Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Booker Little, Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee on April 2, 1938. He studied trumpet and music at the Chicago Conservatory from 1956 to 1958 during which time he worked with local musicians like Johnny Griffin. A move to New York offered him the opportunity to work with Max Roach and Eric Dolphy, recording with the later on the 1960 Far Cry session and leading a residency at the Five Spot in 1961. This collaboration would produce three classic albums for Prestige Records.

It was during this stint that he began to show promise of expanding the expressive range of the “vernacular” bebop idiom started by Clifford Brown in the mid-1950s. As a leader he recorded four albums and recorded another eleven as a sideman with Dolphy, Max Roach, John Coltrane, Slide Hampton, Bill Henderson, Abbey Lincoln and Frank Strozier during his short four years from 1958-1961.

Little made an important contribution to jazz as one of the first trumpeters to develop his own voice post Clifford Brown, though stylistically, he is rooted in Brown’s crisp articulation, burnished tone and balanced phrasing. Trumpeter and composer Booker Little died of complications resulting from uremia due to kidney failure at the age of 23 on October 5, 1961 in New York City.

More Posts: trumpet

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

David Samuel Pike was born March 23, 1938 in Detroit, Michigan and learned drums at the age of eight and is self-taught on vibraphone. He made his recording debut with the Paul Bley Quartet in 1958. While working with flautist Herbie Mann in the early Sixties he began putting an amplifier on his vibe. By the late 1960s, Pike’s music became more exploratory, contributing a unique voice and new contexts that pushed the envelope in times remembered for their exploratory nature.

Dave’s release Doors of Perception produced by Mann in 1970 on Vortex Records explored ballads, modal territory, musique concrete, and free and lyrical improvisation. He has recorded as a leader and sideman with Lee Konitz, Chuck Israels, Herbie Mann, Bill Evans, Nick Brignola, and Kenny Clarke.

Pike’s move to Europe and his tenure at MPS Records produced some of the most original jazz of the period. He formed the Dave Pike Set and recorded six albums between 1969 and ’72 that ran the gamut from funky grooves to free, textural territory. The group, though short-lived, created a unique identity and textural palette.

Collaborating with Volker Kriegel during this period provided compositional and instrumental contributions to the group, playing acoustic, classical, and electric guitar as well as sitar, that helped set the Dave Pike Set’s sound apart, organically incorporating influences from jazz, soul jazz, psychedelia, avant-garde music, and World music. With 19 albums to his credit, vibraphonist Dave Pike continued exploring different realms of music until his passing away of lung emphysema on October 3, 2015 in del Mar, California.

More Posts: drums,marimba,vibraphone

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charles Tolliver was born on March 6, 1942 in Jacksonville, Florida and while still a child received his first trumpet from his grandmother. He attended Howard University in the early Sixties as a pharmacy student, but when he decided to pursue music as a career he moved to New York City.

Coming to prominence in 1964, playing and recording on Jackie McLean’s Blue Note albums, seven years later he and Stanley Cowell founded Strata-East Records. The label was one of the pioneer jazz artist-owned and Tolliver released many albums and collaborations as a leader.

Following a long hiatus, he reemerged in the late 2000 decade, releasing two albums arranged for big band “With Love” that was nominated in 2007 for a Grammy award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and “Emperor March: Live at the Blue Note” in 2009.

He has recorded with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Paul Chambers, Gary Bartz, Cecil McBee, Jimmy Hopps, Alvin Queen, Jon Faddis, Charles McPherson, Reggie Workman, John Hicks, Billy Harper, Robert Glasper, Max roach, Horace Silver and McCoy Tyner to name a few. Hard bop, post bop, modern big band, trumpeter Charles Tolliver continues to be a force in the jazz idiom.

More Posts: trumpet