Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jean-François “J.F.” Jenny-Clark was born July 12, 1944 in Toulouse, France. Together with drummer Aldo Romano he provided the rhythm section for Don Cherry’s 1965 European quintet of 1965. During the Seventies he recorded with Steve Lacy, performed in concerts with Keith Jarrett (around 1970) and for Jasper van’t Hof’s Pork Pie group and played with Charlie Mariano.
As a member of Diego Massons ensemble Musique Vivante he was interpreting contemporary music compositions by John Cage, Luciano Berio, Mauricio Kagel, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, or Vinko Globokar.
Along with Albert Mangelsdorff he led the German-French Jazz Ensemble from 1984 to 1987. Since 1985 Jenny-Clark was mainly working in an acclaimed trio with German pianist Joachim Kühn and Swiss drummer Daniel Humair.
His recording as a leader was minimal but as a sideman he recorded over a hundred albums. Double bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, one of the most important bass players of European jazz, passed away on October 6, 1998 in Paris, France.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Travis Sullivan was born in 1971 in New York City and founded his 18 piece genre bending jazz orchestra Björkestra in New York City in 2004. Led by the alto saxophonist, musical arrangements are by Sullivan, Kevin Schmidt, and Kelly Pratt. The Björkestra performs the music of eclectic musician Björk.
Since its debut at the Knitting Factory in New York City, the group has performed around the country. In 2007 Sullivan conducted his arrangements with the Sicilian Jazz Orchestra in Palermo, Sicily.
Members of the orchestra, that includes vocalist Becca Stevens, have performed with Arcade Fire, Dr. Dre, Charlie Hunter, Avishai Cohen, Ana Cohen, Jane Monheit, Clark Terry, Rachel Z, Phil Woods, The Spam All Stars, Maria Schneider, and the Saturday Night Live Band, as well as, with Donny McCaslin, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Ben Monder.
His project Altois: The Masters Of Alto Sax interprets the music of the most influential alto saxophonists of the bebop era. Alto saxophonist, pianist, composer and arranger Travis Sullivan continues to further his exploration of jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz..
Walter Barnes was born on July 8, 1905 in Vicksburg, Mississippi but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He studied under Franz Schoepp and attended the Chicago Musical College and the American Conservatory of Music.
Leading his own bands from the early 1920s, he also played with Detroit Shannon and his Royal Creolians. After Shannon’s retinue became dissatisfied with his leadership, Barnes took control of this group as well. He played mostly in Chicago, though the band did hold a residency at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City as well. His band recorded in 1928-29 for Brunswick Records.
He toured the American South in the 1930s to considerable success, touring there yearly and by 1938 the ensemble grew to sixteen members. Around this time, Barnes also worked as a columnist for the Chicago Defender newspaper, and used his position to advertise his own tours and promote other entertainers on the same touring trail to Black audiences. Barnes is thus credited as an early originator of what was known as the “Chitlin’ Circuit”; a network of entertainment venues where it was safe and acceptable for Black entertainers to perform.
Barnes was one of the victims of the Rhythm Club Fire in Natchez, Mississippi, on April 23, 1940. When the club caught fire, he had the group continue playing the song “Marie” in order to keep the crowd from stampeding out of the building. All of the band members except for drummer Walter Brown and bassist Arthur Edward were among the 201 victims of the fire.
Clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader Walter Barnes, whose death was repeatedly immortalized in song, passed away on April 23, 1940.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Redland was born Carl Gustaf Mauritz Nilsson, on July 7, 1911 in Södertälje, Sweden. The son of a musician, he learned several instruments when he was young. By the 1930s he was a member of bands in which he played alto saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, and trombone.
During that decade he doubled as a leader. On clarinet he recorded with Benny Carter in Sweden in 1936. He composed and arranged jazz and popular music, as well as more than eighty films, in addition for radio and television programs.
Saxophonist, composer and bandleader Charles Redland passed away on August 18, 1994 in Stockholm, Sweden.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Duncan Lamont was born on July 4, 1931 in Greenock, Scotland and started out as a trumpet player, leading his own band in Scotland, which won recognition in Melody Maker in 1951. Spending time in London, England he played with Kenny Graham’s Afro-Cubists. During the early 1950s he continued to be active in Scotland and when he switched to tenor saxophone and became a jazz studio player.
He worked with numerous popular British dance bands and jazz groups led by Basil and Ivor Kirchin, Ken Mackintosh, Jack Parnell, Geraldo, Eric Delaney and Vic Lewis, with whom he toured the US. During the 1960s he played with Pat Smythe, Kenny Baker and freelanced extensively. Over the years Lamont led his own small bands and played in big bands and studio orchestras led by Kenny Wheeler, Gil Evans, Bobby Lamb and Raymond Premru, Nelson Riddle, Henry Mancini, Benny Carter and Bill Holman.
Lamont has accompanied on tour or studio orchestras with Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Paul McCartney. He composed many songs that were recorded by Trudy Kerr, Nancy Marano, Cleo Laine, Joyce Breach and Norma Winstone. He wrote music for children’s television, was nominated for a Grammy, won the John Dankworth Jazz Award, and for more than a decade led a big band to raise money for cancer research. His activities as a composer have long been greatly respected by his professional peers and, at the start of the new century, are starting to receive the wider recognition they so richly deserve.
Tenor saxophonist Duncan Lamont, who gave masterclasses in improvisation and big band sessions at Brunel University, passed away on July 2, 2019 just two day shy of his 88th birthday.
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