Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nicholas Payton was born on September 26, 1973 in New Orleans, Louisiana to bassist and sousaphonist Walter Payton. He took up the trumpet at the age of four and by age nine was sitting in with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band alongside his father. He began his professional career at ten years old as a member of James Andrews’ All-Star Brass and was given his first steady gig by guitarist Danny Barker at The Famous Door on Bourbon Street. He enrolled at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and then at the University of New Orleans.
After touring with Marcus Roberts and Elvin Jones in the early Nineties, Payton signed with Verve Records and his first album as a leader, From This Moment was released in 1994. In 1996 he performed on the soundtrack of the movie Kansas City, and in 1997 received a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo for his recording Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton.
After seven albums on Verve, Nicholas moved to Warner Bros. Records, and has collaborated with among others Trey Anastasio, Ray Brown, Ray Charles, Daniel Lanois, Dr. John, Stanley Jordan, Herbie Hancock, Roy Haynes, Zigaboo Modeliste, Marcus Roberts, Jill Scott, Clark Terry, Allen Toussaint, Nancy Wilson, Dr. Michael White, and Joe Henderson.
He is a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective, joined The Blue Note 7 honoring the 70th Blue Note Records anniversary and formed a 21-piece big band ensemble called the Television Studio Orchestra. In addition he recorded and released Bitches, a love narrative on which he played every instrument, sang, and wrote all of the music, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra commissioned and debuted his first full orchestral work, The Black American Symphony and formed his own record label, BMF Records. Payton has been a Distinguished Artist and Visiting Lecturer at Tulane University and belongs to a growing group of race scholars and activists committed to social justice. His writings are provocative as witnessed with his most notable pieces On Why Jazz isn’t Cool Anymore describes the effects of cultural colonization on music.
Trumpeter Nicholas Payton has recorded sixteen albums as a leader, another eight as a sideman wth Eric Alexander, Elvin Jones, Joanne Brackeen, Jimmy Smith and Allen Toussaint among others and continues to perform, compose, write and record,
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy Pierce was born September 25, 1948 in Hampton, Virginia and was raised in Florida by parents who were both educators. The household valued music and Pierce and his siblings each learned an instrument. He took up the saxophone as a child and started out listening to records by Dave Brubeck. Later he was drawn to the music of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. Since he was only 16 when he graduated from high school, his parents steered him toward a college in the South so he wouldn’t be too far from home. After he turned 18, and studied with Joe Viola, Andy McGhee and Joe Allard at Berklee College of Music,
Also known as Billy, he went on to play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in the early 1980s and in the Tony Williams quintet in the mid-1980s to early 1990s. He has led numerous sessions and released an equal number of CDs. He is the school’s woodwind department chair.
He has recorded with Blakey and Williams as well as with Makoto Ozone and Superblue. Saxophonist Billy Pierce continues to perform, compose and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jerry Hahn was born on September 21, 1940 in Alma, Nebraska and began playing the guitar at age 7. By 11 he was playing professionally with the Bobby Wiley Rhythmaires, appearing daily on Wichita’s first television station, KEDD.
He went on to study music at Wichita State University. Moving to San Francisco, California in 1962, he played with John Handy in 1964 and recording a live album with him at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966, then toured with the 5th Dimension in 1968 before joining Gary Burton in 1968 with Roy Haynes and Steve Swallow, With Burton he recorded three albums and toured the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan.
He began his recording career with his debut album Ara-Be-In as a leader in 1967 and led the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood in 1970, a country-blues jazz-rock ensemble, that was one of the trailblazers of the jazz-rock movement. In 1972, Jerry went back to Wichita, Kansas, where he became a full-time member of the Wichita State University faculty and established the degree program in jazz guitar.
1986 saw him relocating to Portland, Oregon where he joined the Bennie Wallace Quartet, recording and touring the United States, Europe and Japan. In 1992 he moved to Denver, Colorado, where he taught at the Colorado Institute of Art and in 1995 Jerry returned to Portland and joined the faculty of Portland State University and developed the curriculum for the Jazz Guitar program.
Jerry wrote a five-year monthly column for Guitar Player magazine titled Jerry Hahn’s Guitar Seminar, penned The Jerry Hahn Method for Jazz Guitar, published by Mel Bay Publications in 2003 and can also be heard on the movie sound track for White Men Can’t Jump.
He has recorded eight albums as a leader and over the years has been seen working with Michael White, Jack DeJohnette, Noel Jewkes, Ron McClure, Paul Simon and Ginger Baker among others. Guitarist Jerry Hahn is a contributor to the emerging fusion movement and continues to conduct clinics and work on new publications and recordings.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Born Keith Moore Mitchell, Red Mitchell came into this world on September 20, 1927 in New York City and was raised in New Jersey. His father loved music, his mother poetry and his first instruments were piano, alto saxophone, and clarinet. Receiving an engineering scholarship from Cornell University by 1947 he was in the Army playing bass. The next year he was in a jazz trio in New York City.
Red became known as for performing and recording with Mundell Lowe, Chubby Jackson, Charlie Ventura, Woody Herman, Red Norvo and Gerry Mulligan. After joining the West Coast jazz scene in the early 1950s in Los Angeles, California, he played with André Previn, Shelly Manne, Hampton Hawes, Billie Holiday, Stan Seltzer, Ornette Coleman, and others. He also recorded with Gene Ammons, Chet Baker, Louis Bellson, Paul Bley, Bob Brookmeyer, Buddy Collette, Maynard Ferguson, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Giuffre, Herbie Harper, Paul Horn, Stan Kenton, Barney Kessel, Karin Krog, Johnny Mandel, Jack Montrose, Gerry Mulligan, Bill Perkins, Richie Kamuca, Shorty Rogers, Dick Rosmini, Pete Rugolo, George Russell, Bud Shank, Clark Terry, Magni Wentzel and Pierre Strom.
He also worked as a bassist in the TV and film studios, occasionally appearing on screen and in the documentaries about Tal Farlow and Zoot Sims. Saxophonist Harold Land and Mitchell founded and co-led a quintet in the early 1960s. In 1966, Red began tuning his bass in fifths like the violin and his tuning method opened up many possibilities for bassists. Moving to Stockholm, Sweden in 1968, He won a Swedish Grammy Award in 1986 and again in 1991 for his recorded performances as a pianist, bassist, and vocalist, and for his compositions and poetic song lyrics.
During this period, Red performed and/or recorded with Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Herb Ellis, Jim Hall, Joe Pass, Kenny Barron, Hank Jones, Ben Webster, Bill Mays, Warne Marsh, Jimmy Rowles, Phil Woods, Putte Wickman and collaborated in duos, most notably with pianist Roger Kellaway after the mid-1980s among others.
Returning to the United States and settling in Salem, Oregon, double bassist, pianist, composer, lyricist and poet Red Mitchell left three dozen albums as a leader and another sixty-six before passing away at age 65 on November 8, 1992.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Socolow wa born on September 18, 1923 in New York City and began his career in the early 40s playing in swing bands led by Georgie Auld, Ted Fio Rito, Roy Stevens, Van Alexander and Shep Fields. In 1944 he landed the first of three stints that spanned into the late Fifties with the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra and recording a number of records.
1945 saw Frank recording his first of two sessions as a leader with Freddie Webster and a young Bud Powell for Duke Records. He would go on to join Buddy Rich’s short-lived big band, toured Scandinavia 1947-48 with Chubby Jackson, then joined Artie Shaw’s big band 1949-50. Throughout the late 40s and the 50s he recorded with a wide variety of artists including Johnny Bothwell, Charlie Ventura, Gene Krupa, Sal Salvador, Maynard Ferguson, Terry Gibbs, Phil Woods, Cecil Payne, Manny Albam, Hal McKusick, Johnny Richards, Bill Russo, Joe Morello, and Bobby Scott.
His second record session as leader and only full album release, Sounds by Socolow, came in 1956 for Bethlehem Records, with arrangements by Bill Holman, Manny Albam, and Sal Salvador, the latter also contributing guitar. Tenor saxophonist and oboist Frank Socolow passed away on April 30, 1981 in New york City.