Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William “Bill” Takas was born March 5, 1932 in Toledo, Ohio and played in the band that backed Bob Dorough from the mid-1950s. His first recordings with the singer were made in New York City in 1956, Devil May Care for Bethlehem Records.
In the following years Bill also worked with Frank Socolow Sextet, Nat Pierce, Tal Farlow, Dan Terry and Pee Wee Russell. In the 1960s he played with the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band and the bands of Cy Coleman, Don Elliott, Benny Goodman, Doc Severinsen and Les DeMerle. In 1962 he made a guest appearance with Ruby Braff at the Newport Jazz Festival.
From the 1970s to the late 1990s Takas continued to work in a duo with Bob Dorough, recording Beginning to See the Light in 1976, in a trio, heard on Devil May Care II with Al Levitt, and Right On My Way Home in 1979 with Grady Tate, with guest soloists such as Art Farmer and Phil Woods.
Bill was in the all-star formation Children of All Ages with Randy Brecker, Lew Tabackin, Arnie Lawrence, Pat Rebillot, Ron McClure, Buzzy Linhart, among others and Bill Goodwin. Together with Dorough, he released a Charlie Parker tribute album PHililogy in 1995.
Between 1956 and 1997, double and electric bassist Bill Takas was involved in 37 recording sessions in the field of jazz.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
As life moves forward and I remain steadfast in social distancing, I was reminded of an album produced by hard bop, soul~jazz organist Shirley Scott. This was a very personal album for the artist as it is filled with the music she always wanted to create but the demands of her vibrant career always overshadowed. With her friend and executive producer Maxine Gordon, they produced and recorded the session that became the album titled One For Me. This album was made to please no one but the artist herself.
Given two monikers, The Queen Of The Organ and Little Miss Half-Steps, the latter given to her by saxophonist George Coleman, this Philadelphian raised the funds to make the record, she had complete control over her masters and with her dream band, recorded in November 1974 at Blue Rock Studios in New York City. The album was released on the Strata~East label in Januray 1975. It has been re-released in 2020 on Arc Records.
Track List | 41:54- What Makes Harold Sing? ~ 8:53
- Keep on Movin’ On (Harold Vick) ~ 9:52
- Big George ~ 5:22
- Don’t Look Back (Vick) ~ 8:56
- Do You Know a Good Thing When You See One? ~ 8:51
- Shirley Scott – organ, mellotron
- Harold Vick – tenor saxophone
- Billy Higgins – drums
- Jimmy Hopps – cowbell, triangle (track 2)
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Garnett Brown, born January 31, 1936 in Memphis, Tennessee and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and later studied film scoring and electronic music at University of California Los Angeles. Winning the DownBeat Reader’s poll for trombonists, he appeared on the classic 1976 recording Bobby Bland and B.B. King Together Again…Live.
As a sideman he recorded with Chico Hamilton, Charles Lloyd, Roland Kirk, Art Blakey, Booker Ervin, Lou Donaldson, Teddy Edwards, Frank Foster, Duke Pearson, George Benson, Charles Tolliver, Johnny Hodges, Houston Person, Louis Armstrong, Gene Ammons, Modern Jazz Quartet, Gil Evans, Jackie and Roy, Airto Moreira, Hubert Laws, Dakota Staton, Reuben Wilson, Charles Earland, Don Sebesky, Lou Donaldson, Charles McPherson, Joe Chambers, Yusef Lateef, Jack McDuff, Rusty Bryant, Les McCann, Billy Cobham, Arif Mardin, Herbie Hancock, Charles Tolliver, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Eddie Harris, Horace Silver, Ahmad Jamal, and Gerald Wilson Orchestra of the 80’s among others.
He has worked as a composer in film and television due to his training in the field. In 1989 he was the conductor and orchestrator for Harlem Nights. Trombonist Garnett Brown, having been diagnosed with dementia, he is now retired and living in West Hollywood, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steven Dirk Gilmore was born January 21, 1943 in Trenton, New Jersey and picked up bass when he was twelve years old, playing locally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a teenager. At age 17 he enrolled at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music, run by Oscar Peterson.
Later in the 1960s Steve played with Ira Sullivan and the Baker’s Dozen Big Band. In 1967 he joined Flip Phillips’s group and remained until 1971, after which he worked with Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, Mose Allison, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Phil Woods, Richie Cole, and the National Jazz Ensemble.
The 1980s saw him performing with John Coates, Meredith D’Ambrosio, Dave Frishberg, Hal Galper, Tom Harrell, and Toshiko Akiyoshi, as well as with Woods. Gilmore and Woods would remain collaborators well into the 1990s.
In 1988 he began working with Dave Liebman, with whom he would work intermittently through the late 1990s. Other performing and recording associations included Carol Sloane, Susannah McCorkle, Bill Charlap, and Jim Hall, Tony Bennett, Michele LeGrand, Tom Waits, Susannah McCorkle, and Eddie Jefferson.
An experienced clinician, he has recorded eight jazz Play-along teaching recordings with Jamey Aebersold. In addition he has produced two transcribed bass line books and has received three Best Of The Year Grammy Group Awards in 1977, 1982, 1983 as part of the Phil Woods Quartet. Bassist Steve Gilmore continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Al Foster was born on January 18, 1943 in Richmond, Virginia and grew up in New York City. He began playing drums at the age of 13 and made his recording debut on Blue Mitchell’s The Thing to Do at age 20.
He joined Miles Davis’s group when Jack DeJohnette left in 1972 and stayed with Davis until 1985. Foster began composing in the 1970’s, and has toured with his own band, including musicians such as bassist Doug Weiss, saxophonist Dayna Stephens, and pianist Adam Birnbaum.
He played with Miles Davis during the 1970s and was one of the few people to have contact with Davis during his retirement from 1975 to 1981. Al also played on Davis’s 1981 comeback album The Man with the Horn. He was the only musician to play in Davis’s band both before and after his retirement.
Other artists Foster has performed and recorded with include Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Randy & Michael Brecker, Bill Evans, George Benson, Kenny Drew, Carmen McRae, Stan Getz, Toots Thielemans, Dexter Gordon and Chick Corea.
Drummer Al Foster, who has toured extensively with Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, and Joe Henderson continues to engage in jazz.
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