Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Donald Henri Grusin was born April 22, 1941 and grew up in Littleton, Colorado to a Latvian, classical violinist father. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in economics. In the early Seventies he was an economics professor in Guadalajara, Mexico but soon after he taught economics at Foothill College in California.
By the mid Seventies Grusin was touring with Pete Escovedo’s group Azteca alongside his daughter Sheila E in Bogota, Colombia. The trip sparked a lifelong interest in Latin music. In 1975, Quincy Jones invited him to tour with his band, and he left teaching for a career in music.
He worked as a studio musician on albums by Randy Crawford, Billy Eckstine, Joe Pass, and the Pointer Sisters. He formed the fusion group Friendship with Lee Ritenour, Ernie Watts, and Alex Acuña and recorded one album, then released solo albums in 1981 and 1983. By 1985 Don had produced the album Musician for Ernie Watts, winning a Grammy Award.
Grusin’s 2004 live album The Hang received a Grammy Award nomination, and he won Grammy Awards for his work on two albums by the Paul Winter Consort. He won an Echo Award for the album Quality Time, recorded with Peter Fessler.
As a record producer or keyboardist, Grusin has worked with Gerald Albright, Patti Austin, David Benoit, Larry Carlton, Oscar Castro-Neves, Dori Caymmi, Gilberto Gil, Jim Hall, Sérgio Mendes, Airto Moreira, Milton Nascimento, Flora Purim, Nelson Rangell, Brenda Russell, Zoot Sims, Leon Ware, and Sadao Watanabe.
Keyboardist, composer, and record producer Don Grusin, who is Dave Grusin’s younger brother, continues to push the boundaries of jazz and Latin jazz music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sonya Jason was born on January 10, 1963 in Wayne, Nebraska. By the age of four, she began playing piano and took classical piano lessons for nine years. Joining the school band at age ten she took up the saxophone. At thirteen she joined her first jazz band where she learned the rudiments of swing, the basic ability that all jazz musicians must possess.
Her family’s move to the Southwest enabled Sonya to join the Apollo High School band in Phoenix, Arizona, then voted Arizona’s leading jazz band. It was here that she first heard the passionate recordings of Latin saxophonist Gato Barbieri, and began studying the bebop stylings of Charlie Parker, gaining further inspiration from the saxophone work of Phil Woods and David Sanborn.
She won the Phil Woods Scholarship offered by Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Two years of liberal arts study at Mills College in Oakland California and private lessons with bebopper Hal Stein led to her move to Boston. While at Berklee she studied privately with saxophonists Joe Viola, Jimmy Mosher, George Garzone and Herman Johnson. She honed her arranging skills with Herb Pomeroy and Grammy award-winning arranger Robert Freedman. After graduating summa cum laude from Berklee in 1985, Sonya returned to Arizona to begin her professional career.
Gigging all over Arizona she gained versatility working with bands of varied styles, jazz, latin, top 40, reggae, rock, classical, big band swing, and show bands. In 1987 she formed a quartet that performed as opening act for Natalie Cole, Richard Marx, Chuck Berry, Ramsey Lewis, Janis Siegel, Smokey Robinson, Spyro Gyra, Lionel Hampton, Mose Allison and the Stanley Clarke/George Duke Project, to name a few..
In 1988 she released her debut recording Secret Lover on her Saja Productions label. in December 1988. In 1991 she moved to Los Angeles, California and signed with Warner Music Discovery and two years later her second release Tigress.
In addition, Sonya appeared in the Showtime movie, Lush Life, starring Jeff Goldblum and Forest Whitaker, and was featured in two cable music specials, Music and the Biz and Hurry Up and Wait.
Relocating to the San Francisco, California Bay Area in 1999. Since moving she has recorded a few albums, served as musical director and arranger for theCoastal Theatre Conservatory’s presentation of Cinderella with over a hundred youth of all ages, and was band director and orchestrator of This Side Of The Hill Players.
First-call saxophonist Sonya Jason carries on a thriving music teaching studio, continues to perform as a soloist for several bands and orchestras, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mornington Edward Lockett was born in Stepney, London, United Kingdom on November 19, 1961. He began playing clarinet at the age of 14 while he was a student at Cowes High School, then switched to tenor saxophone. He studied at Dartington College of Arts, graduating in 1981, then undertook further study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1984–85, under the tutelage of Lionel Grigson.
In the Eighties and ‘90s Lockett played in the bands of Jim Mullen, Ronnie Scott, Arturo Sandoval, Ian Shaw, and Andrea Vicari. During the mid ‘90s into the new century he performed with Martin Drew, Stan Tracey, Don Weller, Sarah Jane Morris, and Jimmy Smith, to name a few.
In February 1996, Mornington’s album Late Night Sax: After Dark reached No. 18 in the UK Albums Chart. From 2000 until 2004 he was involved in a group co-led by Martin Drew called Celebrating The Jazz Couriers. They played the music of Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes and won the British Jazz Award for Best Small Group in 2002. The band was reformed in 2004 as The New Jazz Couriers.
In 2008 in conjunction with fellow tenor saxophonists Art Themen and Don Weller, Lockett released the album The 3 Tenors at the Appleby Jazz Festival.
As an educator he now works at St. Paul’s Girls’ School, and the Royal College of Music in London, teaching jazz saxophone and improvisation. He has taught at Trinity College of Music, Leeds College of Music and has been a visiting tutor at the Dordogne Jazz Summer School.
He led a monthly residency at the 606 Club in Chelsea with saxophonist Peter King until a year before King’s death. Tenor saxophonist Mornington Lokett has since run an annual tribute, the Peter King Memorial Sax Summit. Invited guests have been saxophonists Graeme Blevins, Simon Allen and Alex Clarke, among others.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ronald Wayne Laws was born on October 3, 1950 and raised in Houston, Texas. He is the fifth of eight children and started playing the saxophone at the age of 11. He went on to attend Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, for two years.
In 1971 he journeyed to Los Angeles, California to embark upon a musical career. He started performing with trumpeter Hugh Masekela and the following year joined Earth, Wind & Fire, where he played saxophone and flute on their album Last Days and Time. Eighteen months later he decided to become a solo artist. Laws released his debut album Pressure Sensitive on Blue Note Records in 1975.
His first two albums charted on Billboard and by his third album, Friends and Strangers in 1977 was certified gold. Ronnie produced and sang on his sister Debra’s 1981 album Very Special. He would go on to play saxophone through the Eighties on albums by Ramsey Lewis, Sister Sledge, Deniece Williams, Jeff Lorber, Alphonse Mouzon, and Howard Hewett. In the 1990s he recorded with Norman Brown and again with Earth, Wind & Fire.
Saxophonist, flutist and vocalist Ronnie Laws, who has also worked with Guru, Brian Culbertson, and the Crusaders, also influenced Boney James and Norman Brown, and continues to explore the boundaries of his talent.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Earl Klugh was born September 16, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of six he started training on the piano but switched to the guitar at ten. By 13, he was captivated by the guitar of Chet Atkins when he made an appearance on the Perry Como Show.
His first recording was at age 15 on Yusef Lateef’s Suite 16. He played on George Benson’s White Rabbit album and two years later, in 1973, joined his touring band. He has performed as a guest on several of Atkins’ albums, who has reciprocated as well, joining Klugh on his Magic In Your Eyes album.
He and Bob James received a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1981 for their album One on One. Klugh has recorded over 30 albums, including twenty-three top ten charting records, with five hitting No. 1 on Billboard’s Jazz Album chart.
Each spring, Klugh hosts an event called Weekend of Jazz, featuring jazz musicians at the Broadmoor Hotel & Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The weekend attracts a host of famous musicians and vocalists.
Guitarist and composer Earl Klugh, who was influenced by Bob James, Ray Parker Jr, Wes Montgomery and Laurindo Almeida, has received 13 Grammy nominations, continues to compose, perform and record.
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