Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mimi Fox was born on August 24, 1956 in New York City and started playing drums at nine and guitar when she was ten. She was inspired by the wide variety of music enjoyed by her family – show tunes, classical, Dixieland, Motown – and her own youthful inclination towards pop, folk, and R&B. By the time she was fourteen, she bought her first jazz album, John Coltrane’s classic Giant Steps, changing the course of her musical life. She began touring right out of high school and eventually settled in the San Francisco Bay area where she became a sought after player.
Mimi has released seven albums but her “Perpetually Hip” released in 2006 reached #23 on the Billboard “Top Jazz Albums” chart. This two-disc set contains standards and new tunes written by Fox, with one disc featuring solo recordings while the other is with a band composed of bassist Harvie S, drummer Billy Hart and pianist Xavier Davis.
As a composer, Mimi has received numerous grants, writing and performing original scores for orchestras, documentary films and dance projects. A dedicated educator and clinician, she is Chair of the Guitar Department, a faculty advisor and instructor at The Jazzschool for Musical Study and Performance in Berkeley, California and an Adjunct Professor at New York University. Guitarist Mimi Fox continues to compose, perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Byron Stripling was born August 20, 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia and was educated at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan. An accomplished actor and singer, Stripling was chosen, following a worldwide search, to star in the lead role of the Broadway bound musical, “Satchmo”. He was featured in a cameo performance in “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”, and his critically acclaimed performance in the 42nd Street production of “From Second Avenue to Broadway”.
Stripling earned his stripes as lead trumpeter and soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra, under the direction of Thad Jones and Frank Foster. He has also played and recorded extensively with the bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Louis Bellson, and Buck Clayton in addition to The Lincoln Center Classical Jazz Orchestra, The Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, and The GRP All Star Big Band.
He is the Columbus Jazz Orchestra Artistic Director and as a trumpet virtuoso, has ignited audiences performing at jazz festivals throughout the world. He has soloed with Boston Pops, Cincinnati Pops, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Utah Symphony, The American Jazz Philharmonic and at the Hollywood Bowl.
Trumpeter Byron Stripling continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ron Escheté was born on August 19, 1948 in Houma, Louisiana and after receiving his first guitar at the age of 14, joined a quartet and was working clubs in Louisiana before he had even graduated from high school. His early influences were jazz masters Jim Hall, Howard Roberts and Wes Montgomery. He attended Loyola University where he majored in classical guitar and minored in flute, and studied with classical guitarist Paul Guma.
Shortly after Escheté left Loyola he was tapped to tour with Buddy Greco and while touring with Greco, he set his sites on the Los Angeles music scene. In 1970 Ron relocated to California, worked and recorded with vibraphonist Dave Pike. In 1975 he joined forces with pianist Gene Harris and quickly establish his reputation as a premier accompanist.
Over the decades, Escheté, who plays a seven-string guitar, has worked with jazz musicians and vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Diana Krall, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, Bill Cunliffe, Sam Most, Ernestine Anderson, Mort Weiss and many more.
No stranger to television, Escheté has appeared on the Tonight Show, the Merv Griffin Show and the Mike Douglas Show as well as playing nearly every notable jazz venue in Southern California including the Catalina Bar and Grill, The Jazz Bakery, Steamers, Donte’s, Carmelo’s, The Parisian Room and The Lighthouse to name a few.
Guitarist Ron Escheté, a quintessential sideman and innovative leader with some 36 albums to his credit, continues to tour, perform and record heading his own trio with Todd Johnson on bass and Kendall Kay on drums. He died suddenly on May 20, 2026, at the age of 77.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cecilia Smith was born on August 17th, in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Cleveland Heights. She began her musical odyssey at age eight with piano lessons and by age twelve, she had added drums to her repertoire. At fourteen, she was on to mallet percussion, studying in her early teens music theory with graduate students at the Cleveland Music Institute. This led to her discovery that music would be her life’s quest.
Upon graduating from high school, Cecilia attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and while there she pursued composing, arranging, film scoring and her instrument of choice, the vibraphone. Earning a Bachelor of Music degree in Professional Music from Berklee, Smith continued in a teaching capacity for four years before moving to New York City.
As a professional composer and recording artist, Cecilia Smith has received numerous commissions and grants. She is an avid midi programmer, is currently one of the leading vibraphonist of the Four-Mallet Technique, the first woman to release material on vibraphone on a national and international level and has performed in concert halls, nightclubs and festivals throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Vibraphonist Cecilia Smith has frequently been highlighted on national radio and television broadcasts and she continues to compose, arrange and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Walter Blanding Jr. was born on August 14, 1971 in Cleveland, Ohio to a musical family and began playing the saxophone at age six. In 1981, he moved with his family to New York City, and by age 16, he was performing regularly with his parents at the Village Gate.
Blanding attended LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and continued his studies at the New School for Social Research. Living in Israel for 4 years he had a major impact on the music scene, inviting great artists such as Louis Hayes, Eric Reed and others to perform. He also taught in several Israeli schools and toured the country with his ensemble.
Walter’s first recording, Tough Young Tenors, was acclaimed as one of the best jazz albums of 1991. He has performed or recorded with numerous musicians, such as Cab Calloway, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Marcus Roberts, Illinois Jacquet, Eric Reed and Roy Hargrove among others. His last release, The Olive Tree, features fellow members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Clarinetist, tenor and soprano saxophonist Walter Blanding Jr. has taught at the Shanghai branch of Jazz At Lincoln Center, and continues to record as a sideman with a variety of musicians and perform as a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.