Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Pasco Gourley, Jr. was born on June 9, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri. He met saxophonist Lee Konitz in Chicago, Illinois when both were members of the same high school band, crediting Konitz with encouraging him to become a serious musician.
Jimmy’s father started the Monarch Conservatory of Music in Hammond, Indiana, and though he didn’t teach, he bought him his first guitar. Taken his first guitar classes at the school. He became interested in jazz while listening to the radio, enjoying in particular Nat King Cole. For his first professional experience as a performer, he dropped out of high school to play with a jazz band in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
From 1944 to 1946, Gourley served in the U.S. Navy then returned to Chicago, where he met guitarist Jimmy Raney and wanted to play like him. He worked in bars and clubs with Jackie Cain & Roy Kral, Anita O’Day, Sonny Stitt, and Gene Ammons. Through the G.I. Bill, he received tuition for three years to any college in the world.
By 1951, he spent the rest of his life in France, working with Henri Renaud, Lou Bennett, Kenny Clarke, Richard Galliano, Stéphane Grappelli, Bobby Jaspar, Eddy Louiss, Martial Solal, and Barney Wilen. He played with American musicians who were passing through, including Bob Brookmeyer, Clifford Brown, Stan Getz, Gigi Gryce, Roy Haynes, Bud Powell, Zoot Sims, Lucky Thompson, Lester Young and his friend Lee Konitz. Guitarist Jimmy Gourley passed away on December 7, 2008 in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, France at the age of 82.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
The Quarantined Jazz Voyager is pulling from the stacks the 1962 album by Kenny Dorham titled Inta Somethin’ to spin this week. Recorded at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, California on November 13, 1961 and released on Pacific Jazz Records. Una Mas and San Francisco Beat were composed by Dorham. Track List | 38:31
- Una Mas ~ 7:13
- It Could Happen to You (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) ~ 6:00
- Let’s Face the Music and Dance (Irving Berlin) ~ 6:06
- No Two People (Frank Loesser) ~ 6:59
- Lover Man (Jimmy Davis, Ram Ramirez, James Sherman) ~ 5:01
- San Francisco Beat ~ 7:12
The players on this date are Kenny Dorham – trumpet (except tracks 3 and 5), Jackie McLean – alto saxophone (except track 2), Walter Bishop Jr. – piano, Leroy Vinnegar – bass and Art Taylor – drums.
So stay diligent my fellow voyagers in being healthy, continue your social distancing, and take your time getting back to the new normal. Listen to great music and share that music to give another soul a little insight into the choices of a voyager during this sabbatical from what we once knew. The jet setting investigations of jazz around the globe will continue again.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Grant Stewart was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on June 4, 1971. His father was a part-time jazz guitarist and at age ten, he played alto saxophone solos from saxophonists Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, and Wardell Gray that had been transcribed by his father. In his early teens, he was gaining experience with such artists as Pat LaBarbera and Bob Mover. By 18 he was leading a quartet in Toronto and had a regular gig at C’est What café and pub.
A move to New York City when he was 19 saw Grant working with guitarist Peter Bernstein and saxophonist Jesse Davis. He then began playing at Smalls Jazz Club from when it opened in 1993. His younger brother, Philip, has been his drummer since 2005.
For his 2007 recording Young at Heart, Stewart chose some challenging compositions, including by Elmo Hope and Neal Hefti, as well as originals. On Around the Corner in 2010, Stewart also played soprano sax.
Saxophonist Grant Stewart continues to play steady swinging hard bop, with a current catalog of seventeen albums as a leader and has recorded with Ehud Asherie and John Swana.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
The Quarantined Jazz Voyager is placing Mode For Joe on the turntable and is another timeless classic that influenced my listening in the Eighties and has since been a part of my collection. Recorded and released in 1966 box tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, it would be the last Blue Note album to feature Henderson as a leader in the classic era. The session was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder on January 27, 1966, and produced by Alfred Lion for Blue Note Records.
It is a concept album combining modal and hard bop modes aimed at creating an oceanic atmosphere. Many of the track titles refer to marine biology or the sea, and the musicians develop the concept through their use of space. The album was presented with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.
A Shade of Jade, Mode for Joe, Black, Caribbean Fire Dance, Granted, and Free Wheelin’ are the six compositions that make up the hard-bop album. The personnel on the date are tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, trumpeter Lee Morgan, trombonist Curtis Fuller, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Joe Chambers.
So stay diligent my fellow voyagers in being healthy, continue to practice social distancing, and don’t be so anxious to rush back to the new normal. It has been said that music soothes the savage beast, so listen to great music. I share that music to give you a little insight into the choices this voyager has made over the years during this sabbatical from jet setting investigations of jazz around the globe.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Gant was born on May 26, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. His first gigs were with Billy Mitchell and Pepper Adams, and after working with Little John Wilson and his Merry Men at the Madison Ballroom, including four days backing Billie Holiday, he went on to join Alvin Jackson’s house band at the Blue Bird..
Gant recorded with Donald Byrd, Sonny Stitt, and extensively with Yusef Lateef in the late 1950s and then Red Garland before becoming a member of Ahmad Jamal’s trio from 1966 to 1976. As the house drummer at Detroit’s Club 12, with Jackson’s band, he backed Thelonious Monk and Charlie Rouse in September 1959. In the 1970s, he accompanied Jamil Nasser and Harold Mabern as the rhythm section for workshops run by Cobi Narita.
From 1955 to 1986 he recorded as a sideman or group member on twenty albums with the above-mentioned musicians, as well as several with Al Haig. There is no more information following this recording period about the drummer as he has never been a leader, however, at eighty-nine he may still be occasionally performing.
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