Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Kaori Yamada was born on December 23, 1971 in Takamatsu, Kagawa Pref., Japan. She started learning to play the piano at the age of 4 and graduated from the School of Music, at Takamatsu Junior College, majoring in classical piano. She began teaching herself to play drums on her own initiative at the age of 14 and was particularly interested in Soul, R&B and Jazz, the music her brother was listening to at the time. It was during this period that she developed a strong desire to become a professional drummer.

From 1991 to 1995, Kaori lived Hiroshima where she gave drum instruction under the R.C.C. Takeshi Inomata Drum School at Yamaha Music Shops. During this period, she volunteered in the community as a musician and performed at charity concerts and events for a local youth group and welfare facility.

Introduced to Japan’s best-known drummer, the late Motohiko Hino, in 1996 Yamada started to train with him and two years later she began her professional drumming career. Since that time she has performed with her bands “Wet” and “Petit Agasa”. She has also worked as a side person for Terumasa Hino, Fumio Karashima, Kosuke Mine and Yosuke Inoue, among other Japanese jazz musicians.

Moving to New York in 2007 she broadened her music horizons playing venues like Showman’s and Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola of Lincoln Center, and more. She plays with Carol Sudhalter, James Zollar, Nabuko Kiryu, Valery Ponomarev, Alvin Walker, Peter Brainin, Cecilia Coleman, Chris Haney, Marco Panascia, Robert Bowen, Steve Millhouse, Miki Hayama, Madame Pat Tandy, Vito Di Modugno, Radam Schwartz, Akiko Tsuruga, Satoshi Inoue, Kayo and more. In 1994 Kaori was awarded the Best Ensemble Award at the Yamaha Music Festival. Drummer Kaori Yamada continues to perform both as a leader and side person, but as yet has not led a recording session.

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Daily Dose OF jazz…

Nicholas Mathew Ceroli  was born December 22, 1939 in Niles, Ohio. 1963 was an important year for his career as he went on a Central and South America tour with Ray Anthony, recorded with Jack Teagarden and performed with Gerald Wilson at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

By 1965 he was playing with Stan Kenton, then spent four years from 1965 to 1969 in Herb Alpert’s group, the Tijuana Brass. Moving to Hollywood, Nick became a prolific studio musician and found himself working closing the decade and into the Seventies with Pete Jolly, Richie Kamuca, Irene Kral, Warne Marsh, Ross Tompkins, Bill Berry, Mundell Lowe, Monte Budwig, Lou Levy, Bob Summers, Dave Frishberg and Pete Christlieb. In the 1980s he performed and recorded with Bob Florence, Milt Jackson and Zoot Sims.

Drummer Nick Ceroli passed away on  August 11, 1985 from a heart attack at the age of 45 at his home in Studio City, California.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ehud Asherie was born on December 20, 1979 in Israel and with his family moved to Italy at the age of three. He started playing piano at the age of seven and attended the Sir James Henderson School, now The British School of Milan, before they moved to the United States when he was nine. As a New York City teenager he visited Smalls Jazz Club, taking private lessons from Frank Hewitt, a pianist who often played there and attending the New School University.

Asherie first played at Smalls when he was a high school sophomore. In 2010 he recorded his debut solo piano album, Welcome to New York with a focus on stride and standards. The same year he played Hammond organ on his quartet release, Organic, mixing bop and swing with standards.

He has recorded seven albums as a leader ranging from duo to quintet group configurations on the Arbor and Posi-Tone labels. He has been a sideman recording with Bryan Shaw, Hilary Gardner and Harry Allen.  He has performed with Peter Bernstrin, Joe Cohn, Billy Drummond, Bobby Durham, Frank Gant, Paul Gill, Jimmy Green, Dennis Irwin, Jimmy Lovelace, Joe Magnarelli, Bob Mover, Tim Pleasant, Ben Street and Mark Taylor.

Pianist and organist Ehud Asherie has for two years been playing regularly at Smalls with his own trio, the Grant Stewart Quartet and the Neil Miner Quintet. He has also served as a rehearsal pianist for the Village Vanguard Orchestra and Since January 2000 he’s part of Trio65 at New York City’s Rainbow Grill with bassist Joseph Lepore and drummer Tommaso Cappellato. He continues to perform, record and tour.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Cornell Luther Dupree was born on December 19, 1942 and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. Growing up with King Curtis, he graduated from I.M. Terrell High School and began his career playing in the Atlantic Records studio band, recording on albums by Aretha Franklin and King Curtis as a member of his band, The King Pins. He played on the 1969 Lena Horne and Gábor Szabó recording, as well as recordings with Archie Shepp, Grover Washington, Jr., Snooky Young and Miles Davis.

A founding member of the band Stuff, which featured fellow guitarist Eric Gale, Richard Tee on keyboards, Steve Gadd and Chris Parker on drums, and Gordon Edwards on bass, they recorded several albums.  He and Tee recorded together on many occasions, and in addition he recorded with  Joe Cocker, Brook Benton, Peter Wolf,  Hank Crawford, Charles Earland, Eddie Harris, Gene Harris, Donny Hathaway, Roland Kirk, Yusef Lateef, Arif Mardin, Les McCann, Jack McDuff, David Newman, Bernard Purdie, Buddy Rich, Marlena Shaw, Sonny Stitt, Stanley Turrentine, Cedar Walton and Charles Williams.

In 2009, Dupree appeared in a documentary titled Still Bill, chronicling the life and times of Bill Withers. Appearing on stage playing a guitar-led version of Grandma’s Hands, Withers joined him from the  audience to sing the lyrics. At the time he was suffering from emphysema and played his guitar on a stool, breathing using an oxygen machine.

Guitarist Cornell Dupree recorded nine albums, wrote a book on soul and blues guitar: Rhythm and Blues Guitar and reportedly recorded on 2,500 sessions before passing away on May 8, 2011 at his home in Fort Worth, Texas awaiting for a lung transplant.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ellen Johnson was born on December 18, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. Surrounded by music as a child, her mother was a professional singer who played piano and her uncle had played clarinet in Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band.

Growing up in Chicago she studied guitar in high school but had originally planned to become a theater actress. However when she took voice lessons, Ellen became hooked on the music, and began singing in a local band while studying jazz with Willie Pickens at a music conservatory. Moving to the San Diego, California she earned a Master’s Degree from San Diego State University in Vocal Performance.

Notable for her work as an educator, Johnson has been teaching part of the voice faculties of the University of San Diego and the Old Globe Theatre, as well as conducted voice clinics since the mid-1980s. She has also performed special concerts of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music.

With a wide range for jazz improvisation, in the mid -’90s she recorded her debut album, Too Good to Title. She also recorded a few songs on Bob Willey’s album Peace Pieces. Vocalist Ellen Johnson continues to perform, and record.

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