Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Conti was born November 21, 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was an autodidact, first performing locally at age fourteen and mentoring with Pat Martino. In 1966, after four years on the road touring North America, he settled in Jacksonville, Florida.
In 1970, he dropped out of the music business to work in the securities field. Six years later he picked up his guitar and by 1979, he signed with Discovery Records. Conti released Solo Guitar as his debut as a leader and his sophomore project Latin Love Affair. By 1982 he left music again for the business world but again in 1985 he released another album. The following year he headlined the Florida National Jazz Festival, with Jimmy McGriff and Nick Brignola as his sidemen.
In mid-1988 he was offered a position under filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis in Beverly Hills, California. After a lengthy recovery from a back injury in late 1988, he was offered a position as resident jazz guitarist at the Irvine Marriott, a job he held until 1998.
Since starting his website in 2000, he has released 30 educational DVDs on jazz guitar, including pro chord melody and improvisation using his No Modes No Scales approach to teaching jazz guitar. Guitarist and educator Robert Conti, who has his own line of solid spruce thinline archtop jazz guitars since 2009, continues to teach, and perform.
More Posts: bandleader,educator,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Graham was born on November 18, 1937 in New York City. Inspired by his father who played the trombone, he acquired an early interest in rhythm which prompted him to begin the study of drums at age nine. After moving with his family from New York to Miami, Florida at 14, he had a continuing television series on WTVJ with his Swing Kings. During this time his interest in Dixieland jazz was fostered by an acquaintance with drummer “Preacher” Rollo Laylan who frequently imported jazz names to Miami.
Attending the University of Miami he performed for several seasons with the Miami Symphony before migrating to California to accompany such diverse luminaries as Jack Jones, Elvis Presley, and Anita O’Day. He toured as accompanist and conductor for Roberta Sherwood, Vic Dana and Kay Stevens during the Sixties. Eddie settled in Las Vegas, Nevada on a long term contract with Latin concert pianist, Esquivel. He toured Japan with the Village Stompers, and appeared on television with ragtime pianist Big Tiny Little. As a percussionist in the Vegas showrooms, he accompanied Rich Little, Sammy Davis Jr., Presley, Johnny Mathis, and Mack Davis, while hitting the stage with his own jazz group.
The early seventies saw him in Hawaii with trombonist Trummy Young and then hooked up with Earl “Fatha” Hines as a featured artist from 1975 to 1980. On concert tours in Europe, Australia, South America and Japan, Ed has appeared with such artists as Benny Carter, Joe Venuti, Bobby Hackett, Red Norvo, Dorothy Donegan, Barney Bigard, and Stan Getz.
Graham went on to record two albums as a leader, one studio and one live, Hot Stix and S’Wonderful Jazz, respectively. He recorded with Earl Hines on Tony Bennet’s Improv record label, with Marva Josie and a collaboration with trumpeter Billy Butterfield.
In the 80’s, he was a musical director and featured soloist in Las Vegas, and a member of the Peanuts Hucko Quartet in Palm Springs, Califonia. He [layed numerous festivals and clubs around the country during this period, and was a founding member of the 21 piece Monterey Peninsula Jazz Orchestra as percussionist and soloist at Clint Eastwood’s Mission Ranch in Carmel. At eighty-five drummer Eddie Graham still occasionally plays.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music,percussion
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Curtis Sylvester Lowe, Sr. was born on November 15, 1919 in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Oakland, California. He first learned to play soprano saxophone as a youth and studied briefly in Alabama before deciding to take up music full-time. Best known professionally as a tenor and baritone saxophonist, he played in traveling bands before the outbreak of World War II. Enlisting in the United States Navy in 1942, his unit band was full of noteworthy jazz musicians, including Vernon Alley, Wilbert Baranco, Buddy Collette, Jerome Richardson, Ernie Royal, and Marshall Royal.
In the 1950s Curtis worked extensively with Lionel Hampton and also played with Dave Brubeck, Little Esther, Johnny Otis, and Gerald Wilson. He led his own five-piece ensemble in 1952-1953. In 1958 he began a decade-long association with Earl Hines.
He was active locally in San Francisco, California and the Bay Area into the 1980s. Saxophonist Curtis Lowe Sr., who never recorded as a leader, transitioned at the age of 73 on October 29, 1993.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Masao Yagi was born on November 14, 1932 in Tokyo, Japan. He became devoted to American jazz very early in the wave of Japanese jazz enthusiasm, becoming a member of the Cozy Quartet in 1956 after Toshiko Akiyoshi’s departure. During his tenure in the quartet he played alongside Sadao Watanabe.
In 1959, at twenty-six, the pianist formed his own group featuring several Thelonious Monk tunes in their repertoire, culminating in his debut album, Masao Yagi Plays Thelonious Monk, recorded in the summer of 1960. Later in the decade he played with Charlie Mariano, Hidehiko Matsumoto, and Helen Merrill.
The 1970s saw Yagi leading his own ensembles. He was well-known as a composer and arranger, and wrote copiously for film soundtracks.
Pianist Masao Yagi transitioned on March 4, 1991.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Warren Bernhardt was born on November 13, 1938 in Wausau, Wisconsin. His early childhood exposure to piano was due to his pianist father and he learned some rudiments of keyboarding from his friends. At five his parents moved to New York City, where he began studying seriously under varied instructors. After his father’s death he suffered a period of depression and quit music opting to study chemistry and physics at the University of Chicago. However, exposure to blues and jazz influenced the rest of his career.
From 1961 to 1964 he worked in Paul Winter’s sextet, which led to his return to New York. He would go on to work with George Benson, Gerry Mulligan, Jeremy Steig among others. He developed a close relationship with the pianist Bill Evans, who served as his mentor. Bernhardt released several solo albums in the Seventies, and eventually became a member of the jazz fusion group Steps Ahead. In 1971, he provided the piano accompaniment on the Don McLean song Crossroads.
Warren has toured as the musical director with Steely Dan and can be heard on their Alive in America album. He has performed on Simon and Garfunkel’s Old Friends tour, on Art Garfunkel’s solo tours, and on the latter’s presentation Across America.
In 2009 he reunited with his 1973 band L’Image, featuring Mike Mainieri, David Spinozza, Tony Levin and Steve Gadd. They released the album L ‘Image 2.0. Pianist Warren Bernhardt transitioned on August 19, 2022 of natural causes.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano