Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Joseph Smith was born August 13, 1938 in Tiline, Kentucky. At the age of 6 years, he gave his first concert of original solo piano music in Nashville, Tennessee. After serving in the United States Navy, he studied electro-acoustic music, moving between Boston, Massachusetts and New York City. He became involved with the New England Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School and developed a philosophy and notation form of his original music, titled Geomusic, and composed works with this method for various chamber groups, solo piano, and symphony orchestra.
Embarking on his first European concert tour in 1970, he completed his initial recordings in Italy and developed an interest in Jazz and improvisation. Moving to Paris, France in 1972 he had several concert tours and recordings in Western Europe and America with Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton and others. In 1975 he began recording various albums in Europe and America and toured, mostly solo, Italy, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Western Europe, South America and Scandinavia over the next year. 1977 saw Michael admitted to the Swedish Composers Society andtwo years later he became a member of the International Society for Contemporary Music.
A return to the United States landed a composer-in-residence in Atlanta, Georgia and completed three ballet projects, has been awarded numerous cultural prizes and stipends in Europe and Scandinavia, and has composed scores for films, television projects, and music for 10 major ballet works.
He has lectured in Atlanta, Boston, Massachusetts, Brunswick, Maine and in Beijing and Xian, China. He has founded three music corporations and has been inducted in the Royal Swedish Academy of Music’s Swedish Musical Heritage project as a “living musical heritage” of Sweden. Pianist and composer Michael Smith, who has released 55 recordings of original compositions in 17 countries and has three film portraits of his life, continues to remain active.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jef Gilson was born on July 25, 1926 as Jean~François Quiévreux in Guebwiller, France. As a clarinetist he began playing with Claude Luter in the Boris Vian band. After that stint he switched to the piano. The experience of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band led him to become an arranger and big band leader. In his band played, among others Bill Coleman, Bernard Vitet, Jean-Louis Chautemps, François Jeanneau, Michel Portal, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bernard Lubat, Lloyd Miller and Henri Texier.
For a time he was musical director of the vocal sextet Les Double Six. Gilson’s free jazz recordings did not materialize into success, and in 1968 he temporarily went to Madagascar. His 1971 return saw him concentrating first on ethno jazz, then total improvisation. In 1973 he founded his label Palm, and released recordings with his orchestra Europamerica, and with Butch Morris. For this more arranged record, which started reflecting his achievements of free jazz, he was awarded the 1978 Prix Boris Vian.
Up to his final days he lived withdrawn in Ardèche, France. Pianist, arranger, composer and big band leader Jef Gilson passed away on February 5, 2012.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rodrigo Amado was born in Lisbon, Portugal on July 15, 1964 and began studying the sax at the age of 17, briefly at the Hot Club Music School of Lisbon and with mentors Carlos Martins, Pedro Madaleno, and Jorge Reis.
With diverse musical interests, he explored improvisation in other genres, including his work with his various ensembles like the Lisbon Improvisation Players and the Motion Trio with Miguel Mira and Gabriel Ferrandini. He is an in~demand studio player on numerous recorded projects.
He started his own label Clean Feed in 2001, with brothers Pedro and Carlos Costa, before leaving the imprint in 2005 to start a second label, European Echoes. Also an accomplished professional photographer, Amado continues to be a bright light on the Portuguese and international improvisational jazz scene.
Saxophonist Rodrigo Amado continues to specialize in free-form, composition-in-the-moment jazz, and his various projects and trios have given him an international following.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Travis Sullivan was born in 1971 in New York City and founded his 18 piece genre bending jazz orchestra Björkestra in New York City in 2004. Led by the alto saxophonist, musical arrangements are by Sullivan, Kevin Schmidt, and Kelly Pratt. The Björkestra performs the music of eclectic musician Björk.
Since its debut at the Knitting Factory in New York City, the group has performed around the country. In 2007 Sullivan conducted his arrangements with the Sicilian Jazz Orchestra in Palermo, Sicily.
Members of the orchestra, that includes vocalist Becca Stevens, have performed with Arcade Fire, Dr. Dre, Charlie Hunter, Avishai Cohen, Ana Cohen, Jane Monheit, Clark Terry, Rachel Z, Phil Woods, The Spam All Stars, Maria Schneider, and the Saturday Night Live Band, as well as, with Donny McCaslin, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Ben Monder.
His project Altois: The Masters Of Alto Sax interprets the music of the most influential alto saxophonists of the bebop era. Alto saxophonist, pianist, composer and arranger Travis Sullivan continues to further his exploration of jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jamaaladeen Tacuma was born Rudy McDaniel on June 11, 1956 in Hempstead, New York. Raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania he showed interest in music at a young age, taking up the electric bass and performing with the organist Charles Earland in his teens.
Through Earland, he came to know the record producer Reggie Lucas, who introduced Jamaaladeen to Ornette Coleman in 1975 at age 19. As the electric bassist for Coleman’s funky harmolodic Prime Time group, he rose to prominence quickly. During the 1980s he was playing a Steinberger bass that helped him create his readily identifiable sound.
His work with Prime Time got him an appearance with the band on Saturday Night Live in 1979. He went on to work with James “Blood” Ulmer, Walt Dickerson, Chuck Hammer, David Murray, and collaborated with The Golden Palominos in 1983. Tacuma recorded his first solo album as a leader, Show Stopper, that same year.
During the 1980s Jamaaladeen started to perform in a relatively straightforward funk/R&B setting with his group Cosmetic. He received the highest number of votes ever for an electric bassist in the “talent deserving wider recognition” category of the Down Beat magazine critics poll.
Though maintaining a low profile since the early 1990s, he has remained active but has maintained a lower profile. He has made numerous solo and collaborative recordings, returning to the jazz spotlight with an appearance on the World Saxophone Quartet’s Political Blues.
In 2007, he joined with Grant Calvin Weston and guitarist Vernon Reidto form the power trio Free Form Funky Freqs. He recorded two albums with Basso Nouveau. He has received numerous awards and fellowships and since 2015 he has presented the annual Outsiders Improvised & Creative Music Festival in Philadelphia. Bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma continues to tour, produce and record worldwide.
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