Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hank Marr was born January 30, 1927 in Columbus, Ohio. He and tenor saxophonist Rusty Bryant co-led a group that toured for several years, beginning in 1958. During the early 1960s Hank worked with guitarist Freddie King and recorded and worked with Wilbert Longmire for a couple of years starting in 1963.
The late 1960s saw Marr performing in a duo with guitarist Floyd Smith in Atlantic City, New Jersey and a duo album with Frank Foster. He had two minor U.S. hit singles, The Greasy Spoon which hit No. 101 in 1964 and Silver Spoon #134 in 1965.
He recorded eight albums as a leader, and 19 singles for Wingate, King and Federal record labels. Hammond B-3 organist Hank Marr died at age 77 on March 16, 2004.
Get a dose of the musicians and vocalists who were members of a global society integral in the making and preservation of jazz for over a hundred and twenty-five years…
More Posts: history,instrumental,jazz,music,organ
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeffry Castleman was born January 27, 1946 in Los Angeles, California. Active from the late 1960s to 1980s and was known for his work with Duke Ellington between 1967 to 1969. He also worked with Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Johnny Hodges and toured with Don Ho.
In the late 1980s he relocated to Brooklyn Park Minnesota to run the family liquor store business. For a short time he was an art framer before taking aposition as a piano salesman at Schmitt Music in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Leaving all forms of employment, bassist Jeff Castleman is now retired at 79.
More Posts: bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nguyên Lê was born Le Thanh Nguyen on January 14, 1959 in Paris, France of Vietnamese ancestry. He began playing drums at the age of 15, then took up guitar & electric bass. After graduating in Visual Arts he majored in Philosophy, writing a thesis on Exoticism. A self-taught musician, Nguyên started out playing rock, funk, jazz standards, avant-garde jazz, pop, African, Caribbean, and other world music.
Devoting himself to music, in 1983 he created Ultramarine, a multi-ethnic band whose recording DÉ has been considered 1989’s Best World Music album. He went on to record several albums and worked with such musicians as Miroslav Vitous, Trilok Gurtu, J. F. Jenny Clarke, Dewey Redman, Andy Emler, Jon Christensen, Nana Vasconcelos, Glenn Ferris, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor and numerous others.
He has played with the O. N. J., the French National Jazz Orchestra in which he played with Johnny Griffin, Louis Sclavis, Didier Lockwood, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Randy Brecker, Toots Thielemans, Courtney Pine, Steve Lacy, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gil Evans, Quincy Jones, Randy Brecker, Vince Mendoza, Carla Bley, Per Mathisen, Marc Johnson, Peter Erskine, Trilok Gurtu, Paolo Fresu and Dhafer Youssef and numerous others.
He has released albums as a leader and as a sideman. His 1996 album Tales from Viêt-Nam blends jazz and traditional Vietnamese music. In spring 2011 he released Songs of Freedom, an album with cover versions of pop hits from the 1970s.
Guitarist and composer Nguyên Lê continues to perform, record and compose.
More Posts: bandleader,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music,synthesizer
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gene Lake was born Oliver Gene Lake, Jr. on January 12, 1966 in St. Louis, Missouri. He began playing drums when he was five years old, and took lessons with Pheeroan akLaff as a high schooler at The High School of Music & Art in New York City. He attended Berklee College of Music, where he worked with Tommy Campbell, and played in local Boston bands in a variety of styles.
Gene played with his father in New York City in 1987 and 1988, then joined Henry Threadgill’s ensemble in 1990. Later in the Nineties, Gene worked with Steve Coleman, Lunar Crush with David Fiuczynski and John Medeski, Marcus Miller, Brandon Ross, David Sanborn, the World Saxophone Quartet, and Joe Zawinul.
He has recorded seven albums as a leader that includes The Oliver Lake Quartet, Dedication, and At This Time and another ten as a sideman. Outside of jazz, Lake also performed and recorded with R&B musicians Maxwell and Me’Shell Ndegeocello.
Drummer Gene Lake, who is the son of saxophonist Oliver Lake, continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pamela Wise was born on January 8, 1956 in Steubenville, Ohio. She began composing and playing piano by ear at age five and started lessosn at nine. After studying the basics she began playing for her church choir, directed by her bassist father. While in high school she formed Ohio Movement, a r&b group performing throughout the Midwest and East Coast. Eight years later she left the band and moved to Cleveland, Ohio with her brother and entered Cuyahoga Community College to further study music.
A move to Detroit, Michigan with her brother led her to play with several r&b groups in the Detroit area, meeting her future husband Wendell Harrison and eventually composing and performing for Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Leon Thomas and Eddie Harris. In 1989 she formed a group that enlisted James Carter, Dwight Adams, Jaribu Shahid, Ali Muhammad and Andrew Daniels.
Pamela has collaborated with Regina Carter, Akua Dixon Turre, and with Jerry Gonzalez produced her cd Songo Festividad. She went on to release A New Message From The Tribe, Kindred Spirits, Negre Con Leche, and Pamela’s Club projects.
Composer, pianist and music director Pamela Wise continues to perform, record, collaborate and educate.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music