Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Warren Smith was born on May 14, 1934 in Chicago, Illinois, to a musical family. His father played saxophone and clarinet with Noble Sissle and Jimmie Noone, and his mother was a harpist and pianist. At the age of four he studied clarinet with his father. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1957, then received a master’s degree in percussion from the Manhattan School of Music in 1958.
One of his earliest major recording dates was with Miles Davis as a vibraphonist in 1957. In 1958 Warren found work in Broadway pit bands and also played with Gil Evans. In 1961 he co-founded the Composers Workshop Ensemble. In the 1960s Smith accompanied Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Lloyd Price, and Nat King Cole; he worked with Sam Rivers from 1964–76 and with Gil Evans again from 1968 to 1976.
In 1969 he played with Janis Joplin and in 1971 with King Curtis and Tony Williams. He was also a founding member of Max Roach’s percussion ensemble, M’Boom, in 1970.
In the 1970s and 1980s Smith had a loft called Studio Wis that acted as a performing and recording space for many young New York jazz musicians, such as Wadada Leo Smith and Oliver Lake. Through the 1970s Smith played with Andrew White, Julius Hemphill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Nancy Wilson, Quincy Jones, Count Basie, and Carmen McRae. Other credits include extensive work with rock and pop musicians and time spent with Anthony Braxton, Charles Mingus, Henry Threadgill, Van Morrison, and Joe Zawinul.
He continued to work on Broadway well into the 1990s, and has performed with a number of classical ensembles. Smith taught in the New York City public school system from 1958 to 1968, at Third Street Settlement from 1960 to 1967, at Adelphi University in 1970–71, and at SUNY-Old Westbury from 1971. He remains connected to the music at 87.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Mover was born March 22, 1952 in Boston, Massachusetts into a musical family as his father played professionally with among others the Charlie Spivak Orchestra. Starting on the alto saxophone at age 13, he studied with Phil Woods at a summer music camp and took private lessons with Ira Sullivan.
In 1973, at the age of 21, Mover was a sideman for Charles Mingus for a five-month period at New York City’s 5 Spot Café. By 1975 he was working regularly in New York City jazz clubs with Chet Baker and he made his first European appearances with Baker at La Grande Parade du Jazz in Nice, France, Jazz Festival Laren in the Netherlands, and the Middelheim Jazz Festival in Antwerp, Belgium.
By late 1975, Bob started leading his own groups around the New York area and made his first two albums as a leader for Choice and Vanguard in 1976 and 1977 respectively: On the Move (Choice) and Bob Mover (Vanguard). Weekly gigs at the Sweet Basil in Greenwich Village included Tom Harrell, Jimmy Garrison, Kenny Barron, Albert Dailey, Ben Riley, Mike Nock, and Ron McLure.
Reuniting with Chet Baker in 1981 for a European tour and landing in Germany they recorded Chet Baker Live at Club Salt Peanuts Koln, Volumes 1 and 2 for the Circle label. Mover recorded two more albums as a leader in 1981 and 1982, In the True Tradition and Things Unseen, both issued by Xanadu.
Moving to Montreal, Canada in 1983 he taught at Concordia University. Three years later he recorded his fifth album as leader, The Nightbathers, with pianist Paul Bley and guitarist John Abercrombie, which was an experiment in free improvisation. From 1987 to 1997, Mover lived in Toronto and toured Europe and with Don Thompson and Archie Alleyne, he helped found the Toronto Jazz Quartet. He accepted a teaching position at York University, giving saxophone master classes and teaching a course called Musicianship for Jazz Singers. Alto saxophonist, bandleader and educator Bob Mover has recorded ten albums as a leader, eight as a sideman and continues to perform, record and teach.
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Three Wishes
The inquiry of three wishes came from the Baroness to Paul Bley who told her:
- “To never hear another chord!”
- “To be driven home to Fourteenth Street and Eighth Avenue. Thank you very much! I’ll tell you my other wish next time I see you.”
- “To have God on your side.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Akira Sakata was born on February 21, 1945 in Hiroshima, Japan and first heard jazz on short-wave radio and Voice of America, then became more interested in it from listening to film soundtracks. His serious study of music began in high school where he played clarinet. He played alto sax in a jazz band when at Hiroshima University and trained as a marine biologist before moving to Tokyo, Japan in 1969.
From 1972 to 1979 Sakata was a member of the Yamashita Yosuke Trio and toured internationally with them. In 1986, he performed with the group Last Exit with Bill Laswell. This performance was released as The Noise of Trouble: Live in Tokyo. Laswell went on to play bass on and produce Sakata albums such as Mooko, Silent Plankton and Fisherman’s.com, the last of which also featured the reclusive Pete Cosey on guitar. He later worked with DJ Krush and Chikamorachi with Darin Gray and Chris Corsano.
His career nearly ended in 2002, when he had a brain haemorrhage and he had to relearn the saxophone, only to return to performing after three months, but still had some remaining restrictions years later. Akira is also a television and film actor, as well as being a writer.
Free jazz saxophonist Akira Sakata, who has recorded fifteen albums as a leader, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Blaise Siwula was born in Detroit, Michigan on February 19, 1950. Growing up in a working/middle-class black neighborhood. His next-door neighbor practiced saxophone in the afternoon and occasionally allowed him inside to watch him play. He began studying the alto sax at the age of 14, playing in the middle school concert band.
Hearing the John Coltrane album Om in 1969 compelled him to take up the tenor saxophone. He was also influenced by hearing Art Pepper in San Francisco, as well as Ornette Coleman, Sonny Stitt, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Blue Mitchell, Elvin Jones, and Miles Davis in live performances in Detroit in the 1970s. Cecil Taylor’s recordings with Jimmy Lyons were inspirational in a later period along with Ravi Shankar and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the Seventies.
At college on and off for an extended period from 1968 to 1980, he studied theory and composition at Wayne State University, and earned a BFA. His first personal encounter with jazz musicians came around 1971 while living in a hotel near the downtown campus like drummer Doc Watson. Moving to San Francisco, he started playing free improvised music in coffeehouses and writing poetry. After four years in Northern California, he returned to Detroit before heading for Europe in 1989. Working and traveling as a street musician for three months, then returning to the States and settling in New York City.
After periodic explorations of drama, poetry, architecture, and visual art, and quite unable to secure a recording contract initially, he recorded independently produced cassette tapes. He played with Amica Bunker, the Improvisers Collective, and the Citizens Ontological Music Agenda (COMA) series.
During the decade of the 2000s, Blaise composed music scores, played a number of saxophones, clarinets, flutes, percussion and string instruments, and computer-altered sound files as background for improvisation. His many collaborators have included Doug Walker’s Alien Planetscapes, Cecil Taylor’s Ptonagas, William Hooker’s ensembles, Judy Dunaway’s Balloon Trio, Dialing Privileges with Dom Minasi and John Bollinger, Ken Simon, Karen Borca, Jackson Krall, Tatsuya Nakatani, and William Parker, among others.
Avant-garde alto saxophonist, composer and bandleader Blaise Siwula, who has been a part of New York City’s underground jazz scene, continues to performa and record.
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