RODNEY WHITAKER
Innovative jazz bassist, Rodney Whitaker, is one of the leading performers of double bass in the world and is joined by a group of unique, soulful, and talented individuals to perform an exhilarating and enlightening program of his and composer’s, Gregg Hill, music. It is guaranteed to inspire, impart, uplift, and quench the thirsty spirits yearning for a delightful evening of majestic melodies, resounding rhythms, and heavenly harmonies. The culminating musical experience will meticulously marinate the minds of the devoted jazz enthusiasts, leaving them in a state of euphoria.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rupert Theophilus Nurse was born the only child in Port of Spain, Trinidad on December 26, 1910. He spent some of his childhood in Venezuela before returning to the island to complete his education. He absorbed local calypso music traditions, and started working as a teacher in Tobago.
He taught himself piano, and learned arranging skills from a mail order Glenn Miller book, before returning around 1936 to Trinidad where he worked in an electronics business. He also learned to play the tenor saxophone and with Guyanese saxophonist Wally Stewart, formed the Moderneers or Modernaires, the first American-style big band in Trinidad. During the Second World War he played with visiting Americans on the island, and began writing jazz arrangements of calypsos.
Travelling to London, England in 1945, he began playing double bass with guitarist Fitzroy Coleman and pianist Cyril Jones in the Antilles jazz club near Leicester Square. He joined trumpeter Leslie “Jiver” Hutchinson’s mostly-black band, with whom he played on radio and toured in Europe, before working with entertainer Cab Kaye in the Netherlands. He also increasingly worked with musicians newly arriving in Britain from the West Indies, including popular pianist Winifred Atwell, and Lord Kitchener and his band. He began experimenting with electronic instruments along with Lauderic Caton.
By 1953, Nurse was appointed as musical director of the Melodisc record label, which increasingly sought to release records to appeal to Britain’s growing Afro-Caribbean community. He led the label’s house band, arranged and produced Kitchener’s recordings, and recorded many other musicians of Caribbean origin, including jazz saxophonist Joe Harriott. He continued to perform as a pianist, and became bandleader at the Sunset Club in Carnaby Street and then at the more upscale Sugar Hill club in St James’s, where he met and later recorded with pianist Mary Lou Williams.
He increasingly used an electric piano and organ, and worked widely in clubs and restaurants in London as a solo performer and with other musicians including steel pan player Hugo Gunning, bassist Coleridge Goode, and pianists Iggy Quail and Russ Henderson. He taught, devised arrangements for other musicians, and worked as a library cataloguer in London until 1976.
Retiring to Arima, Trinidad he continued to mentor musicians and write arrangements for them. Pianist, tenor saxophonist and double bassist Rupert Nurse, who was influential in developing jazz and Caribbean music in Britain, particularly in the 1950s, transitioned there on March 18, 2001 at the age of 90.
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MICHELA MARINO LERMAN & RUSSELL HALL QUARTET
Michela Marino Lerman, recipient of the Hoofer Award and Flo-Bert Award, is a world-renowned tap dance artist, performer, choreographer, band leader, educator and all-around creative spirit dedicated to the bridging the gap between tap dance and jazz music and the inclusivity of tap being recognized as music. The Huffington Post has called her a “hurricane of rhythm” and the NY Times has called her both a “prodigy” and has described her dancing as “flashes of brilliance.” Quincy Jones has said she is an “absolute tap dancing star who knows her roots.” She very proudly, was mentored by some of the innovators of tap dance including Gregory Hines, Buster Brown, Leroy Myers, Peg Leg Bates, Marion Coles, Jeni LeGon and Mable Lee. Most recently Michela can be seen featured in the new US Postage Stamp series dedicated to the art form of Tap Dance. Michela has had the honor of working with and collaborating many master artists throughout her career some of whom include Wynton Marsalis, Anna Deavere Smith, Roy Hargrove, Jon Batiste, Quincy Jones, Steve McQueen and many more. www.michelataps.com @michelataps
Whether it’s a swanky, sophisticated jazz club or a boozy, bombastic rock joint, one thing is for certain, Russell Hall is bringing the party with him wherever he goes. Born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in Miami, Florida, Russell has been playing and recording music since the tender age of 13. He furthered his study of music at the most prestigious conservatory in the world, The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Ben Wolfe, Ron Carter and Wynton Marsalis. He is currently a preeminent bassist in New York City where his session and freelance work has allowed him to work in virtually every facet of the New York music scene.
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JIM FERGUSON
Having had a long career in the Nashville music industry as both vocalist and bassist, in 1999 Jim returned to his roots and released his first jazz CD, Not Just Another Pretty Bass, a quartet with saxophonist Chris Potter, pianist Pat Coil, and drummer Jim White. That was followed by Deep Summer Music with the same lineup with the exception of pianist Stefan Karlsson, and Haunted Heart, a duo recording with the master guitarist Mundell Lowe.
Some of the many artists Jim has performed and/or recorded with include Teddy Wilson, Phineas Newborn, Jr., Marian McPartland, Jay McShann, Steve Allen, Bob Dorough, Clark Terry, Red Rodney, Nat Adderley, , Tim Hagans, Randy Brecker, Terell Stafford, Chris Potter, Bob Mintzer, Joel Frahm, Eric Alexander, Benny Golson, Benny Goodman, Lee Konitz, Jimmy Heath, Lew Tabackin, Ira Sullivan, Eddie Daniels, Bill Watrous, Urbie Green, John Pizzarelli, Jr., Kenny Burrell, Jimmy Raney, Lorne Lofsky, Lenny Breau, Howard Alden, Gene Bertoncini, Martin Taylor, Ed Soph, Harold Jones,Bernard Purdie, Louie Bellson, Duffy Jackson, Jackie and Roy, Al Jarreau, and Joe Williams.
For nearly 30 years, Joel Frahm has lived in New York City, working in jazz clubs, collaborating with other musicians, and honing his craft. His bold, inventive tenor sound has won fans in the U.S. and across the world. He has worked alongside Betty Carter, Kenny Barron, Freddy Cole, Dianne Schuur, Kurt Elling, Jane Monheit, Bill Charlap, Brad Mehldau, Matt Wilson, Cyrille Aimee, and many other top artists. He has played as a leader or sideman on more than 100 recordings and has appeared at jazz festivals in the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada and South America. In addition to his work as a performer, he has taught jazz classes in clinics at the University of North Carolina, the University of Connecticut, New York University, Wichita State University, the University of North Texas, Baylor University, Colorado State University, Furman University, the University of Toronto, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of Manitoba and others. He also has worked at the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation program; the Sant Andreu Youth Jazz Orchestra in Barcelona, Spain; the Dave Brubeck Institute in Stockton, California; the Center for Jazz Studies at the Israel Conservatory in Tel Aviv; the Czech Jazz Workshop in Prague; and the Siena Jazz Workshop in Italy.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Andrew Tucker was born on December 10, 1927 in Palatka, Florida. He studied bass at the New York Conservatory of Modern Music in the late 1940s. Early in his career, he played with Earl Bostic, John Coltrane, and Jackie McLean. He worked in the house bands of several lauded New York jazz venues and played and recorded with Eric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan, Horace Parlan, Booker Ervin, Jerome Richardson, and Junior Mance during this time.
In 1958, he recorded with Melba Liston on her jazz classic Melba Liston and Her ‘Bones. 1960–61 saw him recording with Stanley Turrentine, Horace Parlan, Ervin, Dexter Gordon, and Shirley Scott. Over the next two years he toured and recorded with the trio of Dave Lambert, John Hendricks and Yolande Bavan. Near the end of his life Tucker recorded with Coleman Hawkins and Jaki Byard.
He recorded at total of fifty-eight albums as a sideman with Ted Curson, Walt Dickerson, Lou Donaldson, Booker Ervin, Curtis Fuller, Bennie Green, Slide Hampton, John Handy, Willis Jackson, Etta Jones, Gildo Mahones, Charles McPherson, Jackie McLean, Oliver Nelson, Dave Pike, Pony Poindexter, Sonny Red, Freddie Redd, Zoot Sims, Johnny “Hammond” Smith, Buddy Tate, Lucky Thompson, Jimmy Witherspoon and Jimmy Woods.
Double-bassist George Tucker transitioned from a cerebral hemorrhage while performing with guitarist Kenny Burrell on October 10, 1965 in New York City.
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