Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Falk was born in Paris, France on September 22, 1953 but soon moved to Brussels, Belgium where he studied guitar at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He started playing folk-music, then jazz-rock before getting interested in computer-aided musical composition.
He played in several bands in the 80’s such as Spring with Michel Delory and François Garny, and Falklands with Alain Rochette and Sam Mc Kinney. In 1989 he visited Zaire giving him the opportunity to get acquainted with African music.
He became active as a producer-arranger for various African artists in the Nineties and has produced Embowassa, Dominic Kakolobango, Malick Pathé Sow & Welnere, and early in the new century Diariyata and Pas Mal +.
He recorded and released his debut album Muzungu as a leader in 2006 featuring his afro-jazz compositions. Mixing intello jazz with african rythms that mainly come from the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
His sophomore project is afro-jazz centered around West~African music but includes Brazilian influences as in a congolese samba. It is titled Xelu Sowu, which translates to The Spirit of the West in wolof.
Guitarist and composer Robert Falk continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Matthews was born on September 23, 1912 in Dominica, British West Indies and received classical training in New York City and played with local dance and jazz bands. In the early 1930s he joined Tiny Bradshaw’s group, being adept on tuba, trumpet, and trombone.
Later in the decade he worked with Willie Bryant, Louis Armstrong, Chick Webb, and in the Forties he recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Lucky Millinder, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. After World War II, Matthews worked extensively with Count Basie, then joined Erskine Hawkins’s group in the early 1950s, while recording with Dizzy Gillespie, and Dicky Wells. In the 1960s he played with Lucille Dixon, Clark Terry, and recorded with Cannonball Adderley and Ray Charles in the Sixties.
Trombonist George Matthews, who never led a recording session, transitioned on June 28, 1982.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mthutuzeli Dudu Pukwana was born on July 18, 1938 in Walmer Township, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He grew up studying piano in his family, but in 1956 he switched to alto saxophone after meeting tenor saxophone player Nikele Miyake In 1962, Pukwana won first prize at the Johannesburg Jazz Festival with Moyake’s Jazz Giants. In his early days, he also played with Kippie Moeketsi. Chris McGregor then invited him to join the pioneering Blue Notes, a sextet, where he was the principal composer and played along with Mongezi Feza, Nikele Moyake, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo.
As mixed-race groups were illegal under apartheid, the Blue Notes, increasingly harassed by authorities, emigrated to Europe in 1964, playing in France and Zürich, Switzerland before settling in London, England. After they split in the late 1960s, Pukwana joined McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath Big Band, which featured his soloing and composing. He wrote Mra, one of the best-loved tunes by the Brotherhood.
1967 saw Dudu receiving his first mention of success with the Bob Stuckey Trio in America’s DownBeat magazine, which later expanded to a quartet when Phil Lee joined on guitar. He went on to form two groups with Feza and Moholo. One was the afro rock band Assagai, the other Spear, with whom he recorded the seminal afro-jazz album In The Townships in 1973 for Virgin Records at The Manor Studio.
His fiery voice was heard in many diverse settings including recordings of Mike Heron, Centipede and Toots and the Maytals. In 1978, Pukwana founded Jika Records and formed his own band, Zila, featuring South Africans Lucky Ranku on guitar and powerful vocalist Miss Pinise Saul. In duo with John Stevens, he recorded the free session They Shoot To Kill in 1987, dedicated to Johnny Dyani. In 1990, Pukwana took part in the Nelson Mandela Tribute held at Wembley Stadium.
Alto saxophonist, pianist, and composer Dudu Pukwana, who was not known for his piano playing, passed away in London, England of liver failure on June 30, 1990, not long after the death of his longtime friend and colleague McGregor.
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