Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mark Walker was born on October 16, 1961 in Chicago, Illinois and began playing drums at age ten. He played his first professional club, concert, and recording gigs barely out of high school. After studying with Roy C. Knapp, he gained valuable experience performing a wide range of styles in the Chicago, area and later became a first-call session drummer and percussionist, playing on film scores, jingles, and record dates.
Moving to New York in 1995, he easily entered the jazz culture and performed and recorded extensively with Michel Camilo, Dave Samuels, Andy Narell, WDR Big Band, NDR Big Band, Grace Kelly, Eliane Elias, Lyle Mays, Dave Liebman, Regina Carter, Joao Bosco, Dianne Reeves, Cesar Camargo Mariano, and Rosa Passos, among numerous others. He has been earned several Grammy nominations and in 2008 he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition.
Walker has worked on Grammy~winning albums with Oregon, Donato Poveda, Paquito D’Rivera, the Caribbean Jazz Project and has also earned Indy and Jazz awards. He appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, PBS Presents, BET On Jazz, and with Paquito D’Rivera in Fernando Trueba’s Latin jazz documentary Calle 54.
As an educator, Mark is a professor in the Percussion Department at Berklee College of Music where he has taught drummers, percussionists, and ensembles since 2001. He has served on the faculty at New York City’s Drummers Collective and has conducted master classes, clinics, and workshops in South America, North America, and Europe. He has published two books, World Jazz Drumming and Killer Grooves, an instructional drum set book.
Grammy Award-winning drummer, percussionist, author, and educator Mark Walker continues to tour with Oregon and Paquito D’Rivera. He writes for and leads Rhythm of the Américas, a jazz octet incorporating Caribbean and South American rhythms.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
We have not yet recognized when or how we will emerge from this pandemic, but as we collectively continue to navigate our way maintaining social distancing it is the perfect time to put on some headphones, earbuds, or just turn up the volume and listen to some big band. So today, this Quarantined Jazz Voyager is not going to the big band standards of yesteryear, nor is he choosing to feature one of the many led by men but is selecting the perfect album released this year by vocalist Lenora Zenzalai Helm & Tribe Jazz Orchestra. It is titled For The Love Of Big Band.
The album was recorded over a two day period in March 26th ~ 27th in front of a live audience and employed 20 musicians, a dozen music and music business professionals, four generations of renowned veteran musicians, as well as emerging and student musicians. It has been released under the Zenzalai Music label.
Track Listing | 76:00- Blues For Mama (N. Simone) ~ 4:42
- Bebop (d. Gillespie/D. Brown) ~ 6:22
- Chega de Saudade/No More Blues (A. Jobim, J. Cavanaugh, V. de Moraes, J. Hendricks) ~ 6:39
- It Could Happen To You (J. Van Huesen, J. Burke) ~ 5:26
- Soul Eyes (M. Waldron) ~ 5:24
- Everything But You (D. Ellington, H. James) ~ 4:30
- I Didn’t Know About You (D. Ellington, B. Russell) ~ 5:50
- Sandu (C. Brown, D. Townsend) – 9:00
- But Not For Me (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin) ~ 5:26
- A Conversation With God (Dear Lord) (J. Coltrane, L. Helm, M. Myers) ~ 7:25
- Mississippi Goddam (N. Simone) ~ 6:06
- Stella By Starlight (V. Young, N. Washington) ~ 8:23
- Lenora Zenzalai Helm ~ Voice
- Ernest Turner, Lydia Salett Dudley, Ed Paolantonio ~ Piano
- Baron Tymas ~ Guitar
- Ginnae Koon ~ Bass
- Thoma Taylor, Dorien Dotson, ~ Drums
- James “Saxmo” Gates, Sam King, Brian Miller, Matt York, Ariel Kopelove, Shaena Ryan Martin ~ Reeds
- Lynn Grissett, Al Strong, Zoe Smith, Tyler Perske ~ Trumpets
- Robert Trowers, Isrea Butler, Tenay Harrell, Reggie Greenlee, Cameron MacManus ~ Trombones
- Brian Horton ~ Conductor, Composer, Arranger, Saxophone
- Lenora Zenzalai Helm ~ Conductor, Voice
- Ed Paolantonio ~ Piano
- Baron Tymas ~ Guitar
- Timothy Holley ~ Cello
- Salome Serena Wiley ~ Tenor Saxophone
- Lance E. Scott, Jr. ~ Acoustic Bass
- Thoma Taylor ~ Drums
- NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble ~ Guest Artist
- Joey Calderazzo ~ Piano
- Ameen Saleem ~ Acoustic Bass
- Maurice Myers ~ Special Guest Vocal Soloist | A Conversation With God
As you listen and enjoy this wonderful addition to the jazz catalog, continue to social distance and stay healthy. During this sabbatical from flying and investigating jazz around the globe, enjoy the listen and know that the world and I will be back.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thore Jederby was born on October 15, 1913 in Stockholm, Sweden, receiving formal training in music at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He began playing jazz in the mid-1930s, playing with Arne Hülphers’s band from 1934 to 1938, and then with Thore Ehrling’s ensemble from 1938 through the end of World War II.
He led his own group, the Swing Swingers, for studio recordings in the mid-1930s, and led smaller ensembles for recording sessions well into the 1940s. Later in his life, Thore went on to become active in the capturing of the history of Swedish jazz. He was involved in reissues of early Swedish recordings, curated radio shows devoted to Swedish jazz, and participated in a national commission on the history of jazz in Sweden.
Double bassist Thore Jederby, who was also a record producer and radio broadcaster, passed away on January 10, 1984 in Stockholm.
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Three Wishes
Cedar Walton gave his three wishes to Pannonica and they were:
- “I don’t know how to word this… I’d like to have immediate access to the world, you know? Anywhere I want to go.”
- “To have my own band and to be able to swing no matter what. Playing with Art* demands that.”
- “I wish jazz was accepted like everything else.”
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Scoville “Toby” Browne was born on October 13, 1909 in Atlanta, Georgia and played in the late 1920s with Junie Cobb’s band and the Midnight Ramblers in Chicago, Illinois. From 1931 to 193232 he played saxophone and clarinet for Fred Avendorph. He went on to work with Louis Armstrong from 1933–35, and in the mid- and late Thirties with Jesse Stone, Jack Butler, Claude Hopkins, and Blanche Calloway.
By the end of the decade, he was attending the Chicago College of Music and the 1940s Browne played with Slim Gaillard, Fats Waller, Buddy Johnson, Hot Lips Page, and Eddie Heywood before serving in the U.S. military during World War II. Following his discharge, he played with Hopkins again and with Buck Clayton.
Taken on the role of bandleader on and off in the 1950s, Toby also studied classical music. He was the main clarinet soloist with Lionel Hampton and toured overseas with Muggsy Spanier late in the decade, and appeared in the 1958 photograph A Great Day in Harlem.
Continuing to work with Hopkins well into the Seventies, alto saxophonist and clarinetist Toby Browne who never recorded as a bandleader but only a sideman, passed away on October 3, 1994 in Chicago.
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