Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Art Davis was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on December 5, 1934 where he began studying the piano at the age of 5, switched to tuba and finally to bass while attending high school. He studied at Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music but graduated from Hunter College.
Davis became a busy New York session musician recording with the like of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach. He worked with many pop artists and also with classical symphony orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Art performed with bassist Reggie Workman in Coltrane’s group and pioneered the use of two basses in a jazz combo setting. He also launched a legal case that led to the current system of blind auditions for orchestras. Besides working as a leader, he worked as a sideman with Art Blakey, Curtis Fuller, Eddie Harris, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Clifford Jordan, Roland Kirk, Abbey Lincoln, Booker Little, Lee Morgan, Hilton Ruiz and Dizzy Reece among others.
He earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from New York University, moved to southern California in 1986, taught at Orange Coast College and balanced his teaching, psychology practice and jazz performances. Bassist Art Davis died on July 29, 2007 from a heart attack.
More Posts: bass
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Johnny Mbizo Dyani was born on November 30, 1945 in Duncan Village, a township of the South African city of East London. He started playing the piano and singing in a traditional choir at an early age. At 13, he switched to bass, but would use both voice and piano later on.
In the early 1960s, Dyani was a member of South Africa’s first integrated jazz band, “The Blue Notes”; however, in 1964 the band fled South Africa to seek musical and political freedom, rebelling against the apartheid regime that inhibited whites and blacks playing together.
In 1966, Dyani toured Argentina with Steve Lacy’s quartet and recorded. The Forest and the Zoo. He would later move to Denmark and Sweden, recording many albums under his own name. He recorded with Dollar Brand a.k.a. Abdullah Ibrahim, Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, David Murray, Mal Waldron, Don Moye and Brotherhood of Breath among many others.
In the 70s he formed the group “Earthquake Power” and then became very active on the European scene. His Witchdoctor’s Son band recorded for Steeplechase Records and he also recorded with Swedish and Brazilian musicians. Dyani’s main focus of playing entered around African jazz, avant-garde jazz and world fusion.
Double bassist and pianist Johnny Dyani passed away suddenly after a concert in Berlin on October 24, 1986 at age 40. After his death, the remaining members of The Blue Notes reunited to record a moving tribute album, titled Blue Notes For Johnny.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Howard Rumsey was born on November 7, 1917 in Brawley, California and first began playing the piano, followed by the drums and finally the bass. After jobs with Vido Musso and Johnnie Davis, he became part of Stan Kenton’s first band. After an argument ensued he left Kenton and played with Charlie Barnet and Barney Bigard before taking a short hiatus from music.
Upon his return Howard hit the Los Angeles jazz scene and formed the Lighthouse All-Stars. For most of the 1950s this group played each Sunday at the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach. During its lifetime, the Lighthouse All-Stars were one of the primary modern jazz institutions on the West Coast that provided a home for many Los Angeles musicians. He opened his debut show on May 29, 1949 to immediate success.
Rumsey employed in the first Lighthouse All-Stars group the Los Angeles musicians who had been a part of the Central Avenue scene in the 1940s, including Teddy Edwards, Sonny Criss, Hampton Hawes, Frank Patchen, Bobby White and Keith Williams. His second band featured a new wave of players, Jimmy Giuffre, Shorty Rogers, and Shelly Manne. The success of this group soon had them recording for Les Koenig’s Contemporary Records. This contract expanded to include many of the members of the group leading sessions for this same label, such as Art Pepper and Stan Getz.
This third edition of the Lighthouse All-Stars included Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Rolf Ericsson and Max Roach. This band took part in a historic recording in 1953 that featured both Chet Baker and Miles Davis, along with Russ Freeman and Lorraine Geller.
Various editions of the band hosted other players until the early Sixties when jazz interest faded in Los Angeles, but during its heyday some seventy-five musicians came through their ranks until the group eventually dissolved. From 1971 to 1985 he owned and operated the 200 seat club Concerts by the Sea in Redondo Beach, California.In 2005 the film Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse was released about the group. Double-bassist Howard Rumsey passed away on July 15, 2015 from complications of pneumonia in Newport Beach, California, at the age of 96.
More Posts: bass
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anthony Cox was born October 24, 1954 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He matriculated through the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire studying and honing his craft of playing bass. After graduating from college he spent time in New York before returning to the Twin Cities.
Cox plays mainly in the post-bop, avant-garde and traditional styles, though versatile enough to work in any style effectively. His bass sound is full of beauty and warmth and his ability to accompany and still add very creative ideas into whatever music he is playing is remarkable.
Equally proficient on the upright acoustic bass, electric guitar and the Spanish style acoustic bass guitar, Anthony is also an adept composer open to all kinds of music from around the world and can be heard as a leader or as a sideman on over a hundred recording sessions with such artists as Geri Allen, Dewey Redman, Dave Douglas, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Billy Higgins, Uri Caine, Gary Thomas, Marty Ehrlich, Ed Blackwell, Joe Lovano and Dave King.
Bassist Anthony Cox currently resides and performs in his hometown and is attracting a young audience with his full, warm sound and creative ideas.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Esperanza Spalding was born October 18, 1984 in Portland, Oregon. Raised in a single parent household she was greatly influenced by her mother who was a singer, though she attributes cellist Yo-Yo Ma as her inspiration to make music her life. By the time Spalding was five, she had taught herself to play the violin and was playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon, staying with them until fifteen and left as concertmaster.
While homeschooled through elementary years Esperanza gleaned lessons from her mother’s guitar instructor when she was eight and would return home and play what she learned. She played oboe and clarinet before discovering the bass at 14 while attending The Northwest Academy. Bored with the ease of high school when she was 15 or 16 years old, Spalding dropped out and started writing lyrics for music for the local indie rock/pop group Noise for Pretend, touching on any topic that came to mind.
Spalding had begun performing live in Portland with her first gig at 15 in a blues club, when she could play only one line on bass and was soon learning from seasoned professionals during the band’s rehearsals. She went on to get her GED, enroll in Portland State University, then left with full scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music.
Almost immediately after graduation Esperanza was hired by her alma mater at age 20, becoming one of the youngest instructors in the institution’s history. In 2006 she released her debut album “Junjo” followed by her sophomore project “Esperanza” in which she sings in English, Spanish and Portuguese. These two projects were followed up with “Chamber Music Society” and her fourth album “Radio Music Society”.
She was personally chosen by President Obama to perform at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies and concert, she has won a Grammy for Best New Artist in 2011, Jazz Artist of the Year at the Boston Music Awards, has collaborated with Tineke Postma, Nicholas Payton and Teri Lyne Carrington among others, performed at the 84th Academy Awards and has donated a portion of her 2012 tour proceeds from merchandise sales to the non-profit organization “Free The Slaves” that combats worldwide human trafficking.
She has gone on to record an album in 77 hours while streaming the process live on Facebook, compose and record her 7th album 12 Little Spells, due out this October 2018 and has received an honorary Doctorate of music from Berklee. Bassists and vocalist Esperanza Spalding continues to compose, record, perform and tour.
