Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ali Jackson Jr. was born on April 3, 1976 in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, a classical pianist, taught him piano and how to read music at age 4, his father, a professional bass player, taught him music theory and gave him drums lesson from rudiment books.
Attending Detroit’s prestigious Cass Technical High School, he went on to matriculate through The New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music and privately studying with Elvin Jones and Max Roach.
Ali has recorded two albums as a leader and as a sideman has performed and recorded with musicians including with Joshua Redman, Anat Cohen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Wynton Marsalis, Jacky Terrasson, Craig Handy, James Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Harry Connick Jr., KRS-1, Marcus Roberts, Cyrus Chestnut, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall and Eric Reed.
Ali Jackson is currently the drummer with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, performs with the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Horns in the Hood, and leads the Ali Jackson Quartet. He is also the voice of “Duck Ellington,” a character in the Penguin book series Baby Loves Jazz and has hosted “Jammin’ with Jackson,” a series for young musicians at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy Club Coca-Cola.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rodrigo Villanueva was born in Mexico City, Mexico on March 26, 1967 and began playing drums at age of 15, studying privately and taking classical percussion and jazz studies at Escuela Superior de Musica, Ollin Yolitztly and Escuela Nacional de Musica. In 1987, he joined the jazz group Atri 5 recording Ice Cream Concerto and Flavors of the Stars, touring Mexico and playing in several international new music festivals.
Over the course of his career Rodrigo has performed in several theater bands, television shows and studio sessions; and in the jazz/classical genre with Carlos Prieto, Roberto Limón, Marisa Canales, Ana Maria Tradatti and Takagoshi Yoshioka to name a few. He has been a member of the Contemporary Jazz Trio, Brass Explosion, Fénix and Jazztlán; and has co-led the group Espiral.
Villanueva has toured the U.S., Mexico, South America, Europe and Asia with several jazz and pop projects, has won the National Final Nescafe-Yamaha Pop Music Award Band Explosion with the group Corazón Latino, and has composed and arranged in the jazz and pop idioms including big band. He has played with his alma mater’s lab bands at the University of North Texas, performed with Charles McPherson, Eddie Gomez, Clark Terry, Wycliffe Gordon, Stefan Karlsson, Jimmy Owens and Fareed Haque amongst his list of many.
As an educator drummer and percussionist Villanueva has taught drum-set and percussion courses and master classes at different institutions in Mexico, the U.S., Perú, Korea, & Japan. He is currently an Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University, coaches the NIU Jazz Lab Band and continues to play with several groups.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mimi Jones was born Miriam Sullivan in New York City on March 25th and grew up in the Bronx. Influenced by everyone from Sinatra to the Beatles to Earth Wind & Fire, The Doors, Miles Davis, Gene Ammons, Gloria Lynne and John Coltrane, her compositional style is reflective.
By the age of twelve she was studying guitar with her first teacher, Jim Bartow, taking classes in dance, chorus, drums, music theory, piano and composition at the Harlem School of the Arts which all helped her secure a spot at Fiorello La Guardia High School of Music and Performing Arts. Realizing there was no guitar program Jones switched to cello and eventually was given the bass spot in the jazz band. It was during this time she discovered her musical voice.
Mimi began her relationship with the bass by receiving classical lessons, attended the Jazz Mobile Workshop, and studied with bassist Lisle Atkinson who gave her first bass, a Juzak. She went on to receive a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music Conservatory where she studied with saxophonist Charles Davis, Barry Harris, Ron Carter, Milt Hinton, Dr. Billy Taylor, Yusef Lateef, Max Roach, and Latin bass techniques with Guillermo Edgehill while matriculating to degree in music.
As a leader her debut “A New Day” is filled with seamless original compositions and as a sideman she has performed and toured with such luminaries as Lionel Hampton, Roy Hargrove, Sean Jones, Kenny Barron, Kevin Mahogany, Onaje Alan Gumbs and Ravi Coltrane among others. The multi-talented bassist, vocalist and composer continues to bring her elegant sound is an eclectic mix of genres based on a strong jazz foundation to the world stage.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joachim Kühn was born March 15, 1944 in Leipzig, Germany. He was a musical prodigy and made his debut as a concert pianist, having studied classical piano and composition. Influenced by his elder brother, clarinetist Rolf Kühn, he simultaneously got interested in jazz and in 1961 he became a professional jazz musician.
He put together a trio in 1964 and presented the first free jazz in East Germany. In 1966 he left the country and settled in Hamburg and together with his brother played the Newport Jazz Festival and recorded with Jimmy Garrison on the Impulse Record label.
Kühn moved to Paris in 1968 and has since worked with Don Cherry, Karl Berger, Slide Hampton, Phil Woods and Jean-Luc Ponty among others. As a member of Association P.C. he turned to electronic keyboards and during the second half of the 70’s he lived in California and joined the West Coast fusion scene. This period saw him recording with Alphonse Mouzon, Billy Cobham, Michael Brecker and Eddie Gomez.
Returning to Europe and settled near Paris again, he has played in an acoustic trio with Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark and Daniel Humair since 1985. In the summer of 1996, he joined Ornette Coleman for two concerts at the Verona and Leipzig festivals, which opened the way for his Diminished Augmented System. He continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Terence Oliver Blanchard was born March 13, 1962 in New Orleans, Louisiana and began playing piano at the age of five and then the trumpet at age eight. He played trumpet recreationally alongside childhood friend Wynton Marsalis in summer music camps but showed no real proficiency on the instrument. While in high school, he began studying at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and then studied at Rutgers, toured with Lionel Hampton, joined Art Blakey and became the Messenger’s music director.
While playing with Blakey, Blanchard rose to prominence as a key figure in the 1980s Jazz Resurgence as a co-leader of a quintet with saxophonist Donald Harrison and pianist Mulgrew Miller, The Harrison/Blanchard group recorded five albums from 1984-1988 until Blanchard left to pursue a solo career in 1990 and recorded his self-titled debut for Columbia Records.
He scored and performed on every Spike Lee movie soundtracks, including his 4-hour HBO Hurricane Katrina documentary “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts” and the soundtrack for “Red Tails”. Composing for other directors, with over forty scores to his credit Blanchard is the most prolific jazz musician to ever compose for movies.
Terence has recorded eighteen albums, been nominated for twelve times and won five Grammy Awards, has won Soul Train Music Award, an Emmy and Golden Globe among others. On the short list his collaborations include Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Gary Bartz, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash and McCoy Tyner.
Composer, educator and trumpeter Terence Blanchard is the artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California. All the while, he has remained true to his jazz roots as a trumpeter and bandleader on the performance circuit.
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