Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Michel Camilo was born on April 4, 1954 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and as a young child showed aptitude for the accordion but it was his grandparents’ piano that sparked his interest. At age 9 he asked his parents to buy him one, they first send him to the Elementary Music School of the National Conservancy, and a year later to grant his wish.

Camilo learned to play in the classical style and by 16 was playing with the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic. During his 13 years of study at the National Conservatory, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Horace Silver, Errol Garner and Scott Joplin influenced him. Moving to New York in 1979 he studied at Mannes College and Julliard, and broke onto the international stage in 1983 with Tito Puente.

Michel became a star with his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1985, toured Europe with Paquito D’Rivera and recorded his first album “Why Not?” that same year. His debut release on the Sony label, Michel Camilo, held the top jazz album spot for ten consecutive weeks.

He has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Tania Maria, Stanley Turrentine, Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, David Sanchez, Leny Andrade, Roy Hargrove and Billy Taylor on the very short list, recorded twenty-three albums, has written film scores for several Spanish films, has won an Emmy, a Grammy for the Live at the Blue Note album, and Best Latin Jazz Album at the Latin Grammy Awards for Spain. Pianist Michel Camilo holds honorary degrees at Berklee College of Music, continues to tour extensively, lecture in Europe, the US, and Puerto Rico.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ali Jackson Jr. was born on April 3, 1976 in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, a classical pianist, taught him piano and how to read music at age 4, his father, a professional bass player, taught him music theory and gave him drums lesson from rudiment books.

Attending Detroit’s prestigious Cass Technical High School, he went on to matriculate through The New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music and privately studying with Elvin Jones and Max Roach.

Ali has recorded two albums as a leader and as a sideman has performed and recorded with musicians including with Joshua Redman, Anat Cohen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Wynton Marsalis, Jacky Terrasson, Craig Handy, James Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Harry Connick Jr., KRS-1, Marcus Roberts, Cyrus Chestnut, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall and Eric Reed.

Ali Jackson is currently the drummer with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, performs with the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Horns in the Hood, and leads the Ali Jackson Quartet. He is also the voice of “Duck Ellington,” a character in the Penguin book series Baby Loves Jazz and has hosted “Jammin’ with Jackson,” a series for young musicians at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy Club Coca-Cola.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Booker Little, Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee on April 2, 1938. He studied trumpet and music at the Chicago Conservatory from 1956 to 1958 during which time he worked with local musicians like Johnny Griffin. A move to New York offered him the opportunity to work with Max Roach and Eric Dolphy, recording with the later on the 1960 Far Cry session and leading a residency at the Five Spot in 1961. This collaboration would produce three classic albums for Prestige Records.

It was during this stint that he began to show promise of expanding the expressive range of the “vernacular” bebop idiom started by Clifford Brown in the mid-1950s. As a leader he recorded four albums and recorded another eleven as a sideman with Dolphy, Max Roach, John Coltrane, Slide Hampton, Bill Henderson, Abbey Lincoln and Frank Strozier during his short four years from 1958-1961.

Little made an important contribution to jazz as one of the first trumpeters to develop his own voice post Clifford Brown, though stylistically, he is rooted in Brown’s crisp articulation, burnished tone and balanced phrasing. Trumpeter and composer Booker Little died of complications resulting from uremia due to kidney failure at the age of 23 on October 5, 1961 in New York City.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Alberta Hunter was born on April 1, 1895 in Memphis, Tennessee to Laura Peterson, a maid in a Memphis brothel and Charles Hunter, a Pullman porter who she never knew. She attended Grant Elementary School, off Auction Street, which she called Auction School, in Memphis. Having had a difficult childhood, and not happy with her new stepfather and family she left for Chicago, Illinois, around the age of 11, in the hopes of becoming a paid singer. She had heard that it paid 10 dollars a week but instead of finding a job as a singer she had to earn money by working at a boarding house that paid six dollars a week as well as room and board.

Hunter began her singing career in a bordello and soon moved to clubs that appealed to men, black and white alike. By 1914 she was receiving lessons from jazz pianist, Tony Jackson, who helped her to expand her repertoire and compose her own songs. Singing around Chicago, one of her first notable experiences as an artist was at the Panama Club where she honed her craft before a cabaret crowd. Her big break came when she was booked at Dreamland Cafe, singing with King Oliver and his band.

She first toured Europe in 1917, performing before adoring and respectful audiences in Paris and London. Her career as singer and songwriter flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, and she appeared in clubs and on stage in musicals in both New York and London. The songs she wrote include the critically acclaimed Downhearted Blues in 1922. She recorded several records with Perry Bradford from 1922 to 1927 as well as sessions on Black Swan, Paramount, Gennett, OKeh, Victor and Columbia. While still working for Paramount, she also recorded for Harmograph Records under the pseudonym May Alix.

Alberta eventually moved to New York City. She performed with Bricktop and recorded with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. She headed the U.S.O.’s first black show, performing in Casablanca, Korea and other theaters of war during World War II and after, until her mother’s death in 1957. It was at this point that she left music for a career in healthcare, working at Roosevelt Island’s Goldwater Memorial Hospital for 20 years. The hospital forced Hunter to retire because it believed she was 70 years old but was actually 82 years old. Deciding to return to singing, she had a regular engagement at a Greenwich Village club, becoming an attraction there until her passing away on October 17, 1984.

Her life was documented in Alberta Hunter: My Castle’s Rockin’, a 1988 TV movie, narrated by the pianist Billy Taylor, and in Cookin’ at the Cookery, a biographical musical by Marion J. Caffey, in which Ernestine Jackson portrays her. Vocalist and composer Alberta Hunter was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015 and her comeback album, Amtrak Blues, was honored by the Blues Hall of Fame in 2009.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Freddie Green was born Frederick William Green on March 31, 1911 in Charleston, South Carolina. Exposed to music early he learned to play banjo before taking up the guitar and learning to read music. He got his first gig playing with a local group alongside trumpeter William “Cat Anderson who would end up in Ellington’s band.

Following his parent’s death while in his teens, Freddie moved to New York to live with his aunt and finish school. He began playing the club circuit, earning both money and a reputation. Noticed by the legendary talent scout John H. Hammond, Green was introduced to Count Basie and in 1937 became part of the outfit. He would remain a pivotal fixture of the Count Basie Band for the next fifty years.

Freddie recorded extensively with Count Basie but also produced several albums as a leader and in addition as a sideman working with such artists as Joe Newman, Al Grey, Zoot Sims, Herb Ellis, Paul Quinichette and Al Cohn to name a few to his credit.

Guitarist Freddie Green, who made a name for himself during the Swing era, who was part of the All-American Rhythm Section alongside pianist Count Basie, drummer Jo Jones and bassist Walter Page and whose technique was to play only certain important notes of each chord limiting unnecessary harmonic presence, passed away at age 75 on March 1, 1987.

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