Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Francis Coates Jr. was born February 17, 1938 in Trenton, New Jersey to a full-time performing musician and bandleader father, and his mother a dancer and actress. He attended Ewing High School and began his formal study in New York City at age eight with Urana Clarke at the Mannes College of Music on full scholarship. His earliest influences were credited to listening to Symphony Sid on his AM radio.
From age 11 to 14 he played clarinet with his father at the Trenton YMCA dance hall night, where he learned to improvise. His father began teaching him jazz piano at twelve and influenced by Jack Weig he joined the Trenton musicians union the same year. By 14 he was playing gigs two nights a week, as well as weekends and at sixteen he was gigging six nights a week during the summer at the Deer Head Inn where Savoy Records discovered him.
He recorded his debut Savoy album, Portrait, with bassist Wendell Marshall and drummer Kenny Clarke during his senior year of high school. He performed on the Steve Allen, Mike Douglas, and Merv Griffin tv shows in support of that album. From 1956 to 1958 he toured with Charlie Ventura, then while in college John played with Barry Miles, Eddie Gomez, Ron Carter, Woody Shaw, Harry Leahey, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Kai Winding, Urbie Green, and Pepper Adams.
Attending Rutgers University he graduated with a degree in romance languages in 1962. After graduating Coates returned to Deer Head where he again played six nights a week, four alone and two as bandleader. He took a position with Shawnee Press as an arranger and editor. He began performing at Henderson’s Club 50, where he had a six night per week gig and played with Coleman Hawkins, Clark Terry, Doc Severinsen, Phil Woods, Marvin Stamm and Bill Watrous among others.
Moving to Mountain Lake, New Jersey in 1966 and began working as an editor at Shawnee Press, arranged on his own time on a royalty basis, and playing at the Deer Head year round where he became an early inspiration for Keith Jarrett, who would listen and sit in occasionally. His arrangement for Amazing Grace has sold more than 750,000 copies and remains one of the publishing company’s best sellers.
John recorded nine albums for the record label Omnisound, toured briefly with bassist Paul Langosch, then began recording for Pacific St Records, including two albums with Phil Woods. In the 1990s, he became homeless and attempted suicide, then moved to Coney Island and began playing again around the year 2000.
Pianist, composer and arranger John C. Coates Jr., who occasionally played vibraphone and clarinet, died on November 22, 2017.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Baker Fowlkes was born on February 16, 1916 in New York City and studied alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, and violin before settling on the baritone saxophone. He spent most of his early career in the city playing with Tiny Bradshaw, Lionel Hampton, and Arnett Cobb.
He joined Basie’s orchestra in 1953 and remained with the orchestra until his death. The main interruptions during Charlie’s time with Basie were absences due to managing the career of his wife, vocalist Wini Brown.
Fowlkes recorded sixty-eight albums with Basie, and another fourteen with Frank Wess, Kenny Clarke, Buck Clayton, Stanley Cowell, Al Grey, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Yusef Lateef, Billy Taylor, and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson.
Baritone saxophonist Charlie Fowlkes, who occasionally played flute, electric guitar, bass clarinet and vocals, died in Dallas, Texas on February 9, 1980.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Claude Ranger was born in Montréal, Canada on February 3, 1941 and studied drums briefly with several teachers and arranging with Frank Mella. Beginning his career with Montréal show bands, he was a leading figure among the city’s jazz musicians by the mid-1960s.
A sideman to Lee Gagnon, Pierre Leduc, and Ron Proby among others, Claude led the bands heard on the CBC’s Jazz en Liberté. He was a member of Aquarius Rising with Brian Barley, Michel Donato and Daniel Lessard from 1969 to 1971. Moving to Toronto, Canada he lived there for fifteen years beginning in 1972. It was here that Claude was a member of the Moe Koffman Quintet and accompanied Canadian and U.S. musicians when they came through the city, such as, Lenny Breau, George Coleman, Larry Coryell, Sonny Greenwich, James Moody, Doug Riley, Don Thompson, and Phil Woods.
His own bands appeared at the Music Gallery, Jazz City, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM) and the Ottawa International Jazz Festival. A Ranger quintet was a finalist in the 1986 FIJM, receiving a special jury citation for his drumming. Relocating to Vancouver, Canada he served as a mainstay of the du Maurier International Jazz Festival, again as an accompanist to Canadian and U.S. musicians and as a leader of his own groups.
West Coast musicians Ron Samworth, Clyde Reed, Bruce Freedman and drummer Dylan vander Schyff also influenced Claude’s career. He was considered a jazz musician and drummer with natural swing, in the bebop-based tradition of Max Roach. Displaying great stamina, he sometimes worked against the grain of jazz in Canada. His ensembles ranged from a trio to the 15 and 19-piece Jade Orchestra that debuted at the 1990 Vancouver festival.
Ranger played a role in Canada similar to the one created by Art Blakey in the US – that of a veteran musician whose bands served as an important platform for the development of younger players. His discography included recordings by Allen, Barley, Breau, Gagnon, Greenwich, Koffman, Riley, Thompson, Jane Bunnett, P.J. Perry, Herb Spanier, Michael Stuart, and U.S. musicians Dave Liebman, and Michael Munoz.
Drummer, composer, arranger, and teacher Claude Ranger continues to pursue his career in music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sophia Domancich was born January 25, 1957 in Paris, France and began learning piano at the age of six. She attended the Conservatoire de Paris from 1968 to 1975 where she won first prize for piano and chamber music. She began her career as an accompanist in vocal and dance lessons, with the Paris Opera and the Théâtre de Caen.
In 1979 she met Steve Lacy, Bernard Lubat and Jean-Louis Chautemps who introduced her to the world of jazz and improvisation. By 1982 she formed a duet with Laurent Cugny and joined the big band Lumiére. She later participated in Quoi D’Neuf Docteur? with Steve Grossman, Glenn Ferris and Jack Walrath.
The following year during a brief collaboration with the group Anaïd, she met several English musicians from the Canterbury scene, drummer Pip Pyle, saxophonist Elton Dean and bassist Hugh Hopper, forming the group L’Equip Out in late 1984. The group included for a time a fifth member, Didier Malherbe on the flute and the tenor saxophone. In 1990, L’Equip Out recorded a second album, Up!, with bassist Paul Rogers.
With the latter and drummers Bruno Tocanne and Tony Levin, she formed the Sophia Domancich Trio with which she toured for eight years and recorded five studio albums. Also with Rogers, she created a 1995 quartet with the original composition, this time with two trumpeters, Patrick Fabert and Jean-François Canape.
Through the 1990s and into the new century, Domancich continued collaborating and recording with John Greaves and Vincent Courtois’ Trouble with Happiness, and with Simon Goubert. She was a pianist under Didier Levallet in the Orchester National de Jazz. In 2000 she formed the Quintet Pentacle, in 2006 the Trio DAG (Domancich, Avenel, Goubert) creating three albums as a trio and an album “free 4 DAG” with saxophonist Dave Liebman. Sophia ventured into electronic music, formed three more groups to continue to express herself through her music.
She became the first woman to receive the Prix Django Reinhardt from the Jazz Academy as French Musician of the Year. By 2007 found herself included in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture collaborative book, 100 Jazz Titles, that included her 2002 Pentacle Quintet release.
She has recorded 10 albums as a leader, 7 as a co-leader and 20 as a member of other groups. Pianist and jazz composer Sophia Domancich continues to compose, explore, perform and reinvent herslf.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Theodore Smith was born on January 22, 1932 in Washington, D.C. During the Sixties he played with Betty Carter, and with Clifford Jordan with whom he recorded the album Bearcat, and Kenny Dorham in 1961-62, recording the album Matador.
From 1962 to 1963 Teddy played with Jackie McLean and Slide Hampton. Following this he played with Horace Silver, including performances at the 1964 Montreux, Antibes, and Paris jazz festivals. He was a member of the quintet that recorded four tracks on Silver’s album Song for My Father.
Smith’s performance on the title track of Song for My Father, beginning with the opening unison figure between his bass and Silver’s piano, has been one of the most widely heard pieces of jazz music in the world for nearly a half-century and an influence on such artists as Stevie Wonder and Steely Dan.
Following his Silver residency in which he also recorded Live, Teddy went on to play with Sonny Rollins from 1964 to ‘65 recording The Standard Sonny Rollins and played with Sonny Simmons in 1966.
Double-bassist Teddy Smith, never a leader, died on August 24, 1979 in his birth city.
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