Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joni Janak was born August 24 in 1944 in Amarillo, Texas and raised in a musical family. He was taught singing, dancing and piano at the Amarillo College of Music. She gave public recitals from the age of eight and had her first professional singing job at thirteen. Receiving a vocal scholarship to Texas Tech University in Lubbock, he eventually returned to Amarillo and sang with many different bands and with the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra when he was 22.
Heading to Houston, Texas she sang in the Carriage Club at the Sheraton Lincoln Hotel until 1969 when she moved to Denver, Colorado, furthering her career. While there she sang with local and visiting jazz musicians, among them Dale Bruning, Ellyn Rucker, Phil Urso, Peanuts Hucko, Bobby Greene, Todd Reid, the Hot Tomatoes Jazz Band, Howard Davis and Jim Riley.
Meeting Carl Fontana while she worked the El Chapultepec he invited her to Las Vegas, Nevada to work with him. In Vegas she worked with Carson Smith, Tom Montgomery, Vinnie Tano, Bill Berry, Herbie Phillips and Bill Watrous. She also sang on a jazz cruise with the Johnny Carson Tonight Show Allstars, played jazz festivals and concerts
Vocalist Joni Janak continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Avery George Sharpe was born on August 23, 1954 in Valdosta, Georgia. His first instrument was the piano, which he started playing at eight years old. His mother was a pianist and church choir director and gave him lessons. In his youth he studied the accordion, electric bass, then double bass at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He studied double bass with Reggie Workman, and also studied with Max Roach, Archie Shepp, Horace Boyer and Fred Tillis.
He came to prominence under the tutelage of Archie Shepp and Art Blakey, played as a sideman with Yusef Lateef, Ricky Ford, and Joe Ford, among others. As an educator he is Artist Associate and Jazz Coach at Williams College. In addition he serves as Faculty Advisor for the Williams Gospel Choir, and has an affiliation with the Africana Studies department.
In 2004, he wrote a musical portrait for the stage for Chamber Music, and was featured with Jasmine Guy in the stage production of Raisin’ Cane. His composition January in Brazil is on McCoy Tyner’s Grammy winning big band album Journey.
Double and electric bassist, composer, educator and founder of the artist-owned record label, JKNM Records Avery Sharpe, who has released 14 albums as a leader and 40 as a sideman, continues to utilize all of his talents.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Warren Daly was born on August 22, 1943 in Sydney, Australia. Early in his career, he visited the United States where he worked with distinguished artists, among them Buddy De Franco.
He co-founder of the Daly-Wilson Big Band with trombonist/arranger Ed Wilson in 1968. In 1975 with corporate sponsorship, the band toured internationally including the Soviet Union. With the band splitting up, Warren formed the Warren Daly Big Band.
In the 1991 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Daly was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) “for service to music as band leader and drummer”.
Drummer Warren Daly continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Quintana was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico on August 21, 1969 and raised in a bicultural environment as a military brat. It was a blessing for a young musician to absorb so many influences that come with international travel. His parents, being appreciative of all musical genres and styles, made sure that he and his brothers were exposed to music at home.
After his formative early years, by 1995 Joe had set up his own band and began playing in Rincon, Puerto Rico as the house band at the Calypso Café. This led to other gigs and many mutations of his bands over the years. He is still very active in the area.
Joe’s guitar styling is very much in synchronization with just the right nuance in relation to the mood he wants to portray. Adept on the acoustic as an accompanist, and is at home unplugged as he is in the electric blues setting or showcased on Latin jazz/rock numbers.
He is either a sideman for live performances or studio recordings, but usually as the leader of his own outfit. His association and collaborations with his brothers has been the catalyst for his own forays into exploring his individual direction as well.
Guitarist Joe Quintana, who is the quintessential journeyman, continues to play every weekend and many week nights and plays a full repertoire for the locals.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Daniel Asbury Mixon was born August 19, 1949 in Harlem, New York City. He started off as a tap dancer, attending the Ruth Williams Dance Studio. Later, he attended the High School of Performing Arts with Dance as his major but soon switched to playing the piano after being inspired by visits with his grandfather to see jazz artists playing at the Apollo Theater.
In 1966, at the age of 17, Danny was invited to play with the trumpet player Sam Brown’s band backing Patti LaBelle & the Blue Bells in Atlantic City at Reggie’s Cocktail Lounge. After working with Joe Lee Wilsonfor three years beginning in 1967 then started to play regularly with Betty Carter during the years 1971–72.
Formed his own jazz trio, he recorded with the Piano Choir and worked with a variety of important jazz musicians including Kenny Dorham, Cecil Payne, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Frank Foster, Grant Green, Pharoah Sanders, and singers Joe Williams, Eddie Jefferson and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
1976 saw Mixon playing in Charles Mingus’ band. He then played with Dannie Richmond in the late 1970s, toured the U.S. with Yusef Lateef and played a few years with the Lionel Hampton Big Band. Since his twenties Mixon has worked continuously with Frank Foster as a pianist for the Big Band; Frank Foster’s Loud Minority, and his quartet the Non-Electric Company.
He plays piano on many recordings. He appears with Hank Crawford on Tight and After Dark and has also recorded with The Danny Mixon Trio and has recorded On My Way. In 2004 he was awarded as a legendary pianist by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem during their series Harlem Speaks honoring Harlem Heroes. He was also the musical director of the Lenox Lounge in Harlem, where he also regularly played with his trio, until it closed in 2012.
Pianist Danny Mixon, at 76, continues to perform and record.
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