Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alan Dawson was born on July 14, 1929 in Marietta, Pennsylvania and raised in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he played with the Army Dance Band while stationed at Fort Dix from 1951 to 1953. During his service, Dawson explored the post-bop era by performing with pianist Sabby Lewis. After being discharged from the army, Dawson toured Europe with Lionel Hampton.
In early 1960, he resided in Boston, Massachusetts for a regular engagement with bassist John Neves and pianist Leroy Flander. He was an early teacher of drummers Tony Williams, Joseph Smyth, Terri Lyne Carrington, Julian Vaughn, Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Smith, Kenwood Dennard, Gerry Hemingway, Jeff Sipe, Billy Kilson, Joe Farnsworth, Bob Gullotti, and many others.
Dawson began teaching at Berklee College of Music in 1957. He suffered a ruptured disc in 1975 which led to him halting his touring schedule, to leave Berklee and limit his teaching to his home in Lexington, Massachusetts.
While teaching, Dawson also maintained a prolific performing and recording career. He was the house drummer for Lennie’s on the Turnpike in Peabody, Massachusetts, from 1963 through 1970. Throughout the 1960s he recorded almost exclusively with saxophonist Booker Ervin on Prestige Records. In 1968, he replaced Joe Morello in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and continued until 1972. His performance credits also included stints with Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Jaki Byard, Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, Lee Konitz, Quincy Jones, Charles Mingus, and Tal Farlow.
Drummer Alan Dawson died of leukemia on February 23, 1996. He was 66.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Erik Parker was born July 13, 1918 in Århus, Denmark. By 1938 he became a member of the Svend Asmussen Orchestra and from 1939 to 1945 was involved in Leo Mathisen’s Orchestra, where he performed both as an instrumentalist and a vocalist.
He worked as a club manager, and from 1945-1951 he was an actor. In 1953 he emigrated to the United States, where he settled in Los Angeles, California where he became a restaurateur and trumpet teacher.
Throughout his career he was a member of the All Danish Starband, Henry Hagemann & His Full Brass, Henry Hagemann’s Sextet, Kai Ewans And His Swinging 16, Leo Mathisens Band, Leo Mathisens Orkester, Leo Mathisens Ønskeorkester, and Roger Henrichsen Trio.
Trumpeter and vocalist Erik Parker, who is considered one of the most significant Danish jazz musicians and a distinguished representative of golden age jazz, died in 2003.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steve Melling was born on July 12, 1959 and brought up in Preston, Lancashire, UK and began classical piano lessons at age 9. Two years later he began teaching himself jazz at around 11 years old. His first introduction to professional jazz musicians was when he asked the members of the Stan Tracey Quartet to autograph one of their vinyl albums at a Preston gig when he was 17. This fortuitous encounter would eventually lead him back to playing with them, Stan, Art Themen, Bryan Spring and Dave Green later in his career and always learn from the experiences.
Steve went on to study at Goldsmiths’ College in London, joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra around that time and began playing professionally in the late Seventies, touring with Harry Beckett and Elton Dean. In 1986 received the first Pat Smythe Memorial Trust Award.
The Nineties had him playing regularly at Ronnie Scott’s with his trio and recording with Alan Skidmore, Claire Martin and Peter King. Melling recorded his own album Trio Duo Solo for Ronnie Scott’s Jazz House label. He was commissioned by the Appleby Jazz Festival and wrote and directed a set for an 11-piece group. He joined The New Couriers, worked with Georgie Fame and played with the European Jazz Ensemble.
Steve was commissioned by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra to arrange a piece by Stan Tracey for an album to mark their 50th Anniversary and the album was launched at Ronnie Scott’s in early 2016. The same year he moved to Derbyshire and has spent much time composing, working on his own original compositions. He is also teaching and working with local and national jazz musicians.
Pianist and composer Steve Melling remains in demand in Britain and Europe.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Martin Vallely was born in Belfast, Ireland on July 1, 1962. His musical history spans a career working with Cork bands Soon and No Sangoma to working with acclaimed indie oufit Dear Wolf in Germany with whom he recorded.
As a bandleader he put together a quartet that recorded and released three albums beginning in 2008 with Debut, his maiden voyage receiving critical acclaim as a jazz composer. The following year Waltzin and in 2010 he released Gloves Off.
As a singer/songwriter, Martin also released two cds of his own songs as the band Glen River, first 12 in 2009 and After The Fall in 2010 which showcases his songwriting abilities. He is a half of an excellent duo called The Apologists.
Bassist, composer, songwriter, producer and educator Martin Vallely presently resides in Cork, Ireland where he continues to perform and teach.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Darius Brubeck was born David Darius Brubeck on June 14, 1947 in San Francisco, California into a musical family. His father Dave and mother Iola Brubeck named after his father’s teacher and mentor, French composer Darius Milhaud. Moving from Oakland, California they settled in Wilton, Connecticut in 1960 and ultimately graduated from Wilton High School in 1965.
Darius majored in ethnomusicology and the history of religion at Wesleyan University, graduating cum laude in 1969. While there he composed and performed the music for the film Christopher’s Movie Matinee. During the next decade and into the early 1980s he would go on to lead two groups, The Darius Brubeck Ensemble and Gathering Forces, cross America as a sideman with Don McLean and record two albums with guitarist Larry Coryell. He toured the world and recorded as a member of Two Generations of Brubeck and The New Brubeck Quartet, both led by his father.
In 1983, Brubeck and his South African wife, Catherine, moved to Durban, South Africa, joined the music Department at the University of Natal and initiated the first degree course in Jazz Studies offered by an African university. In 1989, he was appointed as Professor of Jazz Studies and Director of the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music, where he taught until 2005.
A move to London, England in 2005, Darius taught courses at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Brunel University. Appointed as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Jazz Studies in 2007, he taught at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul, turkey and subsequently at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2010.
His years in South Africa saw him forming five student/staff bands, record the album The Jazzanians: We Have Waited Too Long to be released in 2024, form the band Afro Cool Conceptwhich toured for nearly 15 years and recorded a live album in New Orleans.
As a composer Brubeck has written music for all types of ensemble, large and small. He has arranged and written an original composition for his father’s 80th birthday, and the Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a residency as a composer at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy.
Pianist, author, composer, arranger and educator Darius Brubeck, who has had a documentary film made by Michiel ten Kleij titled Playing the Changes: Tracking Darius Brubeck, currently leads The Darius Brubeck Quartet.
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