Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chick Corea was born Armando Anthony Corea on June 12, 1941 in Chelsea, Massachusetts of Sicilian and Spanish descent. His father, a jazz trumpeter led a Dixieland band introduced him to the piano at the age of four. Growing up surrounded by jazz music, he was influenced at an early age by bebop stars Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Horace Silver and Lester Young. At eight Corea added drums, which later influenced his use of the piano as a percussion instrument.
Corea started taking piano lessons and musical composition at age eight and went on to spend several years in the drum and bugle corps, the Knights of St. Rose. By high school he was gigging, listening to Herb Pomeroy’s band at the time, and had a trio that performed Horace Silver’s music at a local jazz club.
A move to New York had him studying music at Columbia University and The Julliard School but found them both disappointing, subsequently immersing himself in the New York jazz scene. Corea’s first major professional gig was with Cab Calloway, followed by Blue Mitchell, Herbie Mann, Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria. He released his debut album Tones For Joan’s Bones in 1966 and has followed with an impressive discography.
He would venture into the avant-garde with Miles Davis on Filles de Kilimanjaro, In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew; and on Joe Farrell’s Song of the Wind. Hew would record and tour with Davis into the 70s until leaving to form the group “Circle” with Dave Holland, pushing more free jazz. Striking out on his own, in 1971 he formed the fusion band Return To Forever that featured Flora Purim on vocals and has spawned a multitude of albums with his most popular tune “Spain” coming from the Light As A Feather album.
He has done duet projects, delved into electric instrumentation, has won 18 Grammys out of 51 nominations, two Latin Grammy awards, has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, formed the 5 Peace Band and continued to perform, tour and record until his death. Pianist, keyboardist, and composer Chick Corea passed away of a rare form of cancer at his home near Tampa Bay, Florida on February 9, 2021, at age 79
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Turk Mauro was born Mauro Turso on June 11, 1944 in New York City into a family of first-generation Italian-Americans and he first experienced jazz when his father who played in local swing bands and began playing alto saxophone at 14. He soon met his mentor, trumpeter Henry Allen, who started getting him gigs around the city until he graduated from high school in 1962.
Mauro worked in a mailroom while playing jazz, got married, had two children, hit the road and his marriage fell apart by the mid-70s. While touring he met Billy Mitchell, a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s band, that led to a few hits with Gillespie but a permanent spot in Buddy Rich’s band. His reputation as a perfectionist made him a popular sideman in the New York area, and in 1977 he release his debut album, The Underdog.
He would go on to play the Blue Note, release his sophomore project The Heavyweight, which unfortunately flopped. This began a dry period for Turk through the ’80s and he abandoned jazz for taxi and limo driving. However, in 1987 after running into Sonny Rollins who suggested Europe, Mauro packed up and moved to France. He found work as a sideman and renewed success in Paris. But success was fleeting and with work drying up in Paris and another failed marriage, his second dry spell ensued by the Nineties.
By 1994 Mauro was back in the States with his new wife taking care of his father in Florida. He managed to play at the few jazz clubs in South Florida at the time but also began to gamble in attempt to regain the good times of Paris. Health problems came by the end of the decade and a burst colon hospitalized the saxophonist. An physical altercation in which he punched local singer Beverly Barkley in the early 2000s sidelined the musician after being arrested for battery. This incident put a halt to his career and with a year probation and 50 hours of community service, since the turn of the century the hard bop saxophonist Turk Mauro has only been able to get the occasional gig around the Florida area.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Grachan Moncur III was born June 3, 1937 in New York City, the son of bassist Grachan Moncur II, but was raised in Newark, New Jersey. He began playing cello at age nine but switched to trombone at eleven. In high school he attended Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina and began sitting in with touring musicians, establishing lasting friendships with Art Blakey and Jackie McLean.
After high school he toured with Ray Charles in 1959, gained membership into the Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet in ’62, and then worked with Sonny Rollins. He took part in two classic McLean sessions in the early 1960s, One Step Beyond and Destination Out, to which he also contributed the bulk of compositions that led to two influential albums of his own for Blue Note Records – Evolution with McLean and Lee Morgan and Some Other Stuff with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter.
Moncur joined Archie Shepp’s ensemble and recorded with other avant-garde players such as Marion Brown, Beaver Harris and Roswell Rudd. In 1969 while in Paris he recorded two albums as a leader for the BYG Actuel label, New Africa and Aco Dei de Madrugada, as well as appearing as a sideman on numerous other releases of the label. In 1974, the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra commissioned him to write a jazz symphony, Echoes of Prayer, and he has gone on to work with Cassandra Wilson, Frank Lowe, John Patton, Mark Masters, Joe Henderson, Tim Hagans, Gary Bartz and perform occasionally with the Paris Reunion Band. A prolific composer, the trombonist continues to perform, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lynne Arriale was born May 29, 1957 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was adopted as an infant only to discover the piano keyboard at three. Her initial training being classical, eventually earned her Master’s from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. However, it wasn’t until after college that her interest in the works of Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock led her to jazz.
She gained renown in the 1990s with her collaborator, drummer Steve Davis and bassist Jay Anderson. Lynne first came to prominence when she won the 1993 International Great American Jazz Piano Competition and performed at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival. She has toured Japan with the acclaimed 100 Golden Fingers ensemble, performed with jazz legends Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Barron, Harold Mabern, Junior Mance, Monty Alexander, Roger Kellaway, Ray Bryant, and Cedar Walton.
An active educator and adjudicator pianist Lynne Arriale is a member of The Jazz Education Network has adjudicated the Montreux Jazz Competition, American Pianists Association Fellowship Awards, and The Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Competition, and the Jacksonville Piano Competition. She is currently Associate Professor of Jazz Studies and Director of Small Ensembles at The University of North Florida in Jacksonville and conducts educational clinics and master classes as she continues to perform and tour throughout the world.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ken Peplowski was born May 23, 1959 in Cleveland, Ohio. He began playing clarinet and saxophone in Polish polka bands as a child and played his first professional gig while still in elementary school. With his trumpeter brother they played local radio and television shows, dances and weddings all through high school. By his teens Ken was experimenting with jazz, playing in the school bands, jamming with the local jazz musicians and teaching at the local music store.
After a year of college, he joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow. It was during this time that he met Sonny Stitt who became a great inspiration. In 1980 Peplowski moved to New York City and played from Dixieland to avant-garde jazz. He would work for Benny Goodman, recorded some 20 albums for Concord Records, toured around the world, recorded film soundtracks and most recently signed with Nagel-Heyer Records.
His collaborations include Mel Tormé, Leon Redbone, Charlie Byrd, Peggy Lee, Madonna, George Shearing, Hank Jones, Rosemary Clooney, Tom Harrell, James Moody, Cedar Walton, Houston Person, Steve Allen and Woody Allen among others. Jazz clarinetist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski continues to perform, tour, record, conduct student workshops, has been named the jazz advisor for the Oregon Festival of American Music and music director at the Jazz Party at the Shedd.
