Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tony Carr was born George Caruana on October 24, 1927 in Malta. Moving to the United Kingdom in 1953, he joined bandleader Billy Eckstine for a tour in Europe. He played regularly at the Bull’s Head in Barnes SW London, accompanying the cream of British and American jazz musicians.
He eventually became a most sought-after session player in London, England between 1954 and the early 1980s. During the Sixties pianist, conductor and arranger John Cameron recruited Carr as his first-call session player. His career would see him working with Ella Fitzgerald, Sixto Rodriguez, Donovan, Alan Price, Paul McCartney among others. In Malta, he also played with Frank Bibi Camilleri, Joe Curmi il-Puse, Juice Wilson, Freddie Mizzi and Sammy Galea, to name a few.
He has been a member of Daylight, Directions In Jazz Unit, Harold McNair Quartet, John Cameron Quartet, Mike Batt And Friends, Señor Funk and Frog, the latter put together for a horror film soundtrack.
Drummer and percussionist Tony Carr, at 96, no longer performs in public
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rick DellaRatta was born October 23, 1961 in Schenectady, New York. The oldest of five children, he studied at the New England Conservatory, earning a bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance and a master’s degree in Jazz Composition. He studied jazz piano with Jackie Byard, Kenny Werner, Charlie Banacos, and Richie Bierach and classical piano with Thomas Stumpf.
In 1997 Rick along with Eddie Gomez, Dave Liebman, and Lenny White released the album Thought Provoking. In 2000 he was nominated for a MAC award for Recording of the Year.
Witnessing the 9/11 attacks from a New York City rooftop Rick was inspired while watching the unfolding tragedy to write a poem which became known as Jazz for Peace. The poem would later become a worldwide movement promoting peace through jazz.
Pianist and singer Rick DellaRatta, who has recorded five albums, continues to perform, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Søren Reiff born October 22, 1962, in Holbæk, Denmark to painter Tove Reiff and potter Erik Reiff. When he was ten years old he went to an Eric Clapton concert which sealed his fate to become a guitarist. A few years later he was invited to a recording session and that cemented his career choice.
In the mid-Eighties was the guitarist in house bands and as musical director on Danish National television, which led him to play with Toots Thielemans, Randy Crawford, Robert Palmer, Bonnie Tyler and others. The Nineties saw Reiff working as musical director for Chaka Khan, David Sanborn, Mark King, and many others on these television shows.
As an author Søren has published five books, released three albums as a recording artist. He has played on several American television shows, Studiojams and co-hosted the show The Color of Jazz. He was the founder of Den Rytmiske Højskole’s course for Songwriters and Producers.
Guitarist, producer, composer and author Søren Reiff, who was included in the International Who’s Who in Music, Volume Two, Popular Music, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gus Clark was born Gustave De Clercq on October 21, 1913 in Antwerp, Belgium. While still in his teens he led local dance bands and also played in the groups of musicians such as Harry Pohl, Maurice Pinto, and Jack Hoedemaeker.
In the 1930s Gus played with his own group in Brussels, Belgium, and Coleman Hawkins performed with this ensemble. He later set up a new ensemble of all-Black musicians in Belgium, which included Lauderic Caton as a sideman.
Clark performed with Jean Omer, Jean Robert, and Gus Deloof as a sideman, and continued recording as a leader in the 1940s and 1950s.
Pianist Gus Clark died in his native city on April 10, 1979.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Panton was born on October 20, 1946 in the Midlands, England where his formative musical experience revolved around singing in the local church choir and later with a mixed voice choir and an amateur operatic society. He began teaching himself classical piano from the age of twelve and by fifteen had begun to compose by improvising at the keyboard. At seventeen he joined the army as a bandsman, taking up the oboe and being posted for a year in 1964 to Kneller Hall, the Military School of Music. He later attended Birmingham School of Music for piano tuition under the late William Fellowes for a year from 1966. His composing took on a more modern direction which was largely unintelligible to his military colleagues.
After four years as bandsman he resigned to pursue a musical career back in civilization, taking up the alto saxophone as a result of hearing some of the American and British free jazz players of the time such as Ornette Coleman and Mike Osborne. He formed several groups and gave solo performances at the Birmingham Arts Lab, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham and Midlands Institue as well as numerous pubs. He made contact with London based musicians John Stevens, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Maggie Nichols which led to occasional appearances around the city.
He ventured into folk music with the group Forest, followed by the experimental theatre group Chameleon Laboratory Theatre. In 1979 he received an Arts Council jazz bursary, allegedly the first provincal based musician to do so, with a second following in 1981. By 1989 he abandoned music and started up an audio cassette duplication business. When the demise of the audio cassette undermined business viability, David opted to take up a civil service post in the late Nineties from which he retired in 2006.
In 2009 he was awarded the MA in Music from the Open University and has continued to pursue music activities in academia.
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