Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Geri Allen was born on June 12, 1957 in Pontiac, Michigan and received her early jazz education at Cass Technical High School in Detroit and the Jazz Development Workshop under the mentorship of Marcus Belgrave. In 1979 she graduated fro Howard University with a jazz studies degree, moved to New York and studied with Kenny Barron. She went on to get a degree in ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh, returned to New York and joined the Brooklyn based M-Base crowd, recording several albums with Steve Coleman, beginning in 1985.
Geri’s 1984 debut album “The Printmakers” showcased the pianist’s more avant-garde tendencies, followed by “Etudes” and “Twenty-One” in 1995 in which she was the first recipient of Soul Train’s Lady of Soul Award for jazz album of the year. She has played with a luminous list of musicians not the least Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Charlie Haden, Anthony Cox, Betty Carter, Ornette Coleman, Jack DeJohnette, Mary Stallings and Charles Lloyd.
Geri Allen currently teaches as Associate Professor of Jazz Piano & Improvisation Studies at the University of Michigan as well as recording and touring with Charles Lloyd; and in 2007 participated in the documentary film titled “Live Music, Community & Social Conscience” that looks at how music connects us to our humanity, and to each other regardless of borders, politics, culture economics, or religion. She was the 2008 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Allen has received many awards such as the “African-American Classical Music Award”, “A Salute to African-American Women: Phenomenal Woman”, nominations in 2011 for the NAACP Image Award for Best Jazz Album, “Geri Allen & Timeline Live” and for both The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards for “Live Performance Album” and for “Best Jazz Pianist”, by the Jazz Journalists Association.
As an educator Geri has taught Jazz & Contemporary Improvisation at the School Of Music Theatre & Dance, at the University Of Michigan and was a curator in New York City at the STONE. Since 2013 she’s been teaching at her alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, as an Associate Professor of Music and as the Director of the Jazz Studies Program.
Pianist Geri Allen continued to perform, tour and record until she passed away on June 27, 2017, two weeks after her 60th birthday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after losing her battle with cancer..
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Talmage Holt Farlow was born on June 7, 1921 in Greensboro, North Carolina. He didn’t take up the guitar until he was twenty-one but within a year was playing professionally, although he had a reluctance to perform publicly. But, by 1948 he had joined Marjorie Hyams’ band, moved to Red Norvo’s group from ’49 to ’53 and after only six months with Artie Shaw’s Gramercy Five in 1953, Farlow put together his own group, which for a time included pianist Eddie Costa.
Farlow’s extremely large hands led to his nickname “Octopus” spreading over the fret board as if they were tentacles. In 1956 Down Beat magazine critics named him as the very best jazz guitarist in the world. Where other similar players of his day combined rhythmic chords with linear melodies, Tal preferred placing single notes together in clusters, varying between harmonically richened tones based on a startling new technique.
A supreme technician, renowned for his articulation, and smooth relaxed phrasing even at the most daunting tempos, Tal retired from full-time performing in 1958, returning to a career as a sign painter, playing only the occasional date.
He only made one record as a leader during 1960–1975, but emerged a bit more often during 1976–1984, recording for Concord fairly regularly before largely disappearing again. He was profiled in the documentary film, Talmage Farlow, and can be heard leading groups for Blue Note, Verve and Prestige. Guitarist Tal Farlow died of cancer in New York City on July 25, 1998 at the age of 77.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marty Napoleon was born on June 2, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York and studied piano as a child. His early years in 1946 he worked with Gene Krupa and went on to work with his uncle, trumpeter Phil Napoleon in his Original Memphis Five.
He is perhaps best known for replacing Earl Hines in Louis Armstrong’s All Stars in 1952. During the decade of the 50s he also worked with his brother Teddy Napoleon, also a pianist. From 1966-1971 Marty was once again reunited and performing with Louis Armstrong.
Napoleon recorded as a sideman with Kai Winding, Charlie Ventura, Rex Stewart, Carl Barry, Herbie Fields, Teddy Reig, Cozy Cole and Allen Eager.
Marty Napoleon released one album as a leader for Bethlehem Records titled Marty Napoleon Swings and Sings, recorded with his trio “The Big Three”, “Jazz From Then Till Now” and “We 3” for other labels, and in 2012 recorded and released “Swingin’ at 90. At age 93 he currently resides in New York.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hal McKusick was born on June 1, 1924 in Medford, Massachusetts. Hal moved with his family at age 3 to nearby Newton and at age 8, Hal’s mother bought him a clarinet as a Christmas present, insisting first on a vow of daily practice sessions and weekly lessons. With clarinet in hand, Hal practiced relentlessly and took lessons from schoolteacher Frank Tanner, who used him in the school band on clarinet and alto saxophone at age 9. Sight-reading came quickly to Hal, and by age 15, he was playing Boston’s burlesque house, the Old Howard Theater.
By the 40s and WWII McKusick was playing with Les Brown and moved through the decade playing with Boyd Raeburn and then Claude Thornhill. In the early 1950s he worked with Terry Gibbs and Don Elliott and in 1957 released his first album as a leader for Prestige titled Triple Exposure. As a sideman he sat in on recording sessions with groups led by George Russell and Jimmy Giuffre; worked with Bill Evans, Art Farmer, Paul Chambers, Connie Kaye, Lee Konitz and John Coltrane.
During the 60s he joined the CBS orchestra playing alongside the likes of Hank and Thad Jones, playing Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center behind Judy Garland, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole and Barbara Streisand. In the 70s he moved east to New York and throughout the 70s and 80s he produced weekend performances at Jazz At Moon in Easthampton that led to forming his nonet featuring Clark Terry, Art Farmer, Percy Heath, Jim Hall, Mike LeDonne, Hank Jones, Jim McNeely Jerry Dodgion and others.
Hal McKusick, alto saxophonist, clarinetist, flautist, composer and educator taught at the Ross School in East Hampton, New York and also restored and sold antiques, restored and built Shaker furniture both for Bloomingdales and private commissions. On April 11, 2012 he passed away of natural causes at the age of 87.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eric Revis was born on May 31, 1967 in Los Angeles, California. He grew up listening mostly to funk and rock music and it was not until when he was 14 years of age that he picked up an electric bass and taught himself how to play. He attended Southern University as biology major for a year, Eric relocated to San Antonio, TX where he got a regular gig playing 6 nights a week.
While working the gig Revis got turned onto jazz, notably Kind Of Blue, which influenced him to switch to acoustic bass. He studied under Ellis Marsalis at the University of New Orleans but came to prominence attending the legendary school of Betty Carter in the mid-1990s.
In 1997, Eric met Branford Marsalis at a recording session with Russell Gunn. So impressed with the young bassist asked he Eric to join him on his recording, Bug Shot along with Kenny Kirkland and Jeff “Tain” Watts. The rest is history and the jazz bassist and composer has been a member of Branford Marsalis’s ensemble since 1997.
He released his debut album as a leader in 2004 titled Tales of the Stuttering Mime, has a sideman catalogue of thrity albums performing with Branford Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Joe Locke, Ralph Peterson, Orrin Evans, Frank McComb, J.D. Allen, Winard Harper, Sherman Irby and Russell Gunn among others. He has directed the Jazz Ensemble at Trinity University, in San Antonio, Texas from 2007/2008. He continues to perform, record and tour.
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