Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marc Hoffman was born April 16, 1961 in Salisbury, North Carolina. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and received a degree in composition. He continued his education at The Dartington International Summer School of Music in Devon, England then studied film composition at the University of Southern California. He studied with David Ott, Sherwood Shaffer, Leo Arnaud and Neil Hefti.
Up until the early 1990s Hoffman wrote concert music, music for theater, pop, Christian music and film composition. Then he focused his attention on jazz and began writing original compositions, both instrumental and vocal, creating his own arrangements of jazz standards. Establishing his own label, Virillion Music, he recorded Long Way Home in 2003 followed by his sophomore album Christmas Time. In 2010 he released Curioso of all-original jazz.
As an educator and author he teaches and lectures on classical, pop and film music and has published two books. He also is an instructor of piano, composition, and voice at Bold Music in the Charlotte, NC area.
Pianist, composer and vocalist Marc Hoffman continues to write concert music, instrumental and vocal jazz pieces, film scores, as well as performing works solo, or with his trio, quartet or quintet and with four- or five-piece bands in a variety of venues.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Mesterhazy was born April 8, 1954 in Hungary and came to the United States with his family when they fled Hungary following their country’s 1956 revolution. Settling first in upstate New York, they later moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey where he first played guitar and trumpet.
Switching to piano he became a professional musician, relocated to Los Angeles, California but eventually became well known in the area of Cape May, New Jersey.
Mesterhazy had recently released a new album with singer Paula West, Live at Jazz Standard, and the pair was scheduled to play the New York club together in May.
He was nominated for a Grammy for his arranging work on Shirley Horn’s 1997’s Loving You album, on which he also played. George also played with Les Paul, Bernadette Peters and others.
At Rowan University he ran the jazz piano program, taught privately and managed Cape May’s Merion Inn. Pianist and composer George Mesterhazy died quietly in his sleep at his home in Cape May on April 11, 2019 of natural causes. He was 59.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gene J. Bertoncini, born April 6, 1937 in New York City and grew up in a musical family. His father played guitar and harmonica, his brother played accordion and keyboards. He began playing guitar at age seven and by age sixteen was appearing on television.
After high school he attended the University of Notre Dame, where, in 1959, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural Engineering. During his matriculation he played clarinet in the Notre Dame marching band. His first guitar teacher was Johnny Smith.
Gene entered the Marines, then moved to Chicago, Illinois where he became immersed in the jazz scene, working with Carmen McRae. Returning to New York City, Gene played with vibraphonist Mike Mainieri and then in one of Buddy Rich’s ensembles. He was a member of the Tonight Show band.
He has worked with Burt Bacharach, Tony Bennett, Paul Desmond, Benny Goodman, Lena Horne, Hubert Laws, Michel Legrand, Charles McPherson, Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson and bassist Michael Moore.
At the advice of his teacher Chuck Wayne, he began studying classical guitar and using the instrument for jazz, Latin and Brazilian music styles. Back in New York City, from 1990 to 2008, Bertoncini played solo guitar on Sunday and Monday evenings at the Bistro La Madeleine on West 43rd Street. He recorded two albums of solo guitar arrangements, Body and Soul and Quiet Now, and published ten of these arrangements in Gene Bertoncini Plays Jazz Standards.
Bertoncini has been on the faculties of William Paterson University, New York University, Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada and on the staff of the Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camps.
Guitarist, arranger, and educator Gene Bertoncini continues to perform, arrange, record and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nick Paul was born on April 5, 1939 and raised in London, England. Growing up while playing a host of woodwind instruments his influences were George Lewis and John Handy.
Very active during the 60s, 70s and 80s in the south of England, in Europe he also played New Orleans Jazz. Paul played with many bands including The Barry Martin Ragtime Band, Malc Murphy’s Storyville Stompers, Bill Brunskil, The New Iberia Stompers, The New Revival Jazz Band. He spent time in New Orleans listening to the masters and improving his knowledge of the music.
Leaving England in 1987 for sunnier climes, Nick lived aboard his sailing boat Storyville in Cyprus for ten years playing in hotels and clubs. His musical tastes broadened and for the last twelve years he has been playing mainly small group swing and mainstream jazz of the 50s era.
Woodwind master Nick Paul, who now lives in Thailand, is still playing and has established a small recording studio.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Orie Potts was born April 3, 1928 in Arlington, Virginia. As a child he played Hawaiian slide-lap steel guitar and the accordion in his teens. At 15 he won an accordion competition with a performance of Twilight Time. After hearing Count Basie on the radio he started studying the piano in high school. He went on to attend Catholic University of America in 1946–1947, then formed his own group under the name Bill Parks, which toured in Massachusetts and Florida.
While serving in the Army from 1949 to 1955 he transcribed charts for Army bands. During this time Bill composed and arranged for Joe Timer and Willis Conover’s ensemble, The Orchestra, which was broadcasted on Voice of America radio. He wrote four of the songs on The Orchestra’s 1954 Brunswick Records LP, and recorded some of their live shows, which occasionally featured guest appearances from Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
By 1956 he was leading a house band at Olivia Davis’ Patio Lounge in Washington, D.C. and Lester Young booked an engagement there. Potts convinced Young to record with him on two of the evenings. These recordings were later released as the Lester Young in Washington, D.C. sessions.
The following year he worked extensively as a composer, arranger, and performer for Freddy Merkle’s Jazz Under the Dome album which featured Earl and Rob Swope. Soon after this he suffered a crushed vertebra in a car crash and ended up in a body cast for three months. During his recuperation Bill began working on charts and arrangements for an album consisting of jazz reinterpretations of many songs from George Gershwin’s opera Porgy & Bess.
Fully recovered by 1959, he released a session under his own name titled The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess for United Artists Records. It featured a nineteen-piece band whose members included Al Cohn, Harry Edison, Art Farmer, Bill Evans, Bob Brookmeyer, Marky Markowitz, Zoot Sims, Charlie Shavers, Earl Swope, and Phil Woods. The album received a five out of five star rating from Down Beat magazine upon its release.
Following this, Potts spent several years working in New York City before returning to the D.C. area, where he worked locally in addition to touring with and/or arranging for Paul Anka, Eddie Fisher, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, Quincy Jones, Stan Kenton, Ralph Marterie, Buddy Rich, Jeri Southern, Clark Terry, and Bobby Vinton.
In 1967 he released an album on Decca Records, How Insensitive, with a studio group called Brasilia Nueve. This group included Markowitz and Sims from the Porgy and Bess session , as well as Tito Puente, Chino Pozo, Mel Lewis, Barry Galbraith, and Louie Ramirez.
As an educator Bill taught music theory at Montgomery College from 1974 to 1990 and was the leader of the student jazz band. He also led a big band for occasional performances at Washington’s Blues Alley nightclub in the 1980s.
Retiring to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1995, pianist and arranger Bill Potts died of cardiac arrest on February 16, 2005 in Plantation, Florida.
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