Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenneth David “Kenny” Kirkland was born September 28, 1955 in Newport, New York and when only six sat down at a piano keyboard. Following years of Catholic school Kenny enrolled in the Manhattan School of Music and studied classical piano performance, theory and composition. He first worked professionally touring through Europe with Polish fusion violinist Michal Urbaniak in 1977 and recording with him on “Urbaniak” and “Daybreak”. His next high-profile gig was with Miroslav Vitous with subsequent recording dates on “First Meeting” and “Miroslav Vitous Group”.
In the early 80s, Kirkland toured Japan with trumpeter Terumasa Hino, met Wynton Marsalis and their long association began with him playing on Marsalis’ self-titled debut album and sharing duties with Herbie Hancock. He became the sole pianist on Marsalis’ subsequent releases “Think Of One”, “Hothouse Flowers” and “Black Codes (From The Underground)”. Following this stint he joined Branford’s band After his association with Wynton Marsalis, Kirkland joined Branford Marsalis’ band and is featured on the albums “Royal Garden Blues”, “Renaissance”, “Random Abstract”, “Crazy People Music”, “I Heard You Twice The First Time”, “Buckshot Lefonque”.
Kenny worked for a short period as The Tonight Show pianist during Branford’s tenure but returned to the East coast and session work. Contrary to jazz orthodoxy Kirkland stretched to include keyboards and synthesizers coupled with straying from traditional jazz to work with Sting, on the documentary “Bring On The Night”, and in 1991 released his debut “Kenny Kirkland” for GRP and “Thunder and Rainbows/J.F.K.” on Sunnyside followed.
Leading up to June 1998, Kirkland worked diligently with long-time associate Jeff “Tain” Watts on the drummer’s debut recording “Citizen Tain” but his health was failing due to abuse and neglectful physical exercise. Jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland, most often associated with Sting, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, and Kenny Garrett, passed away quietly in his Queens apartment of congestive heart failure on November 12, 1998.
In his more than twenty-year career, Kirkland performed or recorded with such artists as Don Alias, Carla Bley, Terence Blanchard, Michael Brecker, Stanley Clarke, Kevin Eubanks, Charles Fambrough, Chico Freeman, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Arturo Sandoval and the list of jazz greats continues along with Ben E. King, Angela Bofill, Youssou N’Dour, Stephen Stills and David Crosby.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Barbara Dennerlein was born on September 25, 1964 in Munich, Germany. The hard bop/post bop Hammond B3 organist began playing electric organ at age 11. After starting organ lessons, she learned to play the two-manual organ with a bass pedal board. After one and a half years of lessons she continued to study without formal instruction and by 15, she playing in a jazz club for the first time. When leading her own bands, she was often the youngest musician in the group, learning to cooperate with more experienced musicians. Her local reputation as the “Organ Tornado from Munich” spread after her first television appearance in 1982.
With her career jumpstarted Barbara recorded her first two albums and by her third “Bebab”, she started her own record label, receiving the German Jazz Critics Award. She signed with Enja Records for three recordings, moved to Verve’s international label for three more sessions working with Ray Anderson, Randy Brecker, Dennis Chambers, Roy Hargrove, Mitch Watkins, and Jeff “Tain” Watts.
Her performances include solo performances as well as quintets and she has worked on a variety of projects with the pipe organ, church organ and symphonic orchestras. She has recorded twenty-three albums to date and her compositions range from traditional blues, romantic melancholic ballads and up-tempo drives with elements of swing, bebop, funk and Latin rhythms. Barbara Dennerlein continues to compose, record, perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Frank Benjamin Foster III was born September 23, 1928 in Cincinnati, Ohio and began his musical career when he took up the clarinet at 11. Two years later he was playing the alto saxophone, quickly advanced and played with local bands by 14. He began composing and arranging at 15, leading his own 12-piece band while still in high school. He received his continued musical education at Wilberforce University but left with Snooky Young, moved to Detroit, playing the local jazz scene with Wardell Gray.
From 51-53 he served in Korea followed by joining Count Basie’s Big Band, contributed both arrangements and original compositions to Count Basie’s band including the standard, “Shiny Stockings” and other popular songs such as “Down for the Count,” “Blues Backstage,” “Back to the Apple,” “Discommotion,” and “Blues in Hoss Flat” as well as arrangements for the entire “Easin’ It” album.
From 1970 to 1972 he played with Elvin Jones, and in 1972 and 1975 with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big band. Frank went on to form and lead several groups, most notably Living Color and The Loud Minority while also co-leading a quintet with Frank Wess in 1983, and toured Europe with Jimmy Smith’s quintet in 1985.
By June 1986 Foster succeeded Thad Jones as leader of the Count Basie Orchestra and during his tenure Dr. Foster received two Grammy Awards for his big band arrangement of the Diane Schuur composition “Deedles’ Blues” and for his arrangement of the renowned guitarist/vocalist George Benson’s composition “Basie’s Bag”.
Over his career he was never far from education spending time teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music, New York City Public School System in Harlem, and State University of New York, Buffalo. Suffering a stroke in 2001, Frank Foster discontinued his playing but continued to lead The Loud Minority on limited engagements but soon passed the helm to trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater.
The tenor and soprano saxophonist and flautist amassed throughout his career twenty-six albums as a leader, thirty-four as a sideman and arranged five albums for Sarah Vaughan, Diane Schuur, Frank Sinatra, George Benson and Count Basie. Saxophonist Frank Foster continued to compose and arrange until his passage on July 26, 2011 at the age of 82.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Henry Butler was born September 21, 1949 in New Orleans, Louisiana and was blinded by glaucoma in infancy.His musical training began at the Louisiana State School for the Blind where he learned to play valve trombone, baritone horn and drums before focusing his talents on singing and piano. Mentored at Southern University by clarinetist and educator Alvin Batiste. He later earned a masters degree in music at Michigan State University in 1974, and received the MSU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009.
He is known for his technique and his ability to play in many styles of music. He has been said to revel in fluency and facility, splashing chords all over the keyboard and streaking through solos with machine-gun articulation.Henry has recorded for Impulse, Windham Hill and Basin Street Records putting together a catalogue of eight albums to date.
With his home and vintage Mason & Hamlin piano destroyed by Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters, Butler left New Orleans and briefly relocated to Boulder, and then Denver, Colorado before a final relocation to New York in 2009.
Butler’s pursuit of photography as a hobby since 1984, has culminated in his methods and photos being featured in an HBO2 documentary, Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers, airing in 2010 and has had his Butler’s photographs shown in galleries in New Orleans. The talented pianist and vocalist continues to perform, record and represent his generation of New Orleans pianists.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chico Hamilton was born Foreststorn Hamilton on September 20, 1921 in Los Angeles, California and was on a drumming fast track musical education in a band with his schoolmates Charles Mingus, Illinois Jacquet, Ernie Royal, Dexter Gordon, Buddy Collette and Jack Kelso. Subsequent engagements with Lionel Hampton, Slim & Slam, T-Bone Walker, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan and six years with Lena Horne established this young West Coast prodigy as a jazz drummer on the rise, before striking out on his own as a bandleader in 1955.
He recorded his first LP as leader in 1955 on Pacific Jazz with George Duvivier and Howard Roberts and in the same year formed an unusual quintet in L.A. featuring cello, flute, guitar, bass and drums that has been described as one of the last important West Coast jazz bands. The original personnel: Buddy Collette, Jim Hall, Fred Katz and Jim Aton. Hamilton continued to tour using different personnel, from 1957 to 1960, Paul Horn and John Pisano that are featured in the film “Sweet Smell Of Success in 1957 and Jazz On A Summer’s Day with Nate Gershman and Eric Dolphy in 1960. Dolphy was enlisted to record on Hamilton’s first three albums, however by 1961 the group was revamped with Charles Lloyd, Gabor Szabo, George Bohannon and Albert Stinson.
Over the course of his career Chico changed personnel keeping his sound fresh and innovative. Subsequently he recorded for Columbia, Reprise and Impulse, scored for television, commercials and radio. He has worked with countless musicians and vocalists, received the New School Jazz and Contemporary Music Programs Beacons in Jazz Award and was awarded the WLIU-FM Radio Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been given a NEA Jazz Master Fellowship, was confirmed by Congress with the President’s nomination to the Presidents Council on the Arts, received a Living Legend Jazz Award as part of The Kennedy Center Jazz in Our Time Festival, as well as receiving a Doctor of Fine Arts from the New School where he currently teaches. Drummer Chico Hamilton continued to perform and record until his passing on November 25, 2013.
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