Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Terence Oliver Blanchard was born March 13, 1962 in New Orleans, Louisiana and began playing piano at the age of five and then the trumpet at age eight.  He played trumpet recreationally alongside childhood friend Wynton Marsalis in summer music camps but showed no real proficiency on the instrument. While in high school, he began studying at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and then studied at Rutgers, toured with Lionel Hampton, joined Art Blakey and became the Messenger’s music director.

While playing with Blakey, Blanchard rose to prominence as a key figure in the 1980s Jazz Resurgence as a co-leader of a quintet with saxophonist Donald Harrison and pianist Mulgrew Miller, The Harrison/Blanchard group recorded five albums from 1984-1988 until Blanchard left to pursue a solo career in 1990 and recorded his self-titled debut for Columbia Records.

He scored and performed on every Spike Lee movie soundtracks, including his 4-hour HBO Hurricane Katrina documentary “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts” and the soundtrack for “Red Tails”. Composing for other directors, with over forty scores to his credit Blanchard is the most prolific jazz musician to ever compose for movies.

Terence has recorded eighteen albums, been nominated for twelve times and won five Grammy Awards, has won Soul Train Music Award, an Emmy and Golden Globe among others. On the short list his collaborations include Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Gary Bartz, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash and McCoy Tyner.

Composer, educator and trumpeter Terence Blanchard is the artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California. All the while, he has remained true to his jazz roots as a trumpeter and bandleader on the performance circuit.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Chauncey Morehouse was born on March 11, 1902 in Niagara Falls, New York and was raised in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania where he learned and played drums from an early age. He also played piano and banjo and while in high school led a group called the Versatile Five. He landed a job with Paul Specht’s orchestra in 1922, touring with him through Europe in 1923.

Through the Roaring Twenties Chauncey played with The Georgians, Jean Goldkette, Adrian Rollini and Don Voorhees. He recorded with Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, The Dorsey Brothers, Joe Venuti and many others.

By 1929 Morehouse was active for the next decade chiefly as a studio musician, working in radio and television in and around New York City. In 1938, he put together his own percussion ensemble which played percussion tuned chromatically.

Morehouse invented a set of drums called the N’Goma drums, which were made by the Leedy Drum Company who endorsed Morehouse during his career. His career in the studios continued into the 1970s when he retired from studio work and began playing jazz again, mostly at festivals.

In his later years Morehouse made appearances at Carnegie Hall for the Tribute to Bix concert for the Newport Jazz Festival, and at one of the early Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festivals in Davenport, Iowa. Chauncey Morehouse passed away on October 31, 1980 in Medford, New Jersey, aged 78.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charles Tolliver was born on March 6, 1942 in Jacksonville, Florida and while still a child received his first trumpet from his grandmother. He attended Howard University in the early Sixties as a pharmacy student, but when he decided to pursue music as a career he moved to New York City.

Coming to prominence in 1964, playing and recording on Jackie McLean’s Blue Note albums, seven years later he and Stanley Cowell founded Strata-East Records. The label was one of the pioneer jazz artist-owned and Tolliver released many albums and collaborations as a leader.

Following a long hiatus, he reemerged in the late 2000 decade, releasing two albums arranged for big band “With Love” that was nominated in 2007 for a Grammy award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and “Emperor March: Live at the Blue Note” in 2009.

He has recorded with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Paul Chambers, Gary Bartz, Cecil McBee, Jimmy Hopps, Alvin Queen, Jon Faddis, Charles McPherson, Reggie Workman, John Hicks, Billy Harper, Robert Glasper, Max roach, Horace Silver and McCoy Tyner to name a few.

Hard bop, post bop, modern big band, trumpeter Charles Tolliver continues to be a force in the jazz idiom.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Harold Jones was born on February 27, 1940 in Richmond, Indiana. His early professional years were spent drumming with the Count Basie Orchestra and over a five year span recorded fifteen albums before moving on to work with Sarah Vaughan. He toured the world with her, playing the White House five time. Natalie Cole enlisted him on her landmark album “Unforgettable” and subsequent tour.

He has played with such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Roger Williams, Nancy Wilson and Tony Bennett to Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Smith, Donald Byrd and Benny Goodman to Marlena Shaw, Billy Eckstine, Kay Starr, Carmen McRae and John Lee Hooker on the short list.

As an educator, Jones has held a position on the staff for the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of California in Los Angeles and leads drumming workshops at colleges and universities throughout the country.

He has performed on the Quincy Jones CD, “Count Basie and Beyond,” fronts his own 17-piece big band, The Bossmen, bringing the Basie swing style back by playing for community events and corporate occasions.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Rex Stewart was born on February 22, 1907 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and learned to play the cornet. He developed a half-valving technique that created quartertones that Duke Ellington would later showcase along with his muted sound and forceful style.

After stints with Elmer Snowden, Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, the McKinney’s Cotton Pickers and Luis Russell, he joined the Ellington band in 1934, replacing Freddie Jenkins.

Stewart co-wrote “Boy Meets Horn” and “Morning Glory” while with Ellington, and frequently supervised outside recording sessions by members of the Ellington band. After eleven years Stewart left to lead his own little swing bands, that were a perfect setting for his solo playing.

He also toured Europe and Australia with Jazz At The Philharmonic from 1947 to 1951. From the early 1950s on he worked in radio and television and published highly regarded jazz criticism. The book Jazz Masters of the Thirties is a selection of his criticism.

Cornetist Rex Stewart passed away on September 7, 1967.

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