Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sonny Stitt was born Edward Stitt on February 2, 1924 in Boston, Massachusetts but grew up in Saginaw, Michigan in a musical family and was given a strong musical background as a child. His father was a college music professor, his mother a piano teacher and his brother was a classically trained pianist.
Meeting Charlie Parker in 1943, the two found their styles extraordinarily similar, due in part to Stitt’s emulation. Considered on of Parker’s greatest disciples he was also influenced by Lester Young, both helping Sonny develop his own style, which would later influence John Coltrane.
Nicknamed the “Lone Wolf” by jazz critic Dan Morgenstern, attributing his relentless touring and devotion to jazz, Stitt recorded over 100 albums in his lifetime. His earliest recordings were with Stan Getz in 1945, he played in swing bands like Tiny Bradshaw’s big band and replaced Charlie Parker in Dizzy’s band, and sat alongside bop pioneers Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons in Billy Eckstine’s big band in the forties.
Sonny began to develop a far more distinctive sound on tenor playing with other bop musicians Bud Powell and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. In the fifties he teamed up with Thad Jones and Chick Corea and experimented with Afro Cuban jazz. He joined Miles Davis briefly in 1960 but was fired for an excessive drinking habit he developed.
Stitt went on to record a number of albums with his long-time friend Gene Ammons, regarded as some of their best work of dueling partnerships; then ventured into soul jazz with Booker Ervin, recorded with Ellington alumnus Paul Gonsalves and was a regular at Ronnie Scott’s in London during the sixties.
By the 1970s, Sonny slowed his recording output slightly, experimenting with an electric saxophone called the “Variphone” heard on the album “Just The Way It Was – Live At The Left Bank” in ’71 and returning to the alto to record the classic “Tune Up” in 1972. Sonny joined the Giants Of Jazz along with Art Blakey, Kai Winding, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Al McKibbon, and continued to record throughout the seventies.
A fiery tenor with enthusiastic solos, he was equally effective with blues and ballads, whether he was playing the alto, tenor or baritone. Sadness fell upon the jazz world on July 22, 1982 when Sonny Stitt passed away in Washington, D.C. after suffering a heart attack.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joshua Redman was born February 1, 1969 in Berkeley, California to tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer Renee Shedroff. As a child he was exposed to various kinds of music at the Center for World Music in Berkeley and received early lessons in music and improvisation. Upon graduating from high school he matriculated through Harvard graduating summa cum laude. He then turned down an opportunity to study law at Yale to become a professional musician.
His career kicked into high gear after winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991 and began focusing on developing his style beginning as a sideman alongside Javon Jackson on Elvin Jones’ Youngblood recording. He followed up with an appearance on his father’s 1992 album Choices. After a short apprenticeship period Redman began recording for Warner Brothers, first with his self-titled project and then Wish with Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins.
With successive albums from ’93 to ’96, Joshua briefly joined Chick Corea, recording and touring. From 1998 – 2002 he returned to recording as a leader bringing the world such albums as Beyond, Passage of Time and Elastic, the later bringing a more adventurous and playful Redman to the fore with the later including pianist/organist Sam Yahel and drummer Brian Blade.
Redman became the artistic director for San Francisco’s SF Jazz Collective from 2004-2007, made several television appearances including Reading Rainbow with Levar Burton and performed on the soundtrack for the Mia Farrow Story. On his album, Back East Redman paid tribute to Sonny Rollins 1957 album Way Out West, teaming up with musicians including Brian Blade, Christian McBride, Al Jackson, Joe Lovano, and his late father.
Joshua Redman is an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards judging panel to support independent arts and continues to compose, tour and record.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Benny Morton was born on January 31, 1907. Growing up in New York City, Benny was a graduate of the Jenkins Orphanage Band and was greatly influenced by church music as well as Dope Andrews, trombonist for Mamie Smith. By 1923, just 16 years old, he was gaining experience with the Clarence Holiday Orchestra and just three years later joined Fletcher Henderson. Swing was in and Benny moved on to spend six years with Don Redman and then three with Count Basie.
By 1938 he was recording with Clarence Holiday’s daughter Billie on My First Impression Of You and on The Sound Of Jazz. Morton went on to play with Teddy Wilson and Ed Hall in the 40’s and led his own band before playing in the Broadway pit for shows like Guys and Dolls and for Radio City Music Hall.
During the sixties and over the next two decades, the gentle and self-effacing trombonist was back in high jazz society with cornetist Wild Bill Davison and Bobby Hackett, The Saints and Sinners and the World’s Greatest Jazz Band.
One of the most sophisticated trombonists of the swing era, Benny Morton passed away on December 28, 1985.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tubby Hayes was born Edward Brian Hayes on January 30, 1935 in London and started playing the violin at the age of 8, changed to the tenor at twelve and started playing professionally at fifteen. His early influences were Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz. In 1951 he joined Kenny Baker and playing in the big bands of Ambrose, Vic Lewis and Jack Parnell.
Tubby led his own octet in 1956 and encourage by Victor Feldman he started playing the vibes in December of that year. Following his octet, Tubby co-led the Jazz Couriers with Ronnie Scott from ’57 to ’59 and toured Germany with Kurt Edelhagen. His international reputation grew rapidly and he was the first British contemporary to appear regularly in the U.S. at the Blue Note, the Boston Jazz Workshop and Shelly Manne’s Manne-Hole.
In 60’s London he led his own big bands, hosted his own TV show, sat in with Duke Ellington’s orchestra, and with Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck and others. Tubby appeared in All Night Long, and with his own quintet in The Beauty Jungle and House of Horrors.
Hayes was a virtuoso musician on tenor and flute, an excellent vibist, and a composer/arranger of rare talent. He toured extensively through Europe playing the major festivals, such as Antibes, Lugano, Vienna and Berlin. He was one of the few Brits that recorded as a leader of all-American groups with Clark Terry, Roland Kirk and James Moody.
Plagued with heart trouble he underwent open-heart surgery in the late Sixties, putting him out of action until 1971. Working again was brief and while undergoing a second heart operation, Tubby Hayes died on June 8, 1973 in Hammersmith, London, England. He was just 38 years old.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeanne Lee was born on January 29, 1939 in New York City. Attending Bard College for dance, she began singing while still a student, formed a duo with classmate Ran Blake and recorded her first album, The Newest Sound Around. Jeanne was to become one of the foremost exponents of free vocal jazz extending her style to include moods that were sensual, somber, and sensitive while expressing standard lyrics as well as scatting.
During the 60’s and 70’s she recorded her distinctively independent and creative style either as a lead artist or a sidewoman for major performers of the jazz avant-garde, Archie Shepp, Anthony Brown, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Enrico Rava, Carla Bley, Cecil Taylor and Mal Waldron to name a few, on independent labels in America and Europe. In 1967, she toured and recorded with her husband and vibraphonist Gunter Hampel.
In 1976 she sang in the spiritual tradition in John Cage’s “Apartment House 1776”, composed for the U.S. Bicentennial. By the 80’s Jeanne was concentrating on composing and performing/recording her original works that often included poetic and dance components.
Jeanne Lee combines acrobatic vocal maneuvers with a deeply moving sound and quality that allows her to alternate between soaring, upper register flights and piercing, emotive interpretations. The extremely precise and flexible Jeanne Lee who easily moved from a song or solo’s top end to its middle and bottom accompanying an instrument, passed away due to complications from cancer on October 25, 2000 in Tijuana, Mexico.
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