Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pekka Eerik Juhani Sarmanto was born February 15, 1945 in Helsinki, finland. He first studied classical violin at the Sibelius Academy from 1958 to 1964 before switching to upright bass. He initially played dance music but was soon invited to perform in jazz clubs by bandleaders like Eero Koivistoinen and Esa Pethman.
1967 saw him joining the house band of Down Beat Club where he played with musicians like Ben Webster and Dexter Gordon. In 1975 Sarmanto founded UMO, abbreviation of Uuden Musiikin Orkesteri, (New Music Orchestra) and the group accompanied many international jazz musicians visiting Finland. As a result Pekka was able to meet and play with Charles Mingus in Belgrade, Serbia; Gil Evans, Edward Vesala and Sonny Rollins.
Sarmanto received the Georgie Award of the Finnish Jazz Federation in 1978. In 1982 he worked on the album To a Finland Station with Dizzy Gillespie and Arturo Sandoval, released on the Pablo label in 1983. He considers this to be his most successful recording.
In 1996 the bassist founded the Pekka Sarmanto Trio and in 2007 he retired from UMO but he still keeps performing actively with different groups, including with his own trio..
More Posts: bandleader,bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fred Staton was born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His musical life began with his mother’s player piano and 78 records of Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson. He began singing in his church’s gospel choir, but got introduced to playing jazz when the group’s sponsor brought in a full band’s worth of equipment, complete with charts of popular music. He first picked up the drums but having to pack up his kit left few women to flirt with as his bandmates left after the gig. This and the influence of a Johnny Hodges cut on an Ellington big band record inspired him to choose the saxophone.
He played in the first ensemble Art Blakey ever formed, alongside pianist Erroll Garner. The lack of opportunity and venues for a young black man in segregated Pittsburgh led Staton to leave the Steel City and find his fortune gigging on the East Coast. He fell in with Horace Silver and watched fellow Westinghouse High School graduates Billy Strayhorn and Ahmad Jamal pen iconic compositions.
Staton went on to become a veteran member of the Harlem Blues & Jazz Band, and toured Europe, Russia and the United States to much acclaim. He has received numerous honors and awards, and was a lifetime member and supporter of WBGO Radio. Tenor saxophonist Fred Staton continued to play jazz until his death at 102 years of age on October 25, 2017.
More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ernst “Nesti” Landl was born February 12, 1914 in Vienna, Austria. He studied at the New Vienna Conservatory in the 1930s and soon made a name for himself on the Viennese music scene.
In Vienna he accompanied the singer Adelaide Hall and was soon active as a musician in North Africa and Portugal. From 1943 he played in the Steffl Diele with Italian singer and guitarist Vittorio Ducchini, violinist Herbert Mytteis and French drummer Arthur Motta. Due to the audience response, recordings were made for Odeon, but due to the ” jazz focus ” there were initially almost no releases.
After the defeat of National Socialism he played in the Vienna Dance Orchestra and also founded the Hot Club Vienna as a studio band to record jazz songs for Elite Special with musicians such as Hans Koller and Viktor Plasil. Until 1958 Landl performed in Vienna mainly as a bar pianist . He then moved to Stockholm, Sweden where he worked until his death.
Pianist, bassist and drummer Ernst Landl died on December 4, 1983 in Stockholm.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louiz Banks was born Dambar Bahadur Budaprithi to Nepali parents on February 11, 1941 in Calcutta, West Bengal, British India and grew up in his hometown of Darjeeling. His early music education was at the hands of his father, a trumpeter, and his neighbour Mrs. Myers. He did his schooling at St. Roberts School, Darjeeling and around age thirteen he became interested in western music and he started playing the guitar and the trumpet. His father gave him piano lessons and played in his band. He went to college at St. Joseph’s College in Darjeeling, where he continued to study piano.
After college Banks moved to Kathmandu, Nepal with his father’s band and decided to become a full-time musician, it was there he discovered jazz music. In the late 1960s he had a three year residency at the Soaltee Hotel in Kathmandu. Moving back to Calcutta in 1971 he met singer Pam Craine and saxophonist Braz Gonsalves and formed The Louis Banks Brotherhood. They played hotel rooms and night clubs and he got work composing advertisement jingles and stage musicals.
In 1977 Louiz was in Mumbai with the R.D. Burman troupe and got introduced to world music. Popularizing live jazz he cemented his place and reputation in the city. Two years later along with Goan saxophonist Braz Gonsalves he formed the Indo-Jazz Ensemble, composing music on Indian classical scales and Jazz rhythms, incorporating Indian instruments like ghatam and thavil. In 1980, he was a member of the jazz quartet which was part of the orchestra to perform with Ravi Shankar in his noted suite Jazzmine at the ‘Jazz Yatra’ Festival.
He would go on to form several groups with vocalists, tabla and sitar. In addition he has composed music for several short films. He has performed at various concerts and with well-known jazz artists such as Radha Thomas and Joe Alvares. He worked on a progressive fusion jazz album titled Labyrinth with his son’s band Nexus.
He collaborated as co-producer, arranger and pianist and keyboards on the album Miles From India, a tribute to the founder of modern jazz Miles Davis was nominated for the 2008 Grammy Awards in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category. In the same category, John McLaughlin’s fusion album Floating Point was also nominated, Banks was the featured keyboardist on the album.
Keyboardist, singer, film composer, record producer Louiz Banks, who has often been acknowledged as the Godfather of Indian Jazz, continues to perform, compose and produce.
More Posts: composer,history,instrumental,jazz,keyboard,music,piano,producer
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Terry Vosbein was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 8, 1957. He received his Masters in Composition from James Madison University and his Doctorate in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has composed works for orchestra, wind ensembles, chamber ensembles and choirs. He has written works for jazz bands of all sizes and his compositions have been performed all over the world.
His latest release with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra is titled Fleet Street and is infused with a sense of humor, adding a special dimension that is too often missing in contemporary big band writing. His 2009 Progressive Jazz album also with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra has garnered critical acclaim.
He has been awarded seven residencies and a fellowship at University College in Oxford, where he composed Masque for Cello and Orchestra. Terry also teaches music composition at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
For over twenty-five years Vosbein was an active jazz bassist and arranger, performing and arranging for a variety of ensembles, including the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Atlanta Pops. He has performed in a wide range of genres from country western twang to big band swing, disco and country club wallpaper, and continues to play a never ending assortment of jazz combos and studio sessions.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,bass,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music