Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tommy Vig was born on July 14, 1938 in Budapest, Hungary. Internationally recognized as a child prodigy by the age of 6, he played drums with his father, clarinetist Gyorgy Vig and performed concerts on Budapest State Radio, at the City Theatre, the Academy of Music, and the National Circus. By age 8, he made the album The World Champion Kid Drummer with Austrian jazz players in Vienna, Austria including Hans Koller, Ernst Landl, and the Hot Club of Vienna for Elite Special. The following year his drumming won him the 1947 MGM-Jazz Competition in Budapest and as a result made several recordings with the Chappy’s Mopex Big Band for His Master’s Voice.
Completing his studies at the Bartók Conservatory in 1955 and the Ferenc Erkel Music High School in 1956, due to the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he fled to Vienna, where he played concerts with Fatty George and Joe Zawinul. A move to the United States saw him on scholarship at Juilliard School of Music. Since then he has been writing and conducting concerts.
In 1970 Vig relocated to Los Angeles, California where he worked in the studios of Warner Bros., Fox, Universal, CBS, Columbia, ABC, Disney, Goldwyn, MGM, and Paramount. He played on 1500 studio sessions in Hollywood, two Academy Awards, and produced, directed, and conducted the official 1984 Olympic Jazz Festival for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. He wrote the music for 30 films and television shows, and added percussion on the recording of Quincy Jones’s soundtrack to Roots.
Vig has worked with Red Rodney, Don Ellis, Cat Anderson, Terry Gibbs, Art Pepper, Milcho Leviev, Joe Pass, the Miles Davis-Gil Evans Big Band. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Curtis, Woody Allen, Judy Garland, Tony Bennett and Rod Stewart.
Since 2006, vibraharpist, drummer, percussionist, xylophonist and marimba player Tommy Vig, who has won several awards, has been performing concerts with his wife, appearing on radio and television, and recording albums.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Having completely adapted to a new modus operandi for living this glorious life, I remain vigilant in my social distancing and reminding myself of music I haven’t listened to in a long time. This week I’m pulling out the late great Roy Hargrove who had the vision to record With The Tenors of Our Time. It’s a 1994 release on the Polygram Record label that was recorded at Teatro Mancinelli and Giani Grascinelli Sound Service with executive producer Richard Seidel. The album’s art direction and design is by David Lau, photography by James Minchin, liner notes by Jimmy Katz.
>Others in the team contributing to the production of this album were Larry Clothier ~ production, engineering, mixing; Ed Rak ~ engineering, mastering, mixing; Robert Friedrich ~ assistant engineering; Troy Halderson ~ mastering; Camille Tominaro ~ production coordination; and Nelly Muganda ~ make-up and hair stylist.
Track Listing | 72:56- Soppin’ the Biscuit (composer Roy Hargrove, featuring Stanley Turrentine) ~ 7:59
- When We Were One (composer Johnny Griffin, featuring Johnny Griffin) ~ 5:59
- Valse Hot (composer Sonny Rollins, featuring Branford Marsalis, Ron Blake) ~ 6:57
- Once Forgotten (composer Pamela Watson, featuring Ron Blake on tenor and soprano saxophone) ~ 5:45
- Shade of Jade (composer Joe Henderson, featuring Joe Henderson) ~ 5:24
- Greens at the Chicken Shack (composer Cyrus Chestnut, featuring Johnny Griffin) ~ 5:45
- Never Let Me Go (composer Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, featuring Rodney Whitaker) ~ 5:36
- Serenity (composer Joe Henderson, featuring Joe Henderson) ~ 5:35
- Across the Pond (composer Roy Hargrove, featuring Joshua Redman) ~ 6:47
- Wild Is Love (composer Robert Mickens and G. Brown, featuring Stanley Turrentine) ~ 6:50
- Mental Phrasing (composer Roy Hargrove, featuring Ron Blake, Joshua Redman) ~ 6:25
- April’s Fool (composer Ron Blake) ~ 3:54
- Roy Hargrove – trumpet, flugelhorn (2,4,7,10), production
- Cyrus Chestnut – piano
- Rodney Whitaker – bass
- Gregory Hutchinson – drums
- Ron Blake – soprano, tenor saxophone
- Johnny Griffin – tenor saxophone
- Joe Henderson – tenor saxophone
- Branford Marsalis – tenor saxophone
- Joshua Redman – tenor saxophone
- Stanley Turrentine – tenor saxophone
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Bishop was born on April 5, 1959 in Seattle, Washington and raised in Germany, Washington, DC, San Antonio, Texas and Eugene, Oregon. He started playing drums at 7 in Washington, DC with the Patriots drum corps. He performed regularly throughout high school and college in Oregon, studied with Mel Brown and Charles Dowd and attended the University of Oregon, and later transferred to the jazz program at North Texas State University.
He returned to Seattle in 1981 for an extended engagement with the band Glider and never left. An unusually creative and fertile scene at the time, in the early ’80s, he was a member of the fusion group Blue Sky, which released two Top 10 albums and performed extensively throughout the decade. For 20 years, he was with the piano trio New Stories along with pianist Marc Seales and bassist Doug Miller.
He has recorded, performed and/or toured internationally with Don Lanphere, Mark Murphy, Tom Harrell, Julian Priester, Charles McPherson, Vincent Herring, Nick Brignola, Conte Condoli, Bobby Shew, Larry Coryell, Ernie Watts, Lee Konitz, Slide Hampton, Benny Golson, George Cables, Kenny Werner, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sonny Fortune, Herb Ellis, Buddy DeFranco, Bobby McFerrin, Joe Locke, Jerry Bergonzi, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Larry Coryell, and countless others.
As an educator he taught drums privately for forty years and was on the faculty at the University of Washington from 2005-2009. He regularly conducts drum and jazz workshops throughout the country. Appearing on more than 100 albums, John was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in 2008, and was named a “Jazz Hero” by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2019. Drummer John Bishop continues to perform, record and produce.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gary Smulyan was born in Bethpage, New York on April 4, 1956. He studied at Hofstra University before working with Woody Herman. His biggest influence is Pepper Adams. When Adams died, Smulyan recorded an album titled which included eight pieces composed by Adams.
Smulyan has played with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Mel Lewis Big Band, the Dave Holland Big Band and Octet, the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band. He has performed and recorded with Carla Bley’s Big Band.
He has recorded thirteen albums as a leader, as a sideman seventy-six with Harry Allen, David Byrne, Michel Camilo, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Freddy Cole, George Coleman, Dena DeRose, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Jon Faddis, John Fedchock, Don Friedman, Benny Green, Tom Harrell, Gene Harris, Jimmy Heath, Joe Henderson, Conrad Herwig, Freddie Hubbard, Denise Jannah, B.B. King, Mike LeDonne, Joe Lovano, Joe Magnarelli, Kevin Mahogany, Mark Masters, Mingus Big Band, Grachan Moncur III, Eddie Palmieri, Charlie Parker, Charlie Persip, Diana Ross, Rob Schneiderman, John Scofield, Don Sickler, Mark Soskin, Dave Stryker, Roseanna Vitro, Walt Weiskopf, and Gerald Wilson.
Baritone saxophone Gary Smulyan leads a trio with bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Kenny Washington.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eric Kloss was born April 3, 1949 in Greenville, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, and attended the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind, which was run by his father. When he was 10, he started on saxophone, and two years later he was playing in night clubs with professional musicians such as Bobby Negri, Charles Bell, and Sonny Stitt. At 16, he recorded his debut album, Introducing Eric Kloss on the Prestige label in 1965, with Don Patterson and Pat Martino.
On his third album, Grits & Gravy, he recorded with musicians over twice his age: Jaki Byard, Richard Davis, and Alan Dawson. He continued recording and performing while a student at Duquesne University. A fan of Elvis Presley and The Ventures, he was attracted to the growth of jazz fusion in the 1960s and ’70s, and eventually played with fusion musicians Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette. He also collaborated with Richie Cole and Gil Goldstein, and did sessions with Cedar Walton, Jimmy Owens, Kenny Barron, Jack DeJohnette, Booker Ervin, Barry Miles, and Terry Silverlight.
By the 1980s, Kloss was teaching at Rutgers University, then Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon. He and his wife, a vocalist, collaborated in a group called Quiet Fire. Saxophonist Eric Kloss has performed and recorded rarely since the Eighties due to health problems.
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