Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Max Greger was born on April 2, 1926 in Munich, Germany. In 1948 at 22 he founded his first sextet with acclaimed musicians, including Hugo Strasser. By 1959 he became the first western orchestra to tour the Soviet Union.
1963 saw Max putting together a top orchestra for ZDF, which for years supported all the major TV shows. He was honored with the Officers Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Bavarian Order of Merit, and has a memorial plaque with his handprints and signature in Berlin-Mitte.
Saxophonist, conductor and big bandleader Max Greger, who recorded over 150 records in jazz and pop music, transitioned on August 15, 2015 in his hometown.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stephen Russell Race was born April 1, 1921 in Lincoln, England and learned the piano from the age of five. His education from 1932 to 1937 was at Lincoln School, where he formed his first jazz group. At sixteen, he attended the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition under Harry Farjeon and William Alwyn. After leaving the academy, he wrote occasional dance band reviews for Melody Maker and, in 1939, joined the Harry Leader dance band as pianist, succeeding Norrie Paramor.
Race joined the Royal Air Force in 1941, and formed a jazz/dance quintet. After World War II, he began a long and productive career with the BBC, where his ready wit, musicianship and broad musical knowledge made him a much sought after musical accompanist for panel games and magazine shows, such as Whirligig and Many a Slip.
Simultaneously he played in the Lew Stone and Cyril Stapleton bands, and arranged material for Ted Heath. By 1949 The Steve Race Bop Group recorded some of the first British bebop records for the Paxton label. These included four sides with Leon Calvert, Johnny Dankworth, Peter Chilver, Norman Burns, Jack Fulton. He also developed a sideline arranging player piano rolls for the Artona company.
the 1950s to the 1980s, he presented numerous music programs on radio and television. Steve was the chairman of the long-running light-hearted radio and TV panel game My Music which ran for 520 episodes from 1967 to 1994. He also presented Jazz For Moderns and Jazz 625 for the BBC in the 1960s.
As a composer, he produced a number of pieces in the jazz, classical and popular idioms. Blue Acara, Esteban Cera, Faraway Music, Nicola, Ring Ding and Pied Piper aer just a few of his well known compositions. He appeared as pianist/bandleader in the 1948 film Calling Paul Temple and with Sid Colin wrote two of the songs performed by Celia Lipton. He also wrote other scores for films. His autobiography, Musician at Large, was published in 1979, and was inducted into the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Pianist, composer, radio and television presenter Steve Race had his first heart attack in 1965 and transitioned from a second attack at his home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, on June 22, 2009.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Karin Plato was born on March 31, 1960 in Alsask, Saskatchewan, Canada. As a small child she studied piano and later attended the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, where she received a Bachelor Of Music Degree in Piano and Voice.
Moving to Vancouver, Canada in 1985 she studied vocal jazz and arranging at Capilano College, and has made the city her base ever since. In the late 90s, she studied with Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton at the Banff Centre For The Arts. In 2000, her album There’s Beauty In The Rain was nominated for a Juno Award.
She has performed at numerous festivals and in 2000, she became a member of DIVAS For Life, which came about when the Vancouver-based magazine, Lifestyles, profiled six female vocalists: Plato, Laura Crema, Dee Daniels, Kate Hammett-Vaughan, Stevie Vallance and Tammy Weis. Established to help raise money for people living with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Their debut concert was a huge success and the singers appeared collectively and individually at a series of SOR engagements,
Vocalist Karin Plato continues to use her contralto to deliver elegant performances of standards and original material.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tina May was born March 30, 1961 in Gloucester, England. She lived in Frampton-on-Severn when she was young and attended Stroud High School.
She has recorded twenty-five albums as a leader and three as a guest artist, of which18 albums are on the 33 Records label. She has worked with Tony Coe, Nikki Iles, Stan Sulzmann, Ray Bryant, Enrico Pieranunzi and Patrick Villanueva.
In 1989 she married jazz drummer and bandleader Clark Tracey and recorded several albums with him in the 1990s. Vocalist Tina May continues to perform, record and explore the azz idiom.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jørgen Emborg was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on March 29, 1953 and was influenced by Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett.
He has played at international festivals since 1975, releasing his first album, Sargasso in 1979 on the Kong Pære label. In the following years he belonged to Six Winds with Marilyn Mazur, Uffe Markussen and Alex Riel and formed with Palle Mikkelborg, Bjarne Roupé, Bo Stief and Ole Theill the ensemble Alpha Centauri.
By1986 he recorded with Bjarne Rostvold and through the Nineties he performed and/or recorded with Thomas Hass and Tomas Franck. Emborg teamed up with Alex Riel again and recorded Over The Rainbow on the Storyville label, with the saxophonist Fredrik Lundin, the bassist Steve Swallow. He played in the Tolvan Big Band and the Per Carsten Quintet.
Jørgen has also composed music for children, rhythmic choir music, big band, a cappella work, ironworks and piano quizzes. He taught piano, theory and composition at the Rytmisk Conservatory of Music from 1988 to 2016.
In 1981, his LP en 20:33 with Alpha Centauri received an award from Statens Kunstfond, the State Art Foundation. He received the Ben Webster Prize with the Frontline Fusion Group as well as others.
Pianist and composer Jørgen Emborg, who ensures there is a Nordic feel to his compositions, continues to perform and compose.
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