Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mickey Bass was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 2, 1943. By the time he was nine years old he had just about every record that ‘Bird’ ever cut, not to mention living in an atmosphere that was permeated by ‘Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis.
1961 saw Bass matriculating through Howard University in an atmosphere hostile to jazz, failing along with classmates Harold Vick, Marion Brown and Charles Tolliver, due to the playing of jazz being forbidden on campus. Two years later he landed in New York City, getting his early breaks with Hank Mobley, Sonny Rollins and Bennie Green. His first session was with Lee Morgan on The Sixth Sense that included on of his compositions and arrangements of “Mickey’s Tune”.
As an educator from 1975 to 1978, Mickey taught Acoustic Bass & Jazz Improvisation at “The Ellington School of The Arts”, Washington, D.C. and Director of the Jazz Ensemble. He also taught in New York City for the Jazzmobile.
He has performed and recorded with John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, Bobby Timmons, Gloria Lynne, Jimmy McGriff, Curtis Fuller, Hank Mobley, Billy Eckstine, Reuben Wilson, Chico Freeman and John Hicks among others. He led a sextet called The Cooperation, composed A Chant Blu, One For Trane, Meditation, Gayle’s Groove and Siempre Me Amor, and has cut three sessions as a leader for Chiaroscuro and Early Bird labels.
Hard bop bassist Mickey Bass, who was also an arranger and educator who also plays saxophone and has been active on the jazz scene for more than 40 years, continued to perform, compose and record until his transition on February 3, 2022.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carlos Ward was born on May 1, 1940 in Ancon, Panama and was raised in Panama City. His first instrument was the ukulele and by age 12 he took to the clarinet. His early influences were his aunt and uncle, both pianist, the former classical. He listened to Bob Crosby’s Dixieland clarinet on the radio as were as calypso.
By 1952 his family relocated to Seattle, Washington where his friend Marion Evans introduced him to the alto saxophone. Through high school he hung out with drummer Doug Robinson and the rock group The Playboys. Ward would go on to attend the Navy School of Music and worked with Albert Mangelsdorff when he was stationed in Germany.
He listened to Monk and Coltrane but it was Ornette Coleman’s “The Shape of Jazz to Come” that made the greatest impression on him. After a prophetic meeting with John Coltrane, in 1965 he took his advice and moved to New York. This led to his first major effort was his work with John Coltrane’s unrecorded octet in the period between 1965-66. He had a long-lasting association with Don Cherry from 1973 to 1980 and beyond. His duet association with pianist Abdullah Ibrahim has also been significant to his career.
Ward was a member of Cecil Taylor’s group in the period immediately after altoist Jimmy Lyons death in 1986. He also was a member of The Ed Blackwell Project and led his own quartet in 1987.
Alto saxophonist and flautist Carlos Ward has four albums as a leader and has some 15 as a sideman while working with Carla Bley, Roswell Rudd and the Jazz Composers Orchestra, Karl Berger, Abdullah Ibrahim, Paul Motian, Sunny Murray, Sam Rivers, Rashied Ali and Don Pullen & The African-Brazilian Connection.
It is unfortunate for the industry that an injury to his playing hand has sidelined this musician for many years. However, Ward is readying himself for a return to the scene and hopefully we will hear from future generations of players who will partake of the opportunity to glean knowledge from this master.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rodney Kendrick was born April 30, 1960 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Miami, Florida where his parents moved soon after his birth. Growing up in a musical and Pentecostal church-going family, his mother is a gospel singer named Juet and his father is pianist James “Jimmy Kay” Kendrick, who worked with saxophonist Illinois Jacquet for seven years and played with saxophonist Sonny Stitt and Sam Rivers.
At eighteen Rodney turned professional, touring and playing keyboards with R&B and funk bands, traveling internationally with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, James Brown and George Clinton. Three years later Kendrick began to primarily focus on jazz and moved to New York in 1981. He played keyboards for Freddie Hubbard, Terence Blanchard, Stanley Turrentine, Clark Terry, J.J. Johnson and numerous others.
Studying with pianist Barry Harris, who remained his teacher and mentor for over 20 years, Kendrick cites Randy Weston and Sun Ra as influences. In the early Nineties he served as Abbey Lincoln’s musical leader for seven years. In 1994 he signed a contract with Verve Records and released his debut album “The Secrets of Rodney Kendrick”, and a year later his sophomore project “Dance World Dance”. Both recordings showcase his arranging skills as well as his compositions and feature Houston Person, Graham Haynes, Arthur Blythe and Bheki Mseleku among his guests.
He went on to record his next album “We Don’t Die, We Multiply” with his wife Rhonda composing “Led Astray” and several tracks featuring saxophonist Dewey Redman. Rodney has produced several albums, including a solo piece titled “Thank You”, a duo-piano piece with his mentor Randy Weston, an album with his wife titled “Rhonda Ross Live: Featuring Rodney Kendrick”, as well as a project with his father, Jimmy Kay, titled “Black is Back”.
Rodney Kendrick, jazz pianist, bandleader, composer and producer who has been described as one who swings hard with a Monkish wit and drive, continues to perform, compose and record.
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Daily Dose OF Jazz…
Ward Pinkett was born on April 29, 1906, the son of an amateur cornet player. He started playing the trumpet when he was ten years old. He played in the school band at Hampton Institute and later attended the New Haven Conservatory of Music.
After working with the White Brothers Orchestra in Washington, D. C. he moved to New York City and played for brief periods with the bands of Charlie Johnson, Willie Gant, Billy Fowler, Henri Saparo, Joe Steele and Charlie Skeete.
During his stint with Jelly Roll Morton in 1928–30, he participated in seven of Morton’s recording sessions and his solos on “Strokin’ Away” and “Low Gravy” that are considered by music historians to be the best of his career. He also worked with Chick Webb, Bingie Madison, Rex Stewart and Teddy Hill but was never able to achieve fame.
By 1935 he teamed with Albert Nicholas and Bernard Addison at Adrian Rollini’s Tap Room and also had a short stint with Louis Metcalf’s Big Band. He recorded with King Oliver, Bubber Miley, Clarence Williams, the Little Ramblers and James P. Johnson.
Ward Pinkett died of alcoholism-aggravated pneumonia on March 15, 1937 just six weeks short of his thirty-first birthday.
Take A Dose On The Road
Take A Dose On The Road
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Daily Dose OF Jazz…
Blossom Dearie was born April 28, 1924 in East Durham, New York and as a child she studied Western classical piano but switched to jazz in her teens. After high school Dearie moved to New York City to pursue a music career and began to sing in groups such as the Blue Flames with the Woody Herman Orchestra and the Alvino Rey’s Blue Reys before starting her solo career.
She moved to Paris in 1952 and formed a vocal group, the Blue Stars of Paris, which included Michel Legrand’s sister Christine and Bob Dorough. In 1954 the group had a hit in France with a French version of “Lullaby of Birdland”. The Blue Stars would later evolve into the Swingle Sisters. Interestingly, on her first solo album released two years later, she plays the piano but does not sing.
After returning to the U.S. Blossom, Dearie made her first six American albums as a solo singer and pianist for Verve Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s, mostly in a small trio or quartet setting. In 1962, she recorded a radio commercial for Hires Root Beer. Through the Sixties she recorded with orchestra, performed in supper clubs around New York, appeared at Ronnie Scott’s in London and recorded four albums in the UK.
After a period of inactivity, by the ‘’70s she established her own label, Daffodil Records, lent her voice to “Mother Necessity” and “Figure Eight” on “Schoolhouse Rock!” and she collaborated with Johnny Mercer on one of his final songs “My New Celebrity Is You”. Her voice and songs have been featured in such films as Kissing Jessica Stein, The Squid and the Whale, My Life Without Me and The Adventures of Felix.
Blossom Dearie, vocalist, pianist and one of the last remaining supper-club performers, continued to perform in clubs until shortly before she passed away on February 7, 2006 at age 84 in Greenwich Village, New York.
Dose A Day-Blues Away