Daily Dose Of Jazz..

Bernard Cash was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England on January 18, 1935. Music became his religion and he began his musical career as a trumpet player, gaining a reputation playing with different bands around the United Kingdom. At 25 he took up the double bass under the tutelage of Peter Ind. To earn a living he moved to London, England in 1961 with his wife, where he became involved in the jazz scene, and played with many musicians of note.

Returning to Yorkshire he founded the Light Music Course at Leeds College of Music. Recruiting his friend and mentor Ind, the two went about establishing the first real jazz course in the UK of which jazz guitarist Dave Cliff was an alumni. Leaving the academia of college he moved his family to Bridlington, on the East Yorkshire Coast, and worked as a peripatetic instrumental teacher. He continued to make regular trips to London to play jazz and organized jazz gigs in the North of England with many of the great players he had met.

He studied music at Hull University from 1974 to 1977 and while there Bernie organized numerous jazz gigs that included Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. He continued to work in music education and maintained his own career. He held the position of Deputy Music Advisor for the Hull area, created the big band Great Jazz Solos Revisited, and scored some of his favourite artists’ solos, including Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Charlie Christian.

The big band enlisted the heavyweights of British jazz, Peter Ind, Peter King, Bob Burns, Art Morgan, Jim Livesey, Kathy Stobart, John Holbrooke, and Dave Cliff. He went on to create in conjunction with English playwright Alan Plater the jazz opera “Prez” based on the life of Lester Young. With the education system losing its luster he returned to London in 1986, playing jazz and being a traveling instrumental teacher.

He joined the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, Yorkshire Opera and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and toured with them. While on tour with the Royal Philharmonic in Germany, bassist Bernie Cash, who was an accomplished flautist, saxophonist and trumpeter, collapsed and died of a heart attack on October 7th, 1988.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Simon H. Fell was born on January 13, 1959 in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England. He began playing double bass in 1973 and from 1978 to 1981 he read English Literature at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, England. His early group was a free-jazz trio with drummer Paul Hession and saxophonist Alan Wilkinson. They recorded and released their music on his label Bruce’s Fingers.

During this period Fell was significantly connected with The Termite Club in Leeds. He was a member of the free jazz trio Badland, the improvising string and percussion ensemble ZFP with Carlos Zingaro, Marcio Mattos and Mark Sanders, and SFQ, a quartet/quintet with clarinettist Alex Ward and a changing membership. He also performed in many other ensembles, including the London Improvisers Orchestra and Derek Bailey’s Company Week.

Simon wrote a major sequence of four new large-scale compositions titled Compilation. Free improvisation, rock and jazz all form key parts of the musical language. Noise guitarist Stefan Jaworzyn, Evan Parker and John Butcher were essential musicians to the projects, but he often deliberately made use of amateur or student musicians.

Bassist and composer Simon Fell, who is primarily known for his work as a free improviser and the composer of post-serialist compositions, died on June 28, 2020

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SULLIVAN FORTNER

For the past decade, Sullivan Fortner has been stretching deep-rooted talents as a pianist, composer, band leader and uncompromising individualist. The Grammy Award-winning artist out of New Orleans received international praise as both key player and producer for his collaborative work on The Window (Mack Avenue, 2018), alongside multi-Grammy winner, vocalist-composer Cecile McLorin Salvant. As a solo leader, he has released Moments Preserved (Decca, 2018) and Aria (Impulse!, 2015) to critical acclaim, and he’s only getting started. Now based in New York, Fortner has earned recognition in multiple DownBeat Critics Poll categories, winning first place in Rising Star Piano and Rising Star Jazz Artist.

In addition to associations with such diverse voices as Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, Diane Reeves, Etienne Charles and John Scofield, Fortner’s frequent and longtime collaborators have included Ambrose Akinmusire, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stefon Harris, Kassa Overall, Tivon Pennicott, Peter Bernstein, Nicholas Payton, Billy Hart, Gary Bartz, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Fred Hersch and the late Roy Hargrove. Recent collaborations include GRAMMY-nominated releases Dear Love (Empress Legacy) and Generations from leaders Jazzmeia Horn and The Baylor Project, respectively.

A highly-sought improviser, Fortner has performed across the country and throughout the world at such cultural institutions as Snug Harbor, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Lorraine’s and The Jazz Playhouse in New Orleans, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jazz Standard and Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. He’s appeared at celebrated festivals, including Newport, Monterey, Discover, Tri-C and Gillmore Keyboard, among others. In 2019, Fortner brought his band to the historic Village Vanguard for a week-long engagement he would reprise in 2020 as a virtual performance during lockdown. His notable studio contributions include work on Etienne Charles’s Kaiso (Culture Shock, 2011), Donald Harrison’s Quantum Leap (FOMP, 2010), and Theo Croker’s The Fundamentals (Left Sided Music, 2007).

The Trio: Sullivan Fortner~Piano, Yasushi Nakamura ~ bass and Kayvon Gordon ~ drums

Tickets: $37.00 fee included

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THE HEADHUNTERS

The Headhunters, the legendary jazz-funk ensemble co-led by percussionist Bill Summers and drummer Mike Clark with NEA Jazz Master Donald Harrison on alto saxophone, celebrated the band’s 50th anniversary in 2023, having formed around Herbie Hancock’s classic recordings, Head Hunters, in 1973, Thrust in 1974 and Man-Child in 1975. The band continued without Mr. Hancock and has released 8 albums under the Headhunters name starting with Survival of the Fittest in 1975 and on Straight from the Gate in 1977 (featuring the smash hit “God Make Me Funky” sampled on over 350 hip hop and pop songs), and most recently Speakers In the House in 2022 and Live From Brooklyn Bowl in 2023. The band’s new album The Stunt Man comes out October 11th, 2024 on Ropeadope recorded at the legendary Hyde Street Studios.

Few bands can boast a history as fortuitous and storied as The Headhunters. What each member brings to the table forged a history that most bands can only dream of. Their blend of jazz with funk and rock would go on to sell over a million albums worldwide, while the band’s legacy would inspire musicians of every genre for years to come, be sampled by hundreds of hip-hop artists throughout the ’80s and ’90s, and influence countless musicians’ playing today. The Headhunters’ impact remains a global phenomenon, and their time with Hancock proved to be a life changing experience.

Bill Summers – percussion
Mike Clark – drums
Donald Harrison – saxophone
Chris Severin – bass
Kyle Roussel – piano

Cover Chaege: $25.00 – $50.00 + $3.50 fee

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The Jazz Voyager

The Jazz Voyager will be landing in the Big Apple tonight heading to Broadway to help kick off the New Year at Dizzy’s by celebrating with drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts on his 65th birthday. The club sits high above Columbus Circle with a backdrop of Central Park and the Manhattan vistas. It’s a view to remember.

This multi-Grammy winner and Guggenheim fellow leads an all-star band for a high-energy, four-night run, featuring saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, pianist James Francies, James Genus on the double bass, and guitarist Paul Bollenback. Tain’s distinct blend of swing, innovation, and soul, honed through collaborations with legends like Wynton Marsalis and McCoy Tyner, is sure to set the stage afire and raise the roof.

Tickets range from $25.00~$60.00 and some performances Sold Out , so check availability before you go.

Dizzy’s is located at 10 Columbus Circle, New York City, NY 10019. For more information visit https://jazz.org/dizzys.

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