Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richie Crabtree was born January 23, 1934 in Sidney, Montana. A student of legendary piano virtuoso Freddie Saatman, the pianist first popped up on the jazz scene in the company of the Montgomery Brothers. His short recording career seems to have taken place between the late ’50s and early ’60s, largely as a member of a quartet called the Mastersounds. This group, which duplicated the Modern Jazz Quartet’s popular instrumentation of piano, vibes, bass, and drums, but not its style, was an even mix of Montgomery siblings and others. Monk played the bass, with Buddy on the vibraphone, and Crabtree took rhythmic cues from drummer Benny Barth.
While Wes sat in at times, it was Buddy and Monk that were continually looking for a way of making the intricate inventions of bebop more appealing to easy listening and pop listeners. In 1957 the group was gigging in San Francisco and landed a contract with the World Pacific label. They recorded two albums before label honcho Dick Bock went to Indianapolis to check out Wes that they had been bragging about. The resulting recordings were also the debut on vinyl for a 19-year-old Freddie Hubbard.
A serious devotee of the founding fathers of bebop, Richie was not about to slouch on the harmonic contribution. However, little seems to have been written about him since 1961, a point where discographers place his last recording session. The Mastersounds group was at the height of its popularity in 1960, so naturally this was also the year the group decided to break up.
Pianist Richie Crabtree faded into obscurity and to date nothing has surfaced about his whereabouts or whether he is living or dead.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kevin Kraig Toney was born on January 1, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan. Graduating from Cass Technical High School, in his teens he listened to the music of John Coltrane and Art Tatum He attended Howard University where Donald Byrd, head of the jazz studies department, assembled a group of students which became the fusion band the Blackbyrds, led by Toney. The band played with Chick Corea, The Crusaders, Herbie Hancock, and Grover Washington Jr.
The band released seven albums, three were certified gold and had two hits. Rock Creek Park and Unfinished Business, the latter earned Kevin a Grammy Award nomination. He has recorded several albums as a leader, has worked with Kenny Burrell, Hubert Laws, David “Fathead” Newman, James Newton, Sonny Rollins, Frank Sinatra, Sonny Stitt, Gerald Wilson and Nancy Wilson among numerous others.
As an arranger and conductor with Patti Austin, Babyface, Gloria Gaynor, Edwin Hawkins, James Ingram, Enrique Iglesias, Michael McDonald, Brian McKnight, Freda Payne, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr., and produced his daughter, Dominique Toney’s debut album.
In the same roles he worked in theater for Ain’t Misbehavin’, Five Guys Named Moe, Harlem Suite, The Magic of Motown, Sophisticated Ladies, and Wild Women Blues. He wrote the music for the film Kings of the Evening.
Pianist and composer Kevin Toney, who has recorded eleven albums as a leader, nine as a member of The Blackbyrds and eighteen as a sideman, continues to perform, tour, and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jimmy Owens was born December 9, 1943 in New York City, New York. In the 1960s, he was a member of the hybrid classical and rock band Ars Nova, and then became a member of the New York Jazz Sextet playing with at times were Sir Roland Hanna, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Benny Golson, Hubert Laws, and Tom McIntosh.
Between 1969 and 1972, Jimmy was a sideman on the David Frost Show under musical director Dr. Billy Taylor. During this stint he played alongside Frank Wess, Seldon Powell Barry Galbraith and Bob Cranshaw.
As an educator Jimmy is an active member of the jazz education community, sitting on the board of the Jazz Foundation of America and the Jazz Musicians’ Emergency Fund to help individual musicians.
Over the course of his career the trumpeter, composer, arranger, lecturer and music education consultant has performed and recorded as a leader and sideman with Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Joe Zawinul, Gerald Wilson, Duke Ellington, Hank Crawford, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Herbie Mann among many others.
Trumpeter, composer, arranger and educator Jimmy Owens, who sits on the board of the Jazz Foundation of America, since 1969, he has led his own group, Jimmy Owens Plus.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harvie S was born Harvie Swartz on December 6, 1948 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He learned piano as a child and did not begin playing bass until 1967, when he was nineteen years old. He attended Berklee College of Music and played in and around Boston, Massachusetts with Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Mose Allison, and Chris Connor.
Moving to New York City in 1972 he worked with Jackie Paris, Thad Jones, Gil Evans, Lee Konitz, Barry Miles, David Friedman, Double Image, David Matthews, Steve Kuhn and Paul Motian. He has recorded extensively as a duet with Sheila Jordan, and has released numerous albums as the leader of his own ensembles, including Urban Earth and the Harvie S Band.
He has recorded fiteen albums as a leader, co-led two sessions with Sheryl Bailey, thirteen as a sideman, and has performed and produced music exclusively as Harvie S since 2001. He has recorded with Alan Broadbent, Sinan Alimanović, Art Farmer, Urbie Green, Jackie and Roy, Eric Kloss, Steve Kuhn, Anders Mogensen and Roseanna Vitro. In 2008, he released a duo album with pianist Kenny Barron, Now Was The Time, on HighNote/Savant Records.
Double bassist Harvie S has been a member of the Westchester Jazz Orchestra since 2007 and continues to produce, compose, arrange and educate.
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LENORA HELM HAMMONDS
New England Symphonic Ensemble
Guest Conductor: Lenora Helm Hammonds ~ Department Chair & Director of Graduate Programs, Jazz, at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina.
She will be conducting commissioned arrangements for jazz choir and jazz chamber orchestra of Hale Smith’s The Valley Wind and John Coltrane’s A Conversation with God (Based on Coltrane’s Dear Lord) | Lyricist: Lenora Zenzalai Helm | Arranger ~ Maurice Myers & Lenora Zenzalai Helm
Hammonds will be joined by Jillian Harrison-Jones, Lorissa Mason, and Anne Lyman, Conductors
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