Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Donald Rafael Garrett was born on February 28, 1932 in El Dorado, Arkansas but was raised in Chicago, Illinois. While in high school he first studied clarinet and then bass under Captain Walter Dyett. By the late 50s he was working closely with Muhal Richard Abrams, becoming a member of his Experimental Band in the Sixties.
It was during this time that he worked with Ira Sullivan, Eddie Harris, Dewey Redman and Rahsaan Roland Kirk but by the mid-sixties he relocated to San Francisco and formed a band called Sound Circus. He stayed on the West coast into the 70s working with such jazz greats as Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins, Pharoah Sanders and numerous more including performing and recording on four John Coltrane albums – Om, Kulu Se Mama, Selflessness and Live In Seattle.
In 1971 he formed the Sea Ensemble with Zusaan Kali Fasteau and embarked on a world tour for the next several years, the duo funding their travels with Fasteau giving music lessons and Garrett skillfully making bamboo flutes. Throughout his career he studied Turkish music, added flute to his instrumental repertoire, became an educator, writer, researcher and continued to perform and record with Johnny Griffin, Sonny Stitt, Joe Henderson, Billy Bang and other great jazz musicians.
Donald Garrett, multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with John Coltrane and the free jazz musicians and improvisers of the 60s and 70s, passed away on August 17, 1989.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harold de Vance Land was born on February 18, 1928 in Houston, Texas but was raised in San Diego, California. He started playing tenor saxophone at 16 and made his first recording as leader of the Harold Land All-Stars in 1949 for Savoy Records. By 1954 he had joined the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet but due to family problems he moved to Los Angeles in 1955. There he led his own groups, played with Curtis Counce, and co-led groups with Bobby Hutcherson, Blue Mitchell and Red Mitchell.
Harold developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style. His tone was strong and emotional, yet displayed a certain fragility that made him easy to recognize. From the 1970s onwards his style showed the influence of John Coltrane.
In the early 1980s through to the early 1990s he worked regularly with the Timeless All Stars, a group consisting of Cedar Walton, Buster Williams, Billy Higgins, Curtis Fuller, and Bobby Hutcherson and sponsored by the Timeless jazz record label. Land also toured with his own band during this time, often including his son on piano and usually featuring Bobby Hutcherson and Billy Higgins as well. During these years he played regularly at Hop Singh’s in Marina Del Ray in the L.A area and the Keystone Korner in San Francisco.
As an educator he was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles joining the Jazz Studies Program in 1996 teaching instrumental jazz combo. Tenor saxophonist Harold Land became a major contributor to hard bop and post bop jazz history, passing away from a stroke on July 27, 2001 at age 73.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Benny Golson was born January 25, 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While in high school he played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones and red Rodney. After matriculating Howard University, Benny joined Bull Moose Jackson’s R&B band where he met and learned about writing from pianist Tadd Dameron.
From 1953 to 1959 Golson played with Dameron’s band and then with the bands of Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges, Earl Bostic, Dizzy Gillespie and Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. While working with the Lionel Hampton band at the Apollo in 1956, Benny learned that his friend trumpeter Clifford Brown had died in a car accident. In honor, Golson composed “I Remember Clifford”.
From 1959 to 1962 Golson co-led the Jazztet with Art Farmer. Golson then left jazz to concentrate on studio and orchestral work for 12 years and during this period he composed music for such television shows as Ironside, Room 222, M*A*S*H and Mission: Impossible.
By the mid-1970s Golson returned to jazz playing and recording, he re-organized the Jazztet in 1983, was honored as a NEA Jazz Maser in ’95, made a cameo appearance in the Tom Hanks vehicle “The Terminal” that was related to his participation in the classic photo “A Great Day In Harlem”, received the Mellon Living Legend Legacy Award, the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Pittsburgh International Academy of Jazz, in which he was also inducted into their Hall of Fame.
Since 1996 Howard University created and has awarded the prestigious Benny Golson Jazz Master Award to several distinguished jazz artists. As of 2007, Benny Golson, tenor saxophonist, composer and arranger in the bebop and hard bop genres continues to tour regularly. He is known for his jazz standards “Stablemates”, “Whisper Not”, “Killer Joe”, “Along Came Betty and “Are You Real”, that have been performed and recorded by countless jazz musicians.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Curtis Counce was born in Kansas City, Missouri on January 23, 1926. Studying violin and tuba early on before settling on the string bass, he went on the road when he was 16, playing with the Nat Towles Band in Omaha.
After some freelancing, Counce moved to Los Angeles in 1945, working with Johnny Otis and making his recording debut the following year with Lester Young. During the ‘50’s he was a key member of the West Coast jazz scene, recording as a sideman with Shelly Manne, Lyle Murphy, Teddy Charles, Clifford Brown, and many others.
In 1956, Counce organized a quintet comprised of trumpeter Jack Sheldon, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Carl Perkins, and drummer Frank Butler. During a 15-month period, they recorded enough material to document their endeavor, all of which were originally released by Contemporary and fall stylistically between West Coast cool jazz and hard bop.
Changing personnel, the Curtis Counce Quintet recorded a final album for the Dooto label before breaking up in 1958. The bassist continued working in the Los Angeles area until his death on July 31,1963 from a heart attack.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Onzy Matthews was born in Fort Worth, Texas on January 15, 1936, grew up in Dallas until he was 14, when his mother pulled up stakes and moved to Los Angeles for a better job. He graduated from high school at 16 and had already decided he wanted to sing. Nearly every day he walked to a nearby park, where he could play piano for hours in the recreation building.
Augmenting his early gospel roots with healthy doses of smooth California jazz and big band music, Matthews taught himself to accompany his singing on piano until he realized he needed arrangements.
He attended Westlake College of Music, studied ear training and harmony, started singing with a dance band and learning about arranging. After several years of performing, attending concerts and asking questions he had 21 original songs arranged for big band.
His musical career sprang from eight bars of music. As an aspiring singer, pianist and composer in 1963, a young Mr. Matthews gave his first professional arrangement to Les Brown for a tryout with the Band of Renown. Out of the arrangement came 8 bars that sounded good to Onzy and Les Brown advised him to take those 8 bars and start from there. Doing so he went on to become one of the most sought-after arrangers in jazz and pop music. It was later through Dexter Gordon that these first twenty-one were played by the best musicians in Hollywood that turned into a regular Wednesday night jam session. The word spread and he started getting courted by record labels to work with their artists.
Onzy’s first major arranging job was on Lou Rawls’ album Black & Blue, followed by his debut as a leader in 1964 on “Blues With A Touch Of Elegance” for Capitol. About a year later, with his career in full swing, he held a guest spot on a New York radio show hosted by mercer Ellington who introduced him to his dad, friendship was struck and four years later became collaborators, filling the void from Billy Strayhorn’s death.
Matthews tailors the arrangements according to the empathy of the artist by listening to the artist and arranging to bring out things in them they weren’t aware of. This was his magic. After Ellington death in ’74, he moved to Seattle, formed a big band for three years moved between Texas and New York and finally moved to Paris in ’79, put together another big band, played with Miles Davis and finally moved back to Dallas in 1994.
Onzy D. Matthews, whose 35-year career had him working with some of jazz’s most notables, was discovered in his Dallas apartment passed away at his typewriter by jazz singer Jeanette Brantley and her husband Hans Wango on November 15, 1997. He was 67.