Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lyman Woodard was born on March 3, 1942 in Owosso, Michigan. He started his musical career with a trio with drummer Melvin Davis and guitarist Dennis Coffey. They recorded the album Hair And Thangs that was released under Coffey’s name, however a single with It’s Your Thing and River Rouge was released under the name of Dennis Coffey and the Lyman Woodard Trio.
From the late 1960s, Woodard recorded with Motown acts, and served as musical director for Martha and the Vandellas. Establishing the jazz~funk band, the Lyman Woodard Organization in 1975 recorded Saturday Night Special, and in 1979, he recorded Don’t Stop The Groove, for the Corridor label. His 1987 recording, Dedicacion, featured violinist Regina Carter.
In March 2009, Wax Poetics Records reissued a limited pressing of his Saturday Night Special as a double LP on 180-gram vinyl.
Organist Lyman Woodard, who was based in Detroit, Michigan and was known for his ability to fuse Latin and Afro~Cuban inspired rhythms, transitioned on February 25, 2009 in his hometown of Owosso.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Andy González was born in The Bronx, New York on January 1, 1951. He and his brother Jerry González were founding members of Conjunto Libre and Grupo Folklórico y Experímental Nuevayorquíno, with whom he produced three albums: Concepts in Unity (1975), Lo Dice Todo (1976), and Homenaje a Arsenio (2011).
The band included Frankie Rodríguez, Milton Cardona, Gene Golden, Carlos Mestre, Nelson González, Manny Oquendo, Oscar Hernández, José Rodríguez, Néstor Torres, Gonzalo Fernández, Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros, Willy García, Heny Álvarez, Virgilio Martí, Marcelino Guerra, Rubén Blades, Orlando “Puntilla” Ríos, and Julito Collazo on the first two albums.
Over the course of his career, along with leading bands of his own, Andy worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Kip Hanrahan and Astor Piazzolla.
Double bassist Andy González, who performed primarily in the Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban idioms, transitioned on April 9, 2020 from pneumonia and complications of diabetes in the Bronx.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Moods, also referred to as Moods Featuring Paul Quinichette is the 1954 debut album by saxophonist Paul Quinichette. It features compositions and arrangements by Quincy Jones and was released in 1955 on the EmArcy label. The tracks were recorded on two session dates, on November 4th (tracks 5–8) and 22nd (tracks 1–4) 1954 with two different line-ups at Fine Sound Studios in New York City.
The second session featured an Afro-Cuban combo with Herbie Mann on flute and also on tenor saxophone and Latin percussion instead of a drum set. The difference between the two sessions was preserved in splitting the album with the later recorded Latin jazz session on the LP’s A-side, the more straight ahead approach on the other.
Tracks | 40:40 All compositions by Quincy Jones except as indicated
- Tropical Intrigue ~ 3:04
- Grasshopper ~ 4:02
- Dilemma Diablo ~ 4:03
- I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me (Jimmy McHugh, Clarence Gaskill) ~ 6:44
- Plush Life ~ 7:48
- You’re Crying ~ 3:13
- Shorty Georgie (Harry Edison, Count Basie) ~ 6:33
- Pablo’s Roonie ~ 4:53
- Paul Quinichette – tenor saxophone
- Herbie Mann – flute, tenor saxophone
- Jimmy Jones – piano
- Al Hall – bass
- Tommy Lopez – congas
- Manny Oquendo – bongos
- Willie Rodriguez – timbales
- Paul Quinichette – tenor saxophone
- Sam Most – flute
- Sir Charles Thompson – piano
- Jerome Darr, Barry Galbraith – guitar
- Paul Chambers – bass
- Harold Wing – drums
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alberto Socarrás Estacio was born in Manzanillo, Cuba on September 19, 1908 and started learning the flute at age seven with his mother and later joined the provincial music conservatory at Santiago de Cuba. He completed his studies at the Timothy Music Conservatory in New York, gaining the equivalent title to a doctorate in music. In the middle 1920s he moved to Havana to join the theatre orchestra of Arquimedes Pous, where his sister Estrella was playing the violin. He also played in one or two early Cuban jazz bands before moving to the United States in 1927.
Once stateside he recorded with Clarence Williams with his first flute solo taking place on Shooting the Pistol on the Paramount label, making him the earliest known jazz flute soloist. He played with The Blackbirds revue between 1928 and 1933, and played on Lizzie Miles’s 1928 recording You’re Such a Cruel Papa to Me.
During the Thirties he played with Benny Carter, led the all-female Cuban band Anacaona on a tour of Europe, played with Sam Wooding and Erskine Hawkins. He made one recording in 1935, with four numbers, then went on to record for RCA Victor, SMC Pro-Arte and Decca.
In the 1950s he took part in Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, concerts of cult music at the Carnegie Hall in New York, and in the 60s he dedicated himself to teaching.
Flautist Alberto Socarras, who in 1983 was filmed by Gustavo Paredes playing the flute in a TV documentary Música, passed away on August 26, 1987 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Emilio was born Francisco Emilio Flynn Rodríguez on April 13, 1921 in Havana, Cuba to an American father and Cuban mother. Despite being blinded at birth due to damage to his eyes by the doctor’s forceps, unable to distinguish shapes as a child he became totally blind by his late teens. Orphaned at age five he was raised by his aunt and uncle. At 13 years old, he won an amateur music contest and shortly after began to play danzones by Antonio María Romeu. In 1938 he interrupted his career to complete his studies at a school run by Cuba’s National Association for the Blind.
During the 1940s, Flynn became part of the filin music scene which comprised jazz-influenced bolero composers. He accompanied singer Miguel de Gonzalo. In 1946 he founded the Loquibambia ensemble together with guitarist and composer José Antonio Méndez, and they started to work for the Mil Diez radio station. By 1949 they accompanied the famous Conjunto Casino in the recording of their song Átomo. Two years later he founded Los Modernistas, and played at Radio Cadena Habana, toured the island before disbanding. Flynn then joined a son ensemble, Alejandro y sus Muchachos, and in 1955 he recorded four songs with Arcaño y sus Maravillas.
By the late Fifties he would go on to pioneer small-ensemble Cuban jazz. After the Cuban Revolution, the members of the Quinteto Instrumental remained in Havana, playing and recording. In the late 1970s and 1980s, his band expanded and recorded their debut album. During the 1990s Flynn recorded several albums including Barbarísimo, Tribute to Ernesto Lecuona and A Tiempo de Danzón for Milan/RCA Records, and Ancestral Reflections for Blue Note. In 1998 he made his American debut, with Los Amigos, in a Jazz at Lincoln Center gig and the following year he reunited with his American relatives.
Between 2000 and 2001 he spent much of his time with his relatives in California, where he played live occasionally and gave lectures at California State University, Los Angeles. Pianist Frank Emilio, who played danzas, danzones, filin, descarga, and Afro-Cuban jazz, passed away on August 23, 2001 in Havana.
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