Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Herbie Mann was born Herbert Jay Solomon on April 16, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York and while attending Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach, failed a music class. Be that as it may his first professional gig was in the Catskills at age 15. During the 1950s was primarily a bop flutist, playing in combos with artists such as Phil Woods, with occasional forays into bass clarinet, tenor sax and solo flute.

An early pioneer in the fusing of jazz and world music, he has incorporated elements of African, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Reggae, Middle-Eastern and Eastern European styles into his music. During the Sixties he was jazz’s preeminent flutist with his emphasized groove approach coming to the fore on his albums Memphis Underground and Push Push due to the rhythm section locked in one perception. It was mid-60’s period that he hired a young Chick Corea to play in some of his bands.

Mann’s shift to a more smooth jazz during the Sixties brought criticism from purist but allowed him to remain relevant as interest in jazz waned. He worked with Cissy Houston, Duane Allman, Larry Coryell, Donald “Duck” Dunn and Chuck Rainey, along with Al Jackson and Bernard Purdie out of Muscle Shoals in Alabama. His #1 dance hit Hijack stayed on the charts for three consecutive weeks in 1975.

In this period Mann had a number of songs cross over to the pop charts, a rarity for a jazz musician. He has provided music for the animated short film Afterlife, founded his own label, Embryo Records, that produced jazz albums, such as Ron Carter’s Uptown Conversation, Miroslav Vitous’ first solo album, Infinite Search; and Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival. In 1996, Mann collaborated with Stereolab on the song “One Note Samba/Surfboard” for the AIDS-Benefit album Red Hot + Rio.

Herbie Mann’s final appearance was on May 3, 2003 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at age 73, passing away that same year on July 1, 2003 after a long battle with prostate cancer.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eddie Marshall was born Edwin Marshall on April 13, 1938 in Springfield, Massachusetts and learned to play the drums as a child. He played in his father’s swing group and R&B bands while in high school. He moved to New York City in 1956, developing his percussion style under the influence of Max Roach and Art Blakey.

Two years later he was playing with Charlie Mariano followed by a stint with Toshiko Akiyoshi prior to Army service. He reunited with Akiyoshi in 1965, then worked with the house band at The Dom in New York, and with Stan Getz, Sam Rivers and toured with Dionne Warwick.

In 1967 he was a member of the fusion group The Fourth Way, touring San Francisco during the early Seventies, followed by work with Jon Hendricks and the Pointer Sisters. He would go on to work in Almanac with Bennie Maupin, Cecil McBee and Mike Nock releasing an album in ’77.

In the 1980s he worked in the project Bebop & Beyond, recording tribute albums to Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. Undergoing heart surgery in 1984, temporarily sidelined his career, but he continued to perform on the recorder. He then taught at the San Francisco School of the Arts, issued his second release as a leader in 1999 and in the 2000s worked on the San Francisco Arts Commission. Drummer Eddie Marshall died of a heart attack on Wednesday, September 7, 2011.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Herbie Hancock was born Herbert Jeffrey Hancock on April 12, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. Starting with a classical music education, he was considered a child prodigy, studied from age seven and played the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Chicago Symphony at age eleven.

Through his teens he was influenced by the vocal group Hi-Lo’s, Herbie never had a jazz teacher, developing his ear and sense of harmony. Influenced by Clare Fischer, Bill Evans, Ravel and Gil Evans, his harmonic guru was Chris Anderson with whom he studied. In the Sixties he attended Grinnell College, moved to Chicago, began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins, studied at the Manhattan School of Music, quickly gained a reputation and played sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods.

In 1962 Hancock recorded his first solo album Takin’ Off for Blue Note Records that contained the hit for both Hancock and Mongo Santamaria – Watermelon Man. More importantly it caught the ear of Miles Davis and landed him an introduction by Tony Williams and membership of the second great quintet in 1963. It was during the Davis years that Herbie found his voice and subsequently produced two of the decade’s most influential albums, Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage.

He has recorded a catalogue of nearly sixty albums as a leader dozens of sessions as a sideman, working with the likes of Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson, Sam Rivers, Donald Byrd, George Coleman, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard among others. He has been the subject of five films, won an Oscar for “Round Midnight soundtrack, received 14 Grammy Awards, five Playboy Music Polls and was honored as a NEA Jazz Master in 2004 along with a host of other recognitions. He is currently occupies the Creative Chair for Jazz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Hancock joined the University of California, Los Angeles faculty as a professor in the UCLA music department where he teaches jazz music. He has received a Kennedy Center Honors Award for achievement in the performing arts, won 14 Grammy Awards, 1 Oscar for the Original Soundtrack of ‘Round Midnight and has been honored as an NEA Jazz Master among numerous other accolades.

He is the 2014 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University. Holders of the chair deliver a series of six lectures on poetry, “The Norton Lectures”, poetry being “interpreted in the broadest sense, including all poetic expression in language, music, or fine arts.” His theme is “The Ethics of Jazz. Pianist Herbie Hancock continues to advance the jazz genre in new directions.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ali Jackson Jr. was born on April 3, 1976 in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, a classical pianist, taught him piano and how to read music at age 4, his father, a professional bass player, taught him music theory and gave him drums lesson from rudiment books.

Attending Detroit’s prestigious Cass Technical High School, he went on to matriculate through The New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music and privately studying with Elvin Jones and Max Roach.

Ali has recorded two albums as a leader and as a sideman has performed and recorded with musicians including with Joshua Redman, Anat Cohen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Wynton Marsalis, Jacky Terrasson, Craig Handy, James Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Harry Connick Jr., KRS-1, Marcus Roberts, Cyrus Chestnut, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall and Eric Reed.

Ali Jackson is currently the drummer with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, performs with the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Horns in the Hood, and leads the Ali Jackson Quartet. He is also the voice of “Duck Ellington,” a character in the Penguin book series Baby Loves Jazz and has hosted “Jammin’ with Jackson,” a series for young musicians at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy Club Coca-Cola.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Terence Oliver Blanchard was born March 13, 1962 in New Orleans, Louisiana and began playing piano at the age of five and then the trumpet at age eight.  He played trumpet recreationally alongside childhood friend Wynton Marsalis in summer music camps but showed no real proficiency on the instrument. While in high school, he began studying at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and then studied at Rutgers, toured with Lionel Hampton, joined Art Blakey and became the Messenger’s music director.

While playing with Blakey, Blanchard rose to prominence as a key figure in the 1980s Jazz Resurgence as a co-leader of a quintet with saxophonist Donald Harrison and pianist Mulgrew Miller, The Harrison/Blanchard group recorded five albums from 1984-1988 until Blanchard left to pursue a solo career in 1990 and recorded his self-titled debut for Columbia Records.

He scored and performed on every Spike Lee movie soundtracks, including his 4-hour HBO Hurricane Katrina documentary “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts” and the soundtrack for “Red Tails”. Composing for other directors, with over forty scores to his credit Blanchard is the most prolific jazz musician to ever compose for movies.

Terence has recorded eighteen albums, been nominated for twelve times and won five Grammy Awards, has won Soul Train Music Award, an Emmy and Golden Globe among others. On the short list his collaborations include Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Gary Bartz, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash and McCoy Tyner.

Composer, educator and trumpeter Terence Blanchard is the artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California. All the while, he has remained true to his jazz roots as a trumpeter and bandleader on the performance circuit.

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