Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Muruga Booker was born Steven Bookvich on December 27, 1942 in Highland Park, Michigan at Highland Park General Hospital. His father played accordion ndfirst played the accordion before taking up drums as a preteen. He studied under Misha Bichkoff, a Russian music teacher and played drums professionally in 1961 with “The Low Rocks” in Detroit, Michigan as Steve Booker, achieving local recognition playing in 1962.
1964 saw him playing with folk-rock singers, psychedelic folk rock band and was a member of The Casuals to back up Brenda Lee. In 1968 he joined Paul Winter and The Winter Consort, and performed on their album Something in the Wind. In 1969,he played Woodstock, met Swami Satchidananda who gave him the name Muruga. He went on to play with Ted Nugent, record with Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan before joining Darius Brubeck, and forming the electronic experimental trio MBR. Then he toured as part of the Darius Brubeck Ensemble, and played with Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, Paul Desmond and Alan Dawson.
He recorded with Weather Report in the Seventies, moved to New York City and worked on several projects. Back in Detroit he left jazz and became a member of George Clinton’s P-Funk All-Stars. He move to Oakland, California in mid-1985 and formed Murunga UFM, with his next move being to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he established a recording studio called Sage Ct. Studio..
In 2003 Booker returned to playing and recording jazz as the Global Jazz Trio and as a five-piece group called The Global Jazz Project before creating a duo.
Drummer Muruga Booker, who won Outstanding World Music Instrumentalist and six Detroit Music Awards, continues to perform and record in a variety of music genres.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herbert Anthony Charles Spanier was born in Cupar, Canada on December 25, 1928. He played guitar and harmonica at five, bugle in Regina, Canada cadet bands, and trumpet in high school. One of the first beboppers in Canada, and a figure of some legend on the Canadian jazz scene,
He played with Paul Perry and with his own band ‘Boptet’ in Regina before working in Chicago, Illinois from 1949-1950 and from 1950-1954 in Toronto, Canada. He was a sideman to Paul Bley in New York 1954-1955 and Los Angeles, California 1958-1959, and toured out of New York with the Claude Thornhill and Hal McIntyre orchestras in 1955.
He was an influential jazz musician in Montreal, Canada from 1956-1958 and between 1960-1971. Spanier taught briefly at Sir George Williams University, performed in various dance, hotel, and CBC orchestras, contributed music to NFB films. Herbie was the leader on the CBC’s ‘Jazz en Liberté’ and in various clubs. Returning to Toronto in 1971, he was a featured soloist for nine years with Nimmons ‘N’ Nine Plus Six.
For the next two and a half decades he led his own groups, won the Juno Awards, received a Special Recognition Award and recorded sessions in 1993-1994 in which he produced new works which combined with earlier recordings on compact discs.
Trumpeter, flugelhornist, pianist, and composer Herbie Spanier died in Toronto, Canada on December 13, 2001.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tatsuya Takahashi was born December 24, 1931 in Tsuruoka, Yamagata, Japan. He played on U.S. military bases in the early 1950s, and later in the decade moved to Tokyo, Japan.
He worked with Keiichiro Ebihara from 1961, but by 1966 was leading his own ensemble, Tokyo Union, which remained active until 1989. In the 1970s he played at the Monterey and Montreux Jazz Festivals.
After leaving Tokyo Union, Takahashi worked in jazz education, and in 1996 founded a new ensemble, Jazz Groovys.
Saxophonist Tatsuya Takahashi died on February 29, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carmine D’Amico was born on December 22, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York. His father gave him the choice of piano or the guitar and he chose the latter. Taught by his father who instilled in him that each note must have meaning. At age 9 he recorded Who Wears Short Shorts, which became a big hit. He was then signed to Capitol Records and went on tour , including television appearances on American Bandstand, The Allen Fried Show, and Soul Train. From age 9 – 11 during the 1950s he played on hit records by the Shirelles, Connie Francis, Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and others.
He won academic scholarships to both high school and college, graduating valedictorian from Trinity High School with a 99.9 average. Carmine found himself in pre-med but then transferred to Queens College and majored in music. Studying in between touring with Tammy Grimes, Liza Minelli and Ed Ames, he graduated with a B.A. in Music Education.
Then came military service with an assignment with an Army Dance Band. Discharged, he returned to New York and resumed his career activities, first joining Ed Ames, recording two of his biggest hits, Try To Remember and My Cup Runneth Over.” D’Amico then became staff guitarist on the Mike Douglas Show and remained for three years.
He went on to work with Bobby Darrin, Sergio Franchi, Patti Austin, Englebert Humperdinck, Vic Damone, Manhattan Transfer, Shirley Maclaine, Henry Mancini, Michele Legrande, Bernadette Peters, The Pointer Sisters, The O’Jays, Jack Jones, Lainie Kazan, Elisa Kashi, Connie Francis, Cleo Laine, Shirley Bassey and Josephine Baker.
He worked with Bernard Purdie, Steve Gadd, Ron Carter, John Faddis, Lou Marini, Lionel Hampton, Teo Macero, Bob Cranshaw, Tom Barney, John Frosk, Doc Severinsen, John Tropea, Mel Torme, Mel Lewis, and Thad Jones, among others.
Outside of jazz he recorded with Bee Gees, the Stylistics, Ray, Goodman and Brown, Stephanie Mills, Vanessa Williams, Patti LaBelle, Freda Payne, Tina Turner, Ben Vereen and played on all of the Sugar Hill Productions. During this prolific period and seemingly height of opportunities for working musicians, NARAS voted him Most Valuable Guitar Player in 1986 and 1987.
Guitarist, producer, composer, arranger and sideman Carmine D’Amico, who over the course of his career received 16 Grammys, died at the age of 67 in Casa Grande, Arizona on Oct. 2, 2011.
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KENNY BARRON QUINTET
The pianist Kenny Barron has a brisk but unostentatious technique and a deceptively casual way with a phrase. He conveys a number of things clearly in his playing; what comes across over all is the quiet hum of effortless erudition. Within his playing you can hear a digest of mainstream jazz piano traditions, with bebop as the root. You can also hear the measured tension of an expert nudging himself toward a challenge.
The Band:
Kenny Barron ~ Piano
Immanuel Wilkins ~ Saxophone
Steve Nelson ~ Vibraphone
Yoshi Kitagawa ~ Double Bass
Johnathan Blake ~ Drums
Cover: Sold Out
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