Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Francisco “Chino” Pozo was born on October 4, 1915 in Havana, Cuba. An autodidact on piano and bass, he concentrated on bongos, congas, and drums before leaving his home for greener pastures. Moving to the United States in 1937, he played with Machito from 1941–43 and with the Jack Cole Dancers from 1943-1949.
In the Fifties he went on to play in numerous jazz ensembles, especially latin jazz and Afro-Cuban jazz. He performed and/or recorded with Jose Curbelo, Noro Morales, Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, Enric Madriguera, Perez Prado, Josephine Premice, Tadd Dameron, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie.
He toured with Peggy Lee in 1954-55 and played with Stan Kenton in 1955, Herbie Mann in 1956, Xavier Cugat and René Touzet in 1959.
He also recorded with Illinois Jacquet, Phineas Newborn, Gábor Szabó, Paul Anka, Justo Betancourt, Harry Betts, Fats Navarro, Eddie Palmieri, Johnny Richards, A. K. Salim, Billy Taylor, Clark Terry, Chico O’Farrill, Julius Watkins and Charlie Rouse.
Drummer Chino Pozo, whose claim to be the cousin of Chano Pozo has been disputed, died on April 28, 1980 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michel Gaudry was born on September 23, 1928 in Eu, France on 23 September 1928. He learned clarinet and piano as a child before switching to bass. Following studies at the Geneva Conservatory, he played with Michel Hausser, beginning his professional career in 1955. In the latter half of the 1950s he worked with Billie Holiday, Quentin Jackson, Carmen McRae, and Art Simmons.
In the early 1960s he was very active playing with Elek Bacsik, Kenny Clarke, Sonny Criss, Stephane Grappelli, Bud Powell, Stuff Smith, and Billy Strayhorn, as well as continuing a long time slot as a member of Jack Diéval’s group.
The Seventies he played with Gérard Badini’s group, Swing Machine, and was a regular performer at the Grande Parade du Jazz in Nice, France. In the 1980s he played with Jimmy Owens and Irvin Stokes.
In his later life, he dedicated himself to the history of World War II occupation of Normandy, France. Double bassist Michel Gaudry died on May 29, 2019 in Saint-Lô, France at the age of 90.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joëlle Léandre was born September 12, 1951 in Aix-en-Provence, France on Opera Street across from a theatre. She studied the standard double-bass repertoire intensively in her hometown conservatory and at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris. By her late teens she was subbing in the bass sections of large classical ensembles. Drawn to Paris jazz clubs, she wasn’t involved in the scene because her pizzicato playing off-putting the jazz field’s standard.
Her appreciation of improvisation came from her chance discovery of Bowin’ Swingin’ Slam, by swing bassist Slam Stewart. Around the same time Joëlle received a one-year scholarship to study at the Center for Creative and Performing Arts in Buffalo, New York. Not only was she exposed daily to serious music from composers and travelled to New York to listen to improvisers.
She began her career in the early 1970s when she was still a student at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, France. She studied with renowned bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse and developed a unique style that fused avant-garde jazz with classical music. In 1974, she formed the ensemble Musica Elettronica Viva with Italian composer and electronic musician Luciano Berio.
Collaborating with many on the avant-garde jazz scene including John Cage, Anthony Braxton, Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, George E. Lewis, India Cooke, Steve Lacy, Sylvie Courvoisier, John Zorn and Cecil Taylor, among others. She is also a founding member of the improvising trio Fish Music with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Barry Guy. Aside from performing as a soloist, her bands have been trio, quartet configurations.
In 1983 she became a member of the European Women Improvising Group (EWIG), which evolved from the Feminist Improvising Group. In the early 1990s she co-founded the feminist improvising trio Les Diaboliques, with Irène Schweizer and Maggie Nicols.
Double bassist, vocalist, and composer Joëlle Léandre remains active in new music, avant~garde and free improvisation.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Peck Morrison was born John A. Morrison on September 11, 1919 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was classically trained, and in addition to bass, being competent on trumpet and percussion was also his talent.
During World War II he played in military bands in Italy and after the war he moved to New York City to play professionally. He played with Lucky Thompson in the early 1950s, and then recorded with Horace Silver, Gigi Gryce, and Art Farmer. He played and toured Europe with Gerry Mulligan.
He was a noted accompanist and sideman with Carmen McRae, Tiny Bradshaw, King Pleasure, Zoot Sims, Dave Bailey, Betty Carter, Eddie Jefferson, the J. J. Johnson/Kai Winding Quintet, and Duke Ellington in the Fifties and the latter in the 1960s.
He performed or recorded in the Sixties with Lou Donaldson, Johnny Smith, Mal Waldron, Randy Weston, Babs Gonzales, the Newport Rebels, Shirley Scott, Red Garland, Charles McPherson, and Sy Oliver. In 1986 he performed as a member of the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band.
Bassist Peck Morrison, who never recorded as a session leader, died on February 25, 1988.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bronisław Suchanek was born August 30, 1948 in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. During his studies at the Secondary Music School he was a member of the Andrzej Zubek Quartet and from 1967 to 1971 he studied at the Academy of Music. In 1969, while still a student, he began collaborating with Tomasz Stańko’s quintet and recorded two albums and were among the first musicians to inaugurate the first Music Workshop in Chodzież, Poland.
He made his debut on the music scene playing in the Silesian Jazz Quartet, which he co-founded with pianist Andrzej Zubek, trumpeter Bogusław Skawina, Jerzy Jarosik on flute and saxophone, and drummer Kazimierz Jonkisz.
At the end of 1972, Bronisław went with the Klan Band to Finland where he took part in a concert as part of the Helsinki Festival and presented the premiere of free-jazz and rock. In 2016, GAD Records released an album titled Live Finland 1972 with a recording of this concert. In the 1970s he was a member of the Polish Radio Jazz Studio Orchestra.
He has performed and recorded both in Poland and abroad with American jazz musicians such as Don Cherry and Rick Stepton. In the second half of the decade he emigrated to Sweden, where he played in the Swedish Jazz Radio Group. He operated in Scandinavia for over a dozen years, collaborating with the bands Sound of Flowers and Birka.
The 1980s saw him giving concerts and recording albums in Germany and Austria with different formations. In 1995 Suchanek moved to the United States where he taught at the Maine School of Music and played in the Woody Herman Big Band and the Artie Shaw Orchestra.
He recorded an album titled Sketch in Blue in a duet with Dominik Wania. In 2010 he recorded an album titled Jerzy Wasowski Songbook together with Bogdan Hołownia, Jerry Veimola and Joe Hunt. He collaborated with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra.
Double bassist Bronisław Suchanek, who was awarded the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis, continues to perform and record in the free jazz and straight-ahead mediums.
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