EITHER/ORCHESTRA
In the decades since the Either/Orchestra debuted on December 17, 1985 at the Cambridge MA Public Library, the group has made over 1000 performances in 38 of the United States and 12 foreign countries, as well as releasing a dozen albums and being nominated for a Grammy, winning five Boston Music awards and numerous Downbeat Critics Poll placements, among many other honors. From prestigious festivals like Glastonbury Pop and Chicago Jazz to tiny clubs, schools and churches in out of the way places, the group has been “dependably marvelous,” according to the Village Voice.
No obstacles deterred leader Russ Gershon and his intrepid musical explorers from visiting new musical worlds – until the Covid pandemic. The band’s most recent performance was in December of 2019 at Tufts U., with one of their distinguished Ethiopian collaborators, vocalist Teshome Mitiku. But now, they’re coming back!
To celebrate the exact 40th anniversary of their first show, the Either/Orchestra returns to the stage not a mile from where they started. The E/O began playing the Regattabar when the club was band new in the ’90’s. There is no better and more appropriate venue for them to inaugurate their fifth decade.
The E/O will be making selections from their vast catalog of originals and original arrangements of classic and obscure jazz, as well as dipping into their unparalleled repertoire of Ethiopian music in honor of their upcoming release, éthiopiques 32: Nalbandian the Ethiopian.
Their second release on the legendary éthiopiques series features music by Nerses Nalbandian, a teenage refugee of the Armenian genocide who rose to become music director of Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie’s National Theater in Addis Ababa. Nalbandian’s interest in American music helped set the stage for the birth of the modern Ethiopian pop music which has bewitched music aficionados the world over the past couple of decades. His music has seldom been played since the totalitarian revolution which deposed Haile Selassie in 1974, and the E/O was asked by the Nalbandian family and éthiopiques producer Frances Falceto to reconstruct and play it at the National Theater of Ethiopia. The album is a record of that labor of love.
E/O personnel:
Tom Halter | trumpet
Dan Rosenthal | trumpet
Joel Yennior | trombone
Sam Spear | alto sax
Russ Gershon | tenor sax
Charlie Kohlhase | baritone sax
Alexei Tsiganov | piano
Rick McLaughlin | bass
Brooke Sofferman | drums
Vicente Lebron | congas
Cover: Sold Out
More Posts: adventure,bandleader,bass,club,congas,drums,genius,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,preserving,saxophone,travel,trombone,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pat Patrick was born Laurdine Kenneth Patrick Jr. on November 23, 1929 in East Moline, Illinois, to Laverne and Laurdine Kenneth Patrick. He first learned piano, drums, and trumpet as a child, and then switched to saxophones. He attended and studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago, Illinois where he met fellow students and future musicians bassist Richard Davis and saxophonists John Gilmore and Clifford Jordan. While still in school he was baritone saxophonist for the Regal Theater’s house band.
1949 saw Pat enrolled at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, but soon returned to Chicago to study at Wilson Junior College. Around 1950 he first played in one of Sun Ra’s bands as part of a trio and occasionally in Sun Ra’s Arkestra. By 1954 he became a regular member of the band. He moved to New York City in 1961, spent several years in the Arkestra’s communal residences in the East Village and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He went on to play and record with John Coltrane, Blue Mitchell, Mongo Santamaría, Thelonious Monk, and Babatunde Olatunji. In 1972, Patrick co-founded the Baritone Saxophone Retinue, which featured Charles Davis and recorded two albums for Saturn Records.
He toured Europe with Sun Ra in 1970 and 1976, and was part of some other Arkestra performances in that decade, but he also devoted time to teaching at the State University of New York at Old Westbury.>
Baritone and alto saxophonist, bassist, flutist, percussionist and composer Pat Patrick, who is known for his 40-year association with Sun Ra, died from leukemia in Moline on December 31, 1991.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,composer,flute,history,instrumental,jazz,music,percussion,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
DANIEL DIAZ 11.22.25
Daniel Díaz Fernández was born on November 22, 1963 in Lanús, Argentina. Living in Paris, France since 1997, he has collaborated with Juan Carlos Cáceres, on the single Tango Negro, and on the album Toca Tango. In 1993 he recorded his first album The Years Alone released by Green Linnet/Xenophile Records. The variety of styles in this album was mentioned by critics. He played most of the parts fretted and fretless basses, keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars, percussion, and more.
He continued this solo career with Segundo Ciclo, recorded in 1997, released by Dutch jazz label Timeless Records in 2002, and Swan Song, released in 2015, always with guest players from around the world. Both albums featured the cosmopolitan jazz-fusion style of the first one.
Since 2005 Diaz has been composing and recording for films, TV and documentaries. He works for French publisher and music library Cezame Music Agency for whom he composed and recorded more than 250 tracks and released 5 albums alone or in collaboration.
Since 2010 his music has been used on many TV documentaries and films. In 2022 his track “Club Recoleta” from the album Elec’ Tango was used on Tom McCarthy’s feature film Stillwater
Bassist, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, composer, Raúl Diaz whose last collaboration in 2023 with Raúl Barboza was on the album Souvenirs Panamericanos, continues to perform and compose.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,bass,composer,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,keyboard,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Reginald Veal was born November 5, 1963 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Growing up he began piano lessons at a very early age and received a bass guitar as a gift from his father at the age of eight. He went on to later join his father’s gospel group as the bassist.
Veal studied with the legendary New Orleans bassist Walter Payton, attended Southern University, studying bass trombone with clarinetist Alvin Batiste. From 1985 to 1989 he toured with pianist and teacher Ellis Marsalis as his bassist. During this time he also worked with Pharoah Sanders, Elvin Jones, Charlie Rouse, Hamiet Bluiett, Harry Connick Jr., Terence Blanchard, Dakota Staton, Donald Harrison and Marcus Roberts.
In 1987 he began playing in the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, which became the Wynton Marsalis Septet in 1988. He is the original bassist for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Reginald has worked with Ahmad Jamal, McCoy Tyner, Branford Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Courtney Pine, Yusuf Lateef, Nicholas Payton, Eric Reed, Dianne Reeves, Junko Onishi, Mark Whitfield and Greg Tardy.
Bassist and multi-instrumentalist Reginald Veal resides on the West Coast where he continues to record and tour.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Arild Andersen was born on October 27. 1945 at Strømmen, Norway and started his musical career as jazz guitarist in the Riverside Swing Group in Lillestrøm, Norway from 1961 to 1963, and started playing double bass in 1964. He soon became part of the core jazz bands in Oslo, Norway, such as the Roy Hellvin Trio, the backing band at Kongsberg Jazz Festival, and was named Best Bassist by Jazznytt in 1967. That same year he started as bassist in the Jan Garbarek Quartet.
In 1968 after completing his education he became a professional musician and collaborated with Karin Krog, George Russell, and Don Cherry. He performed with visiting American musicians Phil Woods, Dexter Gordon, Bill Frisell, Hampton Hawes, Johnny Griffin, Sonny Rollins, Sheila Jordan, and Chick Corea. During the same period he worked with Ferenc Snétberger and Tomasz Stańko.
The early Seventies saw Andersen collaborating with Norwegian musicians before leaving for the United States in 1973. A year later he was leading his own bands, worked with the Radka Toneff Quintet and has recorded more than a dozen albums as a leader for ECM Records. Arild founded the critically acclaimed band Masqualero, and appeared as side man on a series of recordings.
In January 2009, he was named “Musicien Europeen 2008” by the French Academie du Jazz and in 2010, Andersen received the Ella Award at the Oslo Jazzfestival. He recorded his latest trio album with American drummer Bob Moses and Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon titled Pure and Simple.
Bassist Arild Anderson, known as the most famous Norwegian bass player in the international jazz scene, continues to perform and record at 80 years old.
More Posts: bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music