Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Vincent Peter Colaiuta was born on February 5, 1956 in Brownsville, Pennsylvania and was given his first drum kit when he was seven. He took to it naturally, with little instruction. By fourteen, the school band teacher gave him a book that taught him some of the basics and Buddy Rich was his favorite drummer until he heard the album Ego by Tony Williams, an event that changed his life. He started listening to organ groups, notably Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff and Don Patterson.
While matriculating through Berklee College of Music in Boston , Massachusetts at the time jazz fusion was on the rise, he listened to and admired Alphonse Mouzon and Billy Cobham. After leaving school, he played local gigs in Boston, joined a brief tour organized by Al Kooper, then worked in California on an album by Christopher Morris.
Returning to Boston, Colaiuta was drawn back to California by friends and took the bus from Boston to Los Angeles during the blizzard of 1978. After performing in jazz clubs, he won the audition to play drums for Frank Zappa, with whom he toured and appeared on the albums Joe’s Garage, Tinsel Town Rebellion, and Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar.
In 1981, he left Zappa for the gig as a studio musician and recorded for the band Pages, Gino Vannelli, saxophonist Tom Scott, bassist Larry Klein, Joni Mitchell, touring with the latter. The late Eighties saw him as the house drummer for The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. The band was led by Mark Hudson and was called the Party Boys and the Tramp.
By the end of the 1980s back as a studio musician he was recording albums, doing TV and film work during the day, and playing clubs at night. He worked with jazz musicians Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Buell Neidlinger, and the Buddy Rich Big Band. The 1990s he was with Sting, and released his debut solo album as well as two more as a leader.
He has won over fifteen Drummer of the Year awards from Modern Drummer magazine’s annual reader polls. These include ten awards in the “Best Overall” category. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. Colaiuta has won one Grammy Award and has been nominated twice. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta continues to perform, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alphonso Johnson was born on February 2, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and started off as an upright bass player, but switched to the electric bass in his late teens. He began his career in the early 1970s, and showing innovation and fluidity on the electric bass he sessioned with a few jazz musicians before landing a job with Weather Report, taking over for co-founding member Miroslav Vitous.
His debut with Weather Report was on the album Mysterious Traveller, followed by two more albums in the Seventies: Tale Spinnin’ and Black Market before he left the band to work with drummer Billy Cobham. During 1976-77 Alphonso recorded three solo albums as a bandleader, for the Epic label, in a fusion-funk vein.
One of the first musicians to introduce the Chapman Stick to the public, in 1977, his knowledge of the instrument offered him a rehearsal with Genesis, who were looking for a replacement for guitarist Steve Hackett but being more of a bassist than a guitarist, Johnson instead recommended his friend ex-Sweetbottom guitarist and fellow session musician Daryl Stuermer. However, he was one of two bass players on Phil Collins’s first solo album, Face Value, in 1981.
He would work with Bob Weir on a couple of projects – Bobby & The Midnites and The Other Ones; reunite with Cobham in the band Jazz Is Dead, and Steve Hackett’s Genesis Revisited album as well as with Santana, Steve Kimock and Chet Baker. He toured Europe and Japan with saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist James Beard, drummer Rodney Holmes, and guitarist David Gilmore.
Earning a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education degree from California State University in 2014, as an undergrad he was a member of the CSUN Wind Ensemble. With extensive experience as a bass teacher he has conducted bass seminars and clinics in Germany, England, France, Scotland, Ireland, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil and Argentina.
Bassist Alphonso Johnson continues to perform while serving as an adjunct instructor at the University of Southern California and the California Institute of the Arts.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Keshav Sathe was born on January 31, 1928 in Bombay, India and began his professional career in 1951, working with a local Indian vocalist Kelkar. Moving to the United Kingdom in 1956 he joined the Asian Music Circle, a pool of London-based Indian musicians run by former political activist Ayana Deva Angadi. His first contact with jazz was in 1961 while working with Indian sitarist Bhaskar Chandavarkar and harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler.
In 1965 Sathe began his Indo Jazz Fusion performances and recordings with John Mayer and Joe Harriott, a musical relationship that lasted until 1970. In 1967 he was invited with his trio to join the trio of jazz pianist Irène Schweizer together with Barney Willen, Mani Neumeier, Uli Trepte and Manfred Schoof.
From 1970~73 he worked and toured with Julie Felix and Danny Thompson. Through Danny, in 1974, he joined the John Renbourn Group touring UK, Europe and the United States. They produced records, including A Maid in Bedlam, Enchanted Garden and Live in America.
In the 1980s, Sathe formed a group with Tony Roberts and dancer Shobhana Jeyasingh, touring the UK and Northern Ireland. With the singer Alisha Sufit and the group, he made the record Magic Carpet. From 1965 to 1993 he regularly accompanied the late singer/dancer Surya Kumari in recitals and teaching workshops. He appears on Suns of Arqa’s live album Musical Revue which was recorded in Manchester in 1982.
In addition, he has made numerous incidental recordings, worked for television, radio, and taught tabla until 2003. Tablaist Keshav Sathe, best known for his contributions to the Indo-jazz fusion genre, transitioned on January 18, 2012.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steven Mark Grossman was born on January 18, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York to Rosalind, an amateur pianist, and Irving, an RCA salesman and later president of KLH Research and Development Corporation. At 18, he went on to replace Wayne Shorter in Miles Davis’ jazz-fusion band. Then, from 1971 to 1973, he was in Elvin Jones’ band.
In the late 1970s, he was part of the Stone Alliance trio with Don Alias and Gene Perla. The group released four albums during this period, including one featuring Brazilian trumpeter Márcio Montarroyos. The albums also feature an array of other musicians. They went on to release three live reunion albums during the 2000s.
Fusion and hard bop saxophonist Steve Grossman passed away of cardiac arrest in Glen Cove, New York, on August 13, 2020, at the age of 69.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Laird Abercrombie was born in Port Chester, New York on December 16, 1944. Growing up in the 1950s in Greenwich, Connecticut he was attracted to the rock and roll of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and Bill Haley and the Comets. He also liked the sound of jazz guitarist Mickey Baker of the vocal duo Mickey and Silvia. He had two friends who were musicians with a large jazz collection and they listened to albums by Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis.
The first jazz guitar album he heard was by Barney Kessel, and taking guitar lessons at the age of ten, asked his teacher to show him what Kessel was playing. After high school, John went to Berklee College of Music and while there he was drawn to the music of Jim Hall, Sonny Rollins, and Wes Montgomery. He cites George Benson and Pat Martino as inspirations. His playing around Boston, Massachusetts led to his meeting the Brecker Brothers and organist Johnny Hammond Smith, who invited him to go on tour.
From Berklee in 1967 to North Texas State University to a move to New York City in 1969 where he became a popular session musician. He joined the Brecker Brothers in the jazz-rock fusion band Dreams, followed by recordings with Gato Barbieri, Barry Miles, and Gil Evans. He continued to play fusion in Billy Cobham’s band until an invitation from drummer Jack DeJohnette led to the fulfillment of Abercrombie’s desire to play in a jazz-oriented ensemble.
Around the same time, record producer Manfred Eicher, founder and president of ECM Records, invited him to record an album. He recorded his first solo album, Timeless, with DeJohnette and keyboardist Jan Hammer. who had been his roommate in the 1960s. In 1975 he formed the band Gateway with DeJohnette and bassist Dave Holland.
Between 1984 and 1990, Abercrombie experimented with a guitar synthesizer. Free jaz became a mainstay for him in the 1990s and 2000s as he formed many new associations. Drummer Adam Nussbaum, and Hammond organist Jeff Palmer became his trio and made a free-jazz album, then replaced Palmer with organist Dan Wall and released three albums between 1992 and 1997. Adding trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, violinist Mark Feldman and saxophonist Joe Lovano to the trio he recorded Open Land in 1999.).
He continued to tour and record until the end of his life. who recorded 59 as a leader, 4 with Gateway, 6 with Andy LaVerne and 93 as a sideman for the who’s who in jazz. Guitarist John Abercrombie, whose work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz, passed away of heart failure in Cortlandt Manor, New York, at the age of 72 on August 22, 2017.
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