Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Corrado Abbate was born on February 19, 1958 in Turin, Italy. Originally trained as a classical pianist, he quickly turned to jazz and soon demonstrated a distinct aptitude for composition and arrangement.
During the 1980s he led a number of groups highly active on the Torinese scene, Arsis, Modal Jazz Quintet, and Sharp Eleventh, playing everything from hard bop to modal, from fusion to free-funk. He helped launch many talented young musicians, and during the same period he played with Massimo Urbani, Gianni Basso, Franco Mondini, Alfredo Ponissi, Luciano Bertolotti and many others.
1991 saw him forming his own quartet with tenor and soprano saxophonist Fulvio Albano, Claudio Nicola on double bass and drummer Raffaele Fontana. Two years later they recorded the album Brecce and played numerous concerts in Italy and important jazz festivals.
His next group was Primitivo, a group that was to become the most important acid-jazz band in the Turin area. With saxophonist Danilo Pala, the Cuban trumpeter Amik Guerra and percussionist Luis Casih, together with Nicola and Fontana they recorded Speed Jazz. In the new millennium he formed the Jazzcom Project and Multiverse Jazz Quartet, and is a member of the Gigi Di Gregorio Ensemble and the Cluzon Big Band.
Pianist Corrado Abbate continues to take on projects in the theatrical field, compose music for stage, and perform as a jazz musician.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jimmy Jewell was born on February 18, 1945 in the United Kingdom and began his career in 1962, participating in several jazz and rhythm and blues bands including Eddie Marten and the Sabres. Going professional the following year he joined the band Kris Ryan and the Questions after the band’s drummer Geoff Wills recommended his inclusion. With Jewell’s participation, Questions shifted genres, from rock to something more soul-oriented. Owing to artistic differences with Ryan, he left the band after final gigs in Germany during 1965.
In 1966 he moved to London, England played for a while in the Freddie Mack Sound and subsequently toured Germany with Chris Andrews and the Paramounts. Jimmy joined the Magics, a Berlin band, and toured Germany. In 1967, back in London, he played gigs with Lord “Caesar” Sutch & the Roman Empire, and the joined soul band Stewart James Inspiration, with whom he toured until their dissolution 1968.
After joining the Keef Hartley Band, Jewell played Woodstock and a couple of albums were released with his saxophone sound: The Battle of North West Six and The Time Is Near. A was a prolific session musician and band member during the 1970s, he recorded during 1973 and 1974 appearing on Ronnie Lane’s Anymore for Anymore. He recorded with the Hollies on their self-titled album. In the Seventies he recorded for Maggie Bell and Andy Fairweather Low, toured with Gallagher and Lyle and appeared on two of their albums.
He recorded with Fairport Convention, Chris de Burgh, performed with Roger Daltrey, John Lodge and with the Hollies. Jimmy went on to release two albums: I’m Amazed and From the First Time I Met You. By the Eighties work became occasional, including small jazz bands and collaboration with bluesman Lonnie Brooks on the 1981 album Turn On The Night.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anne Phillips was born on February 17, 1935 in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Studyinged piano growing up in suburbia, she didn’t hear jazz until she was a senior in high school. She studied at Oberlin College where she joined a jazz club and sang with the school’s big band and had a radio show.
By the time she turned nineteen she was in New York City playing piano and clubs six nights a week. Phillips started working in demo recordings for songwriters in the 1950s, and was a member of the Ray Charles Singers on the Perry Como Show. In 1959, she recorded her first jazz album, Born to Be Blue, for Roulette Records.
She went on to work as a singer, music arranger, conductor, writer, and producer for national commercials including Pepsi, Revlon, and Sheraton. Her Pepsi campaign included The Turtles, The Four Tops, The Hondells, and the Trade Masters. Anne has worked with Carole King, Burt Bacharach, and Neil Diamond
Composing and arranging then became more of her musical life. She went on to write the Christmas album Noel Noel for 25 singers a cappella. She followed this by writing The Great Grey Ghost of Old Spook Lane, a children’s musical, then an environmental piece What Are We Doing To Our World?, and a full musical, Damn Everything But The Circus. for which I wrote both music and lyrics with book writer Stephanie Braxton, has had several readings and is close to production.
Founding Kindred Spirits, a not-for-profit organization founded with her husband, Bob Kindred, the organization sponsors a yearly performance of Bending Towards the Light – A Jazz Nativity, which she composed. They also have an educational program for inner-city children called The Kindred Spirits Children’s Jazz Choirs which teaches jazz music.
Vocalist, composer, arranger, producer Anne Phillips is celebrating her 90th birthday.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gerald “Jerry” Segal was born on February 16, 1931 and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He majored in music at Mastbaum High before graduating and working with Bennie Green and Pete Rugolo in local clubs.
In the late 1950s he played with Johnny Smith, Terry Gibbs, Teddy Charles, Stan Getz, Charles Mingus, Herbie Mann, Lennie Tristano, Bob Dorough, Teo Macero, Curtis Fuller, Hampton Hawes, Dick Cary, Mal Waldron, Addison Farmer, the Australian Jazz Quintet, and Mose Allison.
From 1958 to 1960 he played with Bernard Peiffer and with the composer Edgar Varese in the 1950s. The 1960s saw him with Dave McKenna.
Raising his children he primarily became the big act show drummer for the honeymoon resort, the Mount Airy Lodge in the Poconos through the 60’s.
Drummer Jerry Segal, who never recorded as a leader, eventually disappeared from the jazz scene and died in August 1974. He was 43 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pekka Eerik Juhani Sarmanto was born February 15, 1945 in Helsinki, finland. He first studied classical violin at the Sibelius Academy from 1958 to 1964 before switching to upright bass. He initially played dance music but was soon invited to perform in jazz clubs by bandleaders like Eero Koivistoinen and Esa Pethman.
1967 saw him joining the house band of Down Beat Club where he played with musicians like Ben Webster and Dexter Gordon. In 1975 Sarmanto founded UMO, abbreviation of Uuden Musiikin Orkesteri, (New Music Orchestra) and the group accompanied many international jazz musicians visiting Finland. As a result Pekka was able to meet and play with Charles Mingus in Belgrade, Serbia; Gil Evans, Edward Vesala and Sonny Rollins.
Sarmanto received the Georgie Award of the Finnish Jazz Federation in 1978. In 1982 he worked on the album To a Finland Station with Dizzy Gillespie and Arturo Sandoval, released on the Pablo label in 1983. He considers this to be his most successful recording.
In 1996 the bassist founded the Pekka Sarmanto Trio and in 2007 he retired from UMO but he still keeps performing actively with different groups, including with his own trio..
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