Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Axson Ellis was born on April 13, 1974 in North Carolina and learned clarinet and piano as a child. During the Nineties in New Orleans, Louisiana he studied with Ellis Marsalis and performed with Brian Blade and Nicholas Payton.
Independently releasing his debut album Language of Love in 1996, he went on to receive a music degree from the New School in New York City and won second place in the 2002 Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz International Saxophone Competition. John traveled to Africa as a cultural ambassador for the United States Information Agency.
With playwright Andy Bragen, Ellis composed the theatrical works Dreamscapes, The Ice Siren, and Mobro. An album version of The Ice Siren with Gretchen Parlato on vocals was released in 2020.
Ellis has performed with the group Doublewide with Jason Marsalis, The Holmes Brothers, John Patitucci, and Miguel Zenón. He has recorded thirty-seven as a sideman with Charlie Hunter, Anne Mette Iversen, Kat Edmonson, Kendrick Scott, Ben Sidran, Lonnie Smith, Darcy James Argue, Will Bernard, Laila Biali, Erin Bode, Sean Costello, Caramelos de Cianuro, Gilfema, Robert Glasper, Jon Gordon, Norah Jones, Kathy Kosins, Michael Leonhart, Mike Moreno, Igor Lumpert, Eric Revis, Robert Sadin, Kate Schutt, Leo Sidran, Edward Simon, Sting, and Helen Sung.
Tenor saxophonist John Ellis, who recorded nine albums as a leader or co-leader, continues to perform, record and tour.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Matt Lavelle was born on April 11, 1970 in Paterson, New Jersey and began his music career with Hildred Humphries, a swing era veteran who played with Count Basie and Billie Holiday.
Playing in ensembles led by Sabir Mateen since 2002, three years later Matt began study with Ornette Coleman. He has been a member of the Bern Nix Quartet since 2010 and recorded with Giuseppi Logan the same year.
In 2011 he created the 12 Houses Orchestra. Lavelle is also a visual artist inspired by his Grandfather Fritz Kluber. He is author of the Substack No Sound Left Behind. Matt published a book titled New York City Subway Drama and Beyond, in 2011. In 2013 he published a short story titled The Jazz Musician’s Tarot Deck.
He has recorded nineteen albums as a leader, and another forty-five as a sideman with Nix and Logan as well as Sumari, Eye Contact, Daniel Carter, Bern Nix, Giuseppi Logan, Matana Roberts, William Hooker, Francois Grillot, Steve Swell, Sabir Mateen, Ras Moshe, Assif Tsahar, William Parker, Charles Waters, Barry Chabala, Earth People, Allen Lowe, D3, Julie Lyon, Tom Cabrera, The Cooperative Sound, Stars Like Fleas, Eric Plaks, and Pete Dennis.
Trumpeter Matt Lavelle, who also plays flugelhorn, alto and bass clarinet, continues to perform, record and tour.
More Posts: author,bandleader,clarinet,flugelhorn,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jerzy “Duduś” Matuszkiewicz was born on April 10, 1928 in Jasło, Poland and began playing jazz as a youth. He founded a jazz club at the YMCA in Kraków, Poland at age 20. and played with the orchestra of Kazimierz Turewicz.
A music enthusiasts club, Melomani, was founded in 1947 at the Łódź YMCA, a hang-out of nonconformist thinkers during the late 1940s. Moving to Łódź, Poland to study at the new Łódź Film School, he became part of the club and joined the sessions. After only a few concerts, the YMCA was closed due to promoting imperialist ideology using jazz music.
Jerzy founded and led a band in 1950, playing saxophones and clarinet with Marek Szczerbiński-Sart, trumpeter Andrzej “Idon” Wojciechowski, drummer Witold “Dentox” Sobociński, Marian and Tadeusz Suchocki and pianist Andrzej Trzaskowski and bassist Witold Kujawsk. Being separated from Western jazz by the Stalinist regime, they played a repertoire that did not compare to Western standards.
The band was offered space to practise at the Film School, performed informal concerts at the Film School, as well as in bars and private events, once a week. When they received an invitation to play a concert in Warsaw, Poland at the Academy of Fine Arts, they named themselves Melomani.
In 1952, pianist Krzysztof Komeda joined the band and expanded their performance reach. They played at the first jazz festival in Sopot, Poland in 1956. 1958 saw them as the first Polish jazz band invited to perform at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. The group disbanded that same year.
Until 1964 he performed both in Poland and abroad. The following year he began to mainly compose and conduct music for movies and commercials. Moving to Warsaw with his wife, Grażyna, saxophonist, pianist, composer and bandleader Jerzy Matuszkiewicz died on July 31, 2021 at 93.
More Posts: composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harvey Wainapel was born in Ellenville, New York on March 31, 1951. Growing up in the small town in the Catskills, he started his musical journey on clarinet at the age of eight. By high school he discovered jazz by playing along with tunes on New York City radio stations. Longing to play saxophone he didn’t get his first horn, an alto, until his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. Working at the college radio station, he discovered the music of Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane and Joe Henderson.
Initially intending to follow the family tradition of pursuing a career in medicine or science, he ended up taking the plunge into music at Berklee in 1971. It was a heady era, and Wainapel played with fellow students, guitarist John Scofield, pianist Kenny Werner, trumpeter Claudio Roditi, and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano.
During his Boston years Harvey recorded and performed in Carnegie Hall with vibraphonist Gary Burton. After two years at Berklee he toured Tunisia with drummer Jamey Haddad, and made the trip to North Africa. Settling in Amsterdam, Netherlands he made a living before moving to Frankfurt, Germany with the HR Radio Big Band.
By 1979 he returned stateside, landing in New York City, and became enamored with Brazilian music. He quickly landed a gig playing with Thiago de Melo, alongside drummer Duduka da Fonseca, trumpeter Roditi and pianist Marcos Silva, the latter turning Wainapel on to other Brazilian artists. Not cut out for the city, he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, after a year on the road with Ray Charles. He became one of the most in-de-mand players in the region while keeping his European presence. Back at home, Wainapel can often be found playing Brazilian music, performing with Rio-born vocal improviser Claudia Villela.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Harvey Wainapel, who debuted as a leader with 1994’s At Home/On the Road, leads his own post-bop combos, freelances extensively, and performs with Beth Custer’s Clarinet Thing.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wally Schnalle was born on March 30, 1957 in Santa Clara, California. Graduating from San Jose State University he recorded early on with Francis Wong and performed with the Nova Vista and San Jose Symphonies.
In 1994 Wally recorded his debut set as a leader for the small Tree Fort label and he soon formed a regularly working quintet although the drummer had been leading groups on and off since 1989. His quintet with tenor saxophonist Dann Zinn and trumpeter John Worley appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
He recorded for Retlaw in 1997 and played often in northern California. In addition to his work as a drummer, Schnalle has been the music editor for the International Drum! magazine and has been active as a teacher.
Drummer and bandleader Wally Schnalle continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music