Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Yervant Harry Babasin, Jr. was born on March 19, 1921 in Dallas, Texas to American/Armenian parents. He attended North Texas State University, one of many noted jazz alumni from the school. Among them were Jimmy Giuffre, with whom he played in Bill Ware’s orchestra around 1940, and Herb Ellis, who played with him in the Charlie Fisk Orchestra starting in 1942. Fisk actually fired his rhythm section after hearing Ellis and Babasin play, and after he was admitted, Babasin quit school to go on tour with Fisk.
He toured in the 1940s with Jimmy Joy, Bob Strong, Billie Rogers, Gene Krupa, Charlie Barnet, Boyd Raeburn, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Frank DeVol, and Jerry Gray. He also appeared in A Song Is Born, one of many jazz stars to play roles in the film. On the film set he met guitarist Laurindo Almeida, and the two began jamming together. Along with Roy Harte and Bud Shank their quartet was an early experiment blending Brazilian music and jazz. Their 1954 ten inch discs are predecessors to the bossa nova explosion of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
1947 saw him recording the first cello solos known in jazz music, with the Dodo Marmarosa Trio. In order to do so, he tuned his strings in fourths. In later cello ensembles he added a bass player. He and Oscar Pettiford did a session together with two cellos. In the mid-1950s, he put together his own ensemble, Harry Babasin & the Jazzpickers. This ensemble released three albums and played regularly at the Purple Onion in Hollywood, California. One recording of note was made in 1952 at the Tradewinds nightclub in Inglewood. It features Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, Sonny Criss, Al Haig, Larance Marable, and Harry, in one of Bird’s few West Coast appearances.
His career cooled in the 1960s, returning to work with Charlie Barnet and supporting Bob Hope’s USO tours. In the 1970s he and Harte initiated the Los Angeles Theaseum, a jazz archive and preservation society. Harry gave his last tour in 1985 with John Banister on piano. Over the course of his career he was possibly a part of as many as 1,500 recordings.
Bassist Harry Babasin, nicknamed The Bear, died of emphysema in Los Angeles, California on May 21, 1988.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Antonio Ciacca was born in Wuppertal, Germany March 14, 1969 and raised in Italy. He began playing the piano at the age of seven and studied with Steve Grossman, Jaki Byard, Bruce Barth and Barry Harris.
Ciacca toured Europe with the Larry Smith Quartet in 1995 and 1996, played in Japan with the Eiji Nakayama Quartet in 1998, and toured Europe with Wes Anderson and Steve Lacy in 1999. His study with Jaki Byard in 1998–99, and dedicated the album Hollis Avenue to him.
He founded the Detroit Gospel Singers, and toured Europe with them in 2000. He earned his undergraduate Diploma at the G.B. Martini Conservatory in Bologna, Italy. He became Director of Programming at Jazz at Lincoln Center from 2007 to 2011. Earning his master’s degree in jazz studies at City College in New York City and his DMA, Doctor of Musica Arts at Stony Brook University.
Pianist Antonio Ciacca is currently the adjunct professor of Jazz History at Marymount Manhattan College, and Professor of Jazz Arranging and Composition at the G. Nicolini Conservatory in Piacenza, Italy.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ofer Assaf was born on March 10, 1976 in Israel and went to the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts dividing his time between his two passions: music and dance, and started training as a professional ballet dancer at the age of eight before switching to a full-time jazz career. He won the Israeli National Competition in Jazz and Contemporary Music for young musicians in 1991. He went on to become a member of the Air Force and IDF Orchestras of the Israeli Army, played with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and a diverse array of national TV and radio shows. He has performed with leading Israeli musicians and was a member of the Tel Aviv Big Band in the mid-1990’s.
Moving to New York City in 1997 he entered The New School University’s jazz program and also studied with tenor saxophonist Billy Harper, bassist Reggie Workman, pianist Richie Beirach, trumpeter Jimmy Owens and percussionists Bobby Sanabria. Upon graduation in 2002, Ofer performed with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock at Carnegie Hall as part of the JVC Jazz Festival.
A recipient of scholarships and awards from the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, he was pre-nominated for the Grammy Awards in the “Best Jazz Instrumental Album” category in 2009 for his debut album Tangible Reality for Summit Records. With the Bernie Worrell Orchestra he was awarded “Best Funk/Fusion/Jam Song of the Year” at the 12th annual Independent Music Awards in 2013.
Tenor saxophonist, composer and educator Ofer Assaf continues to perform and conduct workshops around the world.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clarence Lacquese Penn born on March 2, 1968 in Detroit, Michigan and started playing the drums at around eigh years old. In 1986, while still at high school, he attended the Interlochen Arts Academy. He started studying at the University of Miami in Florida that same year, but transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University.
At Virginia Commonwealth he studied with Ellis Marsalis, and played in the pianist’s trio from 1987 to 1991, including for a tour of Japan in 1990. Penn graduated in classical percussion in 1991 and was part of vocalist Betty Carter’s trio from until 1993.
Penn later went on to work with David Sanchez, Jimmy Smith, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Scott, Greg Hatza, Stanley Clarke, Tim Warfield, Bob Berg, Diana Krall, Cyrus Chestnut, and Stephen Scott.
He recorded his debut album, Penn’s Landing, for Criss Cross Jazz in 1997 with some of the tracks he composed. His sophomore album as leader, Play-Penn, was recorded four years later, followed by a third the following year. He took a nine year hiatus from recording then recorded three more albums.
Drummer Clarence Penn, who also plays organ and rhodes, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pekka Eerik Juhani Sarmanto was born February 15, 1945 in Helsinki, finland. He first studied classical violin at the Sibelius Academy from 1958 to 1964 before switching to upright bass. He initially played dance music but was soon invited to perform in jazz clubs by bandleaders like Eero Koivistoinen and Esa Pethman.
1967 saw him joining the house band of Down Beat Club where he played with musicians like Ben Webster and Dexter Gordon. In 1975 Sarmanto founded UMO, abbreviation of Uuden Musiikin Orkesteri, (New Music Orchestra) and the group accompanied many international jazz musicians visiting Finland. As a result Pekka was able to meet and play with Charles Mingus in Belgrade, Serbia; Gil Evans, Edward Vesala and Sonny Rollins.
Sarmanto received the Georgie Award of the Finnish Jazz Federation in 1978. In 1982 he worked on the album To a Finland Station with Dizzy Gillespie and Arturo Sandoval, released on the Pablo label in 1983. He considers this to be his most successful recording.
In 1996 the bassist founded the Pekka Sarmanto Trio and in 2007 he retired from UMO but he still keeps performing actively with different groups, including with his own trio..
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