Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Arif Mardin was born on March 15, 1932 in Istanbul, Turkey into a family of privilege that included statesmen, diplomats, leaders and business owners of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. He grew up listening to Bing Crosby and Glenn Miller, met jazz critic Cuneyt Sermet, who turned him onto this music and eventually became his mentor. After graduating from Istanbul University in Economics and Commerce, he studied at the London School of Economics. Though never intending to pursue a career in music, influenced by his sister’s music records and jazz, he became an accomplished orchestrator and arranger.
In 1956 fate took him down a different path when he met Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones at a Ankara concert. He sent three demo compositions to his radio friend Tahir Sur who subsequently took these compositions to Jones and Mardin became the first recipient of the Quincy Jones Scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Two years later with fiancé Latife, he relocated to Boston. After graduating in 1961, he taught at Berklee for one year and then moved to New York City to try his luck.
His career began at Atlantic Records in 1963 as an assistant to Nesuhi Ertegün. He rose through the ranks quickly, becoming studio manager, label house producer and arranger. In 1969, Arif became the Vice President and later served as Senior Vice President until 2001. He worked closely on many projects with co-founders Ertegün and Jerry Wexler, as well as noted recording engineer Tom Dowd. The three of them, Dowd, Mardin, and Wexler, became legendary and were responsible for establishing the Atlantic Sound.
He recorded two solo albums in the Seventies, Glass Onion and Journey, the latter wearing the hats of composer, arranger, electric pianist and percussionist. Mardin performed with Randy and Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell, Gary Burton, Ron Carter, Steve Gadd, Billy Cobham and many others. He composed, arranged, conducted and produced The Prophet in 1974, an interpretation of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet voiced by Richard Harris.
Arif produced George Benson, The Manhattan Transfer, Vince Mendoza, and the Modern Jazz Quartet, but not limited to jazz he also produced, among others, Margie Joseph, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Raul Midón, Patti Labelle, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, Queen, Jeffrey Osborne, and numerous others. In 1975 he discovered Barry Gibb’s distinctive falsetto that became the Bee Gees trademark.
Over a 40 year career Mardin produced forty gold and platinum albums, 11 Grammy Awards, was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, and was a trustee of Berklee and awarded an honorary doctorate
Pianist, percussionist, producer, arranger, studio manager and vice president Arif Mardin passed away at his home in New York City on June 25, 2006 following a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.
Sponsored By
#preserving genius
More Posts: arranger,percussion,piano,producer
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dave Green was born on March 5, 1942 in Edgware, London, England. His first public performances were with his childhood friend Charlie Watts in the late 1950s while in their teens. He went on to perform with Humphrey Lyttelton from 1963 to 1983, while also playing with the Don Rendell–Ian Carr band in the early 1960s, and went on to play with Stan Tracey.
After his departure from Lyttelton in the early Eighties, he led his own group, Fingers, featuring Lol Coxhill, Bruce Turner and Michael Garrick. He regularly backed visiting musicians from the United States at Ronnie Scott’s, including Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roland Kirk and Sonny Rollins.
He performed and recorded with Dave Newton, Didier Lockwood and Spike Robinson. In 1991, he was a founding member of Charlie Watts’s quintet, together with Gerard Presencer, Peter King and Brian Lemon. Since 1998, he has led a trio featuring Iain Dixon and Gene Calderazzo, and became a member of The ABC&D of Boogie Woogie, with Ben Waters, Axel Zwingenberger and Charlie Watts, performing at the Lincoln Center with Bob Seeley and Lila Ammons.
Continuing to perform and record, bassist Dave Green has released for albums as a leader and working with Ruby Braff, Tony Coe, Captain John Handy, Ben Webster, Buddy Tate, Peter King, Spike Robinson, Stan Tracey, Ken Peplowski, Acker Bilk, Scott Hamilton, Bob Wilber, Roy Williams, Brian Lemon, John Critchinson, Dave Cliff, Joe Temperley, Lol Coxhill, John Bunch, Dick Morrissey and the Michael Garrick Trio has released twenty-four albums as a sideman.
Sponsored By
www.whatissuitetabu.com
#preserving genius
More Posts: bass
Daily Dose Of jazz…
John E. Carisi was born on February 23, 1922 in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. A self-taught musician early in his career began when he became a member of Babe Russin’s band, then from 1938 to 1943 he was a member of Herbie Fields’s Orchestra before becoming a part of Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band. After the war he left Miller he studied with acclaimed composer Stefan Wolpe and worked with Ray McKinley, Claude Thornhill, Charlie Barnet and Benny Goodman, among others.
His minor-blues composition Israel was quickly recognized as a unique jazz classic after it was recorded by Miles Davis at the sessions which later became known as the Birth of the Cool. Other notable versions have been recorded by Bill Evans, and the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band. Another well known Carisi piece, Springsville, was also recorded by Miles Davis and arranged by Gil Evans on the classic album, Miles Ahead.
In 1957 he arranged the music for Urbie Green’s album, All About Urbie Green and in 1959 with the music for a set by Harry Galbraith’s Guitar Choir. 1960 saw the trumpeter on a State Department tour of South East Asia and the Middle East. Visiting the Taj Mahal became the inspiration for an album he shared with Cecil Taylor that was released as Into the Hot under Gil Evans‘ name for Impulse! in 1961, and then Carisi arranged Marvin Stamm’s 1968 album Machinations.
Johnny continued to perform and arrange in both the jazz and classical fields with occasional forays into ballet and pop music. He composed and scored music for Jerry Lewis’s television show on the other. In 1969 he joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, but continued to play jazz off and on until 1984. Trumpeter and composer Johnny Carisi passed away October 3, 1992 in New York City, New York.
Sponsored By
#preserving genius
More Posts: trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe LaBarbera was born into a musical family on February 22, 1948 in Mt. Morris, New York, younger brother to saxophonist Pat LaBarbera and trumpeter and arranger/composer John LaBarbera. Formally educated at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts after graduation he spent two years with the Army band at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
He began his professional career playing with Woody Herman and the Thundering Herd, followed by the Chuck Mangione Quartet. Moving to New York Joe spent two years freelancing with a number of notable musicians, including Jim Hall, Phil Woods, Art Farmer, Gary Burton, Art Pepper, John Scofield, Bob Brookmeyer and Toots Thielemans.
By 1978, Labarbera had joined the Bill Evans Trio with bassist Marc Johnson. After the death of Evans in 1980, he joined singer Tony Bennett, then went on to work with pianist Bill Cunliffe and has recorded with his brother Pat. Relocating to Los Angeles, California, he has been teaching at the California Institute of the Arts since 1993. He is on the faculty of the Bud Shank Jazz Workshop in Port Townsend, Washington and has also served on the National Endowment for the Arts council in Washington, DC.
Drummer and composer Joe LaBarbera, who is a guest lecturer at colleges and universities, continues to record and perform.
Sponsored By
#preserving genius
More Posts: drums
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph Allen Farnsworth was born February 21, 1968 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, one of five sons born to trumpeter and bandleader Roger Farnsworth. He attended high school at the Jakarta International School in Jakarta, Indonesia, then studied at William Paterson College under Harold Mabern and Arthur Taylor.
After graduation Joe played with Junior Cook and Jon Hendricks in 1991, Jon Faddis in 1992, and between 1993 and 1995 with George Coleman, Cecil Payne, Annie Ross, and Benny Green. He has played in the group One for All with David Hazeltine and Jim Rotondi, and worked with Benny Golson, Steve Davis, and Eric Alexander.
In the second half of the Nineties he also played with Alex Graham, Michael Weiss, the Three Baritone Saxophone Band, and Diana Krall. He has released three albums as a leader, has also recorded with Steve Davis and the late Cedar Walton. Drummer Joe Farnsworth is now a member of Pharoah Sanders’ band.
#preserving genius
More Posts: drums