Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ben Allison was born November 17, 1966 in New Haven, Connecticut and began guitar lessons at age nine at the Neighborhood Music School and privately with guitarist George Raccio. In the mid-Eighties he studied West African, Haitian and Cuban drumming traditions with Richard Hill and attended the ACES Educational Center for the Arts and Wilbur Cross High School. His senior high school year saw him studying with bassist Steve Swallow and too classes in 20th Century Music and Early Childhood Development at Yale University. In 1985 he attended New York University as a University scholar and pursued a degree in jazz performance and bass studies. During this period he studied with Joe Lovano, Dennis Irwin, Jim McNeely and Steve LaSpina.
By 1992, Allison and several colleagues formed the Jazz Composers Collective, a musician-run, non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the creation and performance of new music and building audiences for jazz. The Collective ran for 12 seasons, featured works of 50 composers, participation of more than 250 musicians and premiered more than 300 new works.
1996 saw the release of Ben’s debut album Seven Arrows as a leader, followed two years later with Medicine Wheel, Third Eye in 1999 and the rest is history as he has accumulated 11 albums under his name. Recording with the Collective members Frank Kimbrough, Ron Horton, Michael Blake, and Ted Nash, he would also record another dozen as co-leader or sideman with Lee Konitz, Jeremy Pelt, Larry Goldings, Mamadou Diabate, Curtis Stigers and Steve Bernstein.
As an educator, Allison began working as an adjunct professor and bass instructor at the New School University in 1996, has taught instrumental lessons and ensembles at the Third Street Music School, was a guest instructor at the Siena Jazz Foundation in Italy, the Souza Lima Ensino de Musica in Sao Paulo, Brazil and is a member of the Teaching Artists Collaborative at the Weill Music Center at Carnegie Hall, teaching music fundamentals to Harlem public school children..
Bassist, composer, bandleader, educator and activist Ben Allison is a three time Down Beat Critics Poll Rising Star, received the Bird Award, and serves on the board of the New York chapter of NARAS as VP and chairs Advocacy while continuing to perform and tour.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gerard Gibbs was born on November 16, 1967 in Detroit, Michigan and his father introduced him to jazz organist Richard “Groove” Holmes at the age of three. At seven he met Holmes who then became his idol. Though he began his training at age nine in classical piano, his love for jazz never faded.
By 1981, while home recuperating from corrective leg surgery, Holmes surprised the young musician, took an immediate interest and began mentoring him and showing him the tricks of the trade. For the next decade until Holmes’ death, their relationship would grow only stronger. But Holmes was only Gerard’s first encounter with great organists and he would go on to be mentored by Jimmy Smith, rub shoulders with Joey DeFrancesco and Jimmy McGriff and jam with the Mighty Burner himself, Charles Earland. These experiences added to his development and arsenal of techniques.
Gibbs currently performs on the concert circuit with Marion Meadows, Ronnie Laws, James Carter, and lends his talents to Pieces Of A Dream. When not leading two jazz bands playing jazz at night and on weekends, he is busy as an Architectural Engineer for the City of Detroit. He plays keyboards in his contemporary jazz group RYX and organ with Gerard Gibbs and ORGANized Crime.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ari Hoenig was born November 13, 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a vocalist father and violinist mother. He was exposed to classical and other music at an early age, playing piano and violin. He went on to explore rock and metal drums as a teenager before settling into jazz.
Hoenig attended Pennsylvania Governor’s School of the Arts in summer of 1990, followed by attending the University of North Texas College of Music for three years and was a member of the highly regarded One O’Clock Lab Band.
Relocating to New York he began playing with Shirley Scott and went on to record with Mike Stern, Kenny Werner, Richard Bona, Dave Liebman, Chris Potter, Joshua Redman, Tigran Hamasyan, Ethan Iverson, Mark Turner, Fred Hersch, Snarky Puppy, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Pat Martino, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny and many others.
Ari has performed at the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival alongside Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Chucho Valdes, and has appeared with his Punk Bop Band with Jonathan Kreisberg and Gilad Hekselman. Drummer, composer and educator Ari Hoenig continues to record, perform and tour.
Inspire A Young Mind
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Matthias Albrecht Lupri was born October 29, 1964 in Germany but grew up in Manhattan, Kansas and Alberta, Canada. Initially he played the drums as a teenager in blues, rock and country music bands. In his early twenty’s he studied music at Mount Royal College, where he heard Gary Burton’s recordings and became interested in jazz vibraphone music.
Matthias practiced the instrument for the next five years while on the road with rock bands as a drummer. He then enrolled at the Berklee College of Music and studied with Gary Burton himself. Since graduation he has released several records that have charted in radio’s Top 40 GAVIN, CMJ and Chart Magazine Canada, and was heard on the TV show Alias.
Lupri was named as a rising artist on vibraphone in the Down Beat critics poll for the 2nd time in 2005. He has recorded with Greg Osby, Chris Potter, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Donny McCaslin, Myron Walden, Greg Hutchinson, Antonio Sanchez, Reuben Rogers, Ian Froman, George Garzone, Jeff Ballard, Rick Margitza, Cuong Vu, Sebastiaan de Krom and Boris Wiedenfeld among other. He continues to perform and tour throughout Canada and the United States.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of jazz…
Kurt Rosenwinkel was born October 28, 1970 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A guitarist by choice, his influences include John Coltrane, Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, Tal Farlow, George van Eps, John Scofield and Alex Lifson, among others. He matriculated through Berklee College of Music before leaving in his junior year to tour with Gary Burton, the dean of the school at the time.
Subsequently, Rosenwinkel moved to Brooklyn, where began performing with Human Feel, Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band, Joe Henderson Group, and the Brian Blade Fellowship. During that time he began using a Lavalier lapel microphone fed into his guitar amplifier that blends his vocalizing with his guitar, much like George Benson and Pat Metheny.
In 1995 he won the Composer’s Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and was signed by Verve Records. Kurt has played and recorded both as a leader and sideman with Mark Turner, Brad Mahldau and Joel Frahm, Aaron Goldberg, Joe Martin, Eric Harland, Aaron Parks, Eric Revis and Justin Faulkner on the short list. He has collaborated with Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, co-producers of Heartcore with Ben Street, Jeff Ballard and Mark Turner. He would have further collaborations with Q-Tip that yielded The Renaissance and Kamaal/The Abstract.
A move to Berlin, Germany has guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel performing in Europe and on the faculty at the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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