Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Everette Harp was born August 17, 1961 in Houston, Texas and was the youngest of eight children. His mother played the organ and gospel music was one of his earliest influences. He started playing jazz in middle school at Marshall Junior High under the tutelage of drummer Buddy Smith. He attended the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, then North Texas State University as a music major in the early 1980s.
He worked as an accountant for a short time, and played in local bands, most notably a jazz/funk group called The Franchise which released a 1987 album locally with the first recording of Harp’s There’s Still Hope. 1988 saw him moving to Los Angeles, California and touring briefly with Teena Marie, then Anita Baker.
Two years later George Duke signed him to a contract with Capitol Records to record with his group 101 North. Bruce Lundvall of Blue Note Records signed Harp to a solo contract before the group album was released. Harp’s album was produced by Duke and released by Blue Note in 1992.
Harp appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival, would go on to appear on The Arsenio Hall Show, on Sax by the Fire, and perform on the theme songs for Entertainment Tonight and Soul Train and shared the stage with President Bill Clinton at the Arkansas Ball in 1992.
Harp has worked with Stanley Clarke, Natalie Cole, Neil Diamond, Aretha Franklin, Wayne Henderson, Al Jarreau, The Jazz Crusaders, Billy Joel, Chaka Khan, Kenny Loggins, Bobby Lyle, Peter Maffay, Marcus Miller, Chante Moore, Dianne Reeves, Eros Ramazzotti, Brenda Russell, Joe Sample, and Luther Vandross.
Saxophonist Everette Harp, who received his first nomination in 2015 for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, continues to perform, compose and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David William Sanborn was born July 30, 1945 in Tampa, Florida where his father was stationed in the US Air Force, and grew up in Kirkwood, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Contracting polio at the age of three and confined to an iron lung for a year, the polio left him with impaired respiration and his left arm shorter than the right.
While confined to bed he was inspired by the saxophone breaks in songs he heard on the radio by Fats Domino’s Ain’t That a Shame and Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti. At the age of eleven David changed to saxophone from piano lessons when doctors recommended that he take up a wind instrument to improve his breathing and strengthen his chest muscles. By 14 he was good enough to play with blues Albert King and Little Milton in local clubs. Alto saxophonist Hank Crawford was an early and lasting influence.
Sanborn studied free jazz in his youth with saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Julius Hemphill. He continued his education at Northwestern University and transferred to the University of Iowa, where he played and studied with saxophonist J.R. Monterose. In 1967 he took a Greyhound bus to San Francisco, California to join the Summer of Love, and was invited to sit in on a session with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and stayed with the band for five years. He went on to play with the Brecker Brothers, Al Jarreau, and Tim Berne.
Finding life on the road increasingly difficult he continued to tour, was active as a session musician, and played on numerous albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Sting, the Eagles, Rickie Lee Jones, James Brown, George Benson, Carly Simon, Elton John, Bryan Ferry and the Rolling Stones.
As a leader he recorded twenty-five albums and his discography as composer and sideman is extensive and includes videos, television and film. Sanborn won six Grammy Awards and had eight gold albums and one platinum album and was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Alto saxophonist David Sanborn, who was known primarily as a smooth jazz musician, died of complications from prostate cancer in Tarrytown, New York on May 12, 2024.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kirk Whalum was born July 11, 1958 in Memphis, Tennessee into a musical family, singing in his father’s church choir. He got his love of music from his piano teacher grandmother and two uncles who performed with jazz bands around the country. After graduating from Melrose High School he attended Texas Southern University where he was a member of the renowned Ocean of Soul Marching Band.
By 1986 he performed at Jean-Michel Jarre’s giant concerts Rendez-Vous Houston and Rendez-Vous Lyon. Whalum would go on to record with Jevetta Steele, Luther Vandross and tour with Whitney Houston, soloing on her single I Will Always Love You.
Kirk has worked on a number of film scores, including for The Prince of Tides, Boyz n the Hood, The Bodyguard, Grand Canyon, Cousins and contributed to the 2008 documentary film Miss HIV. As a leader he has recorded a series of well received albums and has twelve Grammy nominations and his first Grammy award in 2011 for Best Gospel Song.
He is the inaugural Jazz Legend honoree of the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee, joined the faculty of Visible Music College and received a Brass Note on Historic Beale Street, both in Memphis.
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