Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph Bowie was born October 17, 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri and was greatly influenced by his older brothers, saxophonist Byron and trumpeter Lester. His first international tour was with Oliver Lake of the Black Artists Group in 1971. During this time in Paris, France he worked with Alan Silva, Frank Wright, and Bobby Few. He also worked with Dr. John in Montreux, Switzerland in 1973.
Moving to New York City, and with the help of Off Broadway Theater impresario Ellen Stewart he established La Mama children’s theater. He performed with Cecil Taylor, Human Arts Ensemble, Nona Hendryx, Leroy Jenkins, Vernon Reid, Stanley Cowell, Sam Rivers, Philippe Gaillot, Dominique Gaumont and Ornette Coleman.
In 1976 Joseph relocated to Chicago, Illinois where he led bands for Tyrone Davis and other R&B artists. Returning to New York City in 1978 he began singing with punk and funk musician James Chance and the Contortions. Defunkt was born during that time and over the next 25 years, Defunkt recorded 15 albums.
Bowie has collaborated with Jean-Paul Bourelly and Jamaaladeen Tacuma. He has performed “big band funk” arrangements with Ed Partyka at Music School Lucerne, Barbary Coast Ensemble at Dartmouth College, JazzArt Orchestra, and the HR Frankfurt Radio Big Band. The first Defunkt Big Band debuted in 1999 in New York City at the Texaco Jazz Festival sponsored by the Knitting Factory.
In 2003, he moved to the Netherlands where he met Hans Dulfer and was introduced to the Dutch music scene. He has performed with Hans, Candy Dulfer, Saskia Laroo Band, Naked Ears, Monsieur Dubois, Emergency Room, Funkateer, Seven Eleven, and Almost Three.
In 2014 he produced Sax Pistols Allergy for the U.S (ZIP Records) with lyricist Hilarius Hofstede. The album Defunkt Mastervolt was released in 2015 on ZIP Records. Robin van Erven Dorens directed the documentary In Groove We Trust about Bowie’s life.
Trombonist and vocalist Joseph Bowie continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pharoah Sanders was born Ferrell Lee Sanders on October 13, 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas, an only child. He began his musical career accompanying church hymns on clarinet but his initial artistic accomplishments were in the visual arts. When he was at Scipio Jones High School in North Little Rock, he began playing the tenor saxophone.
After graduating from high school in 1959, Sanders moved to Oakland, California, where he lived with relatives. He briefly studied art and music at Oakland City College. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from an unknown art institution.
He began his professional career playing tenor saxophone in Oakland, then moved to New York City in 1962. The following year he was playing with Billy Higgins and Don Cherry and caught the attention of Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane. In 1965, he became a member of Coltrane’s band, as the latter gravitated towards the avant-garde jazz of Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, and Cecil Taylor.
Sanders first recorded with Coltrane on Ascension, followed by their dual-tenor album Meditations, then joined Coltrane’s final quintet. Pharoah released his debut album as a leader, Pharoah’s First, was not what he expected. In 1966 he signed with Impulse! and the years Sanders spent with the label were both a commercial and critical success.
The 1970s had Sanders continuing to produce his own recordings including the 30-minute wave-on-wave of free jazz, The Creator Has A Master Plan from the album Karma, featuring vocalist Leon Thomas and to work with Alice Coltrane on her Journey in Satchidananda album. Although supported by African-American radio, Sanders’ brand of brave free jazz became less popular.
His major-label return came in 1995 when Verve Records released Message from Home, followed by Save Our Children (1998). But again, Sanders’s disgust with the recording business prompted him to leave the label. In the 2000s, a resurgence of interest in jazz kept Sanders playing festivals and was awarded a NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for 2016 and was honored at a tribute concert in Washington DC on April 4, 2016.
In 2020 he recorded the album Promises, with the English electronic music producer Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra. It was widely acclaimed as a clear late-career masterpiece.
Saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques, died on September 24, 2022 at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 81.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Yoshiaki Masuo was born in Tokyo, Japan on October 12, 1946. The son of a jazz bandleader and pianist, he grew up surrounded by jazz. Never having any formal training, by the time he was 15 he started playing the guitar and his influences were Wes Montgomery and Grant Green.
Discovered by alto saxophonist Sadao Watanabe in 1967 he joined the group and started his professional career with one of Japan’s leading groups. During the three years he was with the group Masuo was Swing Journal’s reader’s poll #1 guitarist and went on to win it five more times.
A move to New York City in ‘71 saw him playing with Teruo Nakamura, Lenny White, Michael Brecker, Chick Corea, Elvin Jones, Ashford & Simpson and was a member of Lee Konitz’s group. Two years later he joined up with Sonny Rollins and recorded four albums and toured the U.S., Japan and Europe. Forming his own electric fusion group he began recording and touring Japan, the West Coast and played in New York City.
In Soho, New York City he began experimenting with electronic instruments and it turned into a self-titled album Masuo in which he was composer, arranger, engineer and mixer. He produced dozens of albums over the next ten years and his performing was put on hold the deeper he got into producing. By the end of the century he closed his studio in New York.
Guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo returned to performing in 2008, recording two albums in successive years and continues to performa and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ronald Wayne Laws was born on October 3, 1950 and raised in Houston, Texas. He is the fifth of eight children and started playing the saxophone at the age of 11. He went on to attend Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, for two years.
In 1971 he journeyed to Los Angeles, California to embark upon a musical career. He started performing with trumpeter Hugh Masekela and the following year joined Earth, Wind & Fire, where he played saxophone and flute on their album Last Days and Time. Eighteen months later he decided to become a solo artist. Laws released his debut album Pressure Sensitive on Blue Note Records in 1975.
His first two albums charted on Billboard and by his third album, Friends and Strangers in 1977 was certified gold. Ronnie produced and sang on his sister Debra’s 1981 album Very Special. He would go on to play saxophone through the Eighties on albums by Ramsey Lewis, Sister Sledge, Deniece Williams, Jeff Lorber, Alphonse Mouzon, and Howard Hewett. In the 1990s he recorded with Norman Brown and again with Earth, Wind & Fire.
Saxophonist, flutist and vocalist Ronnie Laws, who has also worked with Guru, Brian Culbertson, and the Crusaders, also influenced Boney James and Norman Brown, and continues to explore the boundaries of his talent.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Earl Klugh was born September 16, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of six he started training on the piano but switched to the guitar at ten. By 13, he was captivated by the guitar of Chet Atkins when he made an appearance on the Perry Como Show.
His first recording was at age 15 on Yusef Lateef’s Suite 16. He played on George Benson’s White Rabbit album and two years later, in 1973, joined his touring band. He has performed as a guest on several of Atkins’ albums, who has reciprocated as well, joining Klugh on his Magic In Your Eyes album.
He and Bob James received a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1981 for their album One on One. Klugh has recorded over 30 albums, including twenty-three top ten charting records, with five hitting No. 1 on Billboard’s Jazz Album chart.
Each spring, Klugh hosts an event called Weekend of Jazz, featuring jazz musicians at the Broadmoor Hotel & Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The weekend attracts a host of famous musicians and vocalists.
Guitarist and composer Earl Klugh, who was influenced by Bob James, Ray Parker Jr, Wes Montgomery and Laurindo Almeida, has received 13 Grammy nominations, continues to compose, perform and record.
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