Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Onaje Allan Gumbs was born Allan Bentley Gumbs on September 3, 1949 in Harlem, New York but grew up in St. Albans, Queens. Starting to play piano at age 7, Henry Manciniwas one of his earliest and greatest influences, hearing Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky themes on television. He later studied at the Music and Art High School in Manhattan and was mentored by Erskine Tate Alum Leroy Kirkland.

During this time, he was playing in a Latin band, a big band, playing piano duets and listening to records made by Motown and Blue Note, developing an interest in R&B in conjunction with the straight-ahead jazz of Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie, Lalo Schifrin, Gil Evans, Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane. He went on to study classical piano, composition, arranging and graduated with a degree in Education at the State University of New York at Fredonia in upstate New York.

In 1971, Leroy Kirkland introduced Onaje to guitarist Kenny Burrell and a subsequent gig led him to play with Larry Ridley  and The Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis Orchestra. He would join jazz ensemble Natural Essence that included Thelonious Monk Jr. In 1972he went to work with Norman Connors as an arranger on the Dark of Light album and contributed keyboards on the albums Love From the Sun, Saturday Night Special, You Are My Starship, Invitation and Mr. C.

Toward the late 1970s, Onaje spent two years working in Woody Shaw‘s band as pianist, arranger, and occasional composer, in which the group won the Down Beat Reader’s Poll for Best Jazz Group and for Best Jazz Album in 1978 for Rosewood. His first solo piano project was simply titled Onaje and was followed by venturing into R&B and subsequently ending up on the smooth jazz charts and rotations for nearly 20 years with his composition “Quiet Passion”.

In 2003, Onaje return to straight-ahead with his release of the live album Return to Form, and garnering critical acclaim the next year with a project on his own label, Ejano, titled Remember Their Innocence. These were followed with Grady Tate‘s Sack Full of Dreams before his stroke in 2010 but by year end had recorded and release Just Like Yesterday in Japan, with all signs of a stroke vanished. His sideman work has included stints with Buster Williams, Cecil McBee, and Betty Carter and most recently with Avery Sharpe on the 2012 album Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I A Woman.

He has received the Min-on-Art Award, has his song Dare To Dream chosen by Panasonic as the theme for their 10th anniversary celebration of Kid Witness News, composed, arranged and performed the original score for the Showtime film, Override and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

Suffering a stroke in 2010 he was able to return to music two weeks later. In 2015 he was hospitalized again for two weeks but made a full recovery and returned to composing and performance. Pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader Onaje Allen Gumbs passed away at 70 on April 6, 2020.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dr. Lonnie Smith was born July 3, 1942 in Lackawanna, New York into a family with a vocal group and radio program and a mother who introduced him to gospel, classical and jazz music. He learned to play piano as a child and was part of several vocal ensembles in the 1950s, including the Teen Kings. Local music storeowner Art Kubera gave Smith his first Hammond B3 organ.

Smith’s affinity for R&B melded with his own personal style as he became active in the local music scene. Moving to New York City he met and connected with George Benson, and the two formed the George Benson Quartet, featuring Lonnie Smith, in 1966.

Lonnie recorded his first solo album ”Finger Lickin’ Good” in 1967, with Benson, Melvin Sparks and Ronnie Cuber and Marion Booker. After recording several albums with Benson, Smith became a solo recording artist. In 1967, Smith meeting Lou Donaldson led to a Blue Note introduction, a record date for Alligator Boogaloo and subsequent signing to a four-album deal.

He has since recorded over 30 albums under his own name. He has performed and recorded with among others Lee Morgan, David “Fathead” Newman, Blue Mitchell, King Curtis, Esther Phillips, Bennie Maupin, Idris Muhammad, Joey DeFrancesco and Joe Lovano, however the list inside and out of jazz is too long to enumerate.

He has been named “Organ Keyboardist of the Year” in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009 by the Jazz Journalist Association and continued to tour, perform and record. Hammond B3 organist Dr. Lonnie Smith died on Septer 28, 2021 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Grant Green was born on June 6, 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri. He first performed as a guitarist in a professional setting at the age of 12, first playing boogie-woogie before moving to jazz. His influences were Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker, Ike Quebec, Lester Young, Jimmy Raney, Jimmy Smith and Miles Davis.

Grant first recorded in St. Louis with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest on the Delmark label alongside Elvin Jones. But it was Lou Donaldson who discovered the young talent and after touring together, by 1959 Green had moved to New York. An impressive introduction to Alfred Lion led to his bypassing the sideman audition and recording as a bandleader, a relationship that lasted throughout the Sixties.

Grant’s first issued album as a leader was in 1961 with Grant’s First Stand, followed by Green Street, Grantstand and being named Down Beat critics’ poll best new star in 1962. He would often play the sideman for Hank Mobley, Ike Quebec, Stanley Turrentine, Harold Vick and Larry Young among others at the label.

Though he had an impressive catalogue of recordings many were not released during his lifetime though Grant always carried off his more commercial dates with artistic success during this period. Towards the late 60s he left Blue Note for Verve Records and other labels into the Seventies but was relatively inactive due to personal problems and heroin addiction.

The guitarist spent much of 1978 in the hospital, but against doctors’ advice, went back on the road to earn some money and collapsed in his car of a heart attack in New York City on January 31, 1979 at age 47.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charles Davis was born on May 20, 1933 in Mississippi but was raised in Chicago, Illinois. Graduating from DuSable High School he continued his musical study of the saxophone at the Chicago School of Music and privately under John Hauser. In the 1950s he played in the bands of Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Dinah Washington and extensively with Sun Ra and Archie Shepp. He teamed up with Kenny Dorham, performing and recording for many years together.

An accomplished tenor and alto saxophonist, Charles was widely known for his baritone, winning Downbeat Magazine’s 1964 International Jazz Critics Poll for the baritone saxophone. Throughout his career he would perform in the musical production of “The Philosophy of The Spiritual – A Masque of the Black”, teach public school in Brooklyn, the Jazzmobile Workshop and at the New School, be the musical director of The Turntable, a nightclub owned by Lloyd Price, and tour Europe several times.

Davis would be a member of the cooperative group “Artistry in Music” with Hank Mobley, Cedar Walton, Sam Jones and Billy Higgins, and was the co-leader and composer/arranger for the Baritone Saxophone Retinue. His numerous collaborations, performances and recordings both as a leader and sideman with a who’s who of his contemporaries such as Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison, Illinois Jacquet, Freddie Hubbard, Johnny Griffin, Steve Lacy, Ahmad Jamal, Blue Mitchell, Erskine Hawkins, John Coltrane and Clifford Jordan among many others. Alto, tenor and baritone saxophonist Charles Davis continued to enjoy a prolific career until his passing on July 15, 2016.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Reuben Wilson was born April 9, 1935 in Mounds, Oklahoma but grew up in Pasadena, California from age five when his family moved. While in his teenage years he taught himself to play piano, but boxing diverted his attention. When he was 17, he moved to Los Angeles, married a nightclub singer, met a number of professional musicians and returned to music. Instead of pursuing the piano, he decided to take up the organ, and it wasn’t long before he became a regular at the Caribbean club.

Reuben played the L.A. circuit for several years before trying his luck unsuccessfully in Las Vegas. Returning to L.A. he struck up a friendship with Richard “Groove” Holmes, an organist who would greatly influence his own style. In 1966 he moved to New York City, formed the soul-jazz group Wildare Express and began concentrating more on hard bop and soul-jazz. This proved fortuitous as Grant Green, Roy Haynes and Sam Rivers among others took notice and began to perform with him.

Two years later Wilson began recording a series of five albums for Blue Note Records, his debut being On Broadway. Throughout the 70s he recorded sporadically, eventually retired from music in the early 80s and but by the end of the decade a rediscovery of his music by fans, saw his music sampled by A Tribe Called Quest, Brand New Heavies and Nas.

He returned to music in the 90s writing new material, performing and recording in new groups, including combos he led himself. Over the course of his career organist Reuben Wilson has recorded 16 albums as a leader and eight as a sideman working with Grant Green Jr., Bernard Purdie, Melvin Sparks and Willis Jackson. He currently resides in New York City and continues to pursue new directions in jazz.

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