Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Fred Stone was born on September 9, 1935 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and was the son of saxophonist Archie Stone. His initial musical studies were with his father. At the age of 14 he began studying the trumpet with Donald Reinhardt in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and spent every summer in that city from 1950–1955. At home he studied music theory and music composition with Gordon Delamont and John Weinzweig.

Commencing his performance career in 1951 at the age of 16 he played in Benny Louis’s big band. From 1955 to 1967 he was a trumpeter in various orchestras related to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, including the CBC Symphony Orchestra. During the late 1950s and 1960s he performed widely as a concert soloist with orchestras throughout North America. He was an active performer as a jazz musician, playing regularly with Ron Collier , Phil Nimmons , the Boss Brass, and Lighthouse and he toured North America and Europe with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Returning to Toronto in 1971, Stone became highly involved with his work as a teacher, and operated his own private studio where he taught improvisational theory and music composition. His performance career virtually ceased for the remainder of the decade, although he remained active as a composer. Between 1971 and 1983 he mainly focused on his work as a composer and teacher, making only periodic public performances, and often with ensembles composed largely of his students.

In 1984 he formed Freddie’s Band, a jazz ensemble in residence at The Music Gallery in Toronto. Flugelhornist, trumpeter, pianist, composer, writer, and music educator Fred Stone recorded eleven albums as a sideman before he transitioned on December 10, 1986.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Makanda Ken McIntyre was born Kenneth Arthur McIntyreon on September 7, 1931 in Boston, Massachusetts to a father whoplayed mandolin. He started his musical life on the bugle when he was eight years old, followed by piano. In his teens he discovered the music of Charlie Parker and began playing saxophone at nineteen, then clarinet and flute two years later. Serving in the Army in 1953, for two years he played saxophone and piano in Japan.

Following his discharge Ken attended the Boston Conservatory where he studied with Gigi Gryce, Charlie Mariano, and Andy McGhee. In 1958 he received a degree in flute and composition with a master’s degree the next year in composition. He also received a doctorate (Ed.D.) in curriculum design from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1975.

1960 saw McIntyre recording as a leader with Eric Dolphy. The following year and for the next six he taught music in public schools. He took oboe lessons in New York before playing with Bill Dixon, Jaki Byard, and the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra. He went on to spend three years with pianist Cecil Taylor. During the 1970s he recorded with Nat Adderley and Beaver Harris and in the 1980s with Craig Harris and Charlie Haden.

In 1971, he founded the first African American Music program in the United States at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury, teaching for 24 years. He also taught at Wesleyan University, Smith College, Central State University, Fordham University, and The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

In the early 1990s, while performing in Zimbabwe, a stranger handed him a piece of paper with the word “Makanda” written on it, which translates to many skins in the Ndebele language and many heads in Shona. He changed his name to Makanda Ken McIntyre. At the age of 69 on June 13, 2001 he transitioned from a heart attack in New York City.

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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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