Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael DiPasqua was born May 4, 1953 born in Orlando, Florida into a highly musical family. He began his professional career very early, gigging as a drummer with a band co-led by Zoot Sims and Al Cohn while still in his mid-teens.
During the next few years DiPasqua played with Don Elliott and Gerry Mulligan, and also accompanied singers Jackie Cain and Roy Kral. Towards the end of the 70s, the drummer was for a number of years co-leader of Double Image, a vibraharp, marimba and bass quartet that toured internationally.
Michael then co-led Gallery and followed that with a spell in Later That Evening, a band led by Eberhard Weber, before joining Jan Garbarek. He was a consistently inventive percussionist with the ability to comfortably co-exist in a range of musical styles, from the modern end of the mainstream through jazz rock to the cutting edge of improvisational music.
He recorded three albums as a leader with his debut on the Inner City label in 1977. He went on to record as a sideman with Jan Garbarek for two albums, three with Eberhard Weber, and one each with Adelhard Roidinger and Robert Towner all for ECM. On a variety of other labels he recorded with Siegfried Fietz, Volker Kriegel, Marian McPartland, and Gerry Mulligan.
Beyond jazz, Michael was locally known for his role in helping to develop over 300 Subway Sandwich Shops in Central Florida, as well as co-founding PCMD Management Company, which owns and operates over 40 Subway franchises.
Cool jazz drummer and percussionist Michael DiPasqua lost his battle with cancer on August 29, 2016. He was 63.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don Ferrara was born on March 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York and began playing trumpet at the age of ten, avidly listening to jazz and swing era giants on both radio and records. Roy Eldridge became and remained his single most important influence on his playing. In 1945 he had a brief stint with Jerry Wald’s band, then moved over to George Auld.
Enlisting in the Army in mid-1946, during this time he played in a band with bassist Red Mitchell, drummer Howie Mann and met Warne Marsh. It was through him that he became interested in the work of Lennie Tristano. After his discharge he began studying with Tristano, something he continued to do until the 1960s. During this same period, Don taught and played in the big band assembled by Gene Roland for a Charlie Parker recording session, though he missed the recording session because of a date clash. He then joined Woody Herman’s Third Herd. After a year he returned to New York where he gigged and taught and continued his own studies with Tristano.
In the mid-1950s New York he played and sometimes recorded with various bands, including those of Lee Konitz and Gerry Mulligan. In the early Sixties Ferrara played a regular engagement with Tristano at New York’s Half Note Club and during the rest of the decade continued with his teaching. The early 70s, had him relocating to the west coast and joining Gary Foster’s teaching studio. He continued to live and teach in California through to the 90s, most of his teaching work being conducted at long range through audio cassettes.
Trumpeter Don Ferrara, who was also a skilled and highly individual soloist, died on January 18, 2011 in San Diego, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jan Verwey was born on February 24, 1936 in Vlissingen, The Netherlands. A self-taught harpist, he created his own style on this characteristic instrument. He is the only one who plays octaves on the harmonica.
Very much a bebopper and his unique self-developed instrumental technique, he boldly brings about his desired harmony and melody to his solo’s. During his first visit to the United States in 1990 he was immediately rushed into the recording studio by producer Bill Goodwin, Phil Woods drummer, to record The Dutch Connection which led to a performance at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands.
In 1991 he was back in the States being the only European invited to play at the festival Celebration Of The Arts in Watergap, as a soloist. He also gave a duo concert with pianist Hod O’brien who recorded with Chet Baker at The Dearhead Inn. In 2007 he was playing at festivals in Medicine Hat and Calgary in Canada. He has toured Europe, playing in Copenhagen, Denmark as well as Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Rhede and Darmstadt in Germany.
He has a nomination for the Pall Mall Export Award, was a guest soloist with the Metropole Orchestra, in addition to guest performances on television- and radio shows. As a composer he has written for television series, documentaries and commercials.
He has recorded eight albums as a leader with his last being his 2019 The Music of Horace Silver. Harmonica player Jan Verwey, who plays bebop and cool jazz, continues to perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Owen Mackay was born on March 24, 1932 in Syracuse, New York. He attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut from 1950 to 1954, where he was the first blind student to graduate. He then attended Boston University from 1956 to 1958, where he studied with Margaret Charloff. He also studied with Lennie Tristano in New York City, then at the Lenox School of Jazz where he studied with Bill Evans, and lastly at The Hartford School of Music where he studied with Asher Zlotnik.
By the mid-1960s, Mackay joined the Hindustani Jazz Sextet with Don Ellis, Harihar Rao, Emil Richards, Steve Bohannon, Chuck Domanico and Ray Neapolitan. During this period he played with the Don Ellis Orchestra. The late Sixties saw him and Vicky Hamilton formed a duo and produced two recordings together with instrumentation including flute and saxes from Ira Schulman and guitar from Joe Pass.
In the mid-1970s, Dave along with Bill Henderson, and Joyce Collins formed a unique trio which toured the northwest, recorded two Grammy nominated albums for Discovery, and by 1981 they were performing on the television show Ad Lib. By the end of the decade with Lori Bell, and Ron Satterfield he formed the group Interplay, which garnered them four Grammy npominations. In the 1990s, he teamed up with Stephanie Haynes.
By the turn of the century he teamed with John Giannelli on bass and Joe Correro on drums performing Bill Evans tunes in a celebration of the Life and Music of bassist Scott LaFaro. He then hooked up with bassist Kenny Wild and singer Tierney Sutton. He would go on to perform with Serge Chaloff, Sonny Stitt, Bob Wilber, Bobby Hackett, Jim Hall, Don Ellis, Emil Richards, Shelly Manne, Chet Baker, Joe Pass, Warne Marsh, Kai Winding, Stephanie Haynes, and Tierney Sutton.
As a composer a couple of Mackay’s original compositions were later recorded by Cal Tjader, and by the Baja Marimba Band. He wrote a majority of the music with lyricist Barbara Schill for a hit stage musical comedy titled Is It Just Me, Or Is It Hot In Here?
Pianist, vocalist and composer Dave Mackay, with roots in the works of Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans, who favored the standards of the 1940s and 1950s and the bossa novas of Luíz Eça, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and João Gilberto, transitioned on July 29, 2020.
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Daily Dose OF Jazz…
Mark Kramer was born November 3, 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His prelimonary tutelage came from members of the Philadelphia Orchestra who mentored him on violin from the age of five. His early jazz performances in his teens and twenties included Michael and Randy Brecker, Charles Fambrough, Stanley Clarke, and Eric Gravatt.
Over the next decades his trio went on to record a series of specialty productions including the largest known body of jazz renditions of complete Broadway shows, jazz versions of principal themes from the John Williams score of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and a compilation of jazz renditions of the music of The Rolling Stones.
Kramer has mainly been an arranger and leader of his own trios throughout his career. His numerous recordings/productions are often listed under The Mark Kramer Trio. Many works from the late Eighties with bassist Eddie Gómez are listed under Eddie Gómez and Mark Kramer or simply Eddie Gómez.
A far-ranging catalog of duo and trio recordings included the Art of the Heart on Art of Life Records. Pianist, composer, arranger, and producer/engineer Mark Kramer continues to pursue his creativity in music.
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