Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Theodor Christian Frølich Bergh, better known as Totti Bergh was born December 5, 1935 in Oslo, Norway. He began playing clarinet, and started learning to play the saxophone in 1952. By the time he turned 21 in 1956, he became a professional musician, becoming a regular member of Kjell Karlsen Sextet for three years, in addition to collaborating sporadically with Rowland Greenberg and other musicians on the Norwegian jazz scene.

He joined the Norwegian America Ships house orchestra on the voyage to New York City. In 1960 Totti succeeded Harald Bergersen as tenor saxophonist in Karlsen’s new big band and in the summer of 1961 he met his future wife Laila Dalseth, who joined the band.

He would go on to play with the bands of Einar Schanke, Rowland Greenberg, Per Borthen and in Dalseth’s orchestra. During the Nineties he played tenor  and soprano saxophone with Christiania Jazzband and with Christiania 12.

Saxophonist Totti Bergh, who released several albums as a leader and whose music is reminiscent of Lester Young and Dexter Gordon, died January 4, 2012 in his home city.


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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jiří Stivín was born November 23, 1942 in Prague, Republic. After graduating from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, he continued his studies of composition at the Royal Academy of Music as well as at the Prague Academy of Music and the flute under Milan Munclinger.

Stivín performs music from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque periods. As a sololist, he performed with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, with the Slovak Chamber Orchestra, with Suk Chamber Orchestra, Barocco sempre giovane as well as with several other ensembles.

Involved in jazz, both as a composer and a performer, he has been a member of the European Jazz Ensemble, European Jazz Sextet, European Jazz Trio, Interjazz IV, Jazz Q, Jiří Stivín & Co., Prague Big Band and Jazz System.

Flutist, saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader Jiří Stivín, who was originally cinematographer, reemains active playing both the flute and saxophone in the Jazz Quartet in the Czech Republic, and gives regular lectures at the Prague Conservatory.

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Francesca Tanksley was born November 21, 1957 in Vincenza, Italy but grew up in Munich, Germany where she studied music from the age of seven. Moving to Boston, Massachusetts at 16, she studied piano and composition at Berklee College Of Music.

Two years later she returned to Munich. In 1980 she moved to New York City where she worked with Melba Liston until 1983, then she joined Billy Harper’s quintet with whom she toured extensively.

She has worked with Clifford Jordan, Cecil Payne, Bill Hardman and Erica Lindsay. She leads her own quintet and co-leads the Erica Lindsay/ Howard Johnson Quintet. As an educator she has been on the faculty of the New School, Berklee College. She has facilitated workshops and masterclasses at University of Southern California at Santa Cruz, Hampton University, Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute, Arizona State University, and Bard College.

Pianist Francesca Tanksley, who is a composer and educator, continues to perform and compose.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Alfredo Remus was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 9, 1938. In 1964 he participated as the double bassist on the historic album La Misa Criolla by Ariel Ramírez.

He has accompanied important musicians and groups such as Paul Gonsalves, Vinícius de Moraes, Maria Bethânia, Enrique “Mono” Villegas, Gato Barbieri, Mercedes Sosa, Tony Bennett, Ariel Ramírez, Víctor Heredia, Alberto Cortez, Trio Los Panchos, Raphael, Zupay Quartet, Dyango, Leonardo Favio, Sandro, Susana Rinaldi, and Antonio Carlos Jobim , among others.

He was a regular participant in a series of informal folklore improvisation and experimentation meetings at Eduardo Lagos’s house, humorously baptized by Hugo Díaz as folkloréishons, which in the style of jazz jam sessions, used to bring together Lagos, Astor Piazzolla and Díaz.

With other musicians, Remus played with Oscar Cardozo Ocampo, Domingo Cura and Oscar López Ruiz among others. He recorded nine albums as a leader with his debut album Trauma released in 1968 and his final recording Tribute To Bill Evans in 2006.

Double bassist Alfredo Remus, who performed various genres of American popular music, that included but not limited to tango,  jazz, Argentine folklore, bossa nova and post-bop,  died in Buenos Aires on September 28, 2022.

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