Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jared Ribble was born in Neenah, Wisconsin on May 2, 1979. Growing up in small town America proved the right landscape to cultivate a desire to play drums. His parents bought him his first drum set when he was nine and gave him weekly private lessons through high school graduation.

He went on to attend Belmont University-Nashville, Tennessee and graduated in 2001 where he studied Commercial Music-Percussion Performance, along with private instruction. Ribble went on to perform with trumpeter Phil Driscoll, Broadway artist Jonathan Pierce, singer/songwriter Byron Keith, Denver Bierman, lead singer and founder of Denver and the Mile High Orchestra.

Jared tours and records with the contemporary big band, Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. Holding down an extensive recording schedule in his On Digital Ground recording studio with the On Digital Ground Studio House Band. He composes for the music group Storyteller, and frequently plays on the worship team of Grace Pointe-Nashville.

He is also Vice-President of Reel Loud Records asked Jared to come on their executive staff as Vice-President. In this role he helps find, and promote the recording careers of innovative and talented artists.

Drummer Jared Ribble continues to move forward his career in touring, recording and business.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Andrea Ventriglia was born in Capua, Italy on April 29, 1953 and studied the saxophone with the masters Franco Florio in Salerno and Eraclio Sallustio at the GB Martini Conservatory in Bologna, Italy. He later studied the flute with Aldo Ferrantini.

His professional career began while he was still a music student around the end of the 1960s, following the rhythm & blues and soul of James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Joe Cocker in fashion at that time and still today. At a very young age he was part of the best and

As a soldier Andrea was part of the National Band of the Italian Army. He moved to Verona, Italy in the mid 1970s and began playing in small bands in night clubs. He was invited to join the Big Band Citta’ di Verona directed by Maestro Mario Pezzotta, in the first tenor saxophone. At the same time he performed in Fernando Brusco’s small orchestra as an arranger and saxophonist.

Moving to the United States he initially played in small bands that performed on cruise ships where he met among others Count Basie, Mercer Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Harry James and Bob Crosby. Settling first in San Francisco, then in Los Angeles, California he played on the road with small bands collaborating with Harry James and Bob Crosby in the latter city.

Back in Italy he gained membership into Franco Rosselli’s orchestra and did the night club circuit in Florence, San Remo and Riviera Romagnola. Leaving Roselli he toured with Bobby Solo throughout Italy. His passion for jazz and big band led him to the Luciano Fineschi Orchestra, again sitting in the first tenor saxophone and flute chair.

After the orchestra disbanded Ventriglia went on to play in other big bands, duos, artistic partnerships, and guest appearances. For a decade he was a professor of saxophone at the Giuseppe Martucci Music High School in his hometown. He trained musicians currently working with famous artists or with their own groups and some of whom practice the profession of musician in the USA.

By the Eighties the public became more sensitive towards jazz, so Andrea led quartets performing in various Italian jazz clubs. that sprung up a bit everywhere in Italy. During his career and for professional reasons, saxophonist and flutist Andrea Ventriglia has performed on nearly every continent and continues to perform, tour and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Ewing Lee was born April 28, 1896 in Boonville, Missouri, and was the older brother of pianist and singer Julia Lee. They performed with their father’s string trio at neighborhood house parties and church socials. He played in a band while serving in the Army in 1917, and following this period, he sang in a vocal quartet.

In 1920 he formed and led George E. Lee Novelty Singing Orchestra and with his sister as one of the group’s members, he was a regular performer at Lyric Hall in Kansas City, Missouri through much of the 1920s.

Though he played many instruments, singing was his forte and he had a powerful voice and a penchant for ballads and novelty songs. Through the 1920s no group in Kansas City could compete vocally with the Lee Orchestra.

In 1927 they recorded as an octet with Jesse Stone on piano, for Meritt Records. Among the tunes was Down Home Syncopated Blues, and was the earliest recording of Julia Lee’s voice. They recorded six tunes for Brunswick in 1929.

In 1933, his group was absorbed into the Bennie Moten Orchestra. By 1935 he continued to perform with smaller ensembles through the decade. In 1937, at a resort in the Ozarks, Lee fronted a small group that included 17 year-old saxophonist Charlie Parker. Two years later he struck out on his own again, moved to Jackson, Michigan in 1940 and retired from music in 1941. He began

By the 1940s, he moved to San Diego, California. Vocalist and bandleader George E. Lee, who was sometimes billed as the Cab Calloway of the Middle West, died on October 2, 1958.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bernard Sylvester Addison was born on April 15, 1905 in Annapolis, Maryland. At an early age, he learned mandolin and violin, and after moving to Washington, D.C. in 1920 he played banjo, initially with Claude Hopkins.

Moving to New York City he worked with Sonny Thompson and recorded for the first time in 1924. During the 1920s, he dropped the banjo for the acoustic guitar. The 1920s and 1930s saw Bernard playing with Louis Armstrong, Adelaide Hall, Fletcher Henderson, Bubber Miley, Art Tatum, and Fats Waller. Addison recorded with Red Allen, Coleman Hawkins, Horace Henderson, Freddie Jenkins, Sara Martin, Jelly Roll Morton, and Mamie Smith.

In 1936, John Mills of the Mills Brothers died, and Addison replaced him on guitar. For two years he toured and recorded with the Mills Brothers, increasing his popularity. After departing the Mills Brothers, he had little trouble finding work. He went on to record with Benny Carter and Mezz Mezzrow.

He played with Stuff Smith and recorded with Billie Holiday. In 1940, he recorded with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. He began to lead bands until he was drafted during World War II. In the late 1950s, he reunited with Henderson and played guitar for the Ink Spots. He performed at the Newport Jazz Festival with Eubie Blake in 1960 and recorded a solo album as a leader, Pete’s Last Date, and unfortunately was reissued under the name of saxophonist Pete Brown.

Guitarist Bernard Addison, who spent the remaining thirty years of his career teaching, died on December 18, 1990 at 85 in Rockville Centre, New York.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Greg Fugal was born on April 14, 1991 and started playing when he was twelve, receiving a zephyr saxophone from his great aunt. He began on alto then eventually played on all three saxophones.

He initially learned the classical genre but was introduced to jazz in his junior high years. Fugal became involved in a band that was organized outside of high school and called themselves the Rum House Jazz Mafia or R.H.J.M. as a baritone player in that band.

Having moved several times Greg played at three different high schools. Those schools being Uintah, Lehi, and Westlake high school, all based in Utah. During his senior year he was first chair and section leader and was rewarded the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award.

Graduated from Westlake High School in 2010, saxophonist Greg Fugal now plays for The Utah Valley University Jazz Band.

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