Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sterling Bruce Conaway was born on October 26, 1900 in Washington, D.C. and learned to play the banjo and mandolin. His early career was spent playing with fellow Washingtonian Duke Ellington in their hometown. Relocated to Chicago, Illinois he joined the band of Carroll Dickerson.
He played in Cyril Fullerton’s band in 1924 and recorded with Helen Gross on ukulele. By the late 1920s he moved to Europe where he worked with Eddie South, Noble Sissle, Freddy Johnson, Freddy Taylor, and Leon Abbey. During this period in his career Sterling led several groups as well.
1936 saw him in Bombay, India playing with Crickett Smith, however, three years later returned to the United States. Banjoist and mandolinist Sterling Conaway continued to perform in big bands and leading his own groups until his passing away in November 1973.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robin Eubanks was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.on October 25, 1955. Into a musical family. His brothers Kevin and Duane play guitar and trumpet respectively and his uncles are pianist Ray Bryant and bassist Tommy Bryant. After graduating from the University of the Arts, he moved to New York City and first appeared on the jazz scene in the early 1980s. He played with Slide Hampton, Sun Ra, and Stevie Wonder.
Eubanks went on to become a member of the Jazz Messengers with drummer Art Blakey and in then in Elvin Jones’ band. He was a contributor on fellow jazz trombonist Steve Turre’s 2003 release One4J: Paying Homage to J.J. Johnson.
He played for 15 years in double bassist Dave Holland‘s quintet, sextet, octet and big band. J.J. Johnson recommended Robin for the position at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, where he is now a tenured professor of Jazz Trombone and Jazz Composition. He has also taught at New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has been a member in the all-star group the SFJAZZ Collective for the past seven years.
He is one of the pioneers of M-Base, a musical concept he pioneered with other musicians such as Steve Coleman and Greg Osby among others. He has recorded with Geri Allen, Joe Henderson, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Bobby Previte, Hank Roberts, Herb Robertson, Kenny Drew, McCoy Tyner, Barbra Streisand, Abdullah Ibrahim, Andrew Hill and B.B. King, Sadao Watanabe, Grover Washington Jr. and Chip White to name a few.
He has appeared on numerous television shows and specials, is a frequent lecturer, guest soloist and clinician at various colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world and has voted #1 Trombonist by Down Beat magazine.
Slide trombonist, Robin Eubanks, who plays in the mainstream and fusion jazz genres, has released nine albums as a leader, 38 as a sideman and continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gabrielle Goodman was born on October 23, 1964 in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in a musical family. Her mother was a classical singer and her father was a jazz trombonist. She attended Peabody preparatory school and briefly Oberlin College before transferring to the Peabody Institute Conservatory, where she studied until graduating in 1990 under the direction of Alice Gerstl Duschak and Gordon Hawkins.
As a protege of Roberta Flack she began her international performance career as a backing singer for the singer in the mid-1980s and continued to tour and record with the legend for several years opening for Miles Davis, Ray Charles, the Crusaders and among others in Japan, Switzerland and Brazil.
Her first break as a solo recording artist came when she was lead singer on producer Norman Connors 1988 album Passion on Capitol Records. She later recorded two albums Travelin’ Light and Until We Love on the JMT/Verve label with German producer Stefan Winter that feature her with Kevin Eubanks, Christian Mcbride, Gary Bartz, Gary Thomas, and Terri Lyne Carrington. Gabrielle has gone on to work with Walter Beasley, David Bunn, Tony Bunn, Patrice Rushen, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Michael Bublé, Patti Labelle, Nona Hendryx, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Freddie Jackson, Brian Ferry, Chaka Khan and the late George Duke.
As an educator she has held the position of associate professor of voice at Berklee College of Music and in-between vocalist Gabrielle Goodman continues to record and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cyril Blake was born October 22, 1900 in Trinidad and moved to England about 1918, where he sometimes performed under the stage name of “Midnight,” and quite often appearing well after midnight. He was an essential part of the freewheeling music scene of London in the decades both before and after World War II.
He became well versed in jazz, blasted away in rhythm & blues bands of various ethnic persuasions. and played in a British group called the Southern Syncopated Orchestra. Being a trumpet player and was working in both London and Paris clubs whilst the ’20s roared helped to skyrocket his career.
Working in Paris, France and London as a musician throughout the 1920s, in the 1930s he played in the bands of Leon Abbey, Happy Blake, Rudolph Dunbar, Leslie Thompson’s Emperors of Jazz, Joe Appleton, and Lauderic Caton. 1938 saw Cyril putting together his own band, which was centred on Jig’s Club in London but was also the house band for several other venues around Soho. He recorded several times with this ensemble and in the 1940s led his band behind Lord Kitchener for recordings on Parlophone Records, playing in a calypso style.
Late in his life he returned to Trinidad, where he continued to lead bands. Trumpeter Cyril Blake, along with Bertie King, Lauderic Caton and Brylo Ford were credited in the Who’s Who of British Jazz by John Chilton and influenced generations of British jazz musicians, passed away of an illness on December 3, 1951.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marc Alan Johnson was born on October 21, 1953 in Omaha, Nebraska but grew up in Texas. By the age of 19, he was working professionally with the Fort Worth Symphony, and during his matriculation at the University of North Texas, he played in the One O’Clock Lab Band and was also the principal bassist in the NTSU Symphony.
1978 saw Johnson joining pianist Bill Evans in what would be Evans’s last trio. He toured and recorded with Evans until the pianist’s death in 1980. In 2007 together with his wife Eliane Elias, he released an Evans tribute album, Something For You.
Marc has recorded albums with Joe Lovano, Michael Brecker, Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, Gary Burton, John Abercrombie, Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Eliane Elias, Enrico Pieranunzi, Charles Lloyd, Joey Baron, Philly Joe Jones, Jack DeJohnette, Peter Erskine, Lee Konitz, Paul Motian, Joe Lovano, Toots Thielemans and the list goes on.
As a leader he led Bass Desires, a quartet with Bill Frisell, John Scofield and Peter Erskine, recording several albums for JMT, Verve and ECM record labels. He has received the Danish Music Award for Best Foreign Release, and bassist Marc Johnson continues to collaborate with Eliane as well as compose, record, perform and tour.
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