Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Abdullah Ibrahim was born October 9, 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, formerly known as Adolph Johannes Brand, and as Dollar Brand. He first received piano lessons at age seven, was an avid consumer of jazz records brought by American sailors, and was playing jazz professionally by 1949. In 1959 and 1960, he played alongside Kippie Moeketsi and Hugh Masekela with The Jazz Epistles in Sophiatown, later recording the first jazz LP by Black South African musicians in 1960. Ibrahim then joined the European tour of the musical King Kong.
Moving to Europe in 1962, it was in the following year that Duke Ellington heard the Dollar Brand Trio at Zurich’s Africana Club at the request of Brand’s wife-to-be Sathima Bea Benjamin. As a result, Duke Ellington presents The Dollar Brand Trio was recorded at Reprise followed by a second session of the trio with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn also on piano performing with Sathima as the vocalist. The recording, A Morning In Paris, remained unreleased until 1996 and then under Benjamin’s name. This led to wider appearances of the Dollar Brand Trio at many European festivals, as well as on radio and television.
Ibrahim has toured mainly in Europe, the United States, and South Africa, the band performing mainly in concert and club settings, and sometimes playing solo piano. Mainly playing the piano, he also plays the flute, saxophone, and cello, performing mostly his own compositions, although he sometimes performs pieces composed by others.
Abdullah Ibrahim to date has recorded more than forty albums as a leader, has written the soundtracks for a number of films, Chocolat and No Fear, No Die; and was a part of the 2002 documentary Amandla! – A Revolution in Four Part Harmony where he and others recalled the days of apartheid. He has ventured into orchestral performances with the inauguration of Nelson Mandela and the later initiation of the 18-piece Cape Town Jazz Orchestra in 2006.
A pianist and composer, Abdullah Ibrahim’s music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cape Town, ranging from traditional African songs to the gospel of the AME church and ragas, to more modern jazz and other Western styles reflecting the influences of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. He continues to perform, record and tour.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Park “Pepper” Adams III was born on October 8, 1930 in Highland Park, Michigan. His family moved to Rochester, New York when he was young and it was here that he began his musical endeavors. At 16 he moved back to Detroit and met several musicians who would later be important to his career, including trumpeter Donald Byrd. Adams became interested in Wardell Gray’s approach to the saxophone and later named Gray and Harry Carney as his influences.
After his Army band stint and a brief tour in Korea, Pepper moved to New York and recorded the “Dakar” album with Coltrane, with Lee Morgan on “The Cooker”, and briefly worked with Benny Goodman ‘s band in 1958. During this time, Adams also began working with Charles Mingus, performing on one of Mingus’s finest albums from this period, “Blues & Roots” and sporadically recording with Mingus until his death in 1979.
Adams would become a significant member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band from 1965 to 1978, and continued to record Jones’s compositions on many of his own albums. Adams also co-led a quintet with Donald Byrd that produced the live date, “10 to 4 at the 5 Spot” featuring Elvin Jones.
Pepper Adams, the baritone saxophonist nicknamed “The Knife” for his hearty tone, driving rhythmic sense, and big and intense sound that fit well in the up-tempo of hard bop, is considered, along with Gerry Mulligan, as setting the foundation for contemporary playing on the baritone. He died of lung cancer in Brooklyn, New York on September 10, 1986.
More Posts: saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jo Jones was born Jonathan David Samuel Jones on October 7, 1911 in Chicago, Illinois. He moved to Alabama where he learned to play several instruments, including saxophone, piano, and drums. He worked as a drummer and tap-dancer in carnival shows until joining Walter Page’s band “The Blue Devils” in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in the late 1920s. He recorded with trumpeter Lloyd Hunter’s Serenaders in 1931, later joining pianist Count Basie’s band in 1934.
Jones, Basie, guitarist Freddie Green and bassist Walter Page were sometimes billed as an “All American Rhythm Section”. Taking a brief break for two years when he was in the military, he remained with Basie until 1948, participating in the Jazz At The Philharmonic concert series.
One of the first drummers to promote the use of brushes on drums and shifting the role of timekeeping from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal, Jo had a major influence on later drummers such as Buddy Rich, Kenny Clarke, Roy Haynes, Max Roach and Louie Bellson.
He performed regularly in later years at the West End jazz club at 116th and Broadway in New York City. He also starred in several films, most notably the musical short Jammin’ The Blues in 1944. In his later years, he was known as Papa Jo Jones and often omitted bass drum playing altogether. He continued a ride rhythm on hi-hat while it was continuously opening and closing instead of the common practice of striking it while it was closed. His style influenced the modern jazz drummer’s tendency to play timekeeping rhythms on a suspended cymbal that is now known as the ride cymbal.
In 1979, Jones was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of for his contribution to the Birmingham, Alabama musical heritage and 1985 was the recipient of an American Jazz Masters fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
He recorded nearly a dozen albums as a leader and more as a sideman between 1950 and 1985 working with the likes of Gene Ammons, Art Blakey, Sonny Stitt, Coleman Hawkins, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Illinois Jacquet, Ben Webster and Charles Mingus.
Drummer Jo Jones, who passed away on September 3, 1985 was often confused with drummer Philly Joe Jones, and ironically the two died a few days apart.
More Posts: drums
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Von Freeman was born Earl Lavon Freeman Sr. on October 3, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois and learned to play the saxophone as a child. Attending DuSable High he studied under band director Walter Dyett. By the time he was 16 he was playing professionally with Horace Henderson’s Orchestra.
After serving in the Navy and playing in the band during WWII, Von returned to Chicago, where he has lived ever since, playing with his brothers George on guitar and Bruz (Eldridge) on drums at the Pershing Hotel Ballroom. Over the years various leading jazzmen such as Charlie Parker, Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie played with the Freemans as the backing band. In the early 1950s, Von played in Sun Ra’s band.
Freeman’s first venture into the recording studio took place in 1954, backing a vocal group called The Maples for Al Benson’s Blue Lake label. He appeared on Andrew Hill’s second single on the Ping label in 1956, followed by recording for Vee-Jay with Jimmy Witherspoon and Al Smith in the late fifties, and a recorded appearance at a Charlie Parker tribute concert in 1970.
It was not until 1972 that Von recorded under his own name, the album “Doin’ It Right Now” with the support of Roland Kirk. His next effort was a marathon session in 1975 released over 2 albums by Nessa. Since then he has lived, played regularly and recorded in Chicago, his recordings including 3 albums with his son, the tenorist Chico Freeman and “You Talkin’ To Me” with 22-year old saxophonist Frank Catalano, following their successful appearance at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 1999.
Freeman is considered a founder of the “Chicago School” of jazz tenorists along with Gene Ammons, Johnny Griffin and Clifford. His music has been described as “wonderfully swinging and dramatic featuring a large rich sound”. The hard bop tenor saxophonist holds down a regular Tuesday night set and jam session at the New Apartment Lounge on Chicago’s south side, and can also be heard at Andy’s Jazz Club on select weekends. Hard bop tenor saxophonist Von Freeman passed away on August 11, 2012 at age 88 in Chicago, Illinois.
More Posts: saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Buddy Rich was born Bernard Rich on September 30, 1917 in New York City to vaudevillians. His father first noticed his musical talent to keep a steady beat with spoons at the age of one. He began playing drums at eighteen months in vaudeville billed as “Traps the Drum Wonder”. At the height of his childhood career he was reportedly the second-highest paid child entertainer in the world, after Jackie Coogan.
By age 11 he became a bandleader without any formal drum instruction, claiming that instruction would only degrade his musical talent; never admitted to practicing, played drums only during performance, and was not known to read music. Buddy’s first major jazz gig was in 1937 with Joe Marsala and guitarist Jack Lemaire was followed with Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw, Vic Schoen Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra.
In 1942 he enlisted in the Marines and two years later was back with Dorsey. With financial backing from Sinatra in ’46 he formed his own band and continued to lead different groups into the early fifties. In addition he performed with Benny Carter, Harry James, Les Brown, Charlie Ventura, Jazz at the Philharmonic and led several successful big bands in an era that didn’t popularize them, played on sessions with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong for their late-career comeback recordings, Oscar Peterson and his famous trio with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis.
Rich always have a drummer there during rehearsals to read and play the parts initially on new arrangements. He’d listen to a chart once, have it memorized, run through it and he’d know exactly how it went, how many measures it ran and what he’d have to do to drive it.
Buddy, once billed as “The World’s Greatest Drummer”, was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove and speed and remained an active performer until the end of his life. On April 2, 1987 in Los Angeles, California drummer, bandleader and songwriter Buddy Rich succumbed to heart failure following surgery for a malignant brain tumor. He was 69.
More Posts: drums