Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hank Johnson was born Stuart H. Tresser in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York on July 14, 1949. He began playing the piano at three years old with his first piano teacher Mrs. Henryetta Klein. He continued his private lessons with classical teacher Ms. Malady at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Morty Reed, Teddy Wilson and Horace Parlan. Studying with Machito’s copyist and arranger Ray Cox, he learned to write music.
Graduating from George W. Wingate High School in Brooklyn in 1967, Hank won 1st prize at the high school talent show with the first interracial jazz trio and vocalist. Not satisfied with just becoming a great pianist he went on to matriculate through New York City Technical College with a degree in graphic arts and advertising technology, and New York Institute of Technology in Communication Arts.
In 1977 Hank had replaced Jimmy Nottingham’s trio at the Village Door Restaurant and Supper Club in Jamaica, Queens, NY. It was there at the Village Door that Hank got the hands on experience that would spark and ignite his goal to share his talent with the world.
He founded the independent record label Jazzbone Records where he composes and produces. Presently he continues to perform around his native New York, is the director of Tresser Printing Office, a security printer and a division of Tresser Music, music publishers.
Take A Dose On The Road
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Tiberi ws born December 4, 1928 in Camden, New Jersey. He plays the alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute and bassoon. He has been performing and recording since the age of thirteen and has toured with Benny Goodman and Urbie Green, and has played with Dizzy Gillespie.
He is a part time professor at Berklee College of Music where he teaches improvisational techniques and pedagogy. He has served as the director for the Camden Jazz Festival. Tiberi specializes in modern and contemporary jazz techniques and has released EPs with fellow Berklee instructor George Garzone.
Saxophonist Frank Tiberi is currently the leader of the Woody Herman Orchestra. Herman handpicked him shortly before his death to lead the band. He has been doing so since 1987.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Terell Stafford was born on November 25, 1966 in Miami Florida and raised in Chicago, Illinois and Silver Spring, Maryland. Originally a classical trumpet player, he soon branched out to jazz with the University of Maryland jazz band. He went on to get a degree in music education from the University of Maryland in 1988 and a degree in classical trumpet performance from Rutgers University in 1993.
Soon afterwards his career in jazz picked up and playing with McCoy Tyner, Christian McBride, John Clayton, Steve Turre, Dave Valentin and Russell Malone. In 1995 he released his debut album Time To Let Go on the Candid label. Not one to settle for the status quo of who’s who, he has found other up-and-comers such as bassist Derrick Hodge, who appears as a sideman on his 2003 MaxJazz release New Beginnings.
As an educator Stafford is the current Director of Jazz Studies at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University, has worked with the Juilliard School’s jazz program at the Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington program, and with the 2006 All-Alaska Jazz Band.
In between his teaching responsibilities trumpeter Terell Stafford has performed at Carnegie Hall, has been a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, recorded nine CDs, performed as a sideman with Stephen Scott, Shirley Scott, Bobby Watson, Lafayette Harris, Cecil Brooks III, Tim Warfield, Ed Wiley, Cornell Dupree, Herbie Mann, Victor Lewis, Marc Cary, Melissa Walker Ferit Odman, Jack cooper, Bruce Barth and the Arkadia Jazz All Stars as he continues to perform, record and tour.
Take A Dose On The Road
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gerard Gibbs was born on November 16, 1967 in Detroit, Michigan and his father introduced him to jazz organist Richard “Groove” Holmes at the age of three. At seven he met Holmes who then became his idol. Though he began his training at age nine in classical piano, his love for jazz never faded.
By 1981, while home recuperating from corrective leg surgery, Holmes surprised the young musician, took an immediate interest and began mentoring him and showing him the tricks of the trade. For the next decade until Holmes’ death, their relationship would grow only stronger. But Holmes was only Gerard’s first encounter with great organists and he would go on to be mentored by Jimmy Smith, rub shoulders with Joey DeFrancesco and Jimmy McGriff and jam with the Mighty Burner himself, Charles Earland. These experiences added to his development and arsenal of techniques.
Gibbs currently performs on the concert circuit with Marion Meadows, Ronnie Laws, James Carter, and lends his talents to Pieces Of A Dream. When not leading two jazz bands playing jazz at night and on weekends, he is busy as an Architectural Engineer for the City of Detroit. He plays keyboards in his contemporary jazz group RYX and organ with Gerard Gibbs and ORGANized Crime.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bruce Barth was born September 7, 1958 in Pasadena, California. He started banging on the piano almost before he could walk. By the age of five he started piano lessons though he preferred to play by ear. When he was eight his family moved to New York where he studied piano and musicianship with Tony and Sue LaMagra for the next decade. Turning 15 his older brother Rich gave him his first jazz record, Mose Allison’s Back Country Suite. The young lad fell in love with both the music and the genre and inspired, he taught himself to play jazz by listening to records and imitating his many favorite pianists and horn players.
He went on to study privately with Norman Simmons and Neil Waltzer, and eventually enrolled in New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied with Jaki Byard, Fred Hersch, and George Russell. Barth’s first professional recording was Russell’s masterpiece, The African Game, captured live on Blue Note Records. Arriving on the New York jazz scene in 1988, he soon joined tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine and their musical collaboration spanned a decade. Shortly thereafter, he toured Japan with Nat Adderley, and toured Europe and recorded with Vincent Herring’s quintet with Dave Douglas.
In 1990, Bruce joined the Terence Blanchard Quintet; the band toured extensively, and also recorded six CDs, as well as several movie soundtracks. In 1992, he played piano on-screen in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. While in Blanchard’s band, he recorded his first two CD’s as a leader, In Focus and Morning Call; both were chosen for the New York Times’ top ten lists.
Throughout his professional life, Bruce has performed and collaborated with Tony Bennett, Steve Wilson, Terell Stafford, Luciana Souza, and Karrin Allyson, David Sanchez, James Moody, Phil Woods, Freddie Hubbard, Tom Harrell, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Art Farmer, Victor Lewis, John Patitucci, Lewis Nash, the Mingus Big Band, Tim Armacost, Scott Wendholt, Dave Stryker, Carla Cook, Paula West, Rene Marie, Luis Bonilla, Doug Weiss, Ugonna Okegwo, Montez Coleman, Dana Hall and Dayna Stephens, among numerous others.
As an educator pianist Bruce Barth is on the jazz faculty of Temple University, has taught at Berklee College of Music, Long Island University, currently gives private lessons to City College University and New School students, and has participated in many workshops, clinics, and seminars in the U. S. and abroad. To date he has performed on over one hundred recordings and movie soundtracks, including ten as a leader, is a Grammy nominated producer, and has served two years on the panel for the U.S. State Department “Jazz Ambassadors” program,. He continues to play solo piano, lead an all-star septet and composed for a variety of ensembles.
Take A Dose On The Road
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