Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robby Ameen was born on December 7, 1960 in New Haven, Connecticut of Lebanese origins and studied drums with Ed Blackwell and classical percussion with Fred Hinger. He would go on to graduate from Yale with a degree in Literature.
In 1985 he became a member of Ruben Blades’ Seis del Solar band, winning a Latin Grammy for best Salsa record Todos Vuelven Live, Vol. 1 and 2. He would have long-term residencies with Dave Valentin, Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side of…All Stars, Kip Hanrahan, and Jack Bruce and the Cuicoland Express. As a sideman he has recorded on other Grammy winning records including Ruben Blades and Seis del Solar’s Escenas and Brian Lynch’s Simpatico.
Robby has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Palmieri, Paul Simon, Mongo Santamaria, Carly Simon, Hilton Ruiz, Kirsty MacColl and Steve Swallow among others. As a session musician Ameen has recorded numerous jingles, film scores, and TV music, including the popular HBO series Sex and the City. In 2012, Ameen was the subject on an episode of the Emmy Award-winning Detroit Public Television series Arab American Stories.
As an educator, he co-authored with bassist Lincoln Goines the best-selling instructional book Funkifying the Clave: Afro-Cuban drums for Bass and Drums. He is an international clinician, percussion/drum festival participant and is currently on the faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Drummer and bandleader Robby Ameen is best known for the unique and powerful Afro-Cuban style he has created and is regarded as one of the world’s most prominent drummers in the area of Latin Jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Machito was born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo on December 3, 1909 in Havana, Cuba. He began playing music as a child and started playing professionally in his teens before emigrating to America in 1937 as a vocalist with La Estrella Habanera.
In the late 30s he worked with several Latin artists and orchestras, recording with bandleader Xavier Cugat. An attempt to launch a band with his brother-in-law Mario Bauzá failed, but in 1940 Machito founded the Afro-Cubans and was the front man, singer, conductor and maraca player. The following year he hired Bauzá as his music director, a working relationship that lasted for 35 years.
Under Bauzá’s influence, Machito began hiring jazz-oriented arrangers and his bands of the 40s were among the first to fuse Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz improvisation that greatly inspired jazz giants Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton. Throughout his career he played and recorded with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Mann, and Johnny Griffin, held a spot at the Palladium and recorded Decca, Mercury and Clef labels.
In 1983 he won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording for Machito & His Salsa Big Band ’82. In 2005, his 1957 album, “Kenya”, was added to the list of “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. He played a huge role in the history of Latin jazz and passed away after suffering a fatal stroke on April 15, 1984 while playing on stage at Ronnie Scott’s in London. He was 74. A documentary of the great Cuban musician, Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy was released in 1987.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carlos Garnett was born on December 1, 1938 in Red Tank, Panama Canal Zone. He became interested in jazz music after hearing the music of Louis Jordan and James Moody in film shorts He taught himself to play the saxophone as a teenager and played with soldiers from the nearby United States Army base. In 1957 he started playing in calypso and Latin groups.
After moving to New York in 1962 Garnett played in a rock ‘n’ roll group led by Leo Price. Around this time he also started learning music theory, being self-taught and having always played by ear. Jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard hired him in 1968 and introduced him to many New York musicians. His first recording was Hubbard’s 1969 album A Soul Experiment that contained two of his original compositions.
By the late 1960s and early 1970 Carlos played with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis. He led his own group called the Universal Black Force, recording five albums between 1974 and 1977. In 1982 suffering from depression and drug abuse, he experienced a spiritual awakening and stopped playing music for years. He began performing again in 1991 and released the albums Fuego En Mi Alma, Under Nubian Skies and Moon Shadow.
In 2000 Garnett moved back to Panama, where he continues to perform actively and has assumed the role of Maestro, “Teacher”, to pass on to the next generation of young musicians in Panama, the music of jazz.
He has recorded with Russell Gunn, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Onaje Allan Gumbs, Mtume, Guilherme Franco, Norman Connors, Billy Hart, Kenny Kirkland, Anthony Jackson, Brad Jones, Andrew Hill and Pharoah Sanders.
As he continues to perform, he has performed in Japan, Austria and at three editions of the annual Panama Jazz Festival. The 9th Annual Panama Jazz Festival in 2012, organized by Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez, was dedicated to tenor saxophonist Carlos Garnett in recognition of his contribution to music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chucho Valdés was born Jesús Valdés Rodríguez, the son of famed pianist Bebo Valdés, on October 9, 1941 in Quivican, La Habana, Cuba. His first recording sessions as a leader took place in early 1964 at Areíto Studios of Havana. These early sessions included Paquito D’Rivera on alto saxophone and clarinet, trombonist Alberto Giral, flutist Julio Vento, Carlos Emilio Morales on guitar, Kike Hernández on double bass, Emilio del Monte on drums and Óscar Valdés Jr. on congas.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, these would be the members of his jazz combo, whose lineup would often change, sometimes including bassists Cachaito and later Carlos del Puerto, and drummers Guillermo Barreto and later Enrique Pla. In 1967, Valdés and his band mates became founding members of Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, together with many other well-known Cuban musicians. This all-star big band would back singers such as Elena Burke and Omara Portuondo.
By 1973, Chucho along with other members of the Orquesta founded Irakere that bridged songo and Afro-Cuban jazz. He would simultaneously continue his solo career, eventually signing with Blue Note Records, which allowed him to realize international exposure.
In the late 1990s, he focused on his solo career, leaving directorship of Irakere to his pianist son Chuchito. He played occasionally with his father until his death in 2013. Since 2010, Chucho performs with a backing band known as The Afro-Cuban Messengers.
Pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger Chucho Valdés, whose career spans over 50 years, has received critical media acclaim, won five Grammy Awards, contributed two original compositions to Roy Hargrove’s Crisol band’s Havana project, and was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He has two dozen albums recorded as a leader and continues to perform, compose record and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Duran was born Edward Lozano Duran on September 6, 1925 in San Francisco, California. He started learning to play piano at age seven, and switched to guitar by the time he was 12. After about seven months of lessons he began teaching to himself. Within his household was plenty of jazz growing up as his older brothers Carlo was a jazz pianist and Manuel was a jazz bassist.
Duran recorded as leader in 1956 with Fantasy Records, and around 1957, he was the guitarist in the CBS Radio Orchestra under the direction of Ray Hackett for the Bill Weaver Show. While playing with the CBS Orchestra, he met Ree Brunell and performed on her debut album, Intro To Jazz of the Italian-American. The album was the first LP recorded by the short-lived San Francisco Jazz Records label under the umbrella of the radio station.
Throughout the fifties he performed or recorded with his childhood friend Vince Guaraldi, as well as with Cal Tjader in his Mambo Quintet, and Stan Getz. In addition, Eddie was a featured performer and recording artist with several notable jazz combos that included his brothers. By 1960 he was leading his own trio for the next seven years but joined his brother Carlos on Benny Velarde’s 1962 album, Ay Que Rico. From 1976 to 1981 he was a member of Benny Goodman’s orchestras and octet.
Between 1980 and 1982, Duran recorded with Tania Maria, moved to New York City performing in a quartet that he organized and crossed paths with Getz again in 1983 while recording the Dee Bell studio album, Let There Be Love. The list of jazz artist he has performed with extends to Charlie Parker, George Shearing, Red Norvo and Earl Hines among others.
Eddie and his wife Mad (Madeleine) was initially a classically trained flutist, saxophonist and a music educator, continue to co-lead, perform and collaborate on five albums as well as individual endeavors.
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