Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jonny King was born Jonathan Z. King on February 2, 1965 in New York City, New York. Raised in New York City, he graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School. A jazz pianist primarily self-taught, he has neither received any formal music education nor attended any jazz schools. His school of music was life – obsessively listening to records, going to jam sessions and soaking up as much live and recorded music as possible from traditional to avant-garde.
He credits pianist Mulgrew Miller and Tony Aless as his important influences, mentors and personal teachers. As well as recording under his own name, he has performed with, among others Roy Hargrove, Kenny Garrett, Bobby Watson, Christian McBride, Joe Lovano, Ira Coleman, Billy Drummond, Mark Turner, Vincent Herring, Steve Nelson, Peter Washington, Joshua Redman, Steve Davis, David Sanchez, Milton Cardona and Larry Grenadier.
He has released three albums in the 90s on the Criss Cross and Enja labels – In From the Cold, Notes From The Underground and Meltdown. In between his duties as an attorney at a copyright practice, he continues to approach music the way he learned, both as a performer and composer.
Give A Gift Of Jazz – Share
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Danilo Pérez was born on December 29, 1965 in Panama and started his musical training at 3 years old on bongos with his father Danilo Sr., a professional bandleader and singer. By age 10 he was studying the European Classical Piano repertoire at the National Conservatory in Panama, eventually transferring to the Berklee College of Music to study Jazz composition.
During the yeas 1985 to ’88 while at Berklee, Danilo played with Jon Hendricks, Terence Blanchard, Claudio Roditi and Paquito D’Rivera. He would go on to tour Poland in ’95 and play the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in ‘96 with Wynton Marsalis, be a part of the Grammy winning album Danzon, perform at President Clinton’s Inaugural Ball and played piano on the Bill Cosby theme song.
Perez has had the fortune to play and record with such luminaries as Charlie Haden, Michael Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Joe Lovano, Gary Burton, Wayne Shorter, Tom Harrell, Roy Haynes, Steve Lacy and many others.
Pianist and composer Danilo Perez, whose primary influence of style and thought was Dizzy Gillespie, but as a child gleaned from the recordings the styles of Gershwin, Ellington, Coltrane and Monk. He has recorded over a dozen albums, served as a professor at the New England Conservatory of Music, and serves as the artistic director of the Berklee College of Music Global Jazz Institute.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Essiet Okon Essiet was born on September 1, 1956 in Omaha, Nebraska to Nigerian parents. His father worked for the U.S. and Nigerian governments, moving the family from city to city. While living in Wisconsin he began studying violin at age 10 later switching to bass viola at 14.
As a child, his wide travels with his family gave him early exposure to many cultures, folkways, languages, and religions fostered his worldview of strength through diversity. This gave Essiet the ability to fluently mix styles, though he predominantly plays in the modern idiom.
Essiet was Art Blakey’s last bassist, playing with him for 2 years and recording on three sessions. He has performed with Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton, Benny Golson, Mulgrew Miller, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Bobby Watson, Billy Higgins, Kenny Kirkland, Joe Henderson, Johnny Griffin, Kevin Mahogany, Kurt Elling and Geri Allen and the Blue Note All Stars to name a few.
Since 1985 he has been at the Conservancy in The Hague as a lecturer. One of the most in demand bassist in jazz, Essiet currently leads Ibo, a Nigerian jazz project.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Anthony Pompeo, better known as Johnny Rae or John Rae was born on August 11, 1934 in Saugus, Massachusetts and grew up in music, as his mother played piano in night clubs in the Boston area. His area of musical study in jazz led him to become a drummer and vibraphonist. Graduating from East Boston High School in 1952, he went on to study piano at the New England Conservatory and timpani at Berklee College of Music.
Johnny joined Herb Lee’s R&B band right out of high school, gigged with Slim Gaillard and Milt Buckner, played drums and vibes with Al Vega and Jay Migliori. Upon the recommendation of MJQ’s John Lewis, he teamed up with to play with George Shearing, alongside Toots Thielemans, Al McKibbon on bass and three Latin percussionists that included conguero Armando Peraza. It was during this period that Peraza taught him to play timbales.
He played with Johnny Smith, Ralph Sharon, Cozy Cole and Herbie Mann throughout the Fifties. The next couple of decades were equally commanding of his talents by Cal Tjader, Stan Getz, Gabor Szabo, Charlie Byrd, Earl Hines, Art Van Damme, Anita O’Day and Barney Kessel among many others. Though mainly concentrating in the context modern jazz, he never wandered far from Latin music and the Latin jazz percussion he played.
Though he was on more than three-dozen recording sessions, Johnny only recorded one as a leader, “Opus De Jazz, Volume 2” in 1960 for Savoy. A second release under his name was in actuality him fronting Herbie Mann’s band for contractual reasons.
Since the 1980s Rae has worked in music education, has authored several instruction books and was a disc jockey in San Francisco for many years. He assembled a tribute band to Tjader called Radcliff (Tjader’s middle name) and led the band until his death. Johnny Rae, drummer and vibraphonist passed away in 1993 in San Francisco, California.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Johnny Mandel was born John Alfred Mandel on November 23, 1925 in New York, New York. His mother, an opera singer, discovered he had perfect pitch at age five. Piano lessons ensued but Johnny switched to the trumpet and later the trombone.
Johnny studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Julliard School. By 1943 he was playing trumpet with Joe Venuti, in 1944 with Billy Rogers and then trombone in the bands of Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, George Auld and Chubby Jackson. In 1949 he accompanied singer June Christy in the Bob Cooper Orchestra, then with Elliot Lawrence’s outfit, followed by a stint with Count Basie and a move to Los Angeles, California to play with Zoot Sims.
In the late Forties and into the Fifties he wrote jazz compositions like “Not Really the Blues” for Woody Herman, “Hershey Bar” and “Pot Luck” for Stan Getz, “Straight Life” and “Low Life” for Count Basie as well as “Tommyhawk” for Chet Baker. Mandel composed, conducted and arranged the music for numerous movie sound tracks with his earliest credited contribution to “I Want To Live” in 1958 being nominated for a Grammy. Mandel’s most famous compositions include “Suicide Is Painless” from M*A*S*H, “Close Enough for Love”, “Emily”, “A Time for Love”, and “The Shadow Of Your Smile” which won an Oscar for Best Song and a Grammy for Song Of The Year in 1966.
Mandel is a recipient of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award, has won several Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Arrangements Accompanying Vocals for Quincy Jones’ Velas, Natalie & Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable and Shirley Horn’s Here’s To Life. He has composed music with lyricists Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Paul Williams and Johnny Mercer; and arranged for Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Diana Krall, The Diva Jazz Orchestra and Ann Hampton Calloway among numerous others.
