Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marilyn Crispell was born March 30, 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and studied classical piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. She discovered jazz through the music of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and other contemporary jazz players and composers like Paul Bley and Leo Smith.
For ten years Marilyn was a member of Anthony Braxton’s Quartet and the Reggie Workman Ensemble. She has worked with the Barry Guy New Orchestra as well as a member of the Henry Grimes Trio, the European Quartet Noir and Anders Jormin’s Bortom Quintet.
A resident of Woodstock, New York since 1977 when she came to study and teach at Karl Berger’s Creative Music Studio, in 2005 she performed and recorded with the NOW Orchestra, a year later she was co-director of the Vancouver Creative Music Institute and a faculty member at the Banff Centre International Workshop in Jazz.
Crispell has performed and recorded nearly two-dozen albums as a soloist and leader of her own groups as well as with John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Robert Cogan, Pozzi Escot, Manfred Niehaus, Larry Ochs, Reggie Workman,Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Steve lacy and Anthony Davis with the New York City Opera, among numerous others.
Pianist Marilyn Crispell, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, continues to perform, record and teach throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada and New Zealand, and collaborate with videographers, filmmakers, dancers and poets.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nicole Mitchell was born on February 17, 1967 in Syracuse, New York where she was raised until age eight, when her family moved to Anaheim, California. She began with piano and viola in the fourth grade; however, she was classically trained in flute and played in youth orchestras as a teenager. Her initial college major in math was superseded by jazz while in college and took to busking in the streets playing jazz flute. After two years at the University of California, San Diego, in 1987 she transferred to Oberlin College.
In 1990 a move to Chicago saw her playing once again on the streets and working for third World Press and meeting members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Mitchell soon started playing with the all-women ensemble Samana under the AACM umbrella. Over the next several years she moved to New Orleans, became a mother, returned to school earning her BA and Masters, met and extensively began playing with Hamid Drake, then worked with saxophonist David Boykin prior to starting her group the Black Earth Ensemble” and co-hosting the Avant-Garde Jazz Jam Sessions in Chicago.
Releasing her debut album “Vision Quest” in 2001, she has been named “Rising Star” flautist for 2004 -2006 by Down Beat and by Down Beat International Critics Poll in 2010 & 2011. As an educator, Nicole has taught at Northern Illinois, Chicago State, Northeastern Illinois University, Wheaton College and the University of Illinois at Chicago; and has been co-president of the AACM since 2006.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeno Beamter was born on August 7, 1912 in Budapest, Hungary. Graduating from high school in 1930 he was already trained as a drummer at the age of seven, although he was taught to play the violin. He completed his musical studies privately. From 1930 , he was taught to play the drums by Vilmos Roubal, a member of the Opera House. He soon began to play the vibraphone.
From 1933 he played in various bands, Bubi Vibraphone Ensemble, Solymossy–Beamter Duo, Ernő Vécsey Ensemble, Martiny Band, and Szabó–Beamter Duo. He made his first recordings with the Smiling Boys band.
The various jazz formations of Jenő Horváth’s Radiola Band, the Herrer band, the Durium band, Tabányi and its soloists, János Gaál Gyulai’s small band, and the Deák Big Band were the prominent bands in which he played. He made guest appearances in Austria, Switzerland, the GDR, England, and Yugoslavia.
In the 1970s, he performed with Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra in a joint show at the Kennedy Center. Jeno performed live with Tabányi on Hungarian Radio for fifteen years, almost every Sunday.
Drummer, vibraphonist, composer and educator Jeno Beamter, who performed in the traditional, modern and was one of the legendary figures of Hungarian swing music, died on January 11, 1984 in the city of his birth.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Raymond Allen Draper was born on August 3, 1940 in New York City. He attended the Manhattan School of Music in the mid-1950s. As a leader, he recorded his debut album, Tuba Sounds in 1957 for Prestige Records at the age of 16, with a quintet. His sophomore album, The Ray Draper Quintet featuring John Coltrane, was recorded at the age of 17 with slight changes in his quintet, including John Coltrane.
His drug use got him imprisoned, however, after his release in the late 1960s, Draper formed the first jazz rock fusion band composed of established jazz musicians of the day. This preceded Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, which is normally recognized as the first jazz rock fusion group and recording by two years.
Original band members included George Bohanon on trombone, Hadley Caliman on tenor sax, John Duke on upright bass, Paul Lagos on drums and Tom Trujillo on guitar. This band, after its first live performance at Hollywood’s Whisky a Go Go and was offered numerous record deals and booked solid at rock venues for the rest of the year. Lagos went on to tour with John Mayall and was one of the founders of the group Pure Food & Drug Act, featuring Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris.
He began using heroin again and the more experienced band members quit, except for the youngest member, guitarist Tom Trujillo and his landlord, Chuck Gooden. He hired San Diego trumpeter Don Sleet and saxophonist Ernie Watts. Eventually Draper brought drummer Paul Lagos back, along with saxophonist Richard Aplanalp, trumpeter Phil Wood, and bassist Ron Johnson, becoming a new group named Red Beans and Rice.
They recorded the album Red Beans and Rice Featuring Sparerib Ray Draper on Epic Records. They disbanded, he got hooked on drugs again, and left California for a couple of years in London, England. He was seen sporadically performing and recording. Returning to New York City in the hopes of becoming clean, he remarried and had two children, and continued to compose for other musicians.
He went on to play for a time with Max Roach, and in 1982 he joined the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. Tha year, coming out of a bank in Harlem, he was held up by a gang of juveniles. The 13-year-old leader of the gang shot him, after he had given him his money.
Tuba player Ray Draper, who had been clean of drug use and was working on a composition found in his attaché case, died on November 1, 1982.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alan Gaumer was born on July 25, 1951 in Bethelehem, Pennsylvania. He began playing the trumpet when he was eight and was a member of Kal’s Kid’s that appeared on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour as well as numerous other television shows. Throughout elementary, junior and high school he participated in band, orchestra, and stage bands and graduated from Freedom High School in 1969.
He studied with John Nero and Willard Schissler and performed with the Allentown Band before attending the U.S. Navy School of Music. Upon graduation he spent the next three years living in Gaeta, Italy touring Europe, Africa and Asia with the Navy Show Band. Offered the jazz trumpet position at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis before his discharge, from 1973-75 he toured first as trumpeter and later as drummer with the well known group KATO.
Settling back in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania he was an integral part of a popular group P.F. & the Flyers and his own A.G.Q. After attending Rutgers University, Alan spent two years touring South America and West Africa with the U.S. Navy Show Band. When he got out in 1982, he worked for several years at well known hotels and resorts.
He has performed with a long list of jazz musicians which include Randy Brecker, Phil Woods, Al Cohn, George Young, Bob Dorough, Tom Harrell, Bill Watrous, Urbie Green, Kim Parker, Vic Jurris, Charles Fambrough, Bill Washer, John Swanna, David Leonhardt, Steve Gilmore, Bill Goodwin, Bobby Routch, Tom Schuman of Spyro Gyra and others.
As an educator Gaumer has been the jazz trumpet Artist/Lecturer at Moravian College since 1994 and served as Fusion ensemble director in 1998-99, 2003-04 and 2005-06. He is Artistic Director of the Pennsylvania Jazz Collective, a Lehigh Valley based non-profit jazz organization.
Trumpeter and educator Alan Gaumer continues to perform, teach and produce jazz events.
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