Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ralph Peterson, Jr. was born on May 20, 1962 in Pleasantville, New Jersey into a family of drummers, having four uncles and a grandfather as drummers. He began on percussion at age three and was raised in Atlantic City where he played trumpet in high school and worked locally in funk groups. He applied to Livingston College Rutgers for drums but failed the percussion entrance exam and enrolled as a trumpeter instead.
In 1983 he joined Art Blakey’s Jazz messengers as the second drummer, playing with him for several years. He has worked with Terence Blanchard. Donald Harrison, Walter Davis, Tom Harrell, Out of the Blue, Branford Marsalis, David Murray, Craig Harris, James Spaulding, Roy Hargrove, Jon Faddis, Dewey Redman, George Colligan, Stanley Cowell, Mark Shim, Betty Carter, Charles Lloyd, Wynton Marsalis and many, many others.
After living in Canada for some time he returned to Philadelphia where he worked further with Fo’Tet and also recorded as Triangular Too with Uri Caine. He also led a group Hip Pocket with whom he played trumpet. He has recorded 15 albums as a leader and another six with Uri Caine and David Murray.
Drummer Ralph Peterson has taught at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, currently teaches at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and continues to perform, record and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ellis Larkins was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 15, 1923. The pianist was the first African American to attend the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore and began his professional playing career in New York City after moving there to attend the Julliard School. Following school Larkins performed with Billy Moore and Edmond Hall.
He recorded with Coleman Hawkins, Mildred Bailey and Dickey Wells in the 1940s, Ruby Braff and Ella Fitzgerald in the Fifties recording “Ella Sings Gershwin” and “Songs In A Mellow Mood” with the latter. His 1960s work included recordings and/or performances with Eartha Kitt, Joe Williams, Helen Humes, George Gibbs and Harry Belafonte.
Though he was best known as an accompanist, Larkins recorded several solo albums in the 1950s. In the 1970s he performed regularly at several New York venues, including Gregory’s, a small bar in the east 70s. Next to Jimmy Jones, traditional jazz fans regard him as one of the most lyrical and romantic pianists in jazz history. Ellis Larkins passed away on September 30, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack Walrath was born on May 5, 1946 in Stuart, Florida and began playing the trumpet at the age of nine while living in Edgar, Montana. He graduated from Joliet High School in 1964 and attended the Berklee College of Music. Pursuing a composition diploma program instead of a full degree program, he concentrated specifically upon music classes. During his Berklee years he backed a number of R&B singers in the Boston and Cambridge areas, gigged with his fellow students and worked in the band Change with bassist Gary Peacock.
In 1969 Jack relocated to the West Coast, found work in the Los Angeles jazz scene, became a member of the band Revival, joined the West Coast Motown Orchestra, toured with Ray Charles and by the next year was back in New York City working with mainstream and Latin jazz bands. By 1974 he met and joined Charles Mingus’ quintet that broke new ground in free jazz and non-chordal improvisation. He continues the legacy working with Mingus Dynasty and the Charles Mingus Big Band.
Walrath has been a sideman for such luminaries as Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Larry Willis, Bobby Watson, Hal Galper, Sam Rivers, Mike Longo, Elvis Costello, Richie Cole and others. He has worked with the WDR Big Band, the Jazz Tribe and the Charlie Persip Superband. He has led ensembles under the names of The Jack Walrath Group, Wholly Trinity, Hard Corps, The Masters of Suspense, and The Jack Walrath Quintet.
Post-bop jazz trumpeter Jack Walrath has amassed a catalogue of twenty-six albums as a leader and 28 as a sideman; has been nominated for a Grammy, received composition grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, has been commissioned to compose for symphony to solo piano and continues to conduct seminars, master classes, music camps and clinics around the world. He has also written an instruction book, 20 Melodic Jazz Studies for Trumpet, and is currently working on an autobiography, CD and record guide.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Aaron Lewis was born in LaGrange, Illinois on May 3, 1920 but was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He learned classical music and piano from his mother starting at the age of seven, then continued his musical training at the University of New Mexico and also studied anthropology. He served in the Army stationed in France during World War II and during his three-year tour of duty he met and performed with Kenny Clarke. Together they formed a band and in the bop style, John composed and arranged.
After the war he went to New York where he found work in the 52nd Street clubs with Allen Eager, Hot Lips Page and others. This led to him joining dizzy Gillespie’s bop-style big band and further developing his skill as a composer and arranger while matriculating through the Manhattan School of Music. He soon returned to Europe on tour, remained a continued to write and study piano. By ’48 he was back in the States playing with Charlie Parker, Illinois Jacquet, Lester Young, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald.
Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, drummer Kenny Clarke, and bassist Ray Brown had been the small group within the Gillespie big band that played their own short sets when the brass and reeds needed a break. This led to the foursome forming a full-time working group in 1950, known at first as the Milt Jackson Quartet. After replacing Brown with Percy Heath the name was changed to the Modern Jazz Quartet and assuming the role of musical director from 1954 to 1974, John oriented it toward a quiet, chamber style of music that found a balance between his gentle, almost mannered compositions and Jackson’s more elemental writing and playing.
Over a long and illustrious career, John directed the School of Jazz at the Music Inn, was musical director for the Monterey Jazz Festival from 1958 to 1982, taught at City College of New York and Harvard University, rejoined the re-formed MJQ, led his own sextet, founded the American Jazz Orchestra, participated in Re-Birth of the Cool, was involved in various Third Stream Projects all while continuing to teach, compose and perform.
John Lewis, conservative bop pianist, composer, arranger and musical director for the Modern Jazz Quartet passed away in New York City on March 29, 2001.
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Freddie Douglas Waits was born on April 27, 1943 in Jackson, Mississippi. He played flute early on and majored in flute in at Jackson Street College but soon turned to drums as a profession. His earliest gigs were with blues artists including Memphis Slim and John Lee Hooker followed by performing soul music.
By 1962 Waits was in Detroit playing with the Jimmy Wilkins Orchestra, then the Johnny Winter band. A move to Los Angeles put him with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra before relocating to New York in the mid-‘60s. This period began some of his most important musical collaborations with Sonny Rollins, Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, Lee Morgan, Pharoah Sanders, Gene Harris and Max Roach.
Freddie was a founding member of M’Boom, the group Colloquim and during the Eighties played with Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor. A respected sideman, he never led a recording session. However, he left a legacy of music along with his son, drummer Nasheet Waits.
Hard bop and post-bop drummer Freddie Waits passed away on November 18, 1989 in New York City.
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