Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Tale Ognenovski was born April 27, 1922 in Brusnik, Bitola, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He inherited his talent from his reed pipe great-grandfather Ognen and grandfather Risto and his father Jovan who played bagpipes. When he was seven he began playing on the reed pipe. With his father passing away in 1937 and when he was fifteen his grandmother gave him some money to buy his first clarinet.

During WWII he served as a Macedonian Partisan, Tale began playing clarinet at celebrations and concerts in villages and the town of Bitola with numerous musicians. For three years beginning in 1951 he worked as a member of the Police Wind Orchestra and from 1954 till 1956 he worked with the Public Town Skopje Orchestra.

1956 saw him performing to a capacity audienceat Carnegie Hall in New York City as a clarinet and reed pipe/recorder soloist of the Macedonian State Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs. A seven year residency starting in 1960 had Ognenovski working with Radio Television Skopje. He went on to play in orchestras and ensembles that toured North America, and Europe.

HIs recordings were not singularly jazz, but included the works of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. Tale also recorded classical and folk dances, often interlinking the three genres. Alongside his son Stevan, they arranged for two clarinets the music of Mozart. He was the recipient of twenty-one prestigious awards, had several articles and was recognized as one of the top 100 clarinetists of all time.

Clarinetist Tale Ognenovski, who authored a book on Macedonia dance and was biographed by his son Stevan, died in Skopje, Macedonia on June 19, 2012.

Acquaint an inquisitive mind with a dose of a Brusnik clarinetist who is in the company of musical genius around the world as a member of the jazz canon…

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Peter Curtis was born on April 24, 1970. His formal education bestowed a Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music, a Masters of Music from Yale University, and a Doctor of Music in Classical Guitar Performance and Literature with minor fields in Ethnomusicology and Music History from Indiana University.

He has performed or recorded with Claudia Acuna, Lynn Arriale, Seamus Blake, Don Braden, James Carter, Freddy Cole, Barbra Morrison, Eldad Tarmu and Ron Westray of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Peter has played the top jazz clubs in Los Angeles, California, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and on Black Entertainment Television.

Having been to Europe, Curtis has been on club stages in Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Florence, the Hague, Milan, Paris, Prague and Zurich. With his group, the Peter Curtis Quartet, he recently released his debut album Swing State. His classical chops have sent the guitarist recitals throughout the U.S. and Canada and was awarded the Andres Segovia memorial scholarship from the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Guitarist and composer Peter Curtis, a tenured professor of music at Riverside Community College in Riverside, California, continues to compose, perform and record.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mike John Brett Daniels was born April 23, 1928 in Norbiton, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, London, England. He had an early interest in jazz at a very young age while studying at Aldenham School from the age of 13 in 1941 as a pupil until 1945. Taking up the trumpet at 16, his family moved to Stanmore, Middlesex, where he organized a new group called the Stanmore Stompers in 1947.

He is probably best known for his work with his own seven piece group, The Delta Jazzmen. He led this group from 1948 to 1974 and again in the 1990s. He moved to Spain briefly in the mid-1960s. He had very little recorded output during his lifetime but he recorded two albums worth of material, one of which was titled Mike on Mike from 1960.

There exists some well recorded performances by the Delta Jazzmen which featured Daniels from 1958 to 1963, along with additional input from trombone player Gordon Blundy and John Barnes on reed instruments. The rhythm section is accompanied on these works by banjo-tuba-drums.

Mike was regarded as an ensemble-orientated player who provided a solid lead combined with laid-back solos. Some of his other bands have featured talents such as Keith Nichols and John Chilton. The British Lake Label produced ‘Limited Edition’ recordings of Daniels’ work.

Trumpeter Mike Daniels, who aspired to reproduce the original styles of King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, died on October 18, 2016 at the age of 88

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Avery “Kid“ Howard was born on April 22, 1908 in New Orleans, Louisiana and began on drums at about age fourteen, but switched to cornet and then trumpet after playing with Chris Kelly.

In 1920s New Orleans, Howard played with the Eureka Brass Band, Allen’s Brass Band, and the Tuxedo Brass Band. He led his own bands late in the 1920s and early in the 1930s and it was his band which played at the jazz funeral for Buddy Petit. He played in the Palace Theatre pit orchestra from 1938 to 1943.

In 1943, he recorded with George Lewis, considered to be among his best recordings. In 1946, he led the Original Zenith Brass Band, but played only locally for the next few years. 1952 saw the trumpeter returning to playing with Lewis, where he would remain until 1961. Kid’s later recordings with Lewis are uneven because of his battle with alcoholism, which interfered with his abilities as a soloist.

Howard fell ill in 1961 and left Lewis’s band, and upon his recovery he led his own band from 1961 to 1965, and recorded sessions, several of them highly praised.

Trumpeter and bandleader Kid Howard, who was a mainstay on the New Orleans jazz scene, continued to play in New Orleans at Preservation Hall and other venues up until his death of a brain hemorrhage on March 28, 1966 in his hometown.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Beaver Harris was born William Godvin Harris on April 20, 1936 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Coming from an athletic family, he played baseball as a teenager for the Kansas City Monarchs, which was part of the Negro American League, and was scouted by the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.

After his Army service, Beaver began playing drums. Moving in 1963 to New York City and was encouraged to pursue a musical career by Max Roach. The city did him quite well as he worked and/or toured with Marion Brown, Dexter Gordon, Albert Ayler, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Jordan, Howard Johnson, Sheila Jordan, Lee Konitz, Thelonious Monk, Roswell Rudd, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Doc Cheatham and Larry Coryell among other musicians.

Harris founded a world music band calling it the 360 Degree Music Experience. The band included Buster Williams, Hamiet Bluiett, Don Pullen, Jimmy Garrison, Ron Carter, Ricky Ford, and many others.

Drummer Beaver Harris, who worked extensively with Archie Shepp, died of prostate cancer in New York City at the age of 55 on December 22, 1991.

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