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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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Frank Fontaine was born June 12, in Los Angeles, California into a musical family, absorbing a great deal from his father Frank Sr., who is a ten year veteran of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. By age 16, he was performing with Harry Sweets Edison, Billy Higgins and Kenny Burrell. He has received his Bachelor degree from Seton Hall University, a Masters of Education from Boston University and is currently a Doctoral Candidate.

He released his debut album as a leader titled Wisdom Rising  on the LifeForce Jazz Records label with John Beasley, Robert Hurst, and Marvin “Smitty” Smith. A saxophonist of choice for an array of artists, Frank is equally in demand as a flutist and arranger, while leading his organ trio or quartet.

The New York jazz scene has seen Fontaine become a favorite among elite jazz instrumentalists Francisco Mela, Ari Hoenig, George Garzone, Larry Harlow and Chembo Corniel. His collaboration with Chembo produced a Grammy Award Nomination for the album, Things I Wanted To Do. He has recorded as a sideman with Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Celia Cruz, Bobby Matos, Anita Baker, Gym Class Heroes, Charanga Cubana and Tyler Perry’s Soundtracks.

Saxophonist Frank Fontaine, who is an educator teaching music as well as leading band and orchestra at McAuliffe Middle School, continues to cultivate his musical prowess at The Manhattan School of Music, a conservatory second to none, in a city second to none.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eugene Porter was born in Pocahontas, Mississippi on June 7, 1910 and began on cornet, but when his instrument was stolen he picked up saxophone and clarinet, studying the latter under Omer Simeon. His family moved to Chicago while still in high school, but left school early to start a career in music

Moving to New Orleans, Louisiana in the Thirties he worked in and around town as well as on riverboats, with Papa Celestin, Joe Robichaux, and Sidney Desvigne. He was with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra from 1935 to 1937, then played with Don Redman briefly before returning to Jeter-Pillars until 1942. Following this Gene worked with Jimmie Lunceford and then with Benny Carter until 1944, working as assistant bandleader under him. He appeared in several films, including with Fats Waller.

Porterer was in the Army in 1944-45 as a member of an Army band, then played with Carter again and recorded with Dinah Washington during this period. For the next two years he performed with Charles Mingus and Lloyd Glenn.

After moving to San Diego, California in 1948 he played with Walter Fuller until 1960. Gene led his own ensemble at the Bronze Room in La Mesa, California beginning in 1967.

Saxophonist and clarinetist Gene Porter, who was named a member of the St. Louis Jazz Hall of Fame in the 1980s, died in San Diego County, California, on February 24, 1993.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Arthur Herbert was born May 28, 1907 in Brooklyn, New York to Trinidadian parents. As a young man he worked in a silver and gold refinery while playing local gigs in New York nightclubs and hotels in his spare time. In 1935 he joined Eddie Williams’s band, and soon after started his own, the Rhythm Masters.

In the 1930s and 1940s he worked as a sideman with musicians such as Pete Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Hot Lips Page and Sidney Bechet. The 1950s saw Herbert in semi-retirement as a musician and started up his own pest extermination business. He played in various swing jazz revival ensembles, and toured with Lem Johnson in Poland in the 1960s.

Herbert taught his nephew, drummer Herb Lovelle, to read sheet music, something black musicians were then not held to know. He got his nephew his first gig with Hot Lips Page. He also taught drummer Shelly Manne, according to Herb Lovelle.

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