Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jean-Charles Capon was born on July 29, 1936 in Vichy, France. A virtuoso on the cello, he began playing professionally at the beginning of the 60s before creating the Baroque Jazz Trio. His name was rapidly linked to different cult groups for whom he became the guest star for Confluence, Perception, and Speed Limit, but also with many more or less well-known free jazz musicians including David S. Ware with whom he recorded the impeccable duo From Silence To Music, as well as Philippe Maté, Michel Roques, André Jaume or Joe McPhee with Po Music.
Jef Gilson helped get his career under way (they recorded together as far back as 1968) before Pierre Barouh, owner of Saravah Records with whom Jean-Charles played alongside Brigitte Fontaine and Areski. He offered him the opportunity to record his first album: L’Univers-solitude.
Capon admired Duke Ellington, John Lewis and Gabriel Fauré, as can be heard on his later highly personal versions of Mood Indigo, Django and Après un rêve. As for Pierre Favre, he is not there just to make up the numbers: his timbral research and combinations of complex rhythms offer the French cellist wonderful interaction throughout this remarkable album which had finally been given a dignified rerelease.
The fluidity of the phrasing, timbral research, complex rhythmic combinations and rare sense of improvisation make this one of the best modern jazz recordings on the Saravah label in the 1970s.
Cellist Jean~Charles Capon transitioned on August 22, 2011 in the 10th Arrondissement, Paris, France.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Luciano Troja was born in Messina, Italy on July 6, 1963. Self-taught from the age of 6, he studied for several years with the pianist-composer Salvatore Bonafede. In New York City, for a brief and intensive time, he studied with Richie Beirach. He attended several jazz courses and clinics such as Siena Jazz, Berklee Clinics in Umbria, Aebersold School in London, and piano courses with Shirley Scott, James Williams and Franco D’Andrea.
Luciano has performed at festivals and jazz clubs in Europe and the United States. He is the pianist of the Mahanada Quartet, an original combination of free improvisation and written music. He released three CDs with Mahanada that garnered extremely good reviews and recognitions. He released two CDs in duo with the guitarist Giancarlo Mazzù, Seven Tales About Standards and Seven Tales About Standards Vol. 2, both considered as a creative and original approach to the standards.
He along with Salvatore Bonafede of Double Piano Orchestra have recorded Double Rainbow and My Funny Valentine (Wide Sound, 2008).
He has been named Talent of the Year, Pianist of the Year, Group of the Year and CD of the Year in Top Jazz Poll of Musica Jazz magazine. He has since released At Home With Zindars a piano solo project. Pianist Luciano Troja continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Baird was born Lusaka, Zambia on July 5, 1954 and moved to the Netherlands at an early age, where he learned to play drums. Since the mid-1970s he has worked with several Dutch jazz groups and from 1975-83 he played and recorded with Gijs Hendriks, Slide Hampton, Kenny Drew, Raul Burnet, Sonny Grey, Siggi Kessler, Michel Herr, Michel Grailler, Joe Diorio, Jan Akkerman, Wim Overgaauw, Stan Tracey, and Kenny Wheeler.
He founded his own label SWP Records in 1986, led his group Sharp Wood for a decade beginning in 1986 and the octet Utrecht Deep Artment for two years. In 2000 he put together a quintet CapeAbility, followed by sextet Trendy 3D Junk and by 2002 was performing solo concerts along with various other projects and composition commissions.
He has compiled and produced a 22 Cd series “Historical Recordings by Hugh Tracey” of African music from the 40s and 50s, made his own field recordings in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and released both on SWP Records.
Drummer, percussionist and keyboardist Michael Baird continues to perform, record and push the boundaries of jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dennis Matthew Budimir was born on June 20, 1938 in Los Angeles, California. He learned to play piano and guitar in his youth and first played professionally when he was fourteen years old. In mid Fifties Los Angeles he played in a quartet with La Monte Young, Billy Higgins, and Don Cherry and by the late 1950s he was working in the bands of Ken Hanna, Keith Williams, Harry James, and Chico Hamilton.
From 1960–1961 he worked with Bud Shank and accompanied Peggy Lee prior to entering military service. After his discharge in 1963 he toured Japan with Bobby Troup and returned to the Los Angeles area, where he came off the road and became a studio musician for the next several decades. He recorded in this capacity with Lalo Schifrin, Marty Paich, Don Ellis, Gil Melle, Ella Fitzgerald, Milt Jackson, Stan Getz, Julie London, Jimmy Smith, Ray Brown, Johnny Mandel and the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut.
This opportunity also led him to record with Joni Mitchell, The Carpenters, Brian Wilson, Barbra Streisand, Ravi Shankar, Frank Zappa, Linda Ronstadt, Dusty Springfield, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones, David Axelrod, Tom Waits, Harry Nilsson, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Johnny Mathis, Cher, and Doris Day. He recorded more than 900 movie soundtracks from the early 1960s until the 2000s.
Guitarist Dennis Budimir, considered to be a member of The Wrecking Crew, transitioned on January 10, 2023 at the age of 84.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenn Smith was born Kenneth Lamont Smith on April 27, 1962 in Chicago, Illinois.
As a child of the 60s and Seventies living on the WestSide of his hometownhe first heard the sounds of Motown, Soul, Funk, Country, Jazz and Rock. His school was shows like Hee Haw and Midnight Special, his parents’ record collection, and a neighborhood filled with amateur and professional musicians.
When the family moved to the SouthSide in 1975, Smith began his guitar studies at age 13 with a visit to the local music store purchasing two Mel Bay books. Three years later the family moved to the western suburbs of Maywood, Illinois. At 16 he began classical guitar studies with guitarist Bruce Walters, and later continued studies at Jack Cecchini Studio.
While attending Proviso East High School, he played electric and classical guitar as well as timpani in the Proviso Township Orchestra, electric guitar and bass in the Proviso East High School jazz band, where he received the Louis Armstrong Award for Outstanding Jazz Improvisation during his senior year.
1982 saw Kenn beginning his career teaching guitar at Robinson’s Music Academy in Maywood, as well as performing with local funk and fusion bands. This he did while attending Columbia College of Chicago, studying music management and production. In 1987 he enrolled at the American Conservatory of Music where he studied jazz guitar and composition. In between those years of teaching, performing and study, he became an avid fan of progressive rock and fusion, developing skills as a guitarist, bassist and composer.
In 1986, he began his career as a freelance guitarist and bassist, performing on Chicago’s jazz, blues and rock scene. But it wasn’t till 1989 his professional career took off, working as a guitarist at the Chicago Cotton Club. It was here he later formed his first jazz trio and opened for jazz greats Shirley Horn, Stanley Turrentine, Freddy Cole, and Art Porter. As a jazz side man he played with other jazz greats, Jodie Christian, Guy Fricano, Johnny Frigo, Bobby Broom, Najee and many others.
He would go on tour with the Chi-Lites, start his own label Kenn Smith Music, has written, produced and recorded eight albums, as well as authored an instruction book for electric bass and numerous articles for online magazines such as Mel Bay Bass Sessions, and Bass Musician Magazine.
Guitarist, bassist, composer, educator and journalist Kenn Smith, who is well versed in many styles of music, continues to explore his music.
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