Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gordon “Gordy” Johnson was born July 31, 1952 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was quickly immersed in the world of music as his father Clifford was in the bass section of the Minnesota Orchestra for 47 years and his mother Thelma taught piano. His main instrument growing up was the flute, however, he also played bass, keyboards and guitar, and sang rock and roll.
Graduating in 1974 from Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York, Gordy played flute in the Eastman Wind Ensemble and bass in the Eastman Jazz Ensemble, Studio Orchestra and Arrangers Workshop Orchestra.
Johnson spent a year breaking into the New York City music scene often playing with pianist and college classmate Phil Markowitz. In 1975, Gordy hit the road for a three-year stint with the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra, alongside drummer Peter Erskine. World tours followed with Gene Bertoncini, Roy Buchanan, the Paul Winter Consort and Chuck Mangione. He was also busy with studio recordings.
Moving back to the Twin Cities in 1989 where he became one of the most in-demand bass players in town ever since. He has performed, toured and/or recorded with Joanne Brackeen, Herb Ellis, Rosemary Clooney, Scott Hamilton, Michael Johnson, Jay McShann, Dewey Redman, Jim Rotondi, Diane Schuur, Marlena Shaw, Stacey Kent and Toots Thielemans, among others.
Double bassist and bass guitarist Gordy Johnson, who has recorded five albums as a leader and fourteen as a sideman, continues to play an average of 250 gigs a year, which keeps quite busy.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Benoît Quersin was born in Brussels, Belgium on July 24, 1927 into a family with a classical tradition. He met personalities like the composer Béla Bartókor and the pianist Stefan Askenaseat at a very young age. Shortly before the war, he discovered jazz secretly in his bedroom while listening to the records of Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, then Belgian jazz bandleader Fud Candrix.
His beginnings as a musician were with the kids in his Brussels neighborhood. At the Liberation, Quersin set up his first orchestra. In 1947 he hired Jean Thielemans, who later became known as Toots, with whom he played for some time. He abandoned the piano for the double bass and obtained his first engagements. Toots took him to the Paris, France festival at a time when the headliners were Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.
Moving to Paris in 1950 he played and recorded with Sidney Bechet, Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker, Lucky Thompson, Zoot Sims, Lee Konitz, Jimmy Gourley, Blossom Dearie, Mary Lou Williams, Kenny Clarke, and Jonah Jones among others. The French musicians were Stéphane Grappelli, Maurice Vander, Barney Wilen, Henri Renaud, René Urtreger, Sacha Distel, and Martial Solal, the Belgians were René Thomas, Bobby Jaspar, Francy Boland, Leo Mouse, Jacques Pelzer, and Jack Sels.
Returning to Belgium in 1957 he opened a jazz club in Brussels, the Blue Note, where people like Lou Bennett, Jackie McLean, Martial Solalor and Marc Moulin. In 1961, Quersin became host of jazz programs on Belgium radio RTB and interviewed Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Ray Charles, Fats Domino and John Coltrane. Late in life he became an ethno-musicologist, passionate about world civilizations and the music of West and Central Africa, and collected traditional music from the Mbam ethnic group inCameroon. He would go on tomove to Zaire, Democratic Reublic of Congo and release several albums of traditional instruments.
Double bassist Benoît Quersin, who was an important double bassist on the international jazz scene during the 1950s and Sixties, died on May 31, 1992 in Vaison-la-Romaine, France.
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Requisites
The Trio ~ The Oscar Peterson Trio | By Eddie Carter
This morning’s record from the library is a live album featuring three jazz giants. The Trio (Pablo Records 2310 701) is aptly named because it captures Oscar Peterson on piano, Joe Pass on guitar, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass in performance during three nights at the Chicago jazz club, London House. What makes this album unique is the exceptional chemistry between each musician. Oscar Peterson’s virtuosic piano playing, Joe Pass’s innovative guitar techniques, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen’s melodic bass lines all shine through in this album. My copy is the 1973 U.S. Stereo release.
Side One starts with the first of two tunes by Oscar Peterson. Blues Etude begins at a brisk clip, with Joe and Niels-Henning firing on all cylinders before Oscar joins them for the melody. Oscar reveals his broad range in the song’s only solo, enhanced by Joe and Niels-Henning’s accompaniment. Chicago Blues is a delicious dish of soul food beginning with a lengthy piano introduction ahead of the trio’s slow-paced melody. Oscar opens with a tasty invitation for everyone to come to the table. Joe takes charge with a delicious second course next. Oscar adds another scrumptious dish to the meal, and then Niels-Henning provides the final course with a succulent solo preceding a luscious ending.
Side Two opens with Easy Listening Blues by Nadine Robinson. The trio gets things started with a polite melody. Oscar begins the song’s only solo with a warm caress of the keys, creating a beautiful musical landscape. Meanwhile, Joe and Niels-Henning tail him closely until the theme’s restatement and conclusion. Come Sunday is a beautiful jazz standard by Duke Ellington that becomes the sole showcase of Joe Pass. The guitarist approaches the theme and song’s only solo with a simple directness, resulting in a wonderful expression of incredible beauty culminating with a tender ending and appreciative applause from the audience.
Secret Love by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster is a lively tune that will have you tapping your toes from the trio’s opening ensemble. Oscar is up first with a happy groove that makes a lasting impression on the listener. Joe steps up next and gives a splendid statement; then Oscar adds a few final comments ahead of the theme’s reprise and the audience’s approval. Norman Granz produced The Trio, and it’s unknown who supervised the live recording. However, the album’s sound quality is excellent with a soundstage that transports the listener to the London House audience as the trio is performing.
If you’re discovering the music of Oscar Peterson and are in the mood for a live album where you become part of the live audience at the London House. I invite you to check out The Trio by The Oscar Peterson Trio the next time you visit your favorite record store. It’s a fantastic album that captures three of the most renowned musicians at the top of their game. The Trio is a title highly recommended for a spot in your library, as it not only showcases the individual brilliance of each musician but also their exceptional chemistry, making it a must-have for any jazz enthusiast!
~ Come Sunday – Source: JazzStandards.com
~ Secret Love – Source: Wikipedia.org
© 2024 by Edward Thomas Carter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Earl Henderson was born on July 7, 1951 in Yazoo City, Mississippi. He moved to Detroit, Michigan with his parents when he was young, his mother, Rose Williams sang in church. During his childhood, he played cello and then switched to bass guitar, teaching himself to play. When he was 10 or 11, he saved enough money to take a bus to see a bill of Motown artists at the Fox Theater. Precociously talented, he was performing with local bands before his 12th birthday.
Beginning his career early around the age of 14, he was on tour with the Detroit Emeralds when he met Stevie Wonder at a Chicago theater. In the dressing room was a piano, Stevie was playing and he sat down next to him with his bass and the meeting was fortuitous. Stevie hired Michael and they toured together for five years while working as a Motown session musician.
In 1970 at the Copacabana in Manhattan, Miles Davis heard him playing with Wonder. At that time Davis was entering his electric and rock rhythms and hired Henderson away. Over the next few years from 1970 to 1977 he recorded a string of albums with Davis, including Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, On the Corner, In Concert: Live at Philharmonic Hall, Get Up with It, Agharta, Pangaea, and Dark Magus.
With Norman Connors he invited him to write and record Valentine Love with Jean Carne, We Both Need Each Other with Phyllis Hyman and You Are My Starship. As a solo artist he recorded Take Me I’m Yours, Wide Receiver, and Can’t We Fall in Love Again, again with Hyman.
In 2002 Henderson returned to the music of Miles Davis and with several other Davis alumni, saxophonist Sonny Fortune and drummer Ndugu Chancler, formed the group Children on the Corner. A year later, they released the album Rebirth, which reinterpreted and recreated Davis’s electric music from the 1970s. He remained in the music industry until his death.
Bass guitarist and vocalist Michael Henderson died of cancer on July 19, 2022 at his home in Dallas, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. He was 71.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chris White was born Christopher Wesley White on July 6, 1936 in Harlem, New York and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In 1956 he graduated from City College of New York, and in 1968 from the Manhattan School of Music. Continuing his education six years later he earned his Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1994, he did postgraduate Advanced Computer Study at Berklee College of Music.
An occasional member of Cecil Taylor’s band in the 1950s, he was credited on the 1959 Love for Sale album. From 1960 to 1961 he accompanied Nina Simone and subsequently he was a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s ensemble until 1966.
He founded the band The Jazz Survivors and was a member of the band Prism. Throughout his career he collaborated with Billy Taylor, Eubie Blake, Earl Hines, Chick Corea, Teddy Wilson, Kenny Barron, Mary Lou Williams, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Billy Cobham.
Bassist, arranger, producer and educator Chris White, who was on the creative arts and technology faculty at Bloomfield College in New Jersey, died on November 2, 2014.
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