Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Friedrich Gulda was born on May 16, 1930 in Vienna, Austria and as the son of a teacher began learning to play the piano at age 7 with Felix Pazofsky at the Wiener Volkskonservatorium. In 1942, he entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he studied piano and musical theory under Bruno Seidlhofer and Joseph Marx.
During World War II as teenagers, Gulda and his friend Joe Zawinul were rebellious and would perform forbidden music, including jazz, in violation of the government’s prohibition of playing such music. Winning first prize at the Geneva International Music Competition in 1946, he began to play concerts worldwide, making his Carnegie Hall debut in 1950, and with Jörg Demus and Paul Badura-Skoda, formed what became known as the “Viennese troika”. Friedrich enjoyed a renowned classical career for years before his 1956 engagement at Birdland in New York City and at the Newport Jazz Festival.
In 1966 he organized the International Competition for Modern Jazz in 1966, and established the International Musikforum, a school in Ossiach, Austria two years later, for students who wanted to learn improvisation. From the 1950s on Gulda cultivated a professional interest in jazz, writing songs and free improvisation or open music improvisations. He also recorded as a vocalist under the pseudonym “Albert Golowin”, fooling music critics for years until it was realized that Gulda and Golowin were the same person.
In jazz, he found “the rhythmic drive, the risk, the absolute contrast to the pale, academic approach I had been taught. He also took up playing the baritone saxophone. His 1970 album, As You Like It, includes the standards Round Midnight and What Is This Thing Called Love?, as well as his own classic Blues For H.G. that is dedicated to Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer.
From the late 1960s through the 1980s he continued his straight-ahead swing and bop-based jazz often in European Jazz big bands, which he often organized yearly performances and recordings. He performed and recorded playing clavichord, percussion instruments, and a bass recorder wooden flute with musicians involved in free improvisation, including Cecil Taylor, Barre Phillips, Ursula Anders, John Surman, Albert Mangelsdorff, Stu Martin, and Fritz Pauer. He would go on to collaborate in the coming decades with Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, and Chick Corea.
When the Vienna Music Academy awarded him its Beethoven Ring in recognition of his performances, he accepted it but then later reconsidered and returned it. To promote a concert in 1999, he announced his own death in a press release so that the concert at the Vienna Konzerthaus could serve as a resurrection party.
Pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda, who worked in both the classical and jazz fields, transitioned from heart failure at the age of 69 on January 27, 2000 at his home in Weissenbach, Austria.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Calvin Edwards was born in Kings Mountain, North Carolina on May 14, 1957. At 17, he joined the famous Gospel group Five Blind Boys of Alabama for many years. Then, he moved to Los Angeles, California to play in his brother’s band, The Jett Edwards Band. During this time, he and his brother recorded two albums together, including one song which was recorded by George Benson.
He has released four CD’s as a band leader, and performed with and/or booked various artist through Chasity Music including Tom Brown, Tuck & Patti, Michael White, Kei Akagi, Lonnie Plaxico, Benny Maupin, Hidefumi Toke, Javon Jackson, Michael O’Neil, Ron Brown, Ali Jackson, Michael Paluo, Michael Wolf, Roy Ayers, Everette Harp, Dan Siegel, and Phil Perry.
A well-known international artist, Calvin has performed for President Clinton at the G8 Summit, as well as in Asia and across the United States. He continues to record and play both jazz and blues as he explores the genres.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Von Ohlen was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on May 13, 1941. He began playing trombone in middle school, and continued playing through high school. Graduating from North Central High School in 1960, he briefly studied at North Texas State, but returned to Indianapolis shortly after.
From 1967 to 1968, Von Ohlen toured with Billy Maxted’s Manhattan Jazz Band. He also worked for Woody Herman in 1967 and 1969, then with Stan Kenton from 1970 to 1972.
John went on to lead the Blue Wisp Big Band in Cincinnati from 1980 to 2018 and his own groups under his name ranging from quartets to big bands. During this period of the 1980s and 1990s, he was a member of a big band led by pianist Steve Allee.
Drummer John Von Ohlen transitioned in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 3, 2018 at the age of 77.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Golla was born May 10, 1935 in Chorzów, Poland. He emigrated to Australia in the 1950s and began working in Sydney from 1957. Two years later he commenced a long-term musical partnership with the clarinetist, flautist and saxophonist Don Burrows that continued for nearly forty years.
Recording frequently in duo, quartets and other combinations, they nurtured and featured many young talents, including brassman and multi-instrumentalist James Morrison, guitarist Guy Strazzullo, drummer David Jones and others.
As educators they taught at the New South Wales Conservatorium and Golla was a teacher at the Academy of Guitar in Bondi alongside Don Andrews. He specialized in jazz and classical guitar and has written several books on theory, scales and the modes.
George toured frequently throughout Australia, playing on-call with international artists such as vibraphonist Gary Burton in the early 1970s. He has had a long association with Luis Bonfa and other Brazilian musicians. He has made hundreds of recordings, including The Don Burrows Quartet at the Sydney Opera House, Cherry Pie 1017 & 1032, and Steph’n’Us, with Stephane Grappelli during a tour with Grappelli and Burrows.
Guitarist George Golla, at 85, continues to perform in and around Sydney with flugelhorn player and singer songwriter Elizabeth Geyer, and tours interstate and internationally, records and conducts workshops.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nicolas Masson was born on April 14, 1972 in Geneva, Switzerland. He took up the saxophone in his youth and at twenty years old he met Cecil Taylor in New York and took lessons from Frank Lowe and Makanda Ken McIntyre. Returning home he enrolled in the jazz program at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique de Genève with Maurice Magnoni as a saxophone teacher.
While a student he attended master classes withLee Konitz, Dave Douglas and Misha Mengelberg. In 1999 Masson spent the summer in New York City studying with Chris Potter. Graduating from the conservatoire in 2000 with a jazz performance and teaching degree, he returned to New York City for a year and studied regularly with Rich Perry and played with local musicians.
His debut album Awake was released in 2002 on the Swiss label Altri Suoni. The session was recorded with his New York band featuring trumpeter Russ Johnson, bassist Eivind Opsvik and drummer Mark Ferber. A year later they were touring Switzerland and Italy.
Receiving a grant from the Bourse d’Aide à la Création he was able to tour Italy and record his sophomore album Yellow (A Little Orange) that was released in 2006 on the Fresh Sound/New Talent label. In 2005 and 2006, the Quartet toured Italy again, taking part in an itinerant Swiss festival organized by Rome’s Swiss Cultural Centre, sharing the evening with Irène Schweizer, Lucas Niggli and Malcolm Braff.
In 2007, a New York concert, European duo tour with Kris Davis of Switzerland, Italy, France and Germany, a New York gig with the Quartet and a 2009 release Thirty Six Ghosts on Clean Feed Records kept him busy. Saxophonist Nicolas Masson continues to record and play throughout Europe.
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