third side with a lively melody; then, Bill gets to the heart of the matter in the lead solo. Marty flies briskly in the second presentation, and Eddie wraps up things before the trio’s out-chorus.

Emily is the creation of Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer. It comes to life with the pianist’s introduction to the trio’s lightly-swinging melody. Bill gets things off to a good start in the lead solo. Eddie fully displays his beautiful tone in the second interpretation ahead of the closing ensemble. Midnight Mood by Ben Raleigh and Joe Zawinul is a pretty tune that’s remarkably easy for listeners to love. The trio establishes a nice momentum in the opening ensemble, and then Bill starts the solos with effortless grace and relaxed authority. Eddie follows with a very satisfying performance before the trio restates the melody.

Side Four starts with the English composing team of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse’s original, Who Can I Turn To? A solo piano introduction gets things started, leading to the theme. Eddie gets the first nod and turns in a peppy performance; then, Bill keeps the burners on high in the following presentation before the closing chorus. Some Other Time by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Leonard Bernstein begins with a gorgeous melody by the trio. The pianist has the song’s only solo and delivers a poignant presentation that is beautifully done, culminating with a gentle theme reprise and a thunderous ovation from the audience.

The album closer is Nardis by Miles Davis, beginning with a solo piano introduction, segueing to the threesome’s melody. Eddie has a lengthy canvas to work on and gives an impressive opening statement. Bill takes it up and generates a great deal of excitement next. Marty attacks the drums with fierce agility into the reprise and climax. Zev Feldman produced Bill Evans in Norway, and Kristian Ludvik-Bøhmer was the recording engineer. Matthew Lutthans mastered the album at The Mastering Lab. The record was pressed on 180 grams of audiophile vinyl and is extremely quiet until the music starts. An extensive booklet with rare photos and interviews is also included.

If you’re a fan of Bill Evans and in the mood for an outstanding live album, I happily recommend and invite you to check out Bill Evans in Norway – The Kongsberg Concert the next time you’re out record shopping. It may be challenging to find a copy because this was a Record Store Day release, but your detective work will be rewarded by one of the best live piano trio albums for a spot in your library!

~ Autumn Leaves, Come Rain or Come Shine – Source: JazzStandards.com

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Naomi Taylor was born January 2, 1967 in Nassau, Bahamas and was the last of four girls born to missionary parents. Absorbed in gospel and classical music before she was able to talk at the tender age of six, her musical talents surfaced when she and her sisters performed as an “a cappella” quartet. Her rich alto/tenor blend and her ability to harmonize at such a young age came as a pleasant surprise to many. She discovered that she was able to pick up just about any musical instrument for the first time and play away, even though she was never taught.

With her musical talents growing, Naomi spent countless hours listening to singing quartets, captivated by the close harmony and often adding her own creative synchronization to compliment a tune. Her early singing career encompassed performances with various local choirs and musical groups, including The Bahamas National Youth Choir, the Renaissance Singers and Bel Canto.

She developed her musical talent under the mentorship of Mr. Cleophas Adderley. Though very talented, she shied away from solo performances, opting for singing within the security of a line-up or choir. Taylor sought out private lessons from pianist and vocal coach Lee Callender. This serendipitous meeting, then catapulted her into the world of jazz by reconnecting with bassist and bandleader Adrian D’Aguilar.

In 2008 she released her first recording The Other Side of Love, a compilation of warm and beautiful jazz standards. The recording features pianist Lou Rainone, saxophonist Ralph Munnings, percussionist Neil Symonette, bassist Adrian D’Aguilar and composer/guitarist Fred Ferguson.

Today, vocalist Naomi Taylor’s committed to jazz has her performing with Lee Calendar or Jazz Etcetera at the Oyster Bar in Nassau.

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