Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cory Weeds was born and raised in Burnaby, British Columbia on December 5, 1975. His interest in jazz began in secondary school, and then chose to pursue his post-secondary education by attending Capilano University and the University of North Texas.
>At the age of 26, Weeds purchased a jazz club which would become the Cellar Jazz Club. The venue was selected by DownBeat named Cellar to its list of the world’s greatest jazz clubs. Thirteen years later in 2014 the Cellar Jazz Club shuttered its doors.
Remaining vital in the jazz community of Vancouver, British Columbia he books musicians at Frankie’s Jazz Club and the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby.
In 2023, Cellar Music Group was awarded their first Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. The Grammy was awarded to Steven Feifke and Bijon Watson’s Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra for their album Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra.
Weeds has performed alongside musicians including Christian McBride, Joey DeFrancesco, Peter Bernstein, Eric Alexander, Mike LeDonne, and Joe Farnsworth.
Alto and tenor saxophonist and impresario Cory Weeds, who is the founder and owner of the Cellar Music Group record label, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Donaldson was born Robert Stanley Donaldson on November 29, 1922 in Boston, Massachusetts. Early in his career he played with the Boston Symphony. After playing locally in the early 1940s, he played with Russell Procope while serving in the Army in New York City.
In 1946–47 Bobby worked with Cat Anderson. Following this stint he played with Edmond Hall, Andy Kirk, Lucky Millinder, Buck Clayton, Red Norvo, and Sy Oliver/Louis Armstrong.
A prolific session musician for much of the 1950s and 1960s, he played with Helen Merrill, Ruby Braff, Mel Powell, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Bobby Jaspar, Herbie Mann, André Hodeir, Kenny Burrell, Lonnie Johnson, Frank Wess, Willis Jackson, and Johnny Hodges.
Drummer Bobby Donaldson, who played both in the jazz, Dixieland and R&B idioms, transitioned in 1971.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Werner Amram III was born November 17, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1948–1949, and earned a bachelor’s degree in European history from George Washington University in 1952. In 1955 he enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied under Dimitri Mitropoulos, Vittorio Giannini, and Gunther Schuller. Under Schuller he studied French horn.
As a sideman or leader, David has worked with Aaron Copland, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Jack Kerouac, Sonny Rollins, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz, George Barrow, Jerry Dodgion, Paquito D’Rivera, Pepper Adams, Arturo Sandoval, Oscar Pettiford, Allen Ginsberg, Mary Lou Williams, Kenny Dorham, Ray Barretto, Wynton Marsalis, and others that included a wide range of folk, pop, and country figures.
In 1956, producer Joseph Papp hired Amram to compose scores for the New York Shakespeare Festival, the next year staged one of the first poetry readings with jazz, and in 1966 Leonard Bernstein chose Amram as the New York Philharmonic’s first composer-in-residence.
He went on four international musical tours to Brazil, Kenya, Cuba and the Middle East. He conducted a 15 piece orchestra for Betty Carter’s What Happened To Love? album, became an advocate for music education. He composed scores for the Elia Kazan films Splendor in the Grass, and The Arrangement and for the John Frankenheimer films The Young Savages and The Manchurian Candidate.
French hornist and pianist David Amram, who also plays Spanish guitar, penny whistle, sings and composes, has recorded nineteen albums as a leader and twenty-eight as a sideman.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Neil James Sinclair Swainson was born November 15, 1955 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He started his career in his hometown when he supported visiting American musicians Herb Ellis, Barney Kessell, and Sonny Stitt, among others. In 1976 he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia and after playing with the Paul Horn Quintet, he led a band for two years. He moved to Toronto, Quebec in 1977
In the 1980s he played with local and visiting acts including Tommy Flanagan, Rob McConnell, Ed Bickert, Slide Hampton, James Moody, Jay McShann, Moe Koffman, Lee Konitz, Joe Farrell, George Coleman, and Woody Shaw. He went on to collaborate with Woody Shaw appearing on two of his recordings: In My Own Sweet Way and Solid. He toured with Shaw often in New York City and on many European tours.
A collaboration between Swainson and pianist George Shearing would form in 1986, after he replaced Don Thompson in 1988. Their relationship continued until Shearing’s passing in 201 and during their time together they toured across North America, Great Britain, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan. They played with musicians including Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Diana Krall, Robert Farnon and Mel Tormé.
Together the two recorded eight recordings and he recorded his own album; 49th Parallel on Concord Jazz in 1987. His recordings feature Woody Shaw on trumpet, and Joe Henderson on saxophone along with numerous other musicians such as Jay McShann, Geoff Keezer, Doc Cheatham, Sam Noto, Don Thompson, Peter Leitch, Pat LaBarbera, Joe LaBarbera, Rob McConnell, Ed Bickert, Lorne Lofsky, Kirk MacDonald and JMOG, a cooperative band featuring, Kevin Dean and Pat LaBarbera.
Swainson has also recently toured worldwide with the singer Roberta Gambarini and as well with pianist Gene DiNovi in Japan. As an educator he works at Humber College as a professor in the Bass department after receiving a music degree. Bassist Neil Swainson continues to compose music and freelance in Toronto.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Elmon Wright was born on October 27, 1929 in Kansas City, Missouri to trumpeter Lammar Wright Sr. and the brother of trumpeter Lammar Wright Jr. Following in his father’s and brother’s footsteps, he learned to play the trumpet.
Wright played with Don Redman early in his career, then with Dizzy Gillespie’s first big band in 1945. He then went on to play with Roy Eldridge and then went back to Gillespie’s band, touring and recording with him from 1946 until 1950.
He toured with Earl Bostic for a year in 1954, then worked as a freelance musician in New York City, performing at the Apollo Theater in Harlem with R&B and rock groups. He played with Buddy Rich and Earle Warren in 1959 and recorded with Milt Jackson in 1963. Trumpeter Elmon Wright transitioned in 1984.
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