Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Senri Oe was born on September 6, 1960, in Fujiidera city, Osaka, Japan. He began playing piano at the age of three, and was trained by his junior high school teacher Yumi Nara, who would go on to become an acclaimed opera singer. After each of the lessons, Nara would encourage him to improvise, and eventually he began to compose.
Upon being introduced to music by The Carpenters, Captain & Tenille and Gilbert O’Sullivan, Oe decided to become a singer-songwriter. Soon after, Oe’s music repertoire expanded to include jazz musicians such as Chris Conor, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Winton Kelly, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.
In 1975 at 15 Oe intended to study jazz but after participating in the final Yamaha Popular Song Contest POPCON, in 1980 he entered Kwansei Gakuin University majoring in economics while simultaneously beginning to pursue a professional music career. He formed his first band during his time at university, was scouted by Sony Music and signed to Epic Sony Japan in 1981. His pop career unexpectedly took off and he chose to put his jazz aspirations on hold.
At the New School for Jazz, in 2008 Senri moved to Manhattan, New Yorkand later He went on to start a prolific carrer as a pop singer/songwriter but in 2007 he began his serious study of jazz. After graduating from The New School for Jazz, he launched his jazz record label, Peace Never Die Records, in 2012. His jazz debut album was Boys Mature Slow the same year. As of 2021 he has released another six albums under the PND label.
Oe’s work towards composing for a drum-less trio was titled Collective Scribble, with saxophone, piano and upright bass. He has recorded as a leader with Sheila Jordan, Jon Hendricks, Theo Bleckmann and Lauren Kinhan. His Answer July was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Jazz Album category in 2017.
Pianist, composer, producer, actor, singer, and songwriter Senri Oe continues to compose, perform and stretch the realms of his jazz imagination, while writing and producing music for other artists and film soundtracks.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joki Freund was born Walter Jakob Freund on September 5, 1926 in Höchst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He began playing the accordion as a child, switching to tenor saxophone after World War II ended.
Early in the postwar era, he played with Joe Quitter, Carlo Bohlander, Gerry Weinkopf, Joe Klimm, and Jutta Hipp, before forming his own ensemble. He began performing with American musicians, including Donald Byrd, Art Taylor, and Doug Watkins during their European festival appearances.
He went on to play with and arranged for Albert Mangelsdorff in the jazz orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk, and Erwin Lehn in the Süddeutscher Rundfunk orchestra. He played with the Frankfurt Jazz Ensemble on soprano saxophone in the 1970s, also performing as a leader around this time.
Saxophonist Joki Freund, who predominantly played in a quintet setting but also in orchestras or big bands, transitioned on February 15, 2012 in Schwalbach am Taunus, Germany.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Greene was born on September 4, 1922 in New York City, New York. He was active early in his career in Dixieland jazz revival groups, working with Sidney De Paris, Baby Dodds, Conrad Janis, and Johnny Wiggs.
Leaving music for a period, he got a degree from Columbia University and worked in radio and speechwriting, including for Lyndon Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy. After Robert Kennedy’s assassination, he quit speechwriting and returned to jazz in the late 1960s again, working with Zutty Singleton. Focusing on music full-time, Bob worked in the early 1970s with Don Ewell, Albert Nicholas, and the Peruna Jazz Band.
He put together a traveling ensemble which paid tribute to the music of Jelly Roll Morton. They toured worldwide, recorded several albums and among his sidemen in this setting were Danny Barker, Tommy Benford, Herb Hall, Milt Hinton, and Johnny Williams.
The nephew of Paul Blum, a former intelligence officer, he spent time writing his uncle’s biography, which was published in 1998. Pianist and bandleader Bob Greene transitioned on October 13, 2013 in Amagansett, New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fred Hess was born in Abington, Pennsylvania on September 3, 1944 but was raised in New Jersey. He studied at Trenton State College with his early studies with saxophonist Phil Woods, a stint with bandleader Fred Waring, and composing music for the world premiere of a Sam Shepard play.
As a composer, his influences encompass avant-garde classical sources, as well as Anthony Braxton and the members of the AACM. Moving to Boulder, Colorado in 1981, he founded the Boulder Creative Music Ensemble. Fred then completed further studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, taking his doctorate in composition in 1991.
He recorded his debut album Sweet Thunder in 1991 and by 2012 had sixteen albums as a leader in his catalog. He was the Director of Music Composition at Metro State College in Denver, Colorado.
In addition to his own projects as a leader, BCME, The Fred Hess Group and the Fred Hess Big Band, he was the founding director of Denver’s Creative Music Works Orchestra and was a member of drummer Ginger Baker’s Denver Jazz Quintet, as well as ensembles led by trumpeter Ron Miles.
His playing was influenced by Lester Young, John Coltrane, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and Eric Dolphy. Tenor saxophonist Fredd Hess transitioned on October 27, 2018.
Bestow upon an inquiring mind a dose of a Abington saxophonist to motivate the perusal of the genius of jazz musicians worldwide whose gifts contribute to the canon…
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Philip William Seamen was born on August 28, 1926 in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. He began playing drums at the age of six, turning professional at the age of 18 by joining Nat Gonella and his Georgians in 1944. At 20 he spent a year with Gordon Homer Big Band at the Coronation Ballroom in Ramsgate. He joined the Tommy Sampson Orchestra in 1948 and by 1949, Seamen and tenor saxophonist Danny Moss formed a bebop quintet from within the ranks and was featured on a radio broadcast by the orchestra.
He then went on to play in the Joe Loss Orchestra for about 14 months before taking the top job with Jack Parnell from 1951 until midway 1954. Seamen, being much sought after during the 1950 played in Kenny Graham’s Afro-Cubists projects from 1952 to 1958, from 1954 onwards with the Joe Harriott Quartet, the Ronnie Scott Orchestra and Sextet. He was recruited opn countless sessions as well to perform with Dizzy Reece, Victor Feldman, Jimmy Deuchar, Kenny Baker, Vic Ash, Don Rendell, Stan Tracey, Laurie Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy and Josh White, to name a few.
In 1957 Phil was on his way to America with the Ronnie Scott Sextet as part of a Musicians’ Union exchange tour deal. Unfortunately the Southhampton custom officers found him in possession of drugs, killing his lifelong dream of visiting the States. In 1958, the West End production of West Side Story opened with him after Leonard Bernstein reputedly specifically asked for him, so the producers hired him.
During the first half of the 1960s, he worked often with Tubby Hayes, Joe Harriott, played a couple of nights with Dexter Gordon at Ronnie Scott’s, and recorded with Carmen McRae. In 1964 he played R&B with Alexis Korner and Georgie Fame.
He started teaching in 1962, one of his pupils being Ginger Baker, who went on to influence a whole generation of rock drummers. However, his addiction to alcohol, heroin and other drugs hampered his health and career as many bandleaders refused to hire him with the exception of Freddie Hubbard in 1964 and Roland Kirk in 1967 with a UK tour. On October 13, 1972 drummer Phil Seaman transitioned in his sleep at his home in Old Paradise Street Lambeth, South London, at the age of 46.
Bestow upon an inquiring mind a dose of a Burton upon Trent drummer to motivate the perusal of the genius of jazz musicians worldwide whose gifts contribute to the canon…
