Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herbie Hancock was born Herbert Jeffrey Hancock on April 12, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. Starting with a classical music education, he was considered a child prodigy, studied from age seven and played the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Chicago Symphony at age eleven.
Through his teens he was influenced by the vocal group Hi-Lo’s, Herbie never had a jazz teacher, developing his ear and sense of harmony. Influenced by Clare Fischer, Bill Evans, Ravel and Gil Evans, his harmonic guru was Chris Anderson with whom he studied. In the Sixties he attended Grinnell College, moved to Chicago, began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins, studied at the Manhattan School of Music, quickly gained a reputation and played sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods.
In 1962 Hancock recorded his first solo album Takin’ Off for Blue Note Records that contained the hit for both Hancock and Mongo Santamaria – Watermelon Man. More importantly it caught the ear of Miles Davis and landed him an introduction by Tony Williams and membership of the second great quintet in 1963. It was during the Davis years that Herbie found his voice and subsequently produced two of the decade’s most influential albums, Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage.
He has recorded a catalogue of nearly sixty albums as a leader dozens of sessions as a sideman, working with the likes of Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson, Sam Rivers, Donald Byrd, George Coleman, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard among others. He has been the subject of five films, won an Oscar for “Round Midnight soundtrack, received 14 Grammy Awards, five Playboy Music Polls and was honored as a NEA Jazz Master in 2004 along with a host of other recognitions. He is currently occupies the Creative Chair for Jazz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Hancock joined the University of California, Los Angeles faculty as a professor in the UCLA music department where he teaches jazz music. He has received a Kennedy Center Honors Award for achievement in the performing arts, won 14 Grammy Awards, 1 Oscar for the Original Soundtrack of ‘Round Midnight and has been honored as an NEA Jazz Master among numerous other accolades.
He is the 2014 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University. Holders of the chair deliver a series of six lectures on poetry, “The Norton Lectures”, poetry being “interpreted in the broadest sense, including all poetic expression in language, music, or fine arts.” His theme is “The Ethics of Jazz. Pianist Herbie Hancock continues to advance the jazz genre in new directions.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anita Gravine was born April 11, 1946 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. An experienced but little-known singer, in the mid-’60s, she sang with the bands of Larry Elgart, Buddy Morrow, and Urbie Green. She made her solo debut with Dream Dancing on the Progressive label in the early ’80s.
This was followed by her release of I Always Knew in 1985 for the now defunct Stash Records that displayed her appealing voice, solid sense of swing, and versatility. Gravine’s third project Welcome to My Dream, although not a critical success, continues to prove she can handle both ballad and up-tempo songs with ease of voice and rhythmic assurance.
She has worked with arranger and pianist Mike Abene, George Mraz, Billy Hart and Tom Harrell. She released Welcome To My Dream for Jazz Alliance in 1993. In 2010 Anita released the last of her four albums “Lights! Camera! Passion! Jazz And The Italian Cinema”, and she continues to perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Omar Sosa was born on April 10, 1965 in Camaguey, Cuba and began studying marimba at age eight, then switched to piano and studied jazz while attending the Escuela Nacional de Musica in Havana.
In 1993 Omar moved to Quito, Ecuador, then San Francisco, California two years later. The following years saw him deeply involved in the local Latin jazz scene and a long collaboration with percussionist John Santos. He made a series of recordings with producer Greg Landau, including the groundbreaking Oaktown Irawo, featuring Tower of Power drummer Dave Garibaldi, Cuban saxophonist Yosvany Terry and Cuban percussionist Jesus Diaz.
Omar works outside jazz and Afro-Cuban traditions incorporating Latin rhythms, North African percussions, spoken word, rap and classical music. He music ranges from big band, improvisation and world to free jazz and avant-garde.
He won The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in the Jazz Album category for Ceremony in 2011. Inspired by various musical elements and motifs from Kind Of Blue, Sosa wrote a suite of music honoring the spirit of freedom in Davis’ seminal work. The CD received a nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album at the 56th annual Grammy Awards.
In 2015 he returned to his Cuban roots with the release of Ilé. Joining him on the project were three musicians with whom Omar shares a close connection: fellow Camagüeyanos, Ernesto Simpson on drums, and Leandro Saint-Hill on alto saxophone, flute and clarinet, and Mozambican electric bassist Childo Tomas – collectively known as Quarteto AfroCubano. Pianist, composer and bandleader Omar Sosa has recorded with Carlos “Patato” Valdes, Pancho Quinto and numerous world musicians, worked on several film scores, and now lives in Barcelona, Spain.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Reuben Wilson was born April 9, 1935 in Mounds, Oklahoma but grew up in Pasadena, California from age five when his family moved. While in his teenage years he taught himself to play piano, but boxing diverted his attention. When he was 17, he moved to Los Angeles, married a nightclub singer, met a number of professional musicians and returned to music. Instead of pursuing the piano, he decided to take up the organ, and it wasn’t long before he became a regular at the Caribbean club.
Reuben played the L.A. circuit for several years before trying his luck unsuccessfully in Las Vegas. Returning to L.A. he struck up a friendship with Richard “Groove” Holmes, an organist who would greatly influence his own style. In 1966 he moved to New York City, formed the soul-jazz group Wildare Express and began concentrating more on hard bop and soul-jazz. This proved fortuitous as Grant Green, Roy Haynes and Sam Rivers among others took notice and began to perform with him.
Two years later Wilson began recording a series of five albums for Blue Note Records, his debut being On Broadway. Throughout the 70s he recorded sporadically, eventually retired from music in the early 80s and but by the end of the decade a rediscovery of his music by fans, saw his music sampled by A Tribe Called Quest, Brand New Heavies and Nas.
He returned to music in the 90s writing new material, performing and recording in new groups, including combos he led himself. Over the course of his career organist Reuben Wilson has recorded 16 albums as a leader and eight as a sideman working with Grant Green Jr., Bernard Purdie, Melvin Sparks and Willis Jackson. He currently resides in New York City and continues to pursue new directions in jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Dixon was born on April 8, 1909 in New Orleans, Louisiana but grew up throughout the South traveling with his father as he ministered. He began playing trumpet as a child, then while living in Natchez, Mississippi at age thirteen he began playing the violin. He would go on to study the instrument at Arkansas State College, where he picked up the alto saxophone.
Dixon’s move to Chicago in 1926 would have him playing with Sammy Stewart from 1928, including a tour of New York City in 1930. His longest and most important residency was with Earl Hines and for nearly twelve years he would play trumpet, saxophone and arrange for the band.
During World War II George led a Navy band in Memphis, Tennessee, then returned to Chicago playing with Floyd Campbell, Ted Eggleston and others. During the Forties into the next decade he led his own band at the Circle Inn. Never recording as a leader, from about the mid-1950s trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist George Dixon stopped playing full-time, though he continued to play occasionally up until his death on August 1, 1994.
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