Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Graham Leslie Lionel Clark was born on December 16, 1959 in England. He plays the violin as his first instrument, sings and also the electric guitar. As a freelance violinist he is adept in most styles of jazz, rock, blues and pop, however, he specializes in improvisation.
He worked with Daevid Allen from 1988 to 2014, and has also worked with Andy Sheppard, Keith Tippett, Tim Richards, Phil Lee, Paz, Brian Godding, Elbow, Lamb, Bryan Glancy, Little Sparrow, Jah Wobble, Graham Massey, Louis Gordon and Liz Fletcher.
Violinist Graham Clark, who has been featured on seven albums, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alex Acuña was born Alejandro Neciosup Acuña on December 12, 1944 in Pativilca, Peru. He played in local bands such as La Orquesta de los Hermanos Neciosup from the age of ten, then followed his brothers and moved to Lima, Peru as a teenager. At the age of eighteen he joined the band of Perez Prado, and in 1965 moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In 1974 he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and worked with Elvis Presley, The Temptations, and Diana Ross. The following year he joined the jazz-fusion group Weather Report, and while in New York City, Acuña recorded several songs for RCA records. Leaving Weather Report in 1978 he became a session musician in California, recording and playing live with r&b and jazz musicians Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Jackson, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Roberta Flack,Al Jarreau and the list goes on and on.
The Eighties saw Alex recording and touring with the Christian jazz band Koinonia. In 1987 he was summoned back to Perú by producer Ricardo Ghibellini to be the musical producer of Los Hijos del Sol, a group of Peruvians designed to promote Peruvian music worldwide.
Drummer and percussionist Alex Acuña, who has worked as an educator at University of California Los Angeles, and Berklee College of Music, LAMA, Musicians Institute, USC, and CSUN, continues his career of performing and educating.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Beegie Adair was born Bobbe Gorin Long on December 11, 1937 in Cave City, Kentucky. She began playing the piano at the age of five and graduated from Caverna High School in 1954. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in music education at Western Kentucky University in 1958.
Relocating to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1961 she worked as a children’s music teacher for three years. There she played in Printer’s Alley and became a member of a jazz band led by Hank Garland. Beegie would go on to accompany Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee, Ray Stevens, Steve Allen, Chet Atkins, Cass Elliot, Vince Gill and Dolly Parton. At various times she played for the Noon Show on WSM-TV, The Johnny Cash Show and other programs.
Partnering with Denis Solee in 1982 they established the Adair–Solee Quartet, which evolved into the sextet Be-Bop Co-Op. She released her debut solo album as a leader in 1988 with Escape to New York, then formed the Beegie Adair Trio, which sold more than 1.5 million albums.
Throughout her 60-year career Beegie appeared on more than 100 recordings. Of these, 35 were recorded by her trio which included bassist Roger Spencer and percussionist Chris Brown. She released a six-CD centennial collection, The Great American Songbook Collection.
Adair was an adjunct professor of jazz studies at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. She was a faculty and board member of the Nashville Jazz Workshop, where she often performed. She was named a Steinway Artist and was inducted into Western Kentucky University’s Hall of Fame, Cave City’s Hall of Fame and was the inaugural recipient of Nashville Jazz Workshop’s Heritage Award.
Pianist and bandleader Beegie Adair, whose career spanned more than 60 years, died at her home in Franklin, Tennessee on January 23, 2022, at the age of 84.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ove Johansson was born on December 3, 1936 and didn’t start playing the tenor saxophone until the age of 13. However, he gave the clarinet a chance for a couple of years. Very early in his career he got into a professional jazz group playing before starting his own groups where he spent most of the time as a band leader.
For a short period Ove was a sideman with Swedish saxophonist Lars Gullin. From 1972 to 1994 he was a teacher of saxophone, improvisation, ensemble and harmony at the School of Music, Gothenburg University. He went on to start his own small record label LJ Records in 1989 and recorded his own and new Scandinavian jazz music internationally.
The end of the Fifties saw Johansson leading his own groups and a driving force of the Swedish jazz scene. He was musical director of Mwendo Dawa. His musical work stretched from straight ahead, free form and electronic jazz to the acoustic and electro acoustical mix of today.
He toured Europe, North and South America, and China, with Mwendo Dawa. He toured with the trio Natural Artefacts with performances both in the world of improvisation music as well as the world of electro acoustic music.
Tenor saxophonist and composer Ove Johansson, who produced 35 albums with his own material and with the group, died on December 25, 2015.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Raymond Court was born on December 2, 1932 in Lausanne, Switzerland. He began playing trumpet in his late teens, but by age 20 was playing in Raymond Droz’s band from 1952 to 1956.
Later in the 1950s he played with Flavio Ambrosetti and Kurt Weil, and the early 1960s saw him with Daniel Humair, Martial Solal, and Rene Urtreger.
Starting in the mid-Sixties, he began concentrating on a new career in woodworking and cabinetry, but returned to music after about a decade. He recorded as a leader in the 1980s and with Weil again and Charly Antolini in the 1990s.
Trumpeter Raymond Court died March 03, 2012.
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