Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clifford Brown was born on October 30, 1930 into a musical family in Wilmington, Delaware. Organized into a vocal quartet with three of his youngest brothers buy his father, by age ten he started playing trumpet at school after becoming fascinated with the shiny trumpet his father owned. By age thirteen, he had his own trumpet and was taking private lessons.
Junior year in high school he received lessons from Boysie Lowrey, played in a jazz group that Lowery put together, made trips into Philadelphia while earning a good education from Howard High. He briefly attended Delaware State University as a math major, before switching to Maryland State College that had a more vibrant musical environment. He played in the fourteen-piece, jazz-oriented, Maryland State Band.
In June of 1950, he was seriously injured in a car accident and during his yearlong hospitalization Dizzy Gillespie visited the young trumpeter and pushed him to pursue his musical career. Limited to the piano for months due to his injuries Clifford never fully recovered and would routinely dislocate his shoulder for the rest of his life. However, he quickly became one of the most highly regarded trumpeters in jazz.
Brownie, as he was affectionately called had a sound that was warm and round, and notably consistent across the full range of the instrument. He could articulate every note, even at very fast tempos which seemed to present no difficulty to him; serving to enhance the impression of his speed of execution. He had a highly developed sense of harmony, delivered bold statements through complex chord changes of bebop harmony and fully expressed himself in a ballad.
He performed and recorded with Chris Powell, Tadd Dameron, Lionel Hampton and Art Blakey before forming his own group with Max Roach. The Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet was a high water mark of the hard bop style with pianist Richie Powell, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, Teddy Edwards and Sonny Rollins throughout the tenure of the group.
Clifford never touched drugs and had no fondness for alcohol, however his clean living would not save him from his tragic death on the rainy night of June 26, 1956 due to an auto accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. That night band member Richie Powell and his wife Nancy would also lose their lives.
At age 25 trumpeter Clifford Brown would leave behind only four years of recordings, nonetheless, he influenced later jazz trumpet players like Donald Byrd, Woody Shaw, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, Valery Ponomarev, Wynton Marsalis and many others. His compositions “Joy Spring” and “Daahoud” are jazz standards. He won the Down Beat critics’ poll for the “New Star of the Year” in 1954; and was inducted into the Down Beat “Jazz Hall of Fame” in 1972 in the critics’ poll.
More Posts: trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Wallington was born Giacinto Figlia on October 27, 1924 in Palermo, Italy but his family moved to the United States in 1925. He didn’t arrive on the New York scene until the 40s at around 18 years old, but from 1943 to 1953 he played with Joe Marsala, Charlie Parker, Serge Chaloff, Allan Eager, Kai Winding, Terry Gibbs, Brew Moore, Al Cohn, Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims, Red Rodney and Lionel Hampton.
He was Dizzy Gillespie’s pianist in his first bop band at the Onyx club in 1944, where his contributions reflected his innate creative ability, a talent that established him as one of the best composers in the progressive field. His astonishing, fast-moving eloquence as a pianist, contrasted strangely with his introvert, laconic manner as a person.
Wallington recorded as a leader for Savoy and Blue Note and led groups in New York that included newcomers Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean and Phil Woods from 1954 to 1960. He would record with these groups for Prestige and Atlantic record labels. In 1960 he retired to work in the family business, but returned to music in 1984 and recording three albums. His style is often compared to the legendary Earl “Bud” Powell.
George’s best known compositions are the bop standards “Lemon Drop” and “Godchild”, he sat in on the recording of Lady Fair on the Verve release Metronome All-Stars 1956 and was closely associated with the progressive jazz movement in Harlem and on 52nd Street during the 1940s.
Bop pianist, arranger and composer George Wallington, one of the first bop pianists alongside Al Haig and Bud Powell, passed away in Cape Coral, Miami, Florida on February 15, 1993. He left a ten record discography as a leader with several more as a sideman.
More Posts: piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Art Blakey was born Arthur Blakey on October 11, 1919 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By the time he was a teenager, he was playing the piano full-time, leading a commercial band. Shortly afterwards, he taught himself to play the drums in the aggressive swing style of Chick Webb, Sid Catlett and Ray Bauduc. He joined Mary Lou Williams in 1942, then toured with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, spent three years with Billy Eckstine’s big band and became associated with the bebop movement along with his fellow band members Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro and others.
He recorded on Thelonious Monk’s first and last sessions as a leader, organized a rehearsal band called the Seventeen Messengers in 1947, recorded with an octet call the Jazz Messengers co-led with Horace Silver, and the group recorded with Clifford Brown and Lou Donaldson live at Birdland and formed a regular cooperative group with Hank Mobley and Kenny Dorham in 1953.
Along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, Art was one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. Known as a powerful musician and a vital groover, his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was and continues to be profoundly influential on mainstream jazz. For more than 30 years his band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, included many young musicians who went on to become prominent names in jazz.
Blakey’s Messengers would go on to enlist musicians like Doug Watkins, Donald Byrd, Johnny Griffin, Benny Golson, Jymie Merritt, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, Curtis Fuller, Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton and Wayne Shorter, all of whom made an indelible impression on Blakey’s repertoire with their original compositions such as Dat Dere, Moanin’ and Lester Left Town.
Art recorded dozens of albums both as a sideman and a leader with a constantly changing group of Jazz Messengers, toured with the Giants of Jazz in early Seventies, revitalized the band in the 80s with players like Wynton Marsalis, Johnny O’Neal, Philip Harper, Terence Blanchard, Joanne Brackeen, Donald Harrison, Kenny Garrett, Bobby Broom, Robin Eubanks, Ralph Peterson, Jr. and Mulgrew Miller.
Also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after converting to Islam and nicknamed “Bu”, was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1982, won a Grammy for Best Group Jazz Instrumental Performance for New York Scene, was inducted in the Newport Jazz Festival and Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fames, and was posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001 and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Drummer and bandleader Art Blakey died on October 16, 1990.
More Posts: drums
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Norman Simmons was born on October 6, 1929 in Chicago, Illinois. As a child he was captivated by the sounds of the big band era, in particular, Duke Ellington’s orchestra. He started teaching himself piano and by sixteen enrolled in the Chicago School of Music, completing in four years.
In 1949 Norman formed his own group and began recording in 1952. An accomplished composer his tune “Jan” was a hit for tenorist Paul Bascomb the following year. Keeping a steady gig at the noted Chicago jazz spot “The Beehive” gave him the opportunity to back touring musicians like Wardell Gray, Lester Young and Charlie Parker. But it was Ernestine Anderson who convinced him to move to New York City to continue working with her.
In New York Simmons performed with Johnny Griffin and played and wrote intricate arrangements for Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. Upon the latter’s recommendation he teamed up with Carmen McRae for nine years before moving on with Betty Carter and Anita O’Day where he found greater improvisational freedom. Late in the 70’s decade he began his long collaboration with Joe Williams and would work with Helen Humes and Sarah Vaughan among others.
As an educator he has taught at Paterson State College since 1982, participated in the Jazzmobile program for over twenty years, and has fostered music in public schools. Pianist Norman Simmons’ arrangement of Ramsey Lewis’ 1966 hit of “Wade In The Water” became a large commercial success, he was a member of the Ellington Legacy Band beginning in 2002 and he currently continues to perform, compose and arrange.
More Posts: piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jean-Luc Ponty was born September 29, 1942 in Avranches, France to parents who taught and played violin, piano and clarinet. At sixteen, he was admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, graduating two years later with the institution’s highest award, Premier Prix. He was immediately hired by one of the major symphony orchestras, Concerts Lamoureux, where he played for three years.
While still a member of the orchestra in Paris, Ponty picked up a side gig playing clarinet for a college jazz band that regularly performed at local parties. This life-changing jumping-off point sparked an interest in the jazz sounds of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, compelling him to take up the tenor saxophone. After a night in a local club with his violin it only took four years to be widely accepted as the leading figure in jazz fiddle.
Adopting the electric violin was at first proved to be a handicap as few at the time viewed the instrument as having no legitimate place in the modern jazz vocabulary. With a powerful sound that eschewed vibrato, Jean-Luc distinguished himself with be-bop era phrasings and a punchy style, that by 1964, at age 22, he released his debut solo album for Philips, Jazz Long Playing. He would go on to record with violin greats like Stephane Grappelli and Stuff Smith, perform at Monterey in 1967 with John Lewis, snag a recording contract and work with Gerald Wilson Big Band, the George Duke Trio and Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson.
In 1969, Frank Zappa composed the music for Jean-Luc’s solo album King Kong; in 1972 Elton John collaborated with Ponty on Honky Chateau, and within a year emigrated to America, making his home in Los Angeles, California. He worked with John McLaughlin Mahavishnu Orchestra, and in 1975 signed with Atlantic Records. For the next decade, Jean-Luc toured the world repeatedly and recorded 12 consecutive albums which all reached the top 5 on the Billboard Jazz charts.
Over the course of his prolific career, violinist Jena-Luc Ponty has performed with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Radio City Orchestra, with symphonies around the world, Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke, a host of American and African musicians, collaborated with his pianist daughter Clara on several project, joined the 4th incarnation of Return To Forever in 2011 and continues perform, tour and record, adding to his more than four dozen album catalogue.
More Posts: violin