Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Walker “Big Nick” Nicholas was born August 2, 1922 in Lansing, Michigan. Picking up the tenor saxophone during his teen years, he was strongly influenced by his hero, Coleman Hawkins. He started playing professionally during the 1940s with Hank and Thad Jones, Earl Hines, and Tiny Bradshaw prior to military service.
Once discharged from the Army late in the decade he went on to work with bands led by Sabby Lewis, J. C. Heard, and Lucky Millinder. He would go on to play with Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Charlie Parker, and Charlie Mingus.
Nicholas contributed the 16-bar solo to Dizzy Gillespie’s classic 1947 African-Cuban jazz composition Manteca. At that time, he also started playing with Hot Lips Page, a working relationship that continued until 1954. He then joined Buck Clayton in 1955.
Big Nick influenced a young John Coltrane to compose his tribute Big Nick, included on the 1962 album Duke Ellington & John Coltrane.
Saxophonist and singer Big Nick Nicholas transitioned from heart failure in Queens, New York on October 29, 1997 at the age of 75.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Einar “Pastor’n” Iversen was born July 27, 1930 in Mandal, Vest-Agder, Norway to a pastor. Raised in Oslo, Norway where he studied classical piano under Inge Rolf Ringnes, Artur Schnabel and Finn Mortensen. He quickly established himself on the Oslo jazz scene in 1949. He released his debut album with Rowland Greenberg’s Orchestra in 1953 and became one of the most respected Norwegian jazz musicians, and ws awarded Buddyprisen at 28 years old.
He played with Dizzy Gillespie at Birdland in 1952, on the America Boat with Anthony Ortega and the Modern Jazz Quartet. He was a regular pianist at Metropol Jazz Club, where he played with Dexter Gordon, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Griffin, Svend Asmussen and Stuff Smith, among other visiting musicians. He recorded an album with his own trio, Me and My Piano, in 1967.
Beyond busy session work Einar led his own “E. I. Trio” with bassit Tor Hauge and drummer Jon Christensen. They released Norways first jazz trio recording in 1967, Me And My Piano, containing Jazz standards. The trio would go on to release on Gemini Records Jazz På Norsk, Who Can I Turn To, Portrait Of A Norwegian Jazz Artist – Einar Iversen, and on Hazel Records, Seaview.
Pianist and composer Einar Iversen, who through more than sixty years played with everyone in Norwegian jazz, transitioned on April 3, 2019, at the age of 88.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lyle “Rusty” Dedrick was born on July 12, 1918 in Delevan, New York. His first call to jazz came when he was in a music store in Buffalo, New York and heard a Louis Armstrong record. So taken was he that he bought the record, then returned home to save money for a record player. After brief studies at Fredonia State Teachers College, he spent a two-year jazz apprenticeship working with the band known as “Mr. And Mrs. Swing,” the Red Norvo/Mildred Bailey Orchestra, featuring the arrangements of a young Eddie Sauter.
He followed this with two stints with Claude Thornhill (1941-42 and 1946-47) and the chance to play a book by Gil Evans. This experience, plus private studies with Paul Creston and Stefan Wolpe, were good preparation for a long career in the New York City jazz commercial music field.
His credits included writing and/or playing with Maxine Sullivan, Lee Wiley, Lionel Hampton and others, along with radio and television studio work with Arthur Godfrey, Ed Sullivan, Sid Ceasar and more. At the same time, Rusty was recording his own LPs.
In 1971 Dedrick joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music as Director of Jazz Studies. He guest conducted many all-county high school jazz bands, as well as the prestigious American Jazz Orchestra. Swing and bebop jazz trumpeter, arranger, composer and educator Rusty Dedrick, who recorded three albums as a leader, transitioned on December 25, 2009 in Summitville, New York
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,educator,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Douglas Anthony Munro was born July 9, 1953 in Yonkers, New York. He started his musical studies at age seven, taking drum lessons and by age fourteen, he was playing dances in Yonkers and New York City. At 20, he broke his back in a gymnastics accident, which ended his career as a drummer. However, in 1977 the 24 year old underwent a successful back surgery, and began playing guitar to pass the time during recovery
After his recovery he became a guitarist, performed locally and taught guitar lessons. In 1986 he released the LP Courageous Cats. and towards the end of the decade Doug met record producer Joe Ferry, and began a 25 year professional relationship. He would go on to divide his career into arranging, performing, teaching, and producing with Ferry. In 2004 he started a series of four Boogaloo recordings for Scufflin’ Records. The first, Boogaloo to Beck, featured Lonnie Smith, David “Fathead” Newman, and Lafrae Olivia Sci. He would go on to release to Brazilian jazz albums under the Big Boss Bossa Nova title.
The early Nineties saw Doug arranging and producing with Joe Ferry. Their first album, We Remember Pastorius, was a tribute to jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius. He would go on to co-produce and arrange a series of recordings for Shanachie Records. This period saw him delving into ska, receiving two Grammy nominations. In 1997 Munro added orchestrations to the original motion picture soundtrack for the Muhammad Ali documentary When We Were Kings which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film.
Munro continued to work on over 40 recording albums into the new millennium with Vitamin Records. He has produced lessons for Just Jazz Guitar, Premier Guitar, and TrueFire.com. He founded the jazz studies program in the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College in 1993, and served as the director of the program from 1993-2002. He retired in 2019 as Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus of the Jazz Studies program at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College.
Guitarist, arranger, producer, composer, author, and educator Doug Munro specializes in jazz, bebop, Brazilian jazz, jazz fusion, and gypsy swing. Since 1986 he has released over fifteen albums as a band leader and has appeared on over 75 recordings as a guitarist, sideman, producer, and arranger. He has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and was the recipient of two NAIRD Awards by the American Association of Independent Music.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,educator,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music,producer
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John William Heard was born on July 3, 1938 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in his early years he played saxophone. He began playing bass at the age of 14. His professional career began in a band that included sax player Booker Ervin, drummer J.C. Moses, pianist Horace Parlan and trumpet player Tommy Turrentine. While in high school, he attended special classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
Joining the United States Air Force in 1958 John was sent to Germany. Because of his art experience he was given a job of designing posters for events. He also did some art teaching, teaching the wives of officers. He left the Air Force in 1961 and enrolled at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He returned to music and went to Buffalo, New York with a later move to California.
The Sixties saw him playing double bass with Turrentine, Al Jarreau, Jean-Luc Ponty, Sonny Rollins and Wes Montgomery. The 1970s he was with Toshiko Akiyoshi, Count Baie, Louie Bellson, Joe Henderson, Ahmad Jamal, John Cillins, Blue Mitchell and Oscar Peterson. By the Eghties he had moved on to perform with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Buddy Montgomery and Pharoah Sanders and Larry Vuckovich. During the decade he teamed with Tom Ranier and Sherman Ferguson to create the group Heard, Ranier, Ferguson in which they released an album in 1983.
Desiring to retire from music in order to spend more time painting, Heard managed to record with Tete Montoliu, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Art Pepper, Clark Terry, Pharoah Sanders, Zoot Sims and Joe Williams. He would return to music, record with Benny Carter, release his album The Jazz Composer’s Songbook and form his group, The John Heard Trio that played at Charlie O’s club in Van Nuys, California. With over 52 recording dates as a sideman with a who’s who list of jazz musicians from the 60’s to 2010, double bassist, bandleader and painter John Heard transitioned on December 10, 2021 at the age of 83.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,history,instrumental,jazz