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.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,vocal
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.
More Posts: author,composer,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music,producer
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chris Karan was born Chrisostomos Karanikis on October 14, 1939 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In the early 1960s he played in the Three Out Trio with Mike Nock and Freddy Logan in Sydney, Australia.
A move to London, England in 1962 saw him becaming the drummer in the Dudley Moore Trio. He toured and recorded with Moore for many years, including appearances on the TV series Not Only But Also and the soundtrack of the 1967 movie Bedazzled. Their association continued until Moore’s last major public appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2001.
Karan has worked with Michel Legrand, Lalo Schifrin, Charles Aznavour, the Swingle Singers, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Myers, Basil Kirchin, Tony Hatch, Jackie Trent, Jerry Goldsmith, Jerry Fielding, Pat Williams, André Previn, Richard Rodney Bennett, Barry Tuckwell, Carl Davis, Henry Mancini, the Beatles, the Seekers, Katie Melua and Roy Budd.
He toured with John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, the Bee Gees, Caterina Valente, Dusty Springfield, Lulu and the Yardbirds. He was a member of the Harry Stoneham group, which provided the musical backing for the Michael Parkinson shows on BBC-TV.
As a member of Roy Budd’s band, the Roy Love Trio, he performed on the Get Carter 1971 film soundtrack. He plays the tabla on some albums, having studied the instrument under the Indian musician Alla Rakha. He has recorded with Dudley Moore, Ronnie Scott, Teresa Brewer, Ian Carr, Ray Ellington, Stephane Grappelli, Cleo Laine, Oliver Nelson, among numerous others.
Drummer and percussionist Chris Karan, who at 84 years of age has recorded 84 albums as a sideman, continues to perform.
More Posts: drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music,percussion,tabla
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pharoah Sanders was born Ferrell Lee Sanders on October 13, 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas, an only child. He began his musical career accompanying church hymns on clarinet but his initial artistic accomplishments were in the visual arts. When he was at Scipio Jones High School in North Little Rock, he began playing the tenor saxophone.
After graduating from high school in 1959, Sanders moved to Oakland, California, where he lived with relatives. He briefly studied art and music at Oakland City College. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from an unknown art institution.
He began his professional career playing tenor saxophone in Oakland, then moved to New York City in 1962. The following year he was playing with Billy Higgins and Don Cherry and caught the attention of Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane. In 1965, he became a member of Coltrane’s band, as the latter gravitated towards the avant-garde jazz of Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, and Cecil Taylor.
Sanders first recorded with Coltrane on Ascension, followed by their dual-tenor album Meditations, then joined Coltrane’s final quintet. Pharoah released his debut album as a leader, Pharoah’s First, was not what he expected. In 1966 he signed with Impulse! and the years Sanders spent with the label were both a commercial and critical success.
The 1970s had Sanders continuing to produce his own recordings including the 30-minute wave-on-wave of free jazz, The Creator Has A Master Plan from the album Karma, featuring vocalist Leon Thomas and to work with Alice Coltrane on her Journey in Satchidananda album. Although supported by African-American radio, Sanders’ brand of brave free jazz became less popular.
His major-label return came in 1995 when Verve Records released Message from Home, followed by Save Our Children (1998). But again, Sanders’s disgust with the recording business prompted him to leave the label. In the 2000s, a resurgence of interest in jazz kept Sanders playing festivals and was awarded a NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for 2016 and was honored at a tribute concert in Washington DC on April 4, 2016.
In 2020 he recorded the album Promises, with the English electronic music producer Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra. It was widely acclaimed as a clear late-career masterpiece.
Saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques, died on September 24, 2022 at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 81.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Shafi Hadi was born William Curtis Porter on September 21, 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to William Porter and Harrietti Porter. He received piano lessons from his grandmother at age 6. He went on to study musical composition at Howard University and University of Detroit. He performed with rhythm and blues artists such as Paul Williams, Ruth Brown, and the Griffin Brothers.
He recorded with bassist Charles Mingus between 1956 and 1958. He also recorded with tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley. Hadi improvised the soundtrack music for John Cassavetes’s film Shadows, then returned to Mingus’s group in 1959. He also collaborated with Mary Lou Williams on her 1977 composition “Shafi”, although the extent of his contribution is unclear.
Between 1965 and 1969 Shafi co-wrote five songs with Lionel Hampton or Gladys Hampton: Bye, Bye, Hamp Stamps, No, Say No, A Sketch Of Gladys, and Mama Knows.
Tenor and alto saxophonist Shafi Hadi died in June 1976, at the age of 46.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music