Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anita Brown was born June 17, 1959 in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. She attended and graduated the Pingree School and Andover High School before her family moved to Long Island, New York in 1977. It was at this juncture in her life that she began studying voice, phrasing and inflection with Lennie Tristano, first imitating Billie Holiday and then singing the solos of Lester Young.
A year later she enrolled at SUNY Old Westbury, majored in Music Education, adding photography, dance and choreography to her schedule. In 1980 Anita transferred her major to the University of New Hampshire concentrating on classical piano and voice. In her junior year that she discovered her passion of conducting and by the time she graduated she had a considerable transcript of instrumental and choral conducting along with score study under her belt.
Brown began her career in conducting also in her third year at UNH as a part time band director, prior to graduation and moving back to New York. In addition to studying clarinet, she took on and mastered the trumpet, continuing to play, write and teach. By 1995 she was at the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop and building a body of work for jazz orchestra guided by Jim McNeely, Manny Albam and Mike Abene. There she composed and contributed compositions that were featured in the annual concerts and was a finalist in 2001 and 2003 Charlie Parker Composition Competitions.
In 2000 she founded the Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra, independently recording and releasing her debut CD, 27 East, to critical acclaim and was appeared in six categories on the ballot for the 46th Grammy Awards. She was the first recipient of the ASCAP/International Jazz Composers’ Symposium New Music Award for Big Band Works for her piece The Lighthouse, selected by Bob Brookmeyer, ohn Clayton and Dave Douglas.
She has written arrangements for Nnenna Freeelon, The ount Basie Orchestra, the Jon Faddis jazz Orchestra, Chiuck Owen, and the Jazz Surge, Roseana Vitro, Bobby Short and a number of New York R&B bands.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, BMI New York Jazz Orchestra and numerous college and high school jazz ensembles have performed her original works. As an educator she is on the faculty of New Jersey City University and Sara Lawrence College, and established her Composer Residency Project.
Conductor, arranger and composer Anita Brown consults planning and producing recordings and performances, has served as copyist and/or assistant to Jim McNeely, Maria Schneider, Many Albam, Don Sebesky, John Pizzarelli, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band while serving as archivist for the Gil Evans and Manny Albam estates.
Music: https://youtu.be/9KZo1ItnDCE
Take A Dose On The Road
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paquito D’Rivera was born on June 4, 1948 in Havana, Cuba. He performed at age 10 with the National Theater Orchestra, studied at the Havana Conservatory of Music, and at 17, became a featured soloist with the Cuban National Symphony.
Through the Sixties and Seventies Paquito was dissatisfied playing under the constraints placed on his music by a communist Cuban government that described jazz and rock as imperialist music. After meeting with Che Guevara the idea of leaving Cuba became more than a thought. In early 1981, while on tour in Spain, he sought asylum with the American Embassy, leaving his homeland, wife and child behind in search of a better life with a promise to get them out.
With family support already in the States, D’Rivera settled into the New York jazz scene and became something of a phenomenon after the release of his first two solo albums, Paquito Blowin in 1981 and Mariel the following year. Throughout his career in the U. S. his albums have hit the top of the jazz charts and have shown his ability playing bebop, classical and Latin/Caribbean music. He is the only artist to ever have won Grammy Awards in both Classical and Latin Jazz categories.
Paquito also plays with the Ying Quartet, Turtle Island String Quartet, Mark Summer, Alon Yavnai, Yo-Yo Ma, as well as the National, London, Puerto Rico, Costa Rican and Simon bolivar Symphony Orchestras and the London and Florida Philharmonic Orchestras.
With his band, Paquito D’Rivera Quintet consisting of Peruvian bassist Oscar Stagnaro, Argentinean trumpeter Diego Urcola, American drummer Mark Walker and pianist Alex Brown they have won a Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album for Live At The Blue Note for a total of seven and has also won fourteen Grammy Awards.
Alto and soprano saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and bandleader Paquito D’Rivera has to date 72 albums as a leader and another 5 as a sideman playing with Dizzy Gillespie and Lalo Schifrin. He has received the National Medal of Arts, NEA Jazz Master, Jazz Legend Award, Two honorary Doctorates, and the Presidents Award from the IAJE amongst numerous others, continues to perform, record and tour.
Take A Dose On The Road
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sonny Fortune was born on May 19, 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After moving to New York City in 1967 he recorded and appeared live with drummer Elvin Jones’s group. In 1968 he was a member of Mongo Santamaria’s band. He subsequently performed with singer Leon Thomas and then with McCoy Tyner from 1971–1973.
In 1974 Sonny replaced Dave Liebman in Miles Davis’s ensemble and remained until spring 1975. He went on to join Nat Adderley after his brief tenure with Davis, and then formed his own group, recording two albums for A&M’s Horizon label. During the 1990s, he recorded several acclaimed albums for Blue Note.
He has performed with Roy Brooks, Buddy Rich, George Benson, Rabih Abou Khalil, Roy Ayers, Oliver Nelson, Gary Bartz, Rashied Ali and Pharoah Sanders, and was a part of the live album The Atlantic Family Live at Montreux.
Alto saxophonist and flautist Sonny Fortune, who also played the soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone and clarinet, continued to perform, record and tour until he died of a stroke at the age of 79 on October 25, 2018.
Inspire A Young Mind
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kidd Jordan was born Edward Jordan on May 5, 1935 in Crowley, Louisiana and grew up listening to Zydeco and blues. His first instruments were C-melody and alto saxophones and while in high school he began performing stock arrangements for three or four saxophones with some older musicians. He read transcribed solos in Down Beat magazine, credits Illinois Jacquet with the idea of free improvisation and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman.
Kidd majored in music education and after completing his degree at Southern University in Baton Rouge, he relocated to New Orleans and began playing R&B gigs with Guitar Slim, Ray Charles, Big Maybelle, Big Je Turner, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Little Esther, Lena Horne and others. He taught at Southern University New Orleans from 1974 to 2006.
Jordan performs on tenor, baritone, soprano, alto, C-melody and sopranino saxophones as well as contrabass and bass clarinets. He has recorded with a wide selection of musicians in styles ranging from R&B to avant-garde jazz, including Stevie Wonder, Archie Shepp, Fred Anderson, Ellis Marsalis, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley, Ed Blackwell and Cecil Taylor on the short list.
Jordan taught Donald Harrison and Branford Marsalis, and Charles Joseph the co-founder of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. He was an instructor at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and suffered the loss of his home and possessions during Hurricane Katrina. He recorded his album Palm of Soul shortly afterwards, that has had a track featured on the TV series Treme as well as making a guest appearance. The multi-instrumentalist continues to perform and teach.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Rufus Adams was born on April 29, 1940 in Covington, Georgia and his musical style is deeply rooted in the blues and in primarily that of African-American popular music. The tenor’s greatest influences seem to have been Rahsaan Roland Kirk and the adventurous edginess of John Coltrane and Albert Ayler.
George played with tremendous intensity and passion, as well as lyricism and subtlety. At times he bent over backwards when playing, almost ending up on his back. He and Don Pullen shared a musical vision and their quartet straddled the range from R&B to the avant-garde.
One of Adams’ last recordings was America for Blue Note Records consisting of classic American songs like Tennessee Waltz, You Are My Sunshine and Take Me Out To The Ballgame as well as a few original songs that articulate his positive view of his country and the gifts it had given him. It also includes The Star Spangled Banner and America The Beautiful.
Tenor saxophonist, flautist and bass clarinetist George Adams, best known for his work with Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Roy Haynes, and in the quartet he co-led with pianist Don Pullen, passed away on November 14, 1992 in New York City.
He was also known for his idiosyncratic singing he left for posterity two-dozen albums as a leader and another 25 as a sideman over the course of his sort career.
Take A Dose On The Road