Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Winston Clifford was born on September 19, 1965 in Islington, England and began playing drums as a child. He studied with former Tubby Hayes drummer Bill Eyden and Trevor Tomkins at the Guildhall School of Music. His playing is free from the usual restraints of stylistic expectations and a true reflection of listening and responding in the moment.
This training has led him to become one of the most in-demand drummers in Britain. He has performed or recorded with over five dozen luminary jazz musicians from both sides of the Atlantic. To name a few one must include Bheki Mseleku, Joanne Bracken, Stanley Turrentine, Benny Golson, James Williams, Chico Freeman, Phillip Catherine, John Abercrombie, Birelli Lagrene, Joe Lovano, Eddie Henderson, Archie Sheep, Carmen Lundy, Ronnie Laws, Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer, Gary Bartz, Joey Calderazzo, Dave Valentin, Larry Coryell, Monty Alexander, Eddie Harris, Bobby Watson, Billy Childs, Houston Person, Courtney Pine, Julian Joseph, and the list goes on.
Post bop drummer Winston Clifford continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rodney Charles Levitt was born on September 16, 1929 in Portland, Oregon and studied composition at the University of Washington, where he took his BA in 1951.
He was in the Radio City Music Hall orchestra from 1957 to 1963, and during those years he performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Ernie Wilkins, Kai Winding, and Sy Oliver. In 1959 Rod worked with Gil Evans when his orchestra accompanied Miles Davis. The following year he played with Gerry Mulligan and Mundell Lowe, with Quincy Jones in ‘61, and with Oliver Nelson in 1962.
He recorded four albums as a leader of an octet between 1963-66 and continued to work with this combination into the 1970s, when he played with bassist Chuck Israels.
Later in his career he worked with Cedar Walton and Blue Mitchell, and wrote music for commercials with a company he ran from 1966-1989. The late Seventies saw him teaching at Fairleigh Dickinson, Hofstra University, CUNY, and Hunter College.
Trombonist, composer, and bandleader Rod Levitt transitioned from Alzheimer’s disease in Wardsboro, Vermont at the age of 77 on May 8, 2007.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steve Masakowski was born on September 2, 1954 in New Orleans, Louisiana and The Beatles influenced his desire to play guitar. When he was fourteen, he played bass guitar and co-founded the band Truth, which was based on the rock band Cream. During his high school years he became interested in composing, and started taking guitar lessons to learn about harmony. His teacher introduced him to the music of jazz guitarists Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino, and Lenny Breau.
He went to Berklee College of Music in 1974, studied music theory, arranging, and composition. Returning home with his girlfriend Emily Remler after getting his degree, Steve founded the group Fourplay, not to be confused with the later jazz group of the same name. From 1976 to 1978, he studied classical composition and orchestration at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts with Bert Braud.
The early Eighties he played regularly with local New Orleans musicians such as Willie Tee, Earl Turbinton, Jr. and Alvin Tyler, as well as accompanying visiting musicians Randy Brecker, Tom Harrell, Art Baron, and Dave Liebman. His next band Mars played a mix of jazz and electronic music. He then went on to found the Composers Recording Studio with harpist Patrice Fisher, guitarist Jimmy Robinson, and violinist Denise Villere. After a ten year stretch the studio closed and he started working in duet with Ellis Marsalis Jr., then joined Astral Project, toured with Dianne Reeves. He leads the band Nova NOLA.
As an educator in 1991, he became a full-time faculty member at the University of New Orleans and became Chair of Jazz Studies and director of the jazz program in 2004 . He invented the key-tar, a guitar-like instrument with seven rows of keys instead of strings, one key at each fret. This pre-MIDI controller was hardwired to a Moog synthesizer.
Inspired by a visit to New Orleans by seven-string guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, he began to explore the seven-string guitar, first finding an early Gretsch, then designing his own models which have the expanded range of a normal guitar and bass guitar combined. Guitarist and educator Steve Masakowski continues to perform, record and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leonard Gaskin was born August 25, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He played on the early bebop scene at Minton’s and Monroe’s in New York in the early 1940s. In 1944 he took over Oscar Pettiford’s spot in Dizzy Gillespie’s band,and followed it with stints in bands led by Cootie Williams, Charlie Parker, Don Byas, Eddie South, Charlie Shavers, and Erroll Garner.
In the 1950s, he played with Eddie Condon’s Dixieland band, and played with Ruby Braff, Bud Freeman, Rex Stewart, Cootie Williams, Billie Holiday, Stan Getz, J.J. Johnson, and Miles Davis. In the 1960s he became a studio musician, playing on numerous gospel and pop records. In the 1970s and 1980s he returned to jazz, playing with Sy Oliver, Panama Francis, and The International Art of Jazz.
Gaskin became involved in educating young people later in his life. He toured and performed at New York City schools, sharing his knowledge with elementary students with the Good Groove Band and the International Art of Jazz groups. For more than a decade, he and drummer Oliver Jackson teamed to play the European jazz festival circuit. He also regularly collaborated with Sy Oliver’s Rainbow Room Orchestra.
Capping off his career in 1994, Leonard performed at the White House’s Congressional Ball at the behest of President Bill Clinton. Although his touring schedule slowed dramatically in the decade to follow, he wrote a privately published autobiography and donated his personal jazz collection to the American Music Archives at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History.
Bassist Leonard Gaskin transitioned from natural causes at a nursing home in Queens, New York on January 24, 2009. He was 88.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lou Colombo was born on August 22, 1927 and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts. He began playing trumpet in the 1940s, at age 12. Aftere serving in the Army band in World War II he had hopes of playing professional baseball, saw him signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers, but a broken ankle forced him to curtail that dream. He then formed his own band in the 1950s and toured with Buddy Morrow, Perez Prado, Dick Johnson and the Artie Shaw Orchestra. He also played with Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong during his career.
So he dove into music and his trumpet. His career included stints with the Charlie Spivak and Perez Prado bands and the Artie Shaw Orchestra. On Cape Cod, Lou’s gigs with Dick Johnson and Dave McKenna were legendary, as is their superb Concord album, I Remember Bobby, a tribute to Bobby Hackett.
Known for his one-handed trumpet style, he was a mainstay in the Cape Cod, Massachusetts jazz scene for more than six decades and maintained a home in Fort Myers, Florida. Trumpeter Lou Columbo, who also played flugelhorn, baritone horn and pocket trumpet, transitioned unexpectedly at 84 on March 4, 2019 in a car crash in Fort Myers after making a turn and his vehicle was struck by another.
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