Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alex Riel was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 13, 1940. His career began in the mid-Sixties when he got the house drummer position at the club Montmarte in his home city with bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, and pianists Tete Montoliu or Kenny Drew. They accompanied visiting American musicians Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Dorham, Johnny Griffin, Don Byas, Donald Byrd, Brew Moore and Yusef Lateef.
Among those mentioned above he also worked with Ray Brown, Don Cherry, Art Farmer, Stéphane Grappelli, Hank Jones, and Thad Jones. He formed a renowned jazz ensemble with bass player Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Kenny Drew.
Riel has recorded thirteen albums as a leader and another twenty-five as a sideman with Drew, Gordon, Webster, Kenny Werner, Bob Brookmeyer, Thomas Clausen, Bill Evans, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Ken McIntyre, Archie Shepp, Lars Gullin, Sahib Shihab, Thorgeir Stubø and Jackie McLean.
Delving into rock music, in 1968 Alex was a founding member of the Danish rock group The Savage Rose. His album The Riel Deal won a Danish Grammy Award Jazz in 1996.
In September 2010, Riel turned seventy years old and the milestone was celebrated at the famed Jazzhus Montmartre. The event was broadcast live with the title Celebration of a Living Jazz Legend by the Danish national television station TV2 which was also showing rare photos depicting Riel with Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Bill Evans and The Savage Rose.
His first group Alex Riel/Palle Mikkelborg Quintet won the Montreux Grand Prix Award at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1968. Over the course of his career drummer Alex Riel has founded several groups and continues to advance the music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Virgil Gonsalves was born in Monterey, California on September 5, 1931. In 1950 he took the baritone saxophone chair in the Alvino Rey Orchestra and then with Tex Beneke in 1952. In 1954 he formed an ensemble with Bob Enevoldsen, the tenor saxophonist Buddy Wise, Lou Levy, Harry Babasin, and Larry Bunker. They recorded the album Virgil Gonsalves Sextet that same year on Nocturne Records 8. Later members were Leo Wright, Junior Mance, Ron Crotty, and Eddie Khan.
Working mainly in the San Francisco, California area as a freelance musician, he ventured into rock during the Sixties and Seventies, and became a member of the Pacific Gas & Electric rock band from 1971 to 1972. Baritone saxophonist Virgil Gonsalves passed away in Salinas, California on October 20, 2008.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gilbert Rovère was born on August 29, 1939, Toulon, France and attended the Conservatory of Nice studying the double bass. He becme one of the most in-demand musicians in France in the Sixties.
He appeared and/or recorded with Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon, René Thomas, Jean-Luc Ponty, Barney Wilen, Al Haig, and Steve Grossman among others. For several years during his career Rovère was a member of the Martial Solal Trio with Daniel Humair.
Bibi was hired by Duke Ellington to play a Paris recording session with the orchestra and Alice Babs in 1963. He also hired him the following year to play with one of Duke’s small groups on the Italian Riviera.
Bassist Gilbert ‘Bibi’ Rovère, who received the Prix Django Reinhardt award in 1967, passed away from cancer in southern France on March 13, 2007 in Gorbio, France. He was 67.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George F. Clarke was born on August 28, 1911 in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Manassas High School, where he was Jimmie Lunceford’s pupil before joining the orchestra and playing with Lunceford until 1933.
Relocating to Buffalo, New York, there he played with Guy Jackson, Lil Armstrong and Stuff Smith in 1935. He and Smith worked together again on tour in 1939-1940 and in the recording studio. Returning to Buffalo, Clarke led an ensemble at a local club from 1942 to 1954.
Following this he moved to New York City and worked with Wild Bill Davis and Jonah Jones, and toured internationally in Europe in 1959 with Cootie Williams and Africa with Cozy Cole in 1962. He was occasionally active through the ‘60s in New York City. Tenor saxophonist George Clarke passed away in September 1985 in the Bronx, New York.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Remaining vigilant, being healthy, social distancing as those in our nation who continue to navigate positively and negatively through this pandemic.
This week the album I’m recommending for listening is The Young Lions by Lee Morgan leading an ad hoc group of musicians who made up the septet for this recording. It was recorded on April 25, 1960 at the Bell Sound Studios in New York City and was produced by Sid McCoy. The album was released in 1961 on Vee~Jay Records.
The album title echoes that of a popular 1948 novel by Irwin Shaw which had been made into a feature film shortly before the album was recorded. The young lions who made the music on this album have varied musical philosophies and sundry jazz backgrounds.
The young lions phrase was revived in jazz in the 1980s when, as in 1960, there was a tension between the modern jazz traditionalists and the avant-garde.
Track Listing | 35:14- Seeds of Sin (Shorter) ~ 5:44
- Scourn’ (Shorter) ~ 5:58
- Fat Lady (Shorter) ~ 5:03
- Peaches and Cream (Shorter) ~ 6:52
- That’s Right (Morgan) ~ 11:37
- Lee Morgan – trumpet
- Wayne Shorter – tenor sax
- Frank Strozier – alto sax
- Bobby Timmons – piano
- Bob Cranshaw – bass
- Albert “Tootie” Heath (3-5, 8) drums
- Louis Hayes (1, 2, 6, 7) – drums
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