Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Peter Cincotti was born July 11, 1983 in New York City. The singer, songwriter and pianist started playing a toy piano at the age of three and attended the Horace Mann School. While in high school, he regularly performed at clubs throughout Manhattan and performed at the White House.

At the 2000 Montreux Jazz Festival he won an award for a rendition of Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunisia” and in 2002 Peter reached No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional jazz Charts, the youngest solo artist to do so to date.

Cincotti appeared in a small role and contributed to the soundtrack of the 2004 Bobby Darin biopic Beyond The Sea, had a small role as the Piano Player in Spider-Man 2, and his song “December Boys” is featured in the 2007 film of the same name.

His self-titled debut album is a compilation of traditional jazz songs, while his second album, “On The Moon” featured some of the artist’s own songs, that was followed by his third “East of Angel Town”. Combining pop, jazz, rock and dance, Peter created his fourth studio album, “Metropolis” and released worldwide in the spring of 2012.

That same year, Peter and his sister Pia Cincotti wrote and produced an original full-length musical titled “How Deep Is The Ocean?” that debuted at The New York Musical Theater Festival to sold out audiences in New York. He continues to perform, compose, record and tour.


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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Adolphus Anthony Cheatham, better known as Doc Cheatham was born on June 13, 1905 in Nashville, Tennessee. Growing up without jazz, he was introduced by early recordings and touring bands of the late 1910s. Abandoning family plans to be a pharmacist to play music, he retained the name Doc and started with the soprano and tenor saxophone in addition to trumpet in the African American Vaudeville theatre.

He toured the TOBA circuit (Theatre Owners Booking Association) accompanying blues singers but it wasn’t until his move to Chicago and hearing King Oliver that his focus turned to jazz. A year later Louis Armstrong added his influence on Doc’s playing. Cheatham went on to play with Ma Rainey, worked in the big bands of Bobby Lee, Wilbur de Paris, Chick Webb, Sam Wooding, Cab Calloway, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Claude Hopkins and Teddy Wilson through the 30s and 40s.

By the late 40s into the 50s Doc play in New York City Latin bands of Ricardo Ray, Marcelino Guerra, Perez Prado and Machito. In the 60s he led his own band for five years then worked with Benny Goodman. In the 70s he began singing after scatting during a Paris recording session, was well received and he continued to sing for the rest of his life.

Cheatham created his best work after the age of 70, winning a Grammy with Nicholas Payton and Butch Thompson for the Verve Record release of “Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton”. Trumpeter, singer and bandleader Doc Cheatham continued playing until two days before his passing on June 2, 1997, eleven days shy of his 92nd birthday.


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From Broadway To 52nd Street

Sophisticated Ladies had a preview run of 15 shows beginning February 16th prior to its official opening at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre on March 1, 1981 and ran for 767 performances. Duke Ellington composed the music for the revue with a cast that included Gregory Hines, Judith Jamison, Phyllis Hyman, Hinton Battle, Gregg Burge and Mercer Ellington. Hines’ older brother Maurice joined the cast later in the run.

The score includes classic jazz tunes “Mood Indigo,” “Take The “A” Train, I’m Beginning To See The Light, Hit Me With A Hot Note and See Me Bounce, It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing), I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart, Old Man Blues, In A Sentimental Mood, Sophisticated Lady, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Satin Doll and I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good among numerous others.

Jazz History: In the 1980s the jazz community shrank dramatically and split. A mainly older audience retained an interest in traditional and straight-ahead jazz styles. Wynton Marsalis strove to create music within what he believed was the tradition, creating extensions of small and large forms initially pioneered by such artists as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. In the early part of the decade, a commercial form of jazz fusion called pop fusion or smooth jazz became successful and garnered significant radio airplay.

Smooth jazz received frequent airplay with more straight-ahead jazz in “Quiet Storm” time slots (a format begun at Howard University’s WHUR by host Melvin Lindsay) at radio stations in urban markets across the United States. This helped to establish or bolster the careers of Grover Washington, Jr., Kenny G, Kirk Whalum, Boney James and David Sanborn and vocalists including Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan and Sade.

In this same time period “Echoes of an Era” was released by the sextet comprised of Chaka Khan (vocal), Joe Henderson (saxophone), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Chick Corea (piano), Stanley Clarke (bass) and Lenny White (drums). The quintet released another “Echoes” enlisting the vocal talents of Nancy Wilson. The quintet would also release two albums titled “The Griffith Park Collection”.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Esperanza Spalding was born October 18, 1984 in Portland, Oregon. Raised in a single parent household she was greatly influenced by her mother who was a singer, though she attributes cellist Yo-Yo Ma as her inspiration to make music her life. By the time Spalding was five, she had taught herself to play the violin and was playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon, staying with them until fifteen and left as concertmaster.

While homeschooled through elementary years Esperanza gleaned lessons from her mother’s guitar instructor when she was eight and would return home and play what she learned. She played oboe and clarinet before discovering the bass at 14 while attending The Northwest Academy. Bored with the ease of high school when she was 15 or 16 years old, Spalding dropped out and started writing lyrics for music for the local indie rock/pop group Noise for Pretend, touching on any topic that came to mind.

Spalding had begun performing live in Portland with her first gig at 15 in a blues club, when she could play only one line on bass and was soon learning from seasoned professionals during the band’s rehearsals. She went on to get her GED, enroll in Portland State University, then left with full scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music.

Almost immediately after graduation Esperanza was hired by her alma mater at age 20, becoming one of the youngest instructors in the institution’s history. In 2006 she released her debut album “Junjo” followed by her sophomore project “Esperanza” in which she sings in English, Spanish and Portuguese. These two projects were followed up with “Chamber Music Society” and her fourth album “Radio Music Society”.

She was personally chosen by President Obama to perform at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies and concert, she has won a Grammy for Best New Artist in 2011, Jazz Artist of the Year at the Boston Music Awards, has collaborated with Tineke Postma, Nicholas Payton and Teri Lyne Carrington among others, performed at the 84th Academy Awards and has donated a portion of her 2012 tour proceeds from merchandise sales to the non-profit organization “Free The Slaves” that combats worldwide human trafficking.

She has gone on to record an album in 77 hours while streaming the process live on Facebook, compose and record her 7th album 12 Little Spells, due out this October 2018 and has received an honorary Doctorate of music from Berklee. Bassists and vocalist Esperanza Spalding continues to compose, record, perform and tour.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Etienne Charles was born in Trinidad on July 24, 1983 into a family with four generations of musicians. He was immersed in the folk music of his country suffused with the sounds of calypso, steel pan and African Shango drumming to create the diverse colors of his harmonic palette.

The Bishop Anstey Junior School proved to be a potent incubator where he began playing the recorder, followed by trumpet at 10 and formal lessons. An athlete with prowess, Etienne eclipsed his musical success with academics with football, cricket, swimming and water polo teams at Fatima College, winning the Provincial Cup three times, first at the age of 13. He studied privately, at the Brass Institute, become a member of the band, added drums and percussion, landed his first job in a pit orchestra, worked with his father on the road during carnival and with Phase II for the Panorama steel pan competition.

By sixteen Charles was attending the summer performance program at Berklee College of Music, then on to Florida State University, placed or won several competitions, performed at North Sea Jazz Festival, attended the Henry Mancini Institute and received his Master’s from Julliard School of Music.

Etienne has toured, performed or recorded with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, Grammy Award winners Roberta Flack, Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Mandel, Ralph MacDonald, Maria Schneider and the Count Basie Orchestra as well as Marcus Roberts, Monty Alexander, Frank Foster, Wycliffe Gordon, Rene Marie, Lord Blakie and David Rudder.

He released his debut album “Culture Shock” in 2006 was followed by “Folklore” three years later and then “Kaiso”. Trumpeter and composer Etienne Charles stands at the vanguard of a new generation of Caribbean musicians and he continues to record, perform and tour.

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