Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenny Wheeler was born Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler and came into this world on January 14, 1930, in Toronto, Canada. He began playing the cornet at the age of 12, becoming interested in jazz in his mid-teens. Spending a year at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, he moved to Britain in 1952 at the age of 22 and found his way into the jazz scene of London playing with Tommy White, Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott.
In the 60’s Wheeler worked with John Dankworth, recording “Windmill Tilter” which is now a collector’s item since the master tapes have been lost. He has also enjoyed being active in free improvisation creating orchestral writing with passages of free improvisation infused in the bi band album “Song For Someone” in 1973 named Album of the Year by Melody Maker magazine in 1975.
Kenny’s lists of recordings or performances are too vast but includes Paul Gonsalves, Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton, Keith Jarrett, Steve Coleman, John Taylor, and Lee Konitz among a host of other notables in jazz.
Highly respected among his peers for his beautiful tone and extensive range on the trumpet and flugelhorn, Wheeler has written over one hundred compositions and is a skilled arranger for small groups and larger ensembles. His compositions blend lyrical melodies with a distinctive and ever changing harmonic palette. He has occasionally contributed to rock music recordings, is the patron of the Royal Academy Junior Jazz course, has been based in the UK since 1950 and remained faithful to the jazz genres of avant-garde, post bop, chamber jazz and free improvisation until his passing on September 18, 2014 at age 84 in London, England.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cristian Amigo was born January 2, 1963 in Santiago, Chile. He emigrated with his family to the United States as a young child. At 12 years old, he began studying guitar seriously and two years later the family moved to Miami and began performing with a rock band he formed, Six Feet Under. He attended Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior School and while a student there taught classes in guitar to his peers. During high school he took courses in music theory, classical guitar and jazz at Miami-Dade Community College.
Amigo entered the music program at Florida State University at age 17, studied classical guitar, then enrolled in the University of Miami and became an active recording session player. His first recording session at age 17 was with Narada Michael Walden prior to moving to Los Angeles to continue his education studying jazz with Kenny Burrell and composition with Wadada Leo Smith, earning a doctorate in Ethnomusicology.
Cristian would go on to become a film composer, bandleader, music producer, jingle producer, concert producer and music teacher at Plaza de la Raza and others. He has performed in African, Arabic, funk, hard rock, free jazz, jazz, and reggae groups working with Hans Zimmer, Wadada Leo Smith, David Ornette Cherry and Carlos Hayre.
His awards include Guggenheim and Van Leir Fellowships, he has been produced by Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York Foundation for the Arts, American Composers Forum, Danish Arts Council among numerous others. Amigo moved to New York City from Los Angeles in 2003 and quickly established himself on the Latin music, free improv, “new music”, and theater scenes, and continues to perform, record and produce.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leo Smith was born Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith on December 18, 1941 in Leland, Mississippi. He started out playing drums, mellophone and French horn before he settled on the trumpet. He played in various R&B groups and by 1967 became a member of the AACM and co-founded the Creative Construction Company, a trio with Leroy Jenkins and Anthony Braxton. In 1971 he formed his own label, Kabell, formed another band, the New Dalta Ahkri, with members including Henry Threadgill, Anthony Davis and Oliver Lake.
In the Seventies, Smith studied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University and spent this time playing again with Anthony Braxton and recording with Derek Bailey’s Company. In the mid-1980s, Smith became Rastafarian and began using the name Wadada. In 1993, he began teaching at Cal Arts, a position he presently holds and has taught instrument making.
By 1998, Leo and guitarist Henry Kaiser released Yo, Miles! a tribute to Miles Davis’s lesser-known electric period. He has performed and/or recorded with Jack DeJohnette, Malachi Favors, John Zorn, Marion Brown, Frank Lowe and Matthew Shipp among others. In addition to playing the trumpet and flugelhorn, he plays several world music instruments, including the koto, kalimba and the ateneben.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Matthew Shipp was born December 7, 1960 in Wilmington, Delaware and began playing piano at six years old. Strongly attracted to jazz, he also played in rock groups while in high school, and then attended the University of Delaware for one year, then the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with saxophonist/composer Joe Marini.
Shipp has been very active since the early 1990s initially becoming most active in free jazz but branched out to explore music that touches on contemporary classical, hip hop and electronica. He has appeared on more than three dozens of albums as a leader, sideman or producer.
Matthew has long been a member of saxophonist David S. Ware’s quartet, has recorded or performed with William Parker, DJ Spooky, Joe Morris, Daniel Carter and Roscoe Mitchell among others.
Pianist Matthew Shipp continuously improves his repertoire from touring the world, writing new compositions and currently collaborating with multi-media artist Barbara Januszkiewicz, exploring new territory through an avant-garde film called “The Composer”.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Johnny Mbizo Dyani was born on November 30, 1945 in Duncan Village, a township of the South African city of East London. He started playing the piano and singing in a traditional choir at an early age. At 13, he switched to bass, but would use both voice and piano later on.
In the early 1960s, Dyani was a member of South Africa’s first integrated jazz band, “The Blue Notes”; however, in 1964 the band fled South Africa to seek musical and political freedom, rebelling against the apartheid regime that inhibited whites and blacks playing together.
In 1966, Dyani toured Argentina with Steve Lacy’s quartet and recorded. The Forest and the Zoo. He would later move to Denmark and Sweden, recording many albums under his own name. He recorded with Dollar Brand a.k.a. Abdullah Ibrahim, Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, David Murray, Mal Waldron, Don Moye and Brotherhood of Breath among many others.
In the 70s he formed the group “Earthquake Power” and then became very active on the European scene. His Witchdoctor’s Son band recorded for Steeplechase Records and he also recorded with Swedish and Brazilian musicians. Dyani’s main focus of playing entered around African jazz, avant-garde jazz and world fusion.
Double bassist and pianist Johnny Dyani passed away suddenly after a concert in Berlin on October 24, 1986 at age 40. After his death, the remaining members of The Blue Notes reunited to record a moving tribute album, titled Blue Notes For Johnny.
