Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles William Jenkins was born July 5, 1956 in Bromley, Kent, England and was known to the jazz and blues worlds as Billy. He began learning the violin from the age of nine and two years later added piano and choir. By twelve he taught himself to play the guitar.
As a young teenager, Billy started regular jam sessions in the basement of the bohemian twenty-three room former hotel where he grew up. This jam session attracted many local contemporaries, his best friend at the time, Bill Broad, who the world came to know as Billy Idol and Steven Bailey, later to become Steven Severin.
During those teen years he performed in local church halls, USAF Bases in East Anglia, riverside pubs, local colleges and clubs under various names 1970-72. Jenkins toured and recorded for Arista Record’s Clive Davis with art rock band Burlesque from 1972-77, performed as a young adult with ‘alternative musical comedy’ duo The Fantastic Trimmer & Jenkins from 1979-82 and drummer Ginger Baker before founding the VOGC, the Voice of God Collective.
From 1983 – 93 he lived and worked at Wood Wharf Rehearsal Studios in Greenwich, England. Since then Billy has produced a large body of over 40 recorded albums including Scratches of Spain, Motorway At Night, Entertainment USA and Music For Two Cassette Machines. Some of his recordings are about his SE London environs and include Sounds Like Bromley, Greenwich, Still Sounds Like Bromley and Suburbia.
Guitarist, composer and bandleader Billy Jenkins, who is immersed in improvisation as ell as standards, continues to pursue his love of jazz and blues.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jason Miles was born June 30, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York. He went to Indiana State University and when jazz fusion was becoming popular in the 1970s he was in New York creating innovative techniques in synthesizer programming and electronic music.
In 1979 he recorded his debut album Cozmopolitan with Michael Brecker and Marcus Miller, although it was never released. During the 1980s he was a session musician who worked with Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Chaka Khan, Diana Ross, David Sanborn, and Luther Vandross.
The 1990s had him playing keyboards and writing music for the animated film The Snow Queen and People: A Musical Celebration of Diversity on the Disney Channel. He and his wife Kathy Byalick composed Visionary Path, a New Age album with narration by Diana Krall, Roberta Flack, and F. Murray Abraham.
In 2000 Miles released The Music of Weather Report, the first of several tribute albums. During the next year he won a Grammy Award for producing A Love Affair: The Music of Ivan Lins with appearances by Sting and Brenda Russell. His next solo album To Grover, with Love, was a tribute to Grover Washington Jr. that was nominated for Record of the Year by the National Smooth Jazz Awards. He also recorded tributes to Miles Davis and Marvin Gaye.
Keyboardist, composer and record producer Jason Miles, who has a discography of nineteen albums, continues to compose and perform.
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ANAT COHEN QUARTETINHO
Following great success at some of the world’s great jazz festivals and venues with her Tentet, Grammy-nominated clarinetist and composer Anat Cohen shifts her focus to an intimate group sound with her newest band, the endlessly colorful Quartetinho (pronounced “quar-te-CHIN-yo,” i.e., little quartet).
The group of New York-based international multi-instrumentalist-virtuosos are all drawn from the ranks of her aforementioned Tentet. The idea of instrumental doubling to achieve a wide stylistic range comes from the larger group, and the spirit of this cross-cultural / stylistic ensemble ring true throughout their performances. They share a deep love for music in all its heterogeneity and it’s all amply represented in both recordings and the band’s own live show. The result is boundlessly melodic and lyrical, with a wide array of timbres and subtle details of orchestration.
The Group:
Clarinet: Anat Cohen
Bass: Tal Mashiach
Piano/Accordion: Vitor Gonçalves
Vibraphone/Percussion: James Shipp
Cover: $40.61 ~ $50.91
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rachel Gould was born Rachel Field on June 25, 1953 in Camden, New Jersey. She studied cello and classical singing at Boston University. Upon moving to Germany in 1975 she established herself as a jazz musician, formed her own quartet and toured Europe. In 1979 she appeared in London, England with Chet Baker and recorded the much acclaimed album All Blues.
In the early 1980s, she performed at numerous European festivals, and worked with groups led by Ack van Rooyen, Lou Blackburn, Ferdinand Povel, Bobby Burgess, Michel Herr, Tom Nicholas, Dieter Reith and Erwin Lehn. In 1983 Gould sang for quite a while in the United States and, in New York City, with Woody Herman, Sal Nistico and Jake Hanna.
Upon her return to Germany, she presented the band Breath & Bones at the Leverkusen Jazz Festival. She continued her work in Germany from 1984 onwards, consisting mainly of teaching as a lecturer at the conservatories in Maastricht, Cologne, Mainz and Hamburg. Then in 1987 she travelled to the Swiss Jazz School.
She went on to work with Joe Haider and Benny Bailey. Gould played with Riccardo Del Fra on the 1989 album A Sip of Your Touch, and with his band on a live album at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival.
Since 1991, vocalist Rachel Gould has continued to perform in addition to working as a lecturer in jazz singing at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sahib Shihab was born Edmund Gregory on June 23, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. Schooled in New York from age 3, he first played alto saxophone professionally for Luther Henderson at 13. He studied at the Boston Conservatory, and played in and around New York with Art Blakey, Gigi Gryce, Benny Golson, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Dizzy Gillespie. He toured with the bands of Fletcher Henderson, Buddy Johnson, Roy Eldridge, Andy Kirk, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and the original 17 Messengers of Blakey.
During the late 1940s, Shihab played with Thelonious Monk, and on July 23, 1951 he recorded with Monk that was later issued on the album Genius of Modern Music: Volume 2. During the decade he recorded with Art Blakey, Kenny Dorham and Benny Golson. The invitation to play with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band saw his switch to baritone saxophone.
Between 1952 to 1955 he toured with Illinois Jacquet in Europe, as well as with Coleman Hawkins and Sarah Vaughn and toured with Dakota Stanton from 1956 to 1958. He was one of the musicians who showed up for the Art Kane photograph A Great Day In Harlem. Closing out the Fifteies he toured Europe with Quincy Jones, and subsequently settled in Scandinavia in 1960, married and raising a family. Shihab, disillusioned with racial politics in the United States, decided around this time to move to Europe.
As an educator he worked for Copenhagen Polytechnic and wrote scores for television, cinema and theatre. He composed and arranged for Swedish and Danish radio orchestras. He went on to perform with bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and together with pianist Kenny Drew, he ran a publishing firm and record company. Through the Sixties he joined the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band and remained a member of the band during its 12 years existence.
Returning to the United States in 1973 he toured with Quincy Jones and The Brothers Johnson. He returned to Copenhagen, Denmark three years later, where he produced albums for Metronome Records, along with Kenny Drew. The album is titled Brief Encounter, and features the voices of Debby Cameron and Richard Boone. At decade’s end he started a record company with Kenny Drew called Matrix and spent his remaining years between New York and Copenhagen, performed in partnership with Art Farmer and led his own jazz combo called Dues.
Hard bop baritone, alto, and soprano saxophonist and flautist, composer, arranger, producer and educator Sahib Shihab, who beginning of 1986 was a visiting artist at Rutgers University, died from cancer on October 24, 1989, in Nashville, Tennessee at age 64.
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