Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Burton L. Collins was born on March 27, 1931 in New York City but raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the 1950s he worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Urbie Green, Neal Hefti, Woody Herman, Elliot Lawrence, Johnny Richards, and Claude Thornhill.
Relocating to New York around 1960 he played in Broadway orchestras and in ensembles with Cannonball Adderley, Albert Ayler, Jimmy McGriff, Blue Mitchell, Duke Pearson, and Stanley Turrentine, among others. With Joe Shepley he formed the group Collins-Shepley Galaxy in 1970, recording two albums, including a Lennon/McCartney tribute. Later in the decade he played flugelhorn with Urbie Green again as well as with Janis Ian, Lee Konitz, David Matthews, and T. Rex’s album Electric Warrior.
Over the course of his career he recorded a hundred albums as a sideman with, among others, Manny Albam, Woody Herman, Duke Pearson, Cy Coleman, Frank Foster, Sal Salvador, Pat Moran, Astrud Gilberto, George Benson, Chris Connor, Manhattan Transfer, Tony Bennett, Luiz Bonfa, Airto Moreira, Paul Desmond, Eumir Deodato and Lalo Schifrin.
He played little after the 1970s, though he appeared on record with Loren Schoenbergin 1987. Trumpeter Burt Collins transitioned on February 23, 2007 in Philadelphia.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Owen Mackay was born on March 24, 1932 in Syracuse, New York. He attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut from 1950 to 1954, where he was the first blind student to graduate. He then attended Boston University from 1956 to 1958, where he studied with Margaret Charloff. He also studied with Lennie Tristano in New York City, then at the Lenox School of Jazz where he studied with Bill Evans, and lastly at The Hartford School of Music where he studied with Asher Zlotnik.
By the mid-1960s, Mackay joined the Hindustani Jazz Sextet with Don Ellis, Harihar Rao, Emil Richards, Steve Bohannon, Chuck Domanico and Ray Neapolitan. During this period he played with the Don Ellis Orchestra. The late Sixties saw him and Vicky Hamilton formed a duo and produced two recordings together with instrumentation including flute and saxes from Ira Schulman and guitar from Joe Pass.
In the mid-1970s, Dave along with Bill Henderson, and Joyce Collins formed a unique trio which toured the northwest, recorded two Grammy nominated albums for Discovery, and by 1981 they were performing on the television show Ad Lib. By the end of the decade with Lori Bell, and Ron Satterfield he formed the group Interplay, which garnered them four Grammy npominations. In the 1990s, he teamed up with Stephanie Haynes.
By the turn of the century he teamed with John Giannelli on bass and Joe Correro on drums performing Bill Evans tunes in a celebration of the Life and Music of bassist Scott LaFaro. He then hooked up with bassist Kenny Wild and singer Tierney Sutton. He would go on to perform with Serge Chaloff, Sonny Stitt, Bob Wilber, Bobby Hackett, Jim Hall, Don Ellis, Emil Richards, Shelly Manne, Chet Baker, Joe Pass, Warne Marsh, Kai Winding, Stephanie Haynes, and Tierney Sutton.
As a composer a couple of Mackay’s original compositions were later recorded by Cal Tjader, and by the Baja Marimba Band. He wrote a majority of the music with lyricist Barbara Schill for a hit stage musical comedy titled Is It Just Me, Or Is It Hot In Here?
Pianist, vocalist and composer Dave Mackay, with roots in the works of Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans, who favored the standards of the 1940s and 1950s and the bossa novas of Luíz Eça, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and João Gilberto, transitioned on July 29, 2020.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lance Bryant was born on March 23, 1961 in Markham, Illinois. His early musical experience was in the Baptist church. He received his formal education at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts where he studied saxophone composition and arranging. Moving to New York City in the mid Eighties he continued his study of saxophone and arranging privately with Frank Foster.
In the Nineties he began his relationship with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and three years later became the orchestra’s musical director and principal arranger. He made his film debut in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. He traveled extensively with Phyllis Hyman, Jon Hendricks, Pete “LaRocca” Sims, Wallace Roney, Abdullah Ibrahim, Bootsy Collins,James Williams and numerous others. He was an on-stage musician for the Broadway musical review Swing, has recorded with Carla Cook, George Gee, Yoron Israel.
Returning to his church roots he became Director of Instrumental Music at Fountain Baptist Church, Minister of Music for Andover Baptist Church and released Psalm in 2002, his first of a four cd series of originals and jazz arrangements of hymns and spirituals. As an educator he has taught Covenant Christian Academy, Phillips Academy, his alma mater Berklee, and Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Educational Department.
Saxophonist, arranger and vocalist Lance Bryant when not touring with Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya, he continues to perform around New York and New Jersey with Andy Farber Orchestra and the New Lionel Hampton Big Band.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clark Tracey was born February 5, 1961 in London, England and began his music journey playing piano and vibraphone before switching to drums at age 13, studying under Bryan Spring. He played in several ensembles with his father Stan Tracey including a quartet called Fathers and Sons with John and Alec Dankworth in the 1990s. In addition to his work with his father, which took him around the world, he has played with numerous visiting American musicians, notably Bud Shank, Johnny Griffin, Red Rodney, Sal Nistico, Conte Candoli, Barney Kessell, John Hicks and Pharoah Sanders throughout his career.
Through the 1980s Clark performed and recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Martin Taylor, Charlie Rouse, Alan Skidmore and Tommy Smith. The Nineties saw him with Claire Martin into the new century. During the decade and beyond he led his own ensembles with a host of recognized names like Django Bates, Nigel Hitchcock and Jamie Talbot. Concentrating on promoting the music of his late father, his final group under his own name included Mark Armstrong, Tom Ridout, James Wade Sired, Gareth Williams and James Owston.
Drummer, band leader, and composer Clark Tracey, has received several honors and was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to music and the promotion of jazz. He continues to pursue excellence in the genre.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anthony Frank “Tony” Inzalaco, Jr. was born January 14, 1938 in Passaic, New Jersey. From childhood drumming he went on to obtain bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. He was active in the United States from 1959 to 1968, performing and/or recording with Vinnie Burke, Jaki Byard, Donald Byrd, Chris Connor, Maynard Ferguson, Jim Hall, Roger Kellaway, Morgana King, Lee Konitz, Morris Nanton, Duke Pearson, Benny Powell, Buddy Rich, Charlie Shavers, Johnny Smith, Billy Taylor, and Ben Webster.
Moving to Germany in 1968 he lived there for a decade as a member of the bands of Kurt Edelhagen and Eugen Cicero. He worked with Benny Bailey, Don Byas, Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland, Kenny Drew, Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Peter Herbolzheimer, Carmen McRae, Sal Nistico, Horace Parlan, Fritz Pauer, Oscar Peterson, Idrees Sulieman, Ben Webster again, Jiggs Whigham, Jimmy Woode, and Leo Wright during his time in the country.
After moving back to the States, he was active principally in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1980s, working with Byrd, Griffin, and Farmer again, as well as with Ruby Braff, Al Cohn, and Dakota Staton.
Relocating again to Los Angeles in the 1990s, drummer Tony Inzalaco has led his own ensemble for the past decade.
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