Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Nina Michelle was born on May 1, 1968 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She began studying classical piano at an early age of 5 and after graduating with honours, she received a scholarship to continue her music studies in the music and vocal program at Capillano University in North Vancouver.

In Vancouver she regularly performed with Linton Garner at Rossinis jazz club. Her many tours to Switzerland with drummer Charly Antolini and his Jazz Power. Since 1994 she’s been touring Europe with some of the finest musicians.

In 1998 Nina recorded a soundtrack with the Billy Gorldt Orchestra as well as acted in a Süddeutsche-Rundfunk film production directed by Oliver Storz, Against the End of the Night. Nina’s current work includes a live big band recording with the Munich Swing Orchestra for the Bayerischer Rundfunk as well as a Swinging Christmas recording produced by Max Greger Jr.

She has performed with several big bands, including SWR Big Band in charge of Max Greger, featuring among other solo artists Benny Bailey and Hugo Strasser.

At the moment, Nina’s performing with her own quartet, an international group of well-acclaimed musicians, among them Canadian bassist Rocky Knauer, Tizian Jost and Guido May.

Vocalist Nina Michelle currently lives in Munich, Germany and continues to perform and record.

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Jazz Poems

STARDUST

Lady sings

the blues

the reds, whatever

she can find—

short

changed, a chord—

God bless

the child

that’s got his own

& won’t mind

sharing some—

“BILLIES BOUNCE”

“BILLIES BOUNCE”

Miss Holiday’s up

on four counts

of possession, three-

fifths, the law

—locked up—

licked—the salt

the boot—refused

a chance to belt

tunes in the clubs—

ex-con. Man,

she got it

bad—Brother

can you spare

a dime

bag? MEANDERING

WARMING UP

A RIFF—

she’s all scat,

waxing—

SIDE A

SIDE B

OOH

SHOO DE

OBEE—

detoxec, thawed

in time

for Thanksgiving—live

as ammo, smoking

—NOV. 26 1945—

Day cold as turkey

KEVIN YOUNG

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Axel Dörner was born on April 26, 1964 in Cologne, Germany and studied piano in the Dutch town Arnhem, Netherlands and at the Music Academy in Cologne. From 1991 he studied trumpet with Malte Burba, and during his studies collaborated with trumpeter Bruno Light as the Street Fighters Duo.

The duo expanded to form the Street Fighters Quartet and the Street Fighters Double Quartet, with members including Matthias Schubert, Bruno Leicht, and Claudio Puntin. He formed the Axel Dörner Quartet with Frank Gratkowski, Hans Schneider, and Martin Blume, and played with saxophonist Matthias Petzold on the albums Lifelines and Psalmen Und Lobgesänge.

Living in Berlin, Germany since 1994 and is an integral part of the city’s scene of new improvisational and experimental music. Besides playing solo and in his trio TOOT with Phil Minton and Thomas Lehn, he has played with Otomo Yoshihide, and in the groups Die Anreicherung, Ig Henneman Sextet, Ken Vandermark’s Territory-Band, Hedros, and the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra.

A versatile musician, he has worked in the idiom of bebop, playing on pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach’s album Monk’s Casino, featuring interpretations of the complete compositions of Thelonious Monk.

Trumpeter and pianist Axel Dörner continues to perform and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Marc Hoffman was born April 16, 1961 in Salisbury, North Carolina. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and received a degree in composition. He continued his education at The Dartington International Summer School of Music in Devon, England then studied film composition at the University of Southern California. He studied with David Ott, Sherwood Shaffer, Leo Arnaud and Neil Hefti.

Up until the early 1990s Hoffman wrote concert music, music for theater, pop, Christian music and film composition. Then he focused his attention on jazz and began writing original compositions, both instrumental and vocal, creating his own arrangements of jazz standards. Establishing his own label, Virillion Music, he recorded Long Way Home in 2003 followed by his sophomore album Christmas Time. In 2010 he released Curioso of all-original jazz.

As an educator and author he teaches and lectures on classical, pop and film music and has published two books. He also is an instructor of piano, composition, and voice at Bold Music in the Charlotte, NC area.

Pianist, composer and vocalist Marc Hoffman continues to write concert music, instrumental and vocal jazz pieces, film scores, as well as performing works solo, or with his trio, quartet or quintet and with four- or five-piece bands in a variety of venues.

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Jazz Poems

LEAVING SATURN

Sun Ra & His Year 2000 Myth Science

Arkestra at Grendel’s Lair Cabaret, 1986

Skyrocketed—

My eyes dilate old

Copper pennies.

Effortlessly, I play

*

Manifesto of the One

Stringed Harp. Only

This time I’m washed

Ashore, shipwrecked

*

In Birmingham.

My black porcelain

Fingers, my sole

Possession. So I

*

Hammer out

Equations for

A New Thing

Ogommetelli.

*

Ovid & Homer

Behind me, I toss

Apple peelings in

The air & half-hear

*

Brush strokes,the up

Kick of autumn

Leaves, the Arkestra

Laying down for

*

New dimensions,

I could be at Berkeley

Teaching a course—

Fixin’s How to Dress

*

Myth or Generations

Spaceships in Harlem

Instead, vibes from Chi-

Town, must be Fletcher’s

*

Big Band Music—oh,

My brother, the wind—

I know this life is

Only a circus. I’m

*

Brushed aside: a naïf,

A charlatan, too avant-

Garde. Satellite music for

A futuristic tent, says

*

One critic. Heartbreak 

In outer space, says

Another, —lunar

Dust on the brain.

*

I head to New York

New York loves

A spectacle wet pain

Of cement, sweet

*

Scent of gulls swirling

Between skyscrapers

So tall, looks like war

If what I’m told is true

*

Mars is dying, it’s after

The end of the world.

So, here I am,

In Philadelphia,

*

Death’s headquarters,

Here to save the cosmos,

Here to dance in a bed

Of living gravestones.

MAJOR JACKSON 

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young

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