Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jan Gunnar Hoff was born in Bodø, Norway on October 22, 1958. A graduate of the Teachers’ College in his hometown and Bergen, Norway, he pursued further education in the Jazz program at Trondheim Musikkonservatorium under Terje Bjørklund for three years starting in 1986. He trained in composition at Norges Musikkhøgskole in 2001.

He had his jazz debut with his own trio on Ad Lib Jazzklubb in 1976. Hoff’s background includes classical piano, progressive rock, pop and jazz. Over the course of his career Hoff has released 21 recordings as solo artist and co-leader, fifty-seven as a sideman, and has composed 250 works for different settings.

He has received several awards for his music including a US Grammy nomination for the album Quiet Winter Night. Hoff’s quartet album Fly North with Marilyn Mazur, Anders Jormin and Arve Henriksen was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannpris 2014. He received the highest distinction in Norwegian Jazz, the Buddy-award and became a Steinway Artist.

He is a professor at the University of Tromsø and the University of Agder. He co-founded The Groove Valley JazzCamp in Beiarn, Norway and was artistic director for TGV Jazz camp from 2005 to 2009. Hoff also initiated Bodø Jazz Open which was launched in 2011, where he was artistic leader and festival head until 2020.

Pianist, composer, arranger and professor Jan Hoff,  who has worked with Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Alex Acuña, Karin Krog, Maria João, Marilyn Mazur, Gary Novak and Arild Andersen among numerous others.

More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,educator,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Rozanne Levine was born on October 19, 1945 in New York City, New York. She was introduced to the jazz/new music community as a performer with William Parker and Patricia Nicholson Parker’s Centering Music/Dance Ensemble during the late Seventies.

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s Levine performed in saxophonist/clarinetist Mark Whitecage’s Glass House Ensemble, playing both clarinet and Whitecage’s sound sculptures. In 1993 she rejoined the Parkers as a founding member of their New York-based Improvisors Collective, performing in the Collective Orchestra and with Collective members in smaller ensembles. During her three year tenure with the Collective she formed two ensembles, Crystal Clarinets and the Clarinet Choir, which performed in New York City and Connecticut.

In 1999 Rozanne and Whitecage formed a touring duo, RoMarkable, to showcase their acoustic and electronic forays. They performed at numerous clubs and festivals around the country. She led Chakra Tuning, with Mark Whitecage, clarinetist Perry Robinson and violinist/vocalist Rosi Hertlein. Her compositions form the thematic material from which the musicians improvise, each artist adding their distinct voice to the mix. The group released their highly-praised debut album, Only Moment, in 2009, on her and Whitecage’s label, Acoustics.

Levine performed with Mark Whitecage and The Bi-Coastal Orchestra, Anthony Braxton, The New Reed Quartet, Jason Kao Hwang, Jackson Krall, Theo Jorgensmann, Blaise Siwula, and Who Knows?, among others.

Alto clarinetist, bamboo flutist and composer Rozanne Levine, who became a noted photographer that were incorporated into her performances, transitioned in Morristown, New Jersey on June 18, 2013.

More Posts: bamboo flute,bandleader,clarinet,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music

Three Wishes

While in conversation with Melba Liston, girl talk turned to the granting of three wishes and she told Pannonica that she would wish for:

1. “One thing I’m concerned about is the youth music program. Kids don’t have the opportunity they should have – kids with talent, I mean. There’s an awful lot of talking, but not enough doing. There should be a workshop, or a place where they’d have a chance to learn something besides rock “n’ roll. I would love to be able to do something about that.”
2. “The other things are personal…. I wish I had lots of money.”
3. “I wish I had equal opportunity according to energy, ability, and desire. And sex. Mainly sex.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

More Posts: arranger,baroness,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,pannonica,three,trombone,wishes

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

David Bee was born on October 17, 1903 in Brussels, Belgium. He was a multi-instrumentalist adept on clarinet, harp, piano, and alto and tenor saxophone. For a year in 1924 he played with the group Bistrouille ADO before co-founding an ensemble with Peter Packay called Red Beans. The group toured widely throughout western Europe.

After returning to Belgium, David joined Robert De Kers’s band, and also played in Paris, France at Chez Florencewith Benny Carter and Willie Lewis. He recorded with Gus Deloof in the early Forties and after World War II he played with Robert Bosmans and Chas Dolne later in the decade. He led his own bands and groups at various times in the 1950s and continued recording late into the decade and the 60s.

As a composer, Bee pennedr the tunes High Tension recorded by Luis Russell) and Obsession recorded by Ted Heath and Reg Owen.

Clarinetist, harpist, pianist, alto and tenor saxophonist, arranger and composer David Bee, also known as Ernest Craps, Ernie Sparks, and Manuel Travo, transitioned in 1992.

More Posts: arranger,clarinet,composer,harp,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Nancy Harrow was born October 3, 1930 in New York City, New York and studied classical piano beginning at age seven, then decided to pursue careers in dancing and singing.

In 1961 Nancy released her debut album Wild Women Don’t Have The Blues for Candid Records. It featured Kenny Burrell, Buck Clayton, Dickie Wells, and Milt Hinton. Her sophpomore album for Atlantic Records two years later titled You Never Know featured John Lewis, Dick Katz, Phil Woods, Jim Hall, Richard Davis, and Connie Kay. She then left music to raise a family.

Since her return in 1975 she has worked with Katz and Woods, Clark Terry, Roland Hanna, and Bob Brookmeyer. She recorded albums based on The Lost Lady by Willa Cather, The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Winter Dreams, based on the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Two of Harrow’s songs have been adapted, one to a puppet show and one to The Cat Who Went to Heaven, based on a story by Elizabeth Coatsworth. The latter had short New York City runs at the Mercer Street Theater, the Asia Society, the Harlem School of the Arts, the Kennedy Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Singer and songwriter Nancy Harrow, who has recorded eighteen albums as a leader on a collaboration  with John Lewis, continues to perform and record.

More Posts: composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,producer,vocal