Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Róbert Rátonyi was born December 13, 1953 in Budapest, Hungary. At the age of six he started to learn solfeggio before turning to the piano. He later became a student of Klára Géczy Fazekas, however, following his art studies and the grammar school graduation, he attended the Bartók Béla Music Conservatory, specializing in jazz.
His style of playing is influenced by Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, Bob James, Kenny Barron, Andy Laverne and Herbie Hancock. Beginning in 1975 he has played together with all leading Hungarian jazz musicians in concerts and festivals at home and abroad.
Besides jazz, he is one of the most frequently engaged studio musicians. He has written and composed music for numerous films, theatre, shows and advertisements. He is also a consummate accompanist for many vocalists.
Pianist, arranger, and composer Róbert Rátonyi, known for his work in jazz and studio music, while also teaching jazz piano and electronic instruments, has been awarded the Artisjus Award and continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Isabel Hernandez-Cata was born on December 9 and raised in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. She completed undergraduate studies in music at University of Rochester, a Masters degree in Music Education from Boston University and Jazz Studies – Vocal Performance from the University of North Texas.
She founded the Isabel Hernandez-Cata quintet featuring a fluid lineup with guitarist Greg Loman. They met while working at a community theatre. They have performed with numerous DC jazz musicians Ricky Loza, Eric Byrd, Alison Miller, and Marcus Johnson.
A classical contralto, Isabel has sung in choirs, among them the National Philharmonic Chorale and Singers. Her diverse musical interests always return her to a love of the jazz art form to perform standards and jazz treatments of tunes from other modern music genres.
As an educator she teaches vocal music and piano in Montgomery County Public Schools. She has also served as vocal director, pit conductor keyboardist, and choreographer for dozens of school and community musical productions. She has been a choral director, combo leader, and teacher of Piano & AP Music Theory in Maryland Public Schools since 2001.
Hernandez-Cata composes, arranges, and performs as a jazz vocalist and bandleader. Her choirs have performed for US Presidents fifty times and she has had backing vocal stints for Al Green and Lionel Richie.
Vocalist Isabel Hernandez-Cata continues to perform, compose, conduct and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fabrizio Mocata was born on December 8, 1977 in Sicily, Italy. He established himself as a maestro in the music business thanks to his knowledge of the primary jazz genre and proficiency in the subgenre of smooth jazz.
His music seamlessly combines the rich traditions of jazz, classical music with smooth jazz. His creativity is distinguished by his combining complex melodies and harmonies.
Mocata is a well-known talent in the jazz world and has had an enduring impression on the jazz community.
Pianist, arranger and composer Fabrizio Mocata continues to create and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš was born on December 6, 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He began the violin at age six, switching to piano after about three years, and then to bass at age fourteen. As a young man in Europe, he was a competitive swimmer but one of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his brother Alan on drums and Jan Hammer on keyboards.
He studied music at the Prague Conservatory and won a music contest in Vienna, Austria in 1966 that gave him a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts which he attended one year before going to Chicago, Illinois to play with trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and flugelhorn pioneer Clark Terry.
When Miles Davis saw him playing in Chicago with Brookmeyerin 1967 and invited him to join his group playing at the Village Gate in New York City. It was with Davis that Vitouš first encountered saxophonist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and the Davis-centric scene that was transforming mainstream jazz from late hard bop into what would be known as jazz fusion.
1968 saw the first of Vitouš’s partnerships with Roy Ayers, and Herbie Mann, Bennie Maupin, and Stanley Cowell. The following year, Vitouš recorded his debut album as a bandleader, Infinite Search for Mann’s Embryo label. He recorded with Larry Coryell’s Spaces with John McLaughlin, Corea, and drummer Billy Cobham.
In 1969 he recorded with Shorter, McLaughlin, Jack DeJohnette, Corea, and Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira. The following year he continued as bandleader as he recorded Purple for Columbia, supported by McLaughlin, Cobham and the keyboardist Joe Zawinul. Then Shorter, Zawinul, and Vitouš formed the founding core of the jazz group Weather Report. Creative differences between him and Zawinul facilitated his departure from the group. Leaving the group he moved on to an illustrious career leading his own band and winning respect as a composer.
Double bassist, bass guitarist and composer Miroslav Vitouš continues his performing, recording and composing to this day.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bhumibol Adulyadej was born on December 5, 1927 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, however, the family moved to Bangkok, Thailand where she briefly attended Mater Dei school. In 1933 his mother took the family to Switzerland, where he continued his education at the École nouvelle de la Suisse romande in Lausanne. In 1934 he was given his first camera, which ignited his lifelong enthusiasm for photography.
Before he became King of Thailand, titled Rama IX, in 1942, Bhumibol became a jazz enthusiast, and started to play the saxophone, a passion that he kept throughout his life. He received his high-school diploma with a major in French literature, Latin, and Greek from the Gymnase Classique Cantonal de Lausanne, and by 1945 had begun studying sciences at the University of Lausanne, when World War II ended and the family was able to return to Thailand.
Adulyadej became an accomplished jazz baritone saxophone player and composer, playing Dixieland and New Orleans jazz. He also played the clarinet, trumpet, guitar, and piano. It is widely believed that his father may have inspired his passion for artistic pursuits at an early age. Initially focusing on classical music exclusively for two years but eventually switched to jazz since it allowed him to improvise more freely. It was during this time that he decided to specialize in wind instruments, especially the saxophone and clarinet. By 18 he started composing his own music with the first being Candlelight Blues.
He continued to compose even during his reign following his coronation in 1946. Bhumibol performed with Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Benny Goodman, Stan Getz, Lionel Hampton, and Benny Carter. Throughout his life, Bhumibol wrote a total of 49 compositions, much of it is jazz swing but he also composed marches, waltzes, and Thai patriotic songs.
He initially received general music training privately while he was studying in Switzerland, but his older brother, then King Ananda Mahidol, who had bought a saxophone, sent Bhumibol in his place. King Ananda would later join him on the clarinet. On his permanent return to Thailand in 1950, he started a jazz band, Lay Kram, whom he performed with on a radio station he started at his palace. The band grew, being renamed the Au Sau Wan Suk Band and he performed with them live on Friday evenings, occasionally taking telephoned requests.
Many bands such as Les Brown and His Band of Renown, Claude Bolling Big Band, and Preservation Hall Jazz Band recorded some of his compositions and can still be heard in Thailand. A 1996 documentary, Gitarajan, was made about his music. Adulyadej still played music with his Au Sau Wan Suk Band in later years, but was rarely heard in public. In 1964, Bhumibol became the 23rd person to receive the Certificate of Bestowal of Honorary Membership on behalf of Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts.
Baritone saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, guitarist, pianist and composer and King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned for 70 years and 126 days and is the longest of any Thai monarch, died on October 13, 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand.
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