Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Hazeltine was born October 27, 1958 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and studied music with local pianist Will Green, He started playing gigs at age 13 but didn’t seriously consider a life in music until right before college.
Upon entering the jazz world David was encouraged by Chet Baker to move to New York City where he eventually became the house pianist for national acts at the former Jazz Gallery. His greatest influences have been Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Bud Powell and Miles Davis and while he works within and across the constrains of bebop he is constantly seeking the beauty in harmony, melody, rhythm and never straying too deeply from his roots.
Hazeltine has played and recorded with the likes of Jon Hendricks, Louis Hayes, George Mraz, Joe Locke, Nat Reeves, Joe Farnsworth, Don Braden, Chris Potter, Peter Washington, Louis Hayes and One For All among numerous others.
A gifted arranger and composer, David has done an impressive amount of innovation in his arrangements of pop tunes, which appear on most of his CDs. He helped retool the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s jazz program, has recorded some two dozen albums as a leader and sideman and continues to be a major player on the New York and Japan jazz scene.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ranee Lee was born October 26, 1942 and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She performed as a singer while in high school and after graduation she began her professional career as a dancer, and during the Seventies began playing drums and saxophone with various touring groups in the U.S. and Canada.
Settling in Montreal she turned to the stage starring in Lady Day as Billie Holiday, winning a Dora Mavor Moore Award and singing took over her past musical endeavors. She began recording and released her first album Deep Song in 1989 with bassist Milt Hinton and Oliver Jones followed up with her sophomore project Jazz On Broadway with Red Mitchell.
Over the years with numerous releases Ranee has become one of Canada’s most popular jazz vocalists and was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2006, the second highest order of merit. Her music appears in the animated short film, Black Soul, and has won a 2010 Juno Award for her album Ranee Lee Lives Upstairs.
An accomplished author, Lee has written children’s books, has performed on stage, television, film and jazz festivals, has sat on the faculty of the University of Laval in Quebec City for seven years and The Schulich School of Music of McGill University. She continues to record, perform and tour.
Inspire A Young Mind
Hollywood On 52nd Street
Never on Sunday is the theme song written by Manos Hadjidakis and Billy Towne for the 1960 Greek black-and-white film. The signature song became a hit and bestowed an Academy Award for Best Song on composer Hadjidakis. It stars Melina Mecouri and Jules Dassin and gently submerges the viewer into the Greek culture with music, dance and language through subtitles.
The Story: Ilya, a self-employed, free-spirited prostitute who lives in the port city of Piraeus and Homer, an American tourist from Middletown, Connecticut and a classical scholar enamored with all things Greek. Homer feels Ilya’s life style typifies the degradation of Greek classical culture and attempts to steer her onto the path of morality. It constitutes a variation of the Pygmalion story.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jimmy Heath was born James Edward Heath on October 25, 1926 and he originally played alto saxophone until influenced by Charlie Parker’s work with Howard McGhee and Dizzy Gillespie, he switched to tenor.
He shared a short tenure with Miles Davis’s group in 1959, replacing John Coltrane, then also worked with Kenny Dorham and Gil Evans, and composed most of the 1956 Chet Baker/Art Pepper album Playboys. During the 1960s, he frequently worked with Milt Jackson and Art Farmer.
Jimmy recorded a string of impressive albums for Riverside and worked as a freelance sideman and arranger. He has recorded as a leader for Cobblestone, Muse, Xanadu, Landmark, and Verve. By 1975, he and his brothers formed The Heath Brothers with pianist Stanley Cowell.
As an educator, in the 1980s, he joined the faculty of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in the City University of New York. With the rank of Professor, he led the creation of the Jazz Program at Queens College along with teaching at Jazzmobile. He served on the Board of the Louis Armstrong Archives, and the restoration and management of the Louis and Lucille Armstrong Residence in Corona, Queens.
Tenor saxophonist, composer and arranger Jimmy Heath, nicknamed “Little Bird” is the brother of Percy and Albert and the father of James Mtume and is a 2003 recipient of the NEA Jazz Masters Award and honorary Doctorate in Human Letters.
Jazz Is Global – Share
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wendell Marshall was born into a musical family on October 24, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri. He took up the bass in emulation of and receiving his first lessons from his cousin Jimmy Blanton. He began playing professionally around his hometown in the late ‘30s and played with Lionel Hampton in ’42. Graduating from Lincoln University, he then served in the Army during World War II.
After his discharge, Marshall played and recorded with Stuff Smith, relocated to New York City and played with Mercer Ellington prior to his tenure with Duke Ellington from 1948 to 1955, appearing in several films with the orchestra.
Departing from Duke, Wendell played in pit orchestras on Broadway, freelanced with Mary Lou Williams, Art Blakey, Donald Byrd, Milt Jackson and Hank Jones among others. He was the house bassist for Prestige Records known for his rich tone, reliable sense of time and fine technique making him a popular collaborator.
It is estimated that he recorded with a prodigious list of musician with albums numbering over 150 including his own in 1955 as a leader, Wendell Marshall with the Billy Byers Orchestra. He was also a part of the Jazz Lab quintet led by Donald Byrd and Gigi Gryce.
However, by 1968 he retired from music and returned to St. Louis where he set up his own insurance business. Double bassist Wendell Marshall passed away of colon cancer on February 6, 2002 in his hometown of St. Louis.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
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