Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Peter Perfido‘was born on July 21, 1956 in Hartford, Connecticut. He started his drumming musical journey in the early Sixties being influenced by the British Wave of the Beatles, the Kinks, the Animals, and the Who. By the mid 70’s Peter had begun to discover jazz and improvised music. While predominantly self-taught, he studied privately with Kit McDermott, Bob Moses and Jerry Granelli. His career has involved playing jazz, improvised music, rock and blues with scores of lauded musicians from diverse styles and backgrounds.
Peter has performed and/or recorded with Chet Baker, Gary Peacock, Lee Konitz, Jimmy Woode, Bill Barron, Art Lande, Julian Priester, David Friedman, Tomasz Stanko, Sal Nistico, Kent Carter, Rasul Siddik, Bob Degen, Heinz Sauer, Bob Mover, Ed Schuller, Anthony Braxton, Joe Lee Wilson, Lou Bennett, Bobby Few, Barney Wilen, Bobby Few, Liz McComb, Michelle Hendricks, Ferenc Snetberger, Rinde Eckert, Lonnie Plaxico , Stephen Haynes, Michel Pilz, Lonnie Plaxico, and the list goes on.
He has toured across the USA, Western Canada, Europe, Asia, the USSR and the Pacific islands. Currently living in Hohrod, Alsace, France, drummer Peter Perfido performs mostly in Europe these days with groups spanning a wide spectrum of influences from mainstream modern jazz to open ended explorations with free improvisation, as well as shuffling and rocking the blues.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Brian Priestley was born on July 10, 1940 in Manchester, England and began studying music at the age of eight. In the 1960s he gained a degree in modern languages from Leeds University, while playing in student bands. In the mid-1960s, he began contributing to the jazz press and was responsible for entries in Jazz on Record: A Critical Guide to the First Fifty Years, 1917–1967.
In 1969 he moved to London, England and began playing piano with bands led by Tony Faulkner and Alan Cohen. Priestley helped transcribe Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige, and Creole Rhapsody for Cohen. He formed his own Special Septet featuring Digby Fairweather and Don Rendell. His compositions include Blooz For Dook, The Whole Thing and Jamming With Jools, based on a live broadcast with Jools Holland.
As a broadcaster he worked on the BBC, London Jazz FM, and for BBC Radio London, and influenced the renewed interest in jazz in the 1980s. Priestley taught jazz piano at Goldsmiths College from 1977 until 1993, and has taught jazz history for various other universities and conservatoires over the years.
Priestley has also written biographies of Charles Mingus, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, as well as the book Jazz on Record: A History. He co-authored The Rough Guide to Jazz, as well as contributing to several other reference books, and has compiled and/or annotated more than a hundred reissue compilations.
Writer, pianist and arranger Brian Priestley has lived in Tralee, Ireland since 2006 where he continues playing the piano and presents a show on Radio Kerry.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Karl Kiffe, born July 6, 1925 in Los Angeles, California first attracted attention as winner of the annual Gene Krupa Contest in 1943. Succeeding Chuck Falkner as leader of the Hollywood Canteen Kids he was featured in novelty numbers in several feature films before working as a single in Ken Murray’s Blackouts.
1945 saaw him hired by Jimmy Dorsey, with whom he worked for about a year, and then again from 1950 through 1953. Over the next decade, Kiffe worked with Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Charlie Shavers, Red Norvo and Woody Herman, as well as singers Andy Williams, June Christy, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Speaking in 1946, when asked which drummer he most admired, Kiffe cited the solos of Buddy Rich, while praising the big band work of Don Lamond and Jo Jones.
Drummer Karl Kiffe, who was great friends with saxophonist Warne Marsh, died on May 10, 2004 at the age of 76 in Las Vegas, Nevada
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Adrian Francis Rollini was born June 28, 1903 in New York City, New York of French and Swiss extraction. Growing up in Larchmont, New York, he showed musical ability early on and began to take piano lessons at the age of two. Considered a child prodigy, he played a fifteen-minute recital at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel at the age of four. By age 14 he was leading his group composed of neighborhood boys, in which he doubled on piano and xylophone.
Leaving high school in his third year he cut piano rolls for the Aeolian company on their Mel-O-Dee label and the Republic brand in Philadelphia, Pennsyolvania. At 16 he joined Arthur Hand’s California Ramblers and being equally skilled at piano, drums, xylophone, and bass saxophone, gained him Hand’s respect. Hand transferred the band to Rollini when he retired from the music field.
During the 1920s not only was he a member of the California Ramblers with Red Nichols, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, he also held membership in The Little Ramblers, The Goofus Five, and The Golden Gate Orchestra. During this time, he managed to lay down hundreds of sessions with Annette Hanshaw, Cliff Edwards, Joe Venuti, Miff Mole, Red Nichols, Bix Beiderbecke, Roger Wolfe Kahn, and Frank Trumbauer.
The 1930s saw him forming the Adrian Rollini Orchestra which recorded on Perfect, Vocalion, Melotone, Banner, and Romeo labels, where he played both bass saxophone and vibraphone. During the early swing era, starting in 1935, he managed Adrian’s Tap Room, owned the Whitby Grill, and opened White Way Musical Products, a store for the sale and repair of musical instruments.
Gradually shifting from the bass saxophone to the vibraphone after popularity of the hot jazz era of the 1920s waned. He went on to play hotels, arranging and writing songs behind the scenes. After an exhaustive career, he made his last recording with his trio in the early 1950s. He relocated to Florida, opened the Eden Roc Hotel in 1955, ran the Driftwood Inn at Tavernier Key and his Driftwood offered deep-sea fishing charters.
Bass saxophonist, pianist, and vibraphonist Adrian Rollini, died under unsolved circumstances on May 15, 1956 at the age of 52 in Homestead, Florida.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michel Benebig was born in Nouméa, New Calédonia, South-Pacific on June 27, 1964. He started playing bass guitar, accordion and keyboards in dancing bands at age 11. He studied classical piano from 16 to 26 yers old, at the Noumea Music-School, then in France at C.N.R de Besancon from 1990 to 1992.
Michel started playing the Hammond B3 organ in 1992. As a self-taught musician he taught himself how to play foot-pedal bass and jazz organ techniques. Meeting Jimmy McGriff in Atlanta, Georgia in 1995, Jimmy Smith in Oakland, California and Rhoda Scott in Nouméa the following year.
Michel has performed with guitarist Bruce Forman, drummer Lewis Nash, organist Tony Monaco, guitarist Randy Johnston and many more.
Organist, composer and bandleader Michel Benebig who is the founder of the Association des Musiciens de Jazz & Blues pour les Echanges et la Création Artistique, Artistic Director of YAARI, continues to perform and tour.
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