Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stanley Ernest Sulzmann was born November 30, 1948 in London, England and began on saxophone at age 13, playing in Bill Ashton’s London Youth Jazz Orchestra, later the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1969-1972.
In the 1970s he played with the Clarke-Boland Big Band, Mike Gibbs, John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler, Volker Kriegel, Eberhard Weber, Zbigniew Seifert, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, and Gordon Beck. The 1980s saw him working with Gil Evans, Paul McCartney, the European Jazz Ensemble, the James Last Orchestra, the Hilversum Radio Orchestra, the NDR Big Band, and the London Jazz Orchestra.
Collaborations in the 1990s include with Allan Botschinsky, David Murray, Paul Clarvis, and Bruno Castellucci. Television audiences around the world have heard him as the saxophone soloist in The Belgian Detective, the theme music to ITV’s Poirot, composed by Christopher Gunning.
Saxophonist Stan Sulzmann has held teaching positions at the Guildhall School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and Trinity College of Music, and continues to teach, perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Keg Johnson was born Frederic Homer Johnson on November 19, 1908 in Dallas, Texas. His father was a choir director and he and his younger brother, Budd began their musical careers singing and playing first with their father and later with Portia Pittman, daughter of Booker T. Washington. They played in Dallas-area bands like the Blue Moon Chasers, then with Ben Smith’s Music Makers, eventually performing with Gene Coy and The Happy Black Aces.
Playing a variety of instruments but most noted as a trombonist, around 1928, in Kansas City, Missouri they played in several bands but by 1930 Keg left for Chicago, Illinois to play with Louis Armstrong, recording his first solo on Armstrong’s Basin Street Blues album. His move to New York City in 1933 Keg played with Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, and Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club, remaining with Cab for 15 years.
Leaving New York City for Los Angeles, California he briefly changed careers renovating houses. During the 1950s he returned to New York City where he and his brother reunited and recorded the album Let’s Swing. In 1961, he began playing with Ray Charles and was still in his band when trombonist Keg Johnson passed away in Chicago on November 8, 1967.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Calhoun was born November 13, 1921 in Clarksdale, Mississippi and raised in Chicago, Illinois. During the late Forties, he worked with Dick Davis and Ahmad Jamal in the early 1950s. Through the decade he played with Horace Henderson, Johnny Griffin, Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday, and Miles Davis. He joined Erroll Garner in 1955 and played with him through 1966, recording extensively and touring worldwide.
After his time with Garner, Calhoun settled again in Chicago, where he played with vocalist and pianist Norvel Reed from 1967 to 1968. For two years from 1972 to 1974, he ran a nightclub called Cal’s in Chicago and led a sextet at the Fantasy Club from 1975 to 1980.
1980 to 1986 saw him accompanying pianist Lennie Capp before joining the Chicago All-Stars alongside Erwin Helfer for a tour of Europe. Never recorded as a leader, he recorded ten albums as a sideman during his career. Double bassist Eddie Calhoun passed away on January 27, 1993 in Paradise Lake, Mississippi.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie Mariano was born Carmine Ugo Mariano on November 12, 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Italian immigrants. Growing up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, after high school, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After his discharge, he attended Schillinger House of Music, now Berklee College of Music. He was among the faculty at Berklee from 1965–1971.
Moving to Europe in 1971, he eventually settled in Köln, Germany, with his third wife, Dorothee Zippel. He played with one of the Stan Kenton big bands, Toshiko Akiyoshi, his second wife, Charles Mingus, Eberhard Weber, the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, Embryo and numerous other notable bands and musicians.
He was known for his use of the nadaswaram, a classical wind instrument from Tamil Nadu. He recorded thirteen albums as a leader and another sixty records as a sideman, working with Shelly Manne, Eberhard Weber, Manny Albam, Max Bennett, Chet Baker, Philip Catherine, Serge Chaloff, Peggy Connelly, Herb Ellis, Maynard Ferguson, Michael Gibbs, John Graas, George Gruntz, Chico Hamilton, Bill Harris, Bill Holman, Jackie and Roy, Elvin Jones, Quincy Jones, Mel Lewis, Arif Mardin, Toshiko Mariano, Vince Mendoza, Modern Jazz Quartet, Mike Nock, Nat Pierce, Herb Pomeroy, Irene Reid, Johnny Richards, Jimmy Ricks, Shorty Rogers, Frank Rosolino, Sal Salvador, Fredy Studer, Harvie Swartz, McCoy Tyner, Sadao Watanabe, Stu Williamson.
Alto and soprano saxophonist Carmine Mariano passed away from cancer on June 16, 2009
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jacques Loussier was born on October 26, 1934 in Angers, France. Starting piano lessons there aged ten, the following year he heard a piece from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. He fell in love with the music and began adding his own notes and expanding the harmonies. By 13, he met the pianist Yves Nat in Paris, who regularly gave him projects for three months, after which he returned for another lesson.
While studying at the Conservatoire National Musique, Loussier began composing music, having moved by then to Paris, with Nat, from the age of 16. He played jazz in Paris bars to finance his studies, and fusing Bach and jazz was unique at the time. After six years of studies, he traveled to the Middle East and Latin America, where he was inspired by different sounds. He stayed in Cuba for a year.
Early in his career, he was an accompanist for the singers Frank Alamo, Charles Aznavour, Léo Ferré, and Catherine Sauvage, before forming a trio in 1959 with string bass player Pierre Michelot, a Reinhardt alum, and percussionist Christian Garros. The trio began with Decca Records then moved to Philips/Phonogram in 1973, selling over six million albums in 15 years.
By the mid-1970s, the trio dissolved and Jacques set up his own recording studio, Studio Miraval, where he composed for acoustic and electric instruments. He recorded with musicians such as Pink Floyd, Elton John, Sting, Chris Rea, and Sade. Reviving his trio in 1985, with the percussionist André Arpino and the bassist Vincent Charbonnier. As early as 1998 the trio recorded interpretations). Besides Bach, the trio recorded interpretations of classical compositions on the album Satie: Gymnopédies Gnossienne. His last albums, My Personal Favorites, and Beyond Bach, Other Composers I Adore, were released in 2014, on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
Suffering a stroke during a performance at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr on July 14, 2011 retired from the stage. Pianist Jacques Loussier, who performed in the classical, jazz, and third stream arenas, passed away on March 5, 2019 at the age of 84.
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