Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Yuko Okamoto was born in Miyagi, Japan on May 21, 1984 and started playing piano at age 5 but changed to Electone, a synth organ, at age 7. When she was in junior high school she won the Miyagi Prefecture first prize of the Yamaha Junior Electone Festival. She was chosen as a semifinalist of the Interntational Yamaha Electone Competition at Akasaka Britz in 2002 and Shibuya AX in 2004. In 2003 she won first prize of ‘Yamaha Electone Competition Expert Division and she earned a high evaluation on her performance and charm.
At age 18, she started studying jazz piano and composition under Kiminori Atsuta and Masa Matsuda. She also played in various jazz clubs, restaurants and bars with great bands and popular artists. In 2006 she entered Berklee College Of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied composition, arranging, and performance under George Russell Jr, Walter Besely, John Arcaro, and Bill Eliott among others.
In 2008 she played her original music at Carnegie Hall in NewYork City and performed at Boston City Hall with different bands. She co-stared with One Voice Children’s Choir lead by Masa Fukuda. She has composed for film music and short image video music,
Pianist Yoko Okamoto Now she moved to New York City and is fully engaged as a composer, arranger, and performer.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jim Douglas was born Robert James Elliot Douglas on May 13, 1942 in Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. He played drums in his youth before switching to guitar and in his teens he accompanied clarinettist Pete Kerr.
As part of a Dixieland band, he performed in Germany in 1960 and soon after Jim began playing with Alex Welsh. In 1971 he appeared on the album Freddy Randall and His Famous Jazz Band. Other than Kerr and Welsh, he worked with Alan Elsdon, Lennie Hastings, Ed Polcer, and Keith Smith.
Douglas wrote and self-published a semi-autobiographical book, Tunes, Tours and Travel-itis – Eighteen Years of Facts, Faces and Fun with the Alex Welsh Band. He followed this up three years later with Teenage to Travel-itis – Growing Up in a World of Jazz. The sequel chronicles his adventures in the Jazz world before and after his time with the Alex Welsh Band.
Guitarist, banjoist, and author Jim Douglas, who played with Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Ruby Braff from 1962 until 1981 while in the Welsh band, continues to perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles William Porter was born May 10, 1978 in Boynton Beach, Florida. He studied trumpet at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Paris Conservatory. His mentors include Wynton Marsalis, Mark Gould, Raymond Mase, Guy Touvron, and Laurie Frink.
Porter started in the New York jazz scene in the 1990s while studying classical music under Wynton Marsalis at the Juilliard School. He became a long-standing member of the Absolute Ensemble, and is a frequent member of the Charlie Porter Quintet, The Alan Jones Sextet and the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra.
As a bandleader, he has toured as both a jazz and classical musician, and released his debut self-titled album, Charlie Porter, and a sophomore project Immigration Nation. As a sideman he has recorded some two dozen albums with Philip Glass, Absolute Ensemble, Paquito D’Rivera, Tristan Murail, Billy Martin, Anthony Coleman, Russ Spiegel, Majid Khaliq, Chuck Israels, Alan Jones, and Derek Hines.
As an educator he is currently based in Portland, Oregon and presently holds the position of adjunct professor of jazz trumpet at Portland State University. Trumpeter, composer and music educator Charlie Porter, who has won several trumpet competitions and awarded a Grammy for his collaboration on the Joyce DiDonato album Songplay, continues to perform, record and teach.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Diego Maroto was born in Mexico City, Mexico on May 9, 1968. He started taking private saxophone lessons in 1985 from teachers Larry Roussell and Alfonso Martínez. Two years later he studied art history at the Universidad Iberoamericana and in 1988 he joined the jazz worksop at the Escuela Superior de Música (INBA), where he learned improvisation, arrangement and composition by Francisco Tellez. His continuing education took him to private lessons from Danny Matusack and Darryl Winsman.
In 1991, Diego became an active member of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). During this period he participated in worksops and courses with David Liebman, Ernie Watts, Arturo Sandoval, Brian Bromberg, David Baker, Jerry Bergonzi, Ran Blake, Mike Campbell, Bill Dobbins, Andy Laverne, Don Sickler and Chris Vandala.
He has recorded and performed on projects with some of Mexico’s top jazz musicians like Eugenio Toussaint, Agustin Bernal, Enrique Neri, Fernando Toussaint, Cristobal López, Chilo Moran, Miguel Salas, Francisco Téllez, Iraida Noriega, and Big Band Arte 01, to name a few. In 2004, Maroto recorded his debut solo album Mundo Paralelo. He has performed at Dizzy’s in New York, and has shared stages with Antonio Sanchez, George Duke and Stanley Clarke. He has since formed the Diego Moaroto Asian Trio, and recorded a live album in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the No Black Tie jazz club.
As an educator, Diego has given lessons, clinics and seminars in important schools and institutions in Mexico. Tenor saxophonist Diego Maroto continues to perform, record, tour and teach.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Glenn Paul Zottola was born in Port Chester, New York on April 28, 1947. He started playing jazz professionally in 1960.
Glenn is known for his work with Lionel Hampton, Benny Goodman, and Bob Wilber, and has accompanied a broad range of vocalists, including Mel Tormé, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, and Joe Williams.
He has recorded over 50 albums with Butch Miles, Bob Wilber, Mousey Alexander, Steve Allen, Phil Bodner, George Kelly, Peggy Lee, George Masso, George Masso, and Maxine Sullivan, among numerous others.
In 1988, was a featured soloist at the 50th anniversary of Benny Goodman’s Carnegie Hall Concert. In 1995, Zottola was bandleader on the Suzanne Somers daytime TV talk show at Universal Studios.
Trumpeter and saxophonist Glenn Zottola, who has recorded twenty-two albums as a leader, continues to perform and record.
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