Daily Dose Of Jazz..
Matso Limtiaco was born May 2, 1963 and majored in music education as an undergraduate. After a brief period teaching public school music, he earned his MA in music theory/composition at Washington State University in 1990. After spending six years teaching music at all levels from junior high band to university jazz ensembles, arranging music for groups he led and for a variety of local performers.
Limtiaco gained his first notoriety as a marching band arranger for Washington State University, and then for the University of Washington. Matso quit teaching music full-time and is active as a freelance composer, arranger, and performer in the Seattle area. His baritone saxophone work has anchored the Emerald City Jazz Orchestra saxophone section since 1994, and the band’s two recordings “Alive and Swinging” and “Come Rain or Come Shine” feature his charts.
After spending several years in music education, he left teaching and now works as an independent composer/arranger, with a “day job” as a technical writer for a large manufacturing company. Among jazz arrangers and composers Matso is not the most well-known nor the most prolific but he rapidly established himself as one of the most polished and professional writers anywhere.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ambrose Akinmusire was born May 1, 1982 and raised in Oakland, California. A member of the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble, he caught the attention of saxophonist Steve Coleman who was visiting the school to give a workshop. Coleman hired him as a member of his Five Elements band for a European tour and the young trumpeter was also a member of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.
Ambrose studied at the Manhattan School of Music before returning to the West Coast to obtain a master’s degree at the University of Southern California and attend the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles. In 2007, he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and released his debut recording Prelude…To Cora on the Fresh Sound New Talent label.
Moving back to New York City he began performing with Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks, Esperanza Spalding and Jason Moran, taking part in Moran’s innovative multimedia concert event In My Mind: Monk At Town Hall, 1957. It was also during this time that he caught the attention of Bruce Lundvall, President of Blue Note Records. Akinmusire released his sophomore album as a debut on the Blue Note label in 2011 titled When The Heart Emerges Glistening, featuring his quintet of tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Justin Brown. His third album, The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier To Paint was released in 2014.
Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire has won the North Sea Jazz festival Paul Acket award and has worked with Kendrick Lamar, Aaron Parks, Sara Gazarek, Alan Pasqua, Mike Ladd, Josh Roseman, David Binney, John Escreet, Le Boeuf Brothers, Vince Mendoza, Jack DeJohnette and Dana Stephens. He continues the tradition of performing and recording.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Rufus Adams was born on April 29, 1940 in Covington, Georgia and his musical style is deeply rooted in the blues and in primarily that of African-American popular music. The tenor’s greatest influences seem to have been Rahsaan Roland Kirk and the adventurous edginess of John Coltrane and Albert Ayler.
George played with tremendous intensity and passion, as well as lyricism and subtlety. At times he bent over backwards when playing, almost ending up on his back. He and Don Pullen shared a musical vision and their quartet straddled the range from R&B to the avant-garde.
One of Adams’ last recordings was America for Blue Note Records consisting of classic American songs like Tennessee Waltz, You Are My Sunshine and Take Me Out To The Ballgame as well as a few original songs that articulate his positive view of his country and the gifts it had given him. It also includes The Star Spangled Banner and America The Beautiful.
Tenor saxophonist, flautist and bass clarinetist George Adams, best known for his work with Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Roy Haynes, and in the quartet he co-led with pianist Don Pullen, passed away on November 14, 1992 in New York City.
He was also known for his idiosyncratic singing he left for posterity two-dozen albums as a leader and another 25 as a sideman over the course of his sort career.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mickey Tucker was born on April 28, 1941 in Durham, North Carolina and began on piano at age six, playing in church when he was young. By the 1960s he was doing studio work with R&B musicians such as Little Anthony & The Imperials, Damita Jo, and accompanying comedian Timmie Rogers, switching to jazz music late in the decade.
In the late ’60s and ’70s Mickey played with Bill Harman, Junior Cook, James Moody, Frank Foster, Roland Kirk, Eric Kloss, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Roy Brooks, Eddie Jefferson, Billy Harper, Philly Joe Jones, George Benson,, Willis Jackson and Final Edition.
The 1980s saw Tucker performing with the Art Farmer and Benny Golson group The Jazztet, and with Richie Cole, Phil Woods and Louis Hayes. He would work with Junior Cook, and the Jazztet again in the Nineties as well as with Bob Ackerman.
Pianist Mickey Tucker has released eleven albums as a soloist or leader, and another 10 as a sideman. He moved to Sydney, Australia and is currently pursuing his musical endeavors in jazz as a pianist and organist.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stafford James was born April 24, 1946 in Evanston, Illinois. As a young man he enlisted in the Air Force and after his discharge he studied at the University of Chicago. In 1969 he moved to New York City and studied at the Mannes College for Music. Here he met Pharoah Sanders, with whom he played his first jazz concerts in New York. He played with Monty Alexander, Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane and Albert Ayler.
James did the first road tour of the Broadway show Hair through Canada, met Melba Moore in 1971 and played the David Frost Revue with her, and went on to Rashied Ali, Roy Ayers, Al Haig, Barry Harris, Andrew Hill, Andrew Cyrille and Chico Hamilton.
In 1973 Stafford toured Europe for the first time with Gary Bartz, then became a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. At the same time he met Woody Shaw, began a lifelong friendship with Betty Carter and started teaching at the United Nations International School in NYC. He recorded his debut album as a leader in 1975 with Enrico Rava, Dave Burrell and Beaver Harris. A year later he founded a quintet and toured Europe.
He met Dexter Gordon while on tour with Al Cohn and recorded Homecoming with him upon his return to the United States. He continued to tour through the 1980s, arranged compositions by Ellington, and composed sonatas. By the end of the decade and into the next James moved to Paris, collaborated with Pharoah, Barney Wilens and Lavelle, formed the Stafford James Project, played with his trio and continued to compose for large ensembles.
His list of collaborations, recording sessions and tours is extensive and in recent years he has recorded The Stafford James String Ensemble, taught master classes at the university level, had a two-hour program on his life and compositions, founded the Top Hat Music Society, performed with Max Roach’s percussion ensemble M’Boom and continue his tradition of performance, composing, recording and touring around the world.
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