Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Burton Greene was born June 14, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois and rose to popularity in the Sixties on New York’s free jazz scene gigging with Alan Silva and Marion Brown. He credited the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble in 1963, then joined Bill Dixon’s and Cecil Taylor’s Jazz Composers Guild in ’64.
During this period he gigged with Rashied Ali, Albert Ayler, Gato Barbieri, Byard Lancaster, Sam Rivers, Patty Waters and others while recording two albums as a leader. Burton moved to Europe in 1969, first to Paris then to Amsterdam delving into the Klezmer medium and recording with several different group configurations into the 90s.
Since the mid-1990s Greene has often performed and recorded in New York and along the East Coast with a modest catalogue that includes eleven recordings.. His autobiography written over 20 years, Memoirs of A Musical Pesty-Mystic, was published in 2001. His recent performances and recorded groups based in New York include duets, trios, quartets and quintets with Mark Dresser, Roy Campbell, Lou Grassi, Adam Lane, Ed and George Schuller, Russ Nolan and Paul Smoker.
Take A Dose On The Road
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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.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Geri Allen was born on June 12, 1957 in Pontiac, Michigan and received her early jazz education at Cass Technical High School in Detroit and the Jazz Development Workshop under the mentorship of Marcus Belgrave. In 1979 she graduated fro Howard University with a jazz studies degree, moved to New York and studied with Kenny Barron. She went on to get a degree in ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh, returned to New York and joined the Brooklyn based M-Base crowd, recording several albums with Steve Coleman, beginning in 1985.
Geri’s 1984 debut album “The Printmakers” showcased the pianist’s more avant-garde tendencies, followed by “Etudes” and “Twenty-One” in 1995 in which she was the first recipient of Soul Train’s Lady of Soul Award for jazz album of the year. She has played with a luminous list of musicians not the least Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Charlie Haden, Anthony Cox, Betty Carter, Ornette Coleman, Jack DeJohnette, Mary Stallings and Charles Lloyd.
Geri Allen currently teaches as Associate Professor of Jazz Piano & Improvisation Studies at the University of Michigan as well as recording and touring with Charles Lloyd; and in 2007 participated in the documentary film titled “Live Music, Community & Social Conscience” that looks at how music connects us to our humanity, and to each other regardless of borders, politics, culture economics, or religion. She was the 2008 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Allen has received many awards such as the “African-American Classical Music Award”, “A Salute to African-American Women: Phenomenal Woman”, nominations in 2011 for the NAACP Image Award for Best Jazz Album, “Geri Allen & Timeline Live” and for both The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards for “Live Performance Album” and for “Best Jazz Pianist”, by the Jazz Journalists Association.
As an educator Geri has taught Jazz & Contemporary Improvisation at the School Of Music Theatre & Dance, at the University Of Michigan and was a curator in New York City at the STONE. Since 2013 she’s been teaching at her alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, as an Associate Professor of Music and as the Director of the Jazz Studies Program.
Pianist Geri Allen continued to perform, tour and record until she passed away on June 27, 2017, two weeks after her 60th birthday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after losing her battle with cancer..
Inspire A Young Mind
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Shelly Manne was born Sheldon Manne in New York City on June 11, 1920. His father and uncles were drummers, he got tips from drummer Billy Gladstone as a teenager and soon he rapidly developed his style in the 52nd Street clubs in the late 30s and 40s. He got his first professional job with the Bobby Byrne Orchestra and was soon recording with Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Shavers, Don Byas, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney and Rex Stewart.
Manne rose to stardom when he became part of the bands of Woody Herman and Stan Kenton in the late 1940s and early 1950s, winning awards and developing a following at a time when jazz was the most popular music in the United States. When the bebop movement began to change jazz in the 1940s, Manne loved it and adapted to the style rapidly, performing with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Flip Phillips, Charlie Ventura, Lennie Tristano and Lee Konitz.
In the early 1950s, Manne left New York, settled permanently on a ranch outside Los Angeles, where he and his wife raised horses. This began his important role in the West Coast school of jazz, performing on the Los Angeles jazz scene with Shorty Rogers, Hampton Hawes, Red Mitchell, Art Pepper, Russ Freeman, Frank Rossolino, Chet Baker, Leroy Vinnegar and many others.
Shelly led a number of small groups that recorded under his name and leadership, recording his now famous live Black Hawk sessions and for Contemporary Records. He played in styles of Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing to the musical background of hundreds of Hollywood films and television programs, collaborating with Henry Mancini on such films as Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Hatari and The Pink Panther and tv shows like Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky.
Shelly Manne passed away of a heart attack on September 26, 1984 shortly before the popular revival of interest in jazz had gained momentum.
Give A Gift Of Jazz – Share
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dicky Wells was born William Wells on June 10, 1907 in Centerville, Tennessee but came to fame playing trombone as Dicky or Dickie Wells. He moved to New York City in 1926 and joined the band of Lloyd Scott.
He played two stints with Count Basie between 1938-1945 and 1947-1950. Dickie also played with Cecil Scott, Spike Hughes, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Teddy Hill, Jimmy Rushing, Buck Clayton and Ray Charles.
In his later years, Wells suffered a severe beating that affected his memory, but he recovered and continued to perform. He played frequently at the West End jazz club at 116th and Broadway, most often with a band called “The Countsmen”, led by alto saxophonist Earle Warren, his colleague from Count Basie days. His trademark was a “pepper pot” mute that he made himself.
Jazz trombonist Dickie Wells died on November 12, 1985, in New York City. Shortly after his death, his family donated his trombone to Rutgers University.
Jazz Is Global – Share
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