Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Niels Lan Doky was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 3, 1963 and first learned to play guitar before switching to piano at age 11. At the age of 15, he began working with Thad Jones, Kenny Drew, Ernie Wilkins, Ed Thigpen and others living and playing around his hometown. Shortly after finishing high school in 1981, following the advice of Thad Jones, he moved to the U.S. and studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston before establishing himself in New York City’s jazz scene.
Bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen helped Doky land his first recording contract with Storyville records in 1986 and toured and recorded with him across Europe and in the USA during the rest the decade and well into the 1990s. During that period Pederson became a mentor and played a crucial role in helping him find his own musical voice and develop his own personal style.
Over the course of his career pianist Niels Lan Doky has recorded thirty-three albums, played for Pope Paul II, received an award from Denmark’s royal family, was appointed Member of the Music Committee under the Danish Arts Council, and made his film directing debut with the acclaimed feature film “Between a Smile and a Tear”.
He has performed with Joe Henderson, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, Ray Brown, Randy and Michael Brecker, David Sanborn, Al Foster, Billy Hart, John Scofield, John Abercrombie, Bill Evans, Bob Berg, Tom Harrell, Ray Drummond, Al Jarreau, Charlie Haden, Gino Vannelli, in addition to leading groups under his own name currently today.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Howard Roberts was born on October 2, 1929 in Phoenix, Arizona and began playing guitar at age 8. By age15 he was playing professionally locally. 1950 saw him moving to Los Angeles where he began playing with musicians like Bobby Troup, Chico Hamilton and Barney Kessell. Around 1956, Bobby Troup signed him to Verve Records and he decided to concentrate on recording, both as a solo artist and session musician.
Roberts played rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass and mandolin in the studio, for television and movie projects on such projects as The Twilight Zone, The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie. He would work on Julie London’s Blue Moon recording, with Peggy Lee, George Auld, Shelley Fabares, Chet Atkins, Dean Martin, The Monkees, Roy Clark and many others.
In 1961, Howard designed a signature guitar with a round sound hole and single pickup that was originally produced by Gibson’s Epiphone division. Two years later he recorded his first two albums of nine with Capitol, before signing with ABC/Impulse Records. From the late 1960s, Roberts began to focus on teaching, traveling around the country giving guitar seminars, and writing several instructional books.
For some years he also wrote an acclaimed column “Jazz Improvisation” for Guitar Player magazine and founded the Guitar Institute of Technology and Playback Publishing. Guitarist Howard Roberts died of prostate cancer in Seattle, Washington on June 28, 1992, leaving a jazz catalogue of more than two-dozen albums as a leader and sideman.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dave Holland was born on October 1, 1946 in Wolverhampton, England and taught himself how to play stringed instruments, beginning at four on the ukulele, graduating to guitar and later bass guitar. Quitting school at age 15 to pursue a profession in a top 40 band, but gravitated to jazz buying albums of Ray Brown, Leroy Vinnegar, Charles Mingus and Jimmy Garrison and trading his electric bass in for an acoustic.
After moving to London in 1964, Holland began playing acoustic bass in small venues and studied with James Edward Merrett, learning to sight read, and enrolling in a three-year scholarship program at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
At 20, Holland was keeping a busy schedule in school, studios and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club playing behind American musicians like Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Joe Henderson and British musicians such as John McLaughlin, Evan Parker and began a working collaboration with Kenny Wheeler that has continued to today.
In 1968 he joined Miles Davis’ group, recorded on Files de Kilimanjaro, In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew and Live at the Fillmore East, March 7, 1970: It’s About Time. Leaving Miles he joined the group Circle with Chick Corea that started a 34-year association with ECM record label. During the Seventies and 80s he worked as a leader and a sideman with Anthony Braxton, Stan Getz, John Abercrombie, Jack DeJohnette, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Coleman, Kevin Eubanks, Billy Higgins, Roy Haynes, Hank Jones, Pat Metheny and Marvin “Smitty” Smith.
Dave would go on to tour with Herbie Hancock, renew his affiliation with Joe Henderson and Betty Carter, formed his third quartet introducing Steve Nelson to the world, record dozens of albums as a leader and sideman, form his current quintet, win his first Grammy for big band album “What Goes Around”, win numerous other recognitions and he continues to compose, record, perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nicholas Payton was born on September 26, 1973 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of bassist and sousaphonist Walter Payton. He took up the trumpet at age four and by nine was playing in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band. Upon leaving school, he enrolled first at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and then at the University of New Orleans under the tutelage of Ellis Marsalis.
Payton toured with Marcus Roberts and Elvin Jones in the early 90s, signed a recording contract with Verve Records, and released his first album, From This Moment in 1994. In 1996 he performed on the soundtrack of the movie Kansas City.
After seven albums on Verve, Nicholas signed with Warner Bros. and would perform and record with Wynton Marsalis, Dr. Michael White, Christian McBride, Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove and Joe Henderson among others. He became a member of the Blue Note 7 in 2008, releasing an album in 2009 that produced a U.S. promotional tour.
Trumpeter Nicholas Payton also plays piano and is a prolific blogger and has written a notable blog titled “On the Difference Between Prejudice and Racism…” in which Payton theorizes that blacks cannot be racist because a prerequisite to racism is power.
He has recorded more than a dozen albums as a leader and sideman, received a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo for his playing on the album Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton and continues to compose, record and perform.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Craig Handy was born Craig Mitchell Handy on September 25, 1962 in Oakland, California and played guitar, trombone and piano before falling in love with the tenor saxophone. He was a part of the Berkeley High School Jazz Program, earned a Charlie Parker Scholarship award and attended North Texas State University from 1981 to 1984, where he was a member of their prestigious One O’Clock Lab Band.
By 1986 at age 23 he moved to New York City and once there he built up a cache of credits performing and recording with Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Roy Haynes, Abdullah Ibrahim, Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, George Adams, Ray Drummond, Conrad Herwig, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Freddie Hubbard, John Scofield and David Weiss among many others.
A member of the Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty and the Mingus Orchestra, post-bop tenor saxophonist Craig Handy has recorded as a leader, as a member of the group Chartbusters, portrayed the role of Coleman Hawkins in the 1996 film Kansas City and is credited for performing the Season Six theme of the Cosby Show. He continues to compose, perform, record and tour.
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