The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

As we approach November 3, VOTING in this very important election is this Quarantined Jazz Voyager’s top priority and I hope it is yours. Having received my absentee ballot, I will be delivering it this coming week. In the meantime, while remaining secluded and social distancing I’m pulling out an 2011 album by Pee Wee Ellis titled Tenoration.

It is a twelve-track jazz and funk double album by that is an all-instrumental album. Its subtitle, From Jazz to Funk and Back reflects Ellis’ affection to both jazz and funk music. On this production, he uses two different rhythm sections. CD1 emphasizes funk, and on CD 2 he’s bringing jazz.

The album was recorded in November 2010 and released the following year in April on the Art Of Groove label. The producer on the session was Joachim Becker.

1. Slanky P (Pee Wee “Alfred” Ellis / Jim Payne) ~ 7:15
2. Gittin’ A Little Hipper (James Brown /(Pee Wee “Alfred” Ellis / Bud Hobgood) ~ 3:01
3. Bon Bonn ((Pee Wee “Alfred” Ellis) ~ 7:00
4. Sticks (Cannonball Adderley) ~ 10:42
5. Zig Zag (Pee Wee “Alfred” Ellis / Paul Rusky / Jim Schneider) ~ 7:01
6. At Last (Mack Gordon / Harry Warren) ~ 6:04 #Out Of The Blue (Wright, Terry) ~ 2:15

1. You’ve Changed (Bill Carey / Carl Fischer) ~ 4:30
2. Sticks (Cannonball Adderley) ~ 4:11
3. Parlayin’ (Pee Wee “Alfred” Ellis) ~ 4:30
4. Sonnymoon For Two (Sonny Rollins) ~ 8:37
5. Now Go On (Pee Wee “Alfred” Ellis) ~ 6:01
6. Freedom Jazz Dance (Eddie Harris) ~ 4:47

• Guitar: Tony Remy (1-6)
• Keyboards: Dan Moore (1-6)
• Piano: Gareth Williams (7-12)
• Bass: Patrick Scales (1-6)
• Bass: Laurence Cottle (7-12)
• Drums: Guido May

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bobby Few was born October 21, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in the Fairfax neighborhood of the city’s East Side. His mother encouraged him to study classical piano, later discovering jazz listening to his father’s Jazz at the Philharmonic records. His father became his first booking agent and soon he was gigging around the greater Cleveland area with other local musicians including Bill Hardman, Bob Cunningham, Cevera Jefferies, and Frank Wright.

Exposed to Tadd Dameron and Benny Bailey as a youth and knew Albert Ayler, with whom he played in high school. As a young man, Bobby gigged with local tenor legend Tony “Big T” Lovano, Joe Lovano’s father. The late 1950s had him relocating to New York City, where he led a trio from 1958 to 1964; there, he met and began working with Brook Benton, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson and Ayler. Playing on several of Ayler’s albums, he also recorded with Alan Silva, Noah Howard, Muhammad Ali, Booker Ervin, and Kali Fasteau.

In 1969 he moved to France and rapidly integrated the expatriate jazz community, working frequently with Archie Shepp, Sunny Murray, Steve Lacy, and Rasul Siddik. Since 2001, he has toured internationally with American saxophonist Avram Fefer, with whom he recorded four critically acclaimed CDs. He plays extensively around Europe and continues to make regular trips back to the United States. Recently, Few has played with saxophonist Charles Gayle and leads his own trio in Paris. He is currently working on a Booker Ervin tribute project called Few’s Blues that features tenor player Tony Lakatos, bassist Reggie Johnson and drummer Doug Sides.

As a leader and co~leader, he recorded eighteen albums and fifty as a sideman.  Pianist and vocalist Bobby Few, whose playing style has been described as delicate single-note melodies, roll out lush romantic chords, and rap out explicitly Monkish close-interval clanks, continued to perform and record until he passed away on January 6, 2021 at age 85.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Masabumi Kikuchi was born on October 19, 1939 in Tokyo, Japan and lived his early life in World War II and post-war country. He studied piano and music at the Tokyo Art College High School. After graduating, he joined Lionel Hampton’s Japanese touring band.

Known for his eclectic music that ranges from vanguard classical to fusion and digital music. Not only working with Hampton, but he also performed with Sonny Rollins, Woody Herman, Mal Waldron, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Gil Evans, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian, Billy Harper, and Hannibal Peterson.

As a leader and co~leader, he recorded twenty-five albums, and as a sideman or member of other groups, he recorded twenty~eight albums.  Pianist and composer Masabumi Kikuchi passed away from a subdural hematoma on July 6, 2015 at a hospital in Manhasset, New York.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Robert William Troup Jr. was born on October 18, 1918 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Graduating from The Hill School in 1937, he went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics. His earliest musical success came in 1941 with the song Daddy and Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra recorded it sending it to #1 for eight weeks on the Billboard chart and #5 record of 1941.

After graduating from college in 1941, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, completed officer training, and was assigned to recruit the first Black Marines at Montford Point. While there, he organized the first Negro band of U.S. Marines. During this time he composed Take Me Away From Jacksonville, which became an anthem of sorts for the Marines at Montford Point and other areas of Camp Lejeune. In 1942, his song Snootie Little Cutie was recorded by Frank Sinatra and Connie Haines with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and the Pied Pipers.

In 1946, Nat King Cole had a hit with Troup’s most popular song, Route 66. Troup’s fifteen albums in the 1950s and 1960s were not commercially successful, recording for Liberty and Capitol. He composed the music for the instrumental version of his song The Meaning of the Blues that appeared on the Miles Davis album Miles Ahead.

While relying on songwriting royalties, Bobby worked as an actor, appearing in Bop Girl Goes Calypso, The High Cost of Loving, The Five Pennies, and playing musician Tommy Dorsey in the film The Gene Krupa Story. He also appeared on several television shows in the Sixties. It was during this time that he met Julie London, encouraged her to pursue her singing career, and in 1955 produced her million-selling hit record Cry Me a River. Four years later, London married Troup. On February 7, 1999, pianist, singer, songwriter and actor Bobby Troup passed away of a heart attack in the Los Angeles, California neighborhood of Sherman Oaks.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Roy Powell was born on October 2, 1965 in Langham, Rutland, England. His mother was a historian, his father a scientist who moved the family to Canada. His father had given him piano lessons and had been playing the piano for five years. Returning to England when he was ten, he attended New Mills Grammar School at the same time as Lloyd Cole.

In the 1970s, Powell was listening to Duke Ellington and Miles Davis and buying albums through the mail from America. He attended the Royal Northern College of Music, studying piano and classical composition during the day and playing in Manchester jazz clubs at night. After departing school, he started a jazz fusion band and choreographed a ballet. In 1992 he was a member of the Creative Jazz Orchestra. Three years later he moved to Norway to teach.

Powell has been a member of the group InterStatic with Jacob Young, and Jarle Vespestad, and the group Naked Truth with Lorenzo Feliciati, Pat Mastelotto, and Graham Haynes. He recorded the album Mumpbeak with Feliciati, Mastelotto, Bill Laswell, Tony Levin, and Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz. Pianist, organist, composer, and educator Roy Powell has recorded fifteen albums as a leader and continues to perform and record.

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