Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Ford was born on May 7, 1947 in Buffalo, New York and was singing in his mother and aunt’s family choir by age 5. At seven he started taking piano lessons and by the time he was eleven he started playing saxophone. In high school and college Joe played in a variety of campus jazz and funk bands.
Ford studied saxophone under Makanda Ken McIntyre, Jackie McLean and Frank Foster, and percussion under Joe Chambers. After graduating from Ohio’s Central State University He returned home to teach in the Buffalo public schools from 1968 to 1972. It was while working at the Buffalo Public Library in 1974 that Joe played in the Birthright Ensemble, and then would go on to join McCoy Tyner in 1976, recording eight albums with him through 1993.
Since the early 1980s Ford worked extensively as a sideman with Sam Jones, Lester Bowie, Jimmy Owens, Idris Muhammad, Abdullah Ibrahim, Chico O’Farrill, Avery Sharpe, Jerry Gonzalez, Malachi Thompson, Steve Berrios, Nova Bossa Nova and Freddy Cole amongst others.
In the late 1990s he led two ensembles, the Black Art Sax Quartet and a big band called The Thing. As a leader, saxophonist Joe Ford released his one album in 1993, “Today’s Night” on Blue Moon Records featuring Charles Fambrough, Kenny Kirkland and Jeff “Tain” Watts. He continues to perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Leatherbarrow was born on May 3, 1955 in Buffalo, New York. He studied drums with Charlie Lorigo, orchestral percussion with John Rowland of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the vibraphone with Dave Samuels. He began working professionally at age 14, attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts before moving to Los Angeles in 1978 to further pursue a career in music.
Throughout his career in jazz, Bob has been a member of Ernie Watts Quartet for over 25 years, has performed and recorded with Joe Farrell, Victor Feldman, Horace Silver, Rosemary Clooney, Natalie Cole, The Bill Holman Band, the Bob Florence Jazz Orchestra and Howard Roberts among others. He has also recorded in other genres with Gordon Lightfoot, Bette Midler, Placido Domingo, Dolly Parton and Henry Mancini.
Leatherbarrow has appeared of film and television soundtracks for The Simpsons, Family Guy, Austin Powers, Bruce Almighty, The Cleveland Show and The Life Aquatic to name a few, and drummed the iconic snare rolls that begin the sound signature of 20th Century Fox Studios.
Doubling on vibraphone, Bob Leatherbarrow has backed singers like Peggy Lee, Greta Matassa, Lorraine Feather and Nelly Furtado along with Stanley Clarke, Bill Perkins and his own group Polychrome, with whom he continues to compose and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herman Foster was born on April 26, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began his musical career before age ten playing the violin, clarinet, saxophone, and piano. A self-taught pianist, Foster created a distinguished earthy sound. When his family moved to New York City in 1947, Herman began to attend jam sessions and then played with Eric Dixon, Dick Carter and the big band of Herb Jones.
His success came when he met Lou Donaldson and the two played together for thirteen years from 1953 to 1966. During the 1950s he worked with King Curtis, Bill English and Seldon Powell, in the 1960s with Al Casey, in addition to playing with his own trio over the next decade. He returned to work in Donaldson’s quartet in the 1980s.
He released four records as a leader for Epic, Argo and Timeless Records and as a sideman recorded nineteen albums with Lou Donaldson, Gloria Lynne, Johnny Hartman, Hisayo Tominaga, George V. Johnson Jr., Joan Shaw, Al Casey and King Curtis. On April 3, 1999, bebop pianist Herman Foster passed away.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ian Carr was born on April 21, 1933 in Dumfries, Scotland. At the age of seventeen he started to teach himself trumpet and from 1952 to 1956 he attended King’s College. After graduation he joined his brother in a Newcastle band, the EmCee Five in 1960 before moving to London. From 1963-1969 he became co-leader with Don Rendell of the Rendell–Carr Quintet, recording five albums and touring internationally.
After leaving the quintet, Carr went on to form the groundbreaking jazz-rock band Nucleus that led to a successful international career, releasing twelve albums and winning first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He would go on to play with the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble in 1975.
Ian worked as a session musician in non-jazz contexts, doubled up on flugelhorn, wrote a regular column for the BBC Music Magazine, penned biographies of Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis, and co-authored The Rough Guide to Jazz. Carr held the position of associate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where he founded the jazz workshop that graduated pianist Julian Joseph.
Ian Carr died on February 25, 2009, having suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
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