Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Francis Albert Sinatra was born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey and at an early age was greatly influenced by the intimate easy listening vocal style of Bing Crosby. While Sinatra never learned how to read music, he worked very hard from a young age to improve his abilities in all aspects of music. A perfectionist, renowned for his dress sense and performing presence, he always insisted on recording live with his band. He began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Finding success as a solo artist after signing with Columbia Records in 1943, he became the bobbysoxers idol.
Releasing his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, in 1946, by the early 1950s, his professional career had stalled. Turning to Las Vegas, Nevada he became one of its best-known residency performers as part of the Rat Pack. Venturing into Hollywood, his career was reborn in 1953 with the success of From Here to Eternity, and his subsequent wins of an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Through the Sixties Sinatra released several critically lauded albums, including In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely, and Nice ‘n’ Easy. Leaving Capitol in 1960 to start his own record label, Reprise Records and released a string of successful albums. In 1965, he recorded the retrospective album, September of My Years and starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music.
After releasing Sinatra at the Sands, recorded at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Vegas with frequent collaborator Count Basie in early 1966, the following year he recorded one of his most famous collaborations with Tom Jobim, the album Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. It was followed by 1968’s Francis A. & Edward K. with Duke Ellington.
Retiring for the first time in 1971 he came out of retirement two years later. He recorded several albums and resumed performing at Caesars Palace, and released New York, New York in 1980. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally until shortly before his death in 1998.
Forging a highly successful career as an actor during the Sixties he starred in The Man with the Golden Arm, The Manchurian Candidate, On the Town, Guys and Dolls, High Society, Pal Joey, Ocean’s Eleven, and Tony Rome, as well as television appearances.
He was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and included in Time magazine’s compilation of the 20th century’s 100 most influential people.
Vocalist, actor, and producer Frank Sinatra, who was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century and sold more than 150 million records worldwide, passed away on May 14, 1998.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dara Tucker was born on November 8th in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the third of seven children to music minister and gospel recording artist, Doyle Tucker, and singer Lynda Tucker. Starting out singing harmony at the age of 4 with her brothers and sisters, she began playing the piano at age 8, and traveled the country singing with her family for most of her childhood. The family spent time in Spokane, Washington; Detroit, Michigan; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Pasadena, California; and Baltimore, Maryland. Along with her siblings, they were known as The Tuckers bringing forth their rich harmonies and seamless blend.
Receiving her degree in International Business and German Studies, after graduating, Tucker worked for a few years in the field of International Business. She then moved to Interlaken, Switzerland to study German while aupairing. It was while living in Switzerland in 2003 she began songwriting, and the next year moved to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter.
She recorded her debut album All Right Now in 2009 featuring Great American Songbook standards. Two years later she dropped her second album Soul Said Yes blending r&b, jazz, and gospel and featured seven-string guitarist, Charlie Hunter.
A third release, The Sun Season in 2014 was recorded in Astoria, Queens, New York included ten originals penned by Dara. The session had guitarist Peter Bernstein, pianist Helen Sung, drummer Donald Edwards, John Ellis on saxophone, Alan Ferber on trombone, and bassist Greg Bryant. She would go on to record another studio album and live date.
Vocalist Dara Tucker, named Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the 2016 and 2017 Nashville Industry Music Awards, and cites her influences including her parents as Mel Tormé, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, and Nancy Wilson, continues to compose, perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jane Monheit was born November 3, 1977 and grew up in Oakdale, New York on Long Island. Her father played banjo and guitar, her mother sang and played records by vocalists beginning with Ella Fitzgerald. At an early age, she was drawn to jazz and Broadway musicals.
She began singing professionally while attending Connetquot High School in Bohemia, New York. She attended the Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts and at the Manhattan School of Music, studying voice under Peter Eldridge, and graduating in 1999.
She was runner-up to Teri Thornton in the 1998 vocal competition at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, in Washington, DC. The next year when she was 22, she recorded her debut album, Never Never Land that was released the following year. Jane recorded many songs from the Great American Songbook and after recording for five labels, she started her own, Emerald City Records. The label’s inaugural release was The Songbook Sessions in 2016, an homage to Fitzgerald.
Monheit’s vocals were featured in the 2010 film Never Let Me Go for the titular song, written by Luther Dixon, and credited to the fictional Judy Bridgewater.
She has released eleven albums as a leader and has been a guest vocalist on eight albums recorded by David Benoit, Terence Blanchard, Les Brown, Tom Harrell, Harold Mabern, Mark O’Connor, Frank Vignola, and Joe Ascione. Vocalist Jane Monheit continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Few was born October 21, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in the Fairfax neighborhood of the city’s East Side. His mother encouraged him to study classical piano, later discovering jazz listening to his father’s Jazz at the Philharmonic records. His father became his first booking agent and soon he was gigging around the greater Cleveland area with other local musicians including Bill Hardman, Bob Cunningham, Cevera Jefferies, and Frank Wright.
Exposed to Tadd Dameron and Benny Bailey as a youth and knew Albert Ayler, with whom he played in high school. As a young man, Bobby gigged with local tenor legend Tony “Big T” Lovano, Joe Lovano’s father. The late 1950s had him relocating to New York City, where he led a trio from 1958 to 1964; there, he met and began working with Brook Benton, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson and Ayler. Playing on several of Ayler’s albums, he also recorded with Alan Silva, Noah Howard, Muhammad Ali, Booker Ervin, and Kali Fasteau.
In 1969 he moved to France and rapidly integrated the expatriate jazz community, working frequently with Archie Shepp, Sunny Murray, Steve Lacy, and Rasul Siddik. Since 2001, he has toured internationally with American saxophonist Avram Fefer, with whom he recorded four critically acclaimed CDs. He plays extensively around Europe and continues to make regular trips back to the United States. Recently, Few has played with saxophonist Charles Gayle and leads his own trio in Paris. He is currently working on a Booker Ervin tribute project called Few’s Blues that features tenor player Tony Lakatos, bassist Reggie Johnson and drummer Doug Sides.
As a leader and co~leader, he recorded eighteen albums and fifty as a sideman. Pianist and vocalist Bobby Few, whose playing style has been described as delicate single-note melodies, roll out lush romantic chords, and rap out explicitly Monkish close-interval clanks, continued to perform and record until he passed away on January 6, 2021 at age 85.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stephanie Crawford was born on August 30, 1942 in Detroit, Michigan and divided her childhood between living with her mother in Detroit’s Black Bottom, called that due to its dark soil, and with an aunt in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She grew up surrounded by jazz, blues, R&B, and gospel music, from which she draws from.
Although singing was her first love from childhood she did not sing in public until she was 36, after working on a Chrysler assembly line and as a short-order cook, and earning a bachelor’s degree in painting from Wayne State University.
Her first live performance in front of an audience was accidental while taking in a rather bad pianist/vocalist in a local dive. Whe she would forget the words, Stephanie would call out the lyrics. Fed up, the woman challenged her to come up and sing and the rest is history. The invite to come back was given and she found her home.
A move to New York City, while working on her master’s in fine arts, Crawford became so immersed in the Manhattan jazz scene that she dropped out of school in order to devote more time to sitting in at jam sessions. She found herself seeking out and studying with Frank Foster and Barry Harris.
Her next stop was Paris, France where she won the prestigious Django d’Or award for Best International Jazz Vocalist in 1993. Singing did not pay the bills, so to support herself Stephanie taught jazz singing at two music schools. Returning to New York City she found work with a Portuguese wine importer.
Vocalist Stephanie Crawford, is clear that talent and fame are not synonymous, and though she continues to sing, helping to keep the fading local jazz scene alive, and continues with her passion for art. Just prior to the pandemic she performed in New York City at the Laurie Beechman Theater.
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