Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ojārs Raimonds Pauls was born January 12, 1936 in Iļģuciems, Riga, Latvia and is the second child of a glass blowing factory worker and a seamstress. His father played drums and his grandfather played the violin, and following in his grandfather’s footsteps he is enrolled into Riga’s institute of Music kindergarten branch. Being too young and his fingers unfit for playing violin, he started on the piano.
By 1943 he was studying at Riga’s 7th Elementary school while continuing piano lessons with professor Valerijs Zosts and teachers Emma Eglīte and Juta Daugule. 1946 saw Raimonds admitted to the Secondary Musical School of Emīls Dārziņš, combining his studies at the elementary school for three years.
When he turns 14, Pauls was playing piano at restaurants and clubs with a violin and saxophone virtuoso Gunārs Kušķis. Five years later he completed his studies at the Riga’s 7th Elementary school, however, during this time, he independently developed a liking for playing jazz by studying and imitating various jazz records.
He would go on to compose for musicals, ballets, theater performances, puppet shows, films, choirs, and instrumentals, He has received several honors from his home country, the USSR, Sweden, Japan and Armenia.
Composer, arranger and pianist Raimonds Pauls, who was the Minister of Culture of Latvia from 1988 to 1993, continues to record and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lee Mack Ritenour was born January 11, 1952 in Los Angeles, California and at the age of eight he started playing guitar. Four years later decided on a career in music and by 16 he was playing on his first recording session with the Mamas & the Papas. He developed a love for jazz, influenced by guitarist Wes Montgomery. A year later he worked with Lena Horne and Tony Bennett, then studied classical guitar at the University of Southern California.
His solo career began with his debut album First Course in 1976 which was a jazz-funk sound of the 1970s. Lee followed with Captain Fingers, The Captain’s Journey, and Feel the Night to close out the decade. The Eighties saw Ritenour adding pop elements to his music, which got him charting so he stayed the course. During this period he added vocals to his music, recruiting such artists as Djavan, Bill Champlin, Eric Tagg, Patti Austin, Ivan Lins, Phil Perry, João Bosco, Kate Markowitz, Maxi Priest, Lisa Fischer and Michael McDonald.
In 1988, his Brazilian influence came to the forefront on Festival, an album featuring his work on nylon-string guitar. He changed direction with his straight-ahead jazz album Stolen Moments which he recorded with saxophonist Ernie Watts, pianist Alan Broadbent, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Harvey Mason.
Then 1991 had Ritenour and keyboardist Bob James forming the group Fourplay, where he stayed until 1997. He released the career retrospective Overtime in 2005. Smoke n’ Mirrors came out the next year with the debut of his thirteen-year-old son, Wesley, on drums.
Guitarist Lee Ritenour has recorded 34 albums, garnered 16 Grammy nominations, received one Grammy Award and has been a judge for the Independent Music Awards. He continues to explore, record, compose and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Waymon Reed was born on January 10, 1940 in Fayetteville, North Carolina and attended the Eastman School of Music. He went on to play with trumpeter/saxophonist Ira Sullivan. Joining James Brown’s band from 1965 to 1969, he played on It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.
Reed worked with the big bands of Frank Foster and Thad Jones-Mel Lewis. He became a member of the Count Basie Orchestra in 1969, staying until 1973. He returned to play with Basie again in 1977–78.
He married Sarah Vaughan and worked with her from 1978–80, but shortly afterwards they divorced. He played on B.B. King’s album There Must Be A Better World Somewhere in 1981. In 1977, Reed recorded his one album as leader, 46th and 8th, featuring tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest, pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bobby Durham.
Trumpeter Waymon Reed, who was principally a bebop soloist, transitioned from cancer on November 25, 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lucien Leopold Harrigan, professionally known as Jon Lucien was born on January 8, 1942 in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands but was raised in St. Thomas. His father was a musician whose main instrument was a three-coursed Latin guitar-like chordophone known as a Tres. As a teenager, he played bass in his father’s band.
During the 1960s he moved to New York City and while performing at a party, he was discovered by an executive from RCA. He released his debut album (I Am Now in 1970 with a mix of pop and jazz standards. His sophomore album, Rashida, contained only songs written by Lucien, with Lady Love receiving radio airplay, and Dave Grusin receiving a Grammy Award nomination for his arrangements. He went on to record two albums for Columbia and made guest appearances on Yesterday’s Dreams by Alphonso Johnson and Mr. Gone by Weather Report.
After his daughter drowned in 1980 Jon spent much of the decade struggling with drug addiction. He returned to music in the Nineties with the albums Listen Love and Mother Nature’s Son. When a second daughter died tragically in the crash of TWA Flight 800, Lucien dedicated his album Endless Love to her.
Vocalist and composer Jon Lucien transitioned from respiratory failure in Orlando, Florida on August 18, 2007.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Zurke came into the world as Boguslaw Albert Zukowski on January 7, 1912 in Hamtramck, Michigan. By the age of 16 he was already using the name Bob Zurke professionally when he first recorded with a group led by pioneering female jazz bassist Thelma Terry. At that time, Zurke also began to work as a copyist for the Detroit-based booking agency run by Jean Goldkette.
Through the end of 1936, he worked in various Detroit, Michigan clubs, mostly as a band pianist, but he occasionally went on tour with other groups. During this period he developed a long friendship with pianist Marvin Ash, who would later go on to record some of Zurke’s compositions.
1937 saw Bob was hired by bandleader Bob Crosby to fill in for Joe Sullivan, then ailing with tuberculosis and it was here that he gained notice, contributing arrangements to the band’s book and as a featured soloist.
As an arranger his arrangement of Meade Lux Lewis’ Honky Tonk Train Blues, became a hit. In 1938 he was named the winner in the piano category in the DownBeat Reader’s Poll. By 1939 Sullivan was back with the Bob Crosby Orchestra and Zurke subsequently worked with the William Morris Agency to form his own band. They debuted at an RCA Victor recording session that same year as Bob Zurke and his Delta Rhythm Orchestra. His alcohol dependency, alleged drug use and unreliability and volatility led to the group disbanding.
After a period of wandering from job to job Zurke settled in Los Angeles, California in mid-1942 and began an engagement at the Hangover Club in Los Angeles that he held until the end of his days. In 1943, he made one final recording, synchronizing an original piano part to the Walter Lantz cartoon Jungle Jive (in the Swing Symphony series), one of his most difficult and challenging solos.
He published two folios of jazz piano solos and several sheet music editions of single pieces; in addition to that, 14 original compositions from Zurke are known to exist.
Pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader Bob Zurke, who was considered one of the finest boogie~woogie pianists of the time, collapsed at the Hangover Club and was taken to the hospital where he transitioned on February 16, 1944 from complications of pneumonia, aggravated by acute alcohol poisoning. He was 32.
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