Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Previte was born July 16, 1951 in Niagara Falls, New York. He started playing early but went on to earn a degree in economics from the University at Buffalo, New York where he also studied percussion.
Moving to New York City in 1979 he began professional relationships with John Zorn, Wayne Horvitz, and Elliott Sharp. While Previte is a talented drummer he has also received critical acclaim for his exceptional abilities as a composer and orchestrator. His compositions are often tightly arranged, although they leave room for significant amounts of improvisation. Additionally, Previte often uses unusual instrumentation and also draws on many non-jazz musics for his compositions.
As a performer much of his work is also improvisational. He has recorded three dozen albums as a leader or co-leader and as a sideman played on 85 recording sessions across numerous genres of music. Drummer, composer and orchestrator Bobby Previte, who has delved into the jazz, avant~garde and rock genres as a leader, continues to expand his career.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Olivia Meyer was born on July 15, 1990 in Rochester, New York and first encountered her father’s tenor saxophone when looking under his bedroom dresser. There she discovered a large black case covered with dust containing a Mark VI. Her fathe rnot only gifted her the saxophone but once she played it was smitten and the decision to pursue the saxophone was cemented. They would go to the public library, check out the maximum number of cds and listen to them together.
At the age of nine, Olivia played and studied in the programs provided by the inner city schools she attended. She began private lessons in classical and jazz piano and ultimately jazz and classical saxophone. By fifteen, she was splitting her time between the School of the Arts and the Eastman School of Music, studying music history, theory, jazz composition, and classical and jazz saxophone.
As a member of the Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra, she also worked and studied regularly with visiting artists Eric Alexander, Peter Bernstein, Paquito D’Rivera, Victor Goines, Wycliffe Gordon, Vincent Herring, Pat Labarbera, Ralph Lalama, Joe Locke, Gerry Niewood, and Grant Stewart.
After graduating from the School of the Arts, she received a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She has played gigs in and around Rochester, and while in Boston she headlined a quartet as a part of the new “Birth of La Femme” series at Wally’s Jazz Café in Boston. Tenor saxophonist Olivia Meyer, has yet to record her debut album, is currently a Brand, Sales and Marketing Associate at Jazz At Lincoln Center.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John William Heard was born on July 3, 1938 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in his early years he played saxophone. He began playing bass at the age of 14. His professional career began in a band that included sax player Booker Ervin, drummer J.C. Moses, pianist Horace Parlan and trumpet player Tommy Turrentine. While in high school, he attended special classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
Joining the United States Air Force in 1958 John was sent to Germany. Because of his art experience he was given a job of designing posters for events. He also did some art teaching, teaching the wives of officers. He left the Air Force in 1961 and enrolled at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He returned to music and went to Buffalo, New York with a later move to California.
The Sixties saw him playing double bass with Turrentine, Al Jarreau, Jean-Luc Ponty, Sonny Rollins and Wes Montgomery. The 1970s he was with Toshiko Akiyoshi, Count Baie, Louie Bellson, Joe Henderson, Ahmad Jamal, John Cillins, Blue Mitchell and Oscar Peterson. By the Eghties he had moved on to perform with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Buddy Montgomery and Pharoah Sanders and Larry Vuckovich. During the decade he teamed with Tom Ranier and Sherman Ferguson to create the group Heard, Ranier, Ferguson in which they released an album in 1983.
Desiring to retire from music in order to spend more time painting, Heard managed to record with Tete Montoliu, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Art Pepper, Clark Terry, Pharoah Sanders, Zoot Sims and Joe Williams. He would return to music, record with Benny Carter, release his album The Jazz Composer’s Songbook and form his group, The John Heard Trio that played at Charlie O’s club in Van Nuys, California. With over 52 recording dates as a sideman with a who’s who list of jazz musicians from the 60’s to 2010, double bassist, bandleader and painter John Heard transitioned on December 10, 2021 at the age of 83.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Abene ( was born July 2, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up in a musical family he was influenced and inspired by his father, grandfather, and aunt who were musicians. He studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music
His reputation for accompanying singers and for arranging music led Michael to accompany Susannah McCorkle, Julius La Rosa, and others. His debut album was a solo piano project recorded in 1984 and released in 1986 titled You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.
He recorded with Maynard Ferguson, Dizzy Gillespie, Cal Tjader during the Sixties and Urbie Green in the Seventies. Abene co-produced the album Avant Gershwin, which won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2007.
Pianist Michael Abene continues to perform, produce and conduct.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thore Swanerud was born June 18, 1919 in Stockholm, Sweden. He started out his professional career playing extensively with major Swedish dance bands in the 1940s, such as those of Simon Brehm, Miff Görling, and Stan Hasselgård.
In 1949-1951 Thore led his own six-piece ensemble, then led smaller groups in the 1950s and 1960s. His associations include work with Ernestine Anderson and James Moody.
He is best remembered for an eight-bar improvised solo he made during a 1949 recording of I’m In The Mood For Love, in a quintet headed by Moody while touring Sweden. Eddie Jefferson created the 1952 song Moody’s Mood For Love in vocalese style by adapting lyrics to Moody’s song. The song later became a jazz standard, covered by many singers.
Pianist, vibraphonist, arranger, conductor, and composer Thore Swanerud, who scored three films, appeared in two and recorded five albums and five singles, transitioned in Stockholm on December 8, 1988.
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