Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kevin Tyrone Eubanks was born November 15, 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania into a musical family, his mother a gospel and classical pianist and organist, his uncle, Ray Bryant, was a jazz pianist, brother Robin, a trombonist and brother Duane, a trumpeter. He studied violin and trumpet, before settling on the guitar.
As an elementary school student, Eubanks was trained in violin, trumpet, and piano at the Settlement Music School and later attended Berklee College of Music. Following graduation he moved to New York to begin his professional career. He began performing with such jazz musicians as Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Slide Hampton, Sam Rivers, Bill Dryden and Dave Holland.
In 1983 Kevin formed his own quartet and went on a State Department tour of Jordan, Pakistan and India. He first recorded as a leader with his debut album, Guitarist, at age 25. This led to contracts for 11 albums with GRP and Blue Note labels. He has also appeared on over 100 albums and in 2001, he founded the label Insoul Music releasing six albums to date.
As an educator, Eubanks has taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts, Rutgers University and the Charlie Parker School in Perugia, Italy. In 1992 he moved to Los Angeles, California and took the guitar seat on the Tonight Show, composed the show’s closing theme “Kevin’s Country” and three years later replaced Branford Marsalis as leader of the Tonight Show band. He continues to compose, perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Buck Clayton was born Wilbur Dorsey Clayton in Parsons, Kansas on November 12, 1911 and played piano when he was six years old, switching to trumpet from the age of seventeen, being trained by Bob Russell of George E. Lee’s band and Mutt Carey, who would later emerged as a prominent west-coast revivalist in the 1940s.
In his early twenties Buck was based in Los Angeles, California, was briefly a member of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and worked with other leaders. He later formed a band named “14 Gentlemen from Harlem” in which he was the leader of the 14-member orchestra.
From 1934 he was a leader of the “Harlem Gentlemen” in Shanghai and was treated as an elite personage. However, his experience was not always pleasant as he faced the racism he hoped to escape America by being discriminated against and attacked by American marines stationed there.
Returning to the States, Clayton joined Count Basie in Kansas City and from 1937 was in New York playing first trumpet with the band and freelancing recordings sessions with Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Sy Oliver. Following WWII he prepared arrangements for Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Harry James, and became a member of Norman Granz’s Jazz at The Philharmonic, performing with Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker.
Buck would spent time in Paris leading his own band, perform with Jimmy Rushing, Frank Sinatra, Mezz Mezzrow, Earl Hines, return to the States and embarked on a series of jam sessions with artists such as Kai Winding, J. J. Johnson and Frankie Laine and under his own name at Vanguard with Ruby Braff, Mel Powell and Sir Charles Thompson. He would go on to appear in The Benny Goodman Story, perform with Sidney Bechet, tour Europe, and record for Swingsville and tour with Eddie Condon.
Clayton underwent lip surgery and gave up playing the trumpet from 1972 to 1977, but quit again in 1979, working as an arranger and teaching at Hunter College. His semi-autobiography Buck Clayton’s Jazz World, co-authored by Nancy Miller Elliott, first appeared in 1986. In the same year, his new Big Band debuted at the Brooklyn Museum, touring internationally and contributing 100 compositions to the band book. Trumpeter Buck Clayton passed away quietly in his sleep in New York City on December 8, 1991.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hubert Laws was born November 10, 1939 in the Studewood section of Houston, Texas, the second of eight children. He grew up across the street from a honky-tonk called Miss Mary’s Place where his grandfather played harmonica and his mother, a pianist, played gospel music. He began playing flute in high school after volunteering to substitute for the school orchestra’s regular flutist. Becoming adept at jazz improvisation he played in the Houston-area jazz group the Swingsters, which eventually evolved into the Modern Jazz Sextet, the Night Hawks, and The Crusaders. At age 15, he was a member of the early Jazz Crusaders while in Texas from 1954–60. Multi-talented, he also played classical music during those years.
A scholarship to Juilliard School of Music in 1960 saw him studying music in the classroom and with master flutist Julius Baker. Laws went on to play with both the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (member) and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra during the years 1969–72. In 971 he recorded renditions of classical compositions by Fauré, Stravinsky, Debussy, and Bach on the CTI album Rite of Spring with strings and enlisted the talents of Airto Moreira, Jack DeJohnette, Bob James, and Ron Carter.
During his years at Juilliard he played flute with Mongo Santamaría and began recording as a bandleader for Atlantic in 1964, releasing the albums The Laws of Jazz, Flute By-Laws, and Laws Cause. He has worked with In the Seventies he can also be heard playing tenor saxophone on some recordings.
The 1980’s saw the minor hit Family on CBS Records getting played on many UK soul radio stations. In the 1990s Hubert resumed his career, recording with opera singers Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman. His albums on the Music Masters Jazz label—My Time Will Come in 1990 and Storm Then Calm in 1994 show a return to his old form of his early 1970s albums.
Over the course of his career he also recorded with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Nancy Wilson, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Leonard Bernstein, James Moody, Jaco Pastorius, Sérgio Mendes, Bob James, Carly Simon, George Benson, Clark Terry, Stevie Wonder, J. J. Johnson, The Rascals, Morcheeba Ashford & Simpson, Chet Baker, George Benson, Moondog, his brother Ronnie, Gil Scott-Heron, among others, and was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet. .
Laws has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Flute Association and the National Endowment for the Arts in the field of jazz, as well as a recipient of the NEA Jazz Masters Award and three Grammy nominations. Flautist and tenor saxophonist Hubert Laws continues to compose, record and perform.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lynn Baker was born on November 9, 1955 and spent the early years of his life in Salem, Oregon. At seven he started piano lessons and by fifth grade was in band class playing clarinet. While in sixth grade he received his first tenor saxophone and enrolled in summer band program at Morningside Elementary. By seventh grade he was first chair in the junior and high school bands.
During his training he learned many Dixieland tunes that started him on the road to jazz. He would go on to play with McNary High School band and swing choir, and after graduation enrolled at Oregon College of Education (OCE) with the intent of playing and teaching music. He would later transfer to the University of Oregon, return to OCE and eventually enter Mt. Hood Community College’s music program.
After graduation he joined a top 40 band, bought an old Rickenbacker bass and learned some rudimentary bass lines. Post band and teaching privately Baker moved to Los Angeles, California but ended up in Washington teaching in Upward Bound. A Move to Eugene, Oregon put him in the Experimental Jazz Ensemble. He then joined a rock/Latin band and then found his niche as a college educator.
Throughout most of Lynn’s professional career he would teach saxophone, start and direct college bands, form big bands, become director of Jazz Studies, build music programs, playing with several jazz orchestras, an improvising trio culminating in his forming the Lynn Baker Quartet and Quintet. He has performed on several jazz, big band and classical recordings, but finally released his debut album as a leader titled “Azure Intention in 2010. He continues to compose, perform, tour and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Diego Urcola was born on November 5, 1965 in Buenos Aires, Argentina and began his musical studies at age 9 in the Music Department of the Colegio Ward where his father Ruben served as director. He continued his studies and in 1988 he received the title of Profesor Nacional de Música from the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica.
Subsequently, having received a scholarship to study abroad, the trumpeter and flugelhorn player moved to Boston where he attended Berklee College of Music. In 1990 Diego graduated with an emphasis in Jazz Performance, and less than a year later moved to New York and established himself on the jazz scene.
Urcola toured with Slide Hampton, has been a member of the Paquito D’Rivera Quintet since 1991, toured with the United Nations Orchestra, has worked with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, plays steadily with the Caribbean Jazz Project since 2004, and performs regularly with the legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All Star Big Band.
Urcola has played with Joe Henderson, Steve Turre, Milt Jackson, Avishai Cohen, Edward Simon, Antonio Sanchez, Dave Samuels, Jimmy Heath, Conrad Herwig and the Calle 54 Band among others. He leads and records with his own group, has captured second place honors at the 1997 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition, received a Latin Grammy as part of D’ Rivera’s band, and since has been nominated three times for a Grammy Award. The jazz trumpeter continues to perform, compose and record integrating the flavor of tango with jazz.
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