Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Elmon Wright was born on October 27, 1929 in Kansas City, Missouri to trumpeter Lammar Wright Sr. and the brother of trumpeter Lammar Wright Jr. Following in his father’s and brother’s footsteps, he learned to play the trumpet.
Wright played with Don Redman early in his career, then with Dizzy Gillespie’s first big band in 1945. He then went on to play with Roy Eldridge and then went back to Gillespie’s band, touring and recording with him from 1946 until 1950.
He toured with Earl Bostic for a year in 1954, then worked as a freelance musician in New York City, performing at the Apollo Theater in Harlem with R&B and rock groups. He played with Buddy Rich and Earle Warren in 1959 and recorded with Milt Jackson in 1963. Trumpeter Elmon Wright transitioned in 1984.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Cocuzzi was born in Camp Springs, Maryland on Andrews Air Force Base on October 26, 1964. Taking a very early interest in playing drums, immediately after graduating from high school, in 1982 he attended Montgomery Junior College in Rockville, Maryland as an applied percussion major. While there he also studied arranging with Bill Potts, who wrote for Buddy Rich and others.
Towards the end of the decade he had established himself, performing in and around the nation’s capital. During these years, in addition to playing drums, Cocuzzi also played piano and vibraphone, gradually advancing his skills on the latter instrument until it became the dominant force in his impressive arsenal.
The early 90s saw John appearing at numerous festivals across the country, as well as Belgium and the Netherlands. Throughout his career he has mainly led his own small groups and has also played piano with the swing, blues and jump band, Big Joe And The Dynaflows, led by Big Joe Maher.
He has worked and/or recorded with Howard Alden, Joe Ascione, Louie Bellson, Bobby Gordon, Chuck Hedges, Nat King Cole, Milt Hinton, Dick Hyman, Russell Malone, Ken Peplowski, Bucky and John Pizzarelli, Houston Person, Eddie Locke, Barbara Morrison, Peter Appleyard, Russell Malone, Ed Polcer, Daryl Sherman, Warren and Allan Vaché, Johnny Varro, Bob Wilber and Snooky Young. A dynamic and swinging drummer, Cocuzzi is a fluently inventive improviser on piano. His vibraphone playing ably blends the urgent thrust he displays in his drumming with the fluid grace of his piano playing.
On radio, Cocuzzi recorded a session for NPR’s “Riverwalk: Live at The Landing” with the Jim Cullum Band. It was a tribute to Benny Goodman, The Swing Shift: Jazz on Late-Night Radio, and featured Allan Vaché on clarinet with Nicholas Payton on trumpet.
For 15 years, he was the music director for the 219 Restaurant’s Basin Street Lounge in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. He was also music director for the Crystal City Jazz Celebration from 2003 to 2006.
Jazz, blues and swing vibraphonist, pianist and drummer John Cocuzzi, whose influences are Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo, continues to perform
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marilyn Middleton Pollock, born October 25, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois began singing folk music professionally at the age of fifteen. Expanded her repertoire to include rock & roll and blues, she then turned to jazz.
By the end of the 1980s Marilyn had moved to England where she worked with Max Collie, touring with him internationally. Their album Nobody Knows You received the Music Retailers Association Award for Excellence in 1988. She appeared in the theater show A New Orleans Mardi Gras and then in her critically acclaimed solo shows Those Women of the Vaudeville Blues and Jazz Me Blues.
From 1994 she produced the series Vaudeville, Red Hot and Blue for BBC Radio 2 with her jazz band The Chicago Hoods. She toured Great Britain several times with her band.
Vocalist Marilyn Middleton Pollock continues to perform, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sadi Pol Lallemand was born on October 23, 1927 in Andenne, Belgium. His first instrument was the xylophone, which he played in a circus in the 1930s. After World War II, he turned professional playing the vibraphone and performed with Bobby Jaspar in the Bob Shots, then with Don Byas.
Moving to Europe he lived in Paris, France from 1950 to 1961 where he played with Aimé Barelli, Django Reinhardt, and Martial Solal. In the Sixties, Fats moved to Brussels, Belgium and was a member of Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band.
He worked for RTBF, the TV channel of the French Community in Belgium. Sadi led both a quartet and nonet, and won the Belgian Golden Django for best French-speaking artist in 1996.
Vibraphonist, percussionist, vocalist and composer Fats Sadi, who chose the name “Sadi” because he disliked his last name, which means “the German” in French, transitioned on February 20, 2009 in Huy, Belgium.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jan Gunnar Hoff was born in Bodø, Norway on October 22, 1958. A graduate of the Teachers’ College in his hometown and Bergen, Norway, he pursued further education in the Jazz program at Trondheim Musikkonservatorium under Terje Bjørklund for three years starting in 1986. He trained in composition at Norges Musikkhøgskole in 2001.
He had his jazz debut with his own trio on Ad Lib Jazzklubb in 1976. Hoff’s background includes classical piano, progressive rock, pop and jazz. Over the course of his career Hoff has released 21 recordings as solo artist and co-leader, fifty-seven as a sideman, and has composed 250 works for different settings.
He has received several awards for his music including a US Grammy nomination for the album Quiet Winter Night. Hoff’s quartet album Fly North with Marilyn Mazur, Anders Jormin and Arve Henriksen was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannpris 2014. He received the highest distinction in Norwegian Jazz, the Buddy-award and became a Steinway Artist.
He is a professor at the University of Tromsø and the University of Agder. He co-founded The Groove Valley JazzCamp in Beiarn, Norway and was artistic director for TGV Jazz camp from 2005 to 2009. Hoff also initiated Bodø Jazz Open which was launched in 2011, where he was artistic leader and festival head until 2020.
Pianist, composer, arranger and professor Jan Hoff, who has worked with Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Alex Acuña, Karin Krog, Maria João, Marilyn Mazur, Gary Novak and Arild Andersen among numerous others.
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