Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alan Branscombe was born on June 4, 1936 in Wallasey, Cheshire, England into a family of musicians. His father and grandfather were professional musicians and began on alto sax at age six. As a child he played drums with Victor Feldman in a talent show as a child.
During his time in the Army he played with Jeff Clyne in 1954–56. He toured and recorded with Vic Ash in 1958, recorded with Tony Kinsey the following year, and toured Japan with Stanley Black at the turn of the new decade. Alan worked with John Dankworth as pianist and vibraphonist intermittently between 1960 and 1972, including in the 1963 film The Servant.
Joining Harry South’s band at Ronnie Scott’s club in the mid-1960s, Branscombe went on to play as a sideman with Tubby Hayes, Stan Tracey, and Paul Gonsalves through the decade. He played with Ben Webster in 1965 and again in 1970, and in the Seventies he was with Albert Nicholas, toured in Europe with Stan Getz, and played with the Lamb-Premru group around 1971.
As a leader Branscombe recorded with Tony Kinsey and Tony Coe as sidemen on the album The Day I Met the Blues in 1977. As a session musician, he played tenor saxophone on The Beatles song Got To Get You Into My Life.
Pianist, vibraphonist, and alto saxophonist Alan Branscombe died on October 27, 1986.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,saxophone,vibraphone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Corey Wilkes was born June 3, 1979 in Chicago, Illinois. He began his musical journey at a young age and received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. After graduating, he became an in-demand touring and recording artist, collaborating with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Roy Hargrove, Kahil El Zabar, James Carter, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Nicole Mitchell, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Makaya McCraven and many more.
Wilkes’ talents as a composer won him an Outstanding Achievement for Documentary Program ~ Historical Emmy Award for his film score for the Ida B Wells documentary. He is also a Grammy-nominated musician for his work as a member of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. His electro-acoustic soulmusic blends jazz, electronic music, and soulful vocals in his solo projects.
Beyond music Corey has also worked with visual artists such as Theaster Gates, Nick Cave, Lucy Slivinski and Rashid Johnson, creating multi-disciplinary performances that blend music, art, and culture. He has also worked with renowned House Music DJ’s such as Osunlade, Ron Trent, Jaimie Principle, and Vick Lavender, fusing jazz with electronic and house music.
Trumpeter, producer, composer and actor Corey Wilkes continues to captivate audiences around the world.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,producer,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Morell was born into a family of guitarists on June 2, 1958 in Niagara Falls, New York. His father was his first teacher and together they would play jazz with him leading and his father accompanying him and then they would switch.
As he matured he began composing and controlling the setting. His most recent recording Trading Places is an album that swings with a more contemporary sound. Morell often played with drummer John Guerin and added organist and keyboardist Steve Bohanon to make a trio.
He and Guerin have played on 40 films and countless TV soundtracks or at recording sessions for albums. The guitarist figures he’s played on 40 films, and countless TV soundtracks and recordings.
In 1968 Berkeley, California he played a concert with the Gil Evans Orchestra and the Miles Davis Quintet. For four years beginning in 1970, John was a member of the Shelly Manne outfit. Then, for a period of time Morell gave up playing to focus on building furniture. Though it paid the bills it wasn’t satisfying and he returned to music, operating his own studio and continued to flourish in a side career as a woodworker.
Guitarist, organist and composer John Morell, best known for his work with drummer Shelly Manne’s sextet, continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tony DiGregorio was born June 1, 1958 in Poughkeepsie, New York and started playing guitar at age 10. He later received informal lessons with uncle, Oscar DiGregorio, Louis E. Bruno, Gene Bertoncini, and Mark Diorio. He received his B.A.in music from Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. He studied classical guitar with Dennis Cinelli, composition with Schoenberg, harmony/counterpoint, piano and solfeggio with Paul Caputo, and improvisation/composition with Marty Ehrlich.
As a composer Tony created and performed incidental music for experimental theater productions of The Room, The Lady Aoi, and Journey into the Night in New York City and San Francisco, California with bassist Gerard Zanonico and clarinetist Robert Rossette.
From 1985 to 1994 DiGregorio played with the Swing Now Trio with various special guests Charlie Persip, Teddy Charles, Max Kaminsky, Chuck Wayne, Gene Bertoncini, Buddy Tate, Tom Harrell, Eddie Barefield, Mel Lewis, and Bobby Watson just to name a few.
Since 1994 Tony has worked with Laurel Watson, Hill Greene, Ken Filiano, Theo Wilson, Nicki Parrot, John Rasczka, Dave Hopkins Trio, Marco Katz, Tim Hays, and others including a performance of Terry Rielly’s “In C” with The Styrenes in 2003.
Guitarist and composer Tony DiGregorio continues to compose, perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clora Larea Bryant was born on May 30, 1927 in Denison, Texas to Charles and Eulila Bryant, the youngest of three children. As a young child she learned to play piano with her brother Mel, and was a member of a Baptist church choir. Her brother Fred left his trumpet when he joined the military, she picked it up and learned to play. In high school she played trumpet in the marching band.
She turned down scholarships from Oberlin Conservatory and Bennett College to attend Prairie View College in Houston, Texas starting in 1943. Bryant was a member of the Prairie View Co-eds Jazz Band which toured in Texas and performed at the Apollo Theater in New York City in 1944. Her father got a job in Los Angeles, CAlifornia and she transferred to UCLA in 1945, and where she first heard bebop on Central Avenue.
In 1946 she became a member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, an all-female jazz band, earned her union card and dropped out of school. Dizzy Gillespie became her mentor and provided her with work. She joined the black female jazz band the Queens of Swing as a drummer, and went on tour with the band.
In 1951 she worked in Los Angeles as a trumpeter for Josephine Baker and Billie Holiday. The same year the Queens of Swing became the first women’s jazz group to appear on television and performed as The Hollywood Sepia Tones. Clora was called onto Ada Leonard’s all-girl orchestra show, however, racist directed calls to the station the engagement. In 1954 she briefly moved to New York because she had lost inspiration from playing in bands.
Bryant recorded her first and only album, Gal With A Horn, in 1957 before returning to the life of a traveling musician. She worked with Louis Armstrong and Harry James, toured with singer Billy Williams and around the world with her brother Mel, had a TV show in Australia and became the first female jazz musician to tour in the Soviet Union after writing to Mikhail Gorbachev.
After a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery in 1996, Bryant was forced to give up the trumpet but she continued to sing. She also began to give lectures on college campuses about the history of jazz, co-edited a book on jazz history in Los Angeles titled Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles, and worked with children in Los Angeles elementary schools.
Trumpeter and vocalist Clora Bryant, who was the only female trumpeter to perform with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and was a member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on August 25, 2019, after suffering a heart attack at home.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet,vocal