Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dorothy Donegan was born on April 6, 1922 and grew up in Chicago, Illinois.  She began studying piano at the age of eight taking her first lessons from West Indian pianist Alfred N. Simms. Graduating from DuSable High School she went on to study at the Chicago Musical College and the University of Southern California.

In 1942 she made her recording debut, appeared in Sensations of 1945 with Cab Calloway, Gene Rodgers and W.C. Fields, worked in Chicago nightclubs and was Art Tatum’s protégé.

Dorothy’s flamboyance helped her find work in a field that was largely hostile to women. To a certain extent, it was also her downfall; her concerts were often criticized for having an excess of personality. Her outspoken view of sexism, along with her insistence on being paid the same rates as male musicians, limited her career. However limited, her career would overshadow her recordings until the 80s when recognition of her jazz recordings would gain notice.

Pianist Dorothy Donegan, who played stride piano, boogie-woogie, bop, swing and classical music was the first Black woman to play at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, was a recipient of an American Jazz Master” fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and an honorary doctorate from Roosevelt University, passed away of cancer on May 19, 1998 in Los Angeles, California.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Herb Flemming was born Nicolaiih El-Michelle of North African descent on April 5, 1898 in Butte, Montana. He studied music and played mellophone and euphonium before switching to trombone. During World War I he was a member of James Resse Europe’s 15th New York National Guard Band and then Europe’s 369th U.S. Infantry Band in France in 1917.

Post war Flemming studied at the Frank Damrosch Conservatory playing cello followed by study at the St. Cecilia Academy in Florence and the University of Rome. By 1921 he was playing with Fred Tunstall, recording with Johnny Dunn, then joining Sam Wooding and Bobby Lee’s band in Philadelphia. In the 1920s he joined Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds show, which toured London and Paris toward the end of the decade.

Herb formed his own band, the International Rhythm Aces, in Europe around 1930, while continuing to work with Wooding. They collaborated in Berlin, then found work accompanying Josephine Baker. He would go on to play in Buenos Aires, Paris, Shanghai, Calcutta and Ceylon. By the mid-thirties he would play in Sestto Carlin’s Society Orchestra in Italy and interpret for the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany.

In the late 30s Herb Fleming returned home playing with Earl Hines, Fats Waller, and Noble Sissle prior to a move to California and working for the Internal Revenue Service. In the Forties he freelanced around New York, worked with Red Allen, moved to Spain, recorded with Walter Bishop Jr. and Albert Nichols. Returning to New York City, vocalist and trombonist Herb Fleming passed shortly afterward on October 3, 1976.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Michel Camilo was born on April 4, 1954 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and as a young child showed aptitude for the accordion but it was his grandparents’ piano that sparked his interest. At age 9 he asked his parents to buy him one, they first send him to the Elementary Music School of the National Conservancy, and a year later to grant his wish.

Camilo learned to play in the classical style and by 16 was playing with the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic. During his 13 years of study at the National Conservatory, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Horace Silver, Errol Garner and Scott Joplin influenced him. Moving to New York in 1979 he studied at Mannes College and Julliard, and broke onto the international stage in 1983 with Tito Puente.

Michel became a star with his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1985, toured Europe with Paquito D’Rivera and recorded his first album “Why Not?” that same year. His debut release on the Sony label, Michel Camilo, held the top jazz album spot for ten consecutive weeks.

He has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Tania Maria, Stanley Turrentine, Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, David Sanchez, Leny Andrade, Roy Hargrove and Billy Taylor on the very short list, recorded twenty-three albums, has written film scores for several Spanish films, has won an Emmy, a Grammy for the Live at the Blue Note album, and Best Latin Jazz Album at the Latin Grammy Awards for Spain. Pianist Michel Camilo holds honorary degrees at Berklee College of Music, continues to tour extensively, lecture in Europe, the US, and Puerto Rico.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ali Jackson Jr. was born on April 3, 1976 in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, a classical pianist, taught him piano and how to read music at age 4, his father, a professional bass player, taught him music theory and gave him drums lesson from rudiment books.

Attending Detroit’s prestigious Cass Technical High School, he went on to matriculate through The New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music and privately studying with Elvin Jones and Max Roach.

Ali has recorded two albums as a leader and as a sideman has performed and recorded with musicians including with Joshua Redman, Anat Cohen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Wynton Marsalis, Jacky Terrasson, Craig Handy, James Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Harry Connick Jr., KRS-1, Marcus Roberts, Cyrus Chestnut, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall and Eric Reed.

Ali Jackson is currently the drummer with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, performs with the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Horns in the Hood, and leads the Ali Jackson Quartet. He is also the voice of “Duck Ellington,” a character in the Penguin book series Baby Loves Jazz and has hosted “Jammin’ with Jackson,” a series for young musicians at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy Club Coca-Cola.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Booker Little, Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee on April 2, 1938. He studied trumpet and music at the Chicago Conservatory from 1956 to 1958 during which time he worked with local musicians like Johnny Griffin. A move to New York offered him the opportunity to work with Max Roach and Eric Dolphy, recording with the later on the 1960 Far Cry session and leading a residency at the Five Spot in 1961. This collaboration would produce three classic albums for Prestige Records.

It was during this stint that he began to show promise of expanding the expressive range of the “vernacular” bebop idiom started by Clifford Brown in the mid-1950s. As a leader he recorded four albums and recorded another eleven as a sideman with Dolphy, Max Roach, John Coltrane, Slide Hampton, Bill Henderson, Abbey Lincoln and Frank Strozier during his short four years from 1958-1961.

Little made an important contribution to jazz as one of the first trumpeters to develop his own voice post Clifford Brown, though stylistically, he is rooted in Brown’s crisp articulation, burnished tone and balanced phrasing. Trumpeter and composer Booker Little died of complications resulting from uremia due to kidney failure at the age of 23 on October 5, 1961 in New York City.

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