Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ken Vandermark was born September 22, 1964 in Warwick, Rhode Island but grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. Mostly a self-taught musician, the saxophonist studied intermittently under George Garzone in the early 80s. He performed and led groups while in high school and at McGill University in Montreal, graduated in 1986.
Returning to Boston Ken co-led the groups Lombard Street, Mr. Furious and Barrage Double incorporating “suite forms” into his arrangements and composing pieces dedicated to other Boston bands, thus, developing broad, free-ranging charts as his signature especially in large ensemble settings.
Vandermark moved to Chicago in 1989 and has performed or recorded with many musicians such as Fred Anderson, Joe Morris, Fredrik Ljungkvist and Yakuza to name a few. He first gained widespread attention working with the NRG Ensemble from 1992 to 1996, went on to co-lead DKV Trio, Free Fall, Territory Band, the Vandermark Five and some six more groups, collaborated with Joe Harriott, released his album Furniture Music in 2002 marking his debut as an accomplished soloist and has since concentrated on his own compositions.
A fixture on the Chicago music scene Vandermark plays tenor and baritone saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet and has received critical praise for his performing multilayered compositions that typically balance intricate orchestration with passionate improvisation. He was awarded a 1999 MacArthur Fellowship, won the Cadence magazine poll for Best Artist and Best Recording. He continues to perform and record.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Andrew Hill was born June 30, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois and took up the piano at the age of thirteen, and was encouraged by Earl Hines. He studied informally until 1952. While a teenager he performed in rhythm and blues bands and toured with jazz musicians, including Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.
Hill first recorded as a sideman in 1954, but made his reputation recording as a leader for Blue Note from 1963 to 1970, featuring important post-bop musicians including Joe Chambers, Richard Davis, Eric Dolphy, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Woody Shaw and Tony Williams.
Hill is recognized as one of the most important innovators of jazz piano in the 1960s but rarely worked as a sideman after the 1960s, preferring to play his own compositions, which may have limited his public exposure.
As an educator he held positions at Portland State University, held residencies at Colgate University of Hamilton, Wesleyan University, University of Michigan, University of Toronto, Harvard University and Bennington College.
Returning to New York City in 1990, composer and pianist Andrew Hill, whose unique idiom of chromatic, modal and free improvisation, made his final public appearance on March 29, 2007 at Trinity Church. Suffering from lung cancer during his later years he died in his home on April 20, 2007. In May 2007, he became the first person to receive a posthumous honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Raymond Mantilla was born on June 22, 1934 in New York City and his early drumming inspiration came from Afro-Cuban jazz. He played with a number of Latin jazz ensembles from the 1950s including the La Playa Sextet, Xavier Cugat, Lou Perez, Rene Touzet, Miguelito Valdez and Monguito Conjunto.
He played behind Eartha Kitt in 1955 and by 1960 was touring with Herbie Mann and recording with Max Roach. He recorded with Al Cohn, Freddie Hubbard, Buddy Rich and Larry Coryell in the early Sixties and then led his own band in Puerto Rico from ’63 to ’69. This was followed with Ray becoming a founding member of Max Roach’s M’Boom percussion ensemble in 1970.
Mantilla was a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the 70s and toured the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He then recorded with Gato Barbieri, Joe Farrell, Richie Cole, Don Pullen, Charles Mingus, Walter Bishop, Jr., and Morgana King and toured Cuba with Dizzy Gillespie.
By the end of the decade he once again founded his own ensemble, the Ray Mantilla Space Station, and through the 1980s toured or recorded with Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Burrell, Shirley Scott and Warren Chiasson. In 1991 the noted session player and bandleader put together a new ensemble, the Jazz Tribe and has been recording, performing and touring ever since.
Take A Dose On The Road
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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…
Ron Carter was born May 4, 1937 in Ferndale, Michigan and started playing the cello at the age of 10, but when his family moved to Detroit, he ran into difficulties regarding the racial stereotyping of classical musicians and instead moved to bass. He attended Cass Technical High School and later the Eastman School of Music, played in the later Philharmonic Orchestra. He received his bachelor’s degree at Eastman in 1959, and in 1961 a master’s degree in double bass performance from the Manhattan School of Music.
His first jobs as a jazz musician were with Jaki Byard and Chico Hamilton and made his first records were made with Eric Dolphy and Don Ellis in 1960. Ron led his first date as leader, “Where?”with Dolphy and Mal Waldron and a date “Out There” with Dolphy, George Duvivier and Roy Haynes playing advanced harmonies and concepts were in step with the third stream movement. He truly came to fame in the early ‘60s in the second great Miles Davis quintet with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams.
Over the course of his career, Carter who is also an acclaimed cellist has appeared on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history. He has played with Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard, Duke Pearson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Hank Jones and too many more to name.
He was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet, the Classical Jazz Quartet, was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Music Department of The City College of New York after twenty years teaching and received an honorary Doctorate from the Berklee College of Music. He is currently on the faculty of the Julliard School teaching bass in the school’s Jazz Studies program, sits on the Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors of The Jazz Foundation of America.
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