Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Günter Lenz was born July 25, 1938 in Frankfurt am Main. He first taught himself guitar and studied with Carlo Bohländer, playing jazz in the clubs of the U.S. Army from 1954 onwards. During national service in 1959/1960 he switched to the bass.
In 1961 Albert Mangelsdorff picked him up as a member of the Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet. Since then Lenz has also become a member of the hr-jazz ensemble, for which he arranged and composed. 1965 saw him working in the Krzysztof Komeda Quintet, recording the album Astigmatic. Three years later he was playing with Joachim Kühn and Aldo Romano in a band led by Barney Wilen at the Berlin Jazz Days. With The German All Stars he toured internationally in 1969 and 1971.
He played with the George Russell Sextet, and with a band led by Leon Thomas. This allowed him to collect big band experience. During the 1970s he was a member of the Kurt Edelhagen Big Band and with Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combination & Brass. He would go on to be engaged for their concert tours and record productions by Chet Baker, Coleman Hawkins, Oliver Nelson and Benny Bailey, as well as German musicians such as Eugen Cicero, Horst Jankowski and Volker Kriegel.
Dipping into the blues field in 1972 Günter played with Lightning Hopkins. The mid-1970s saw Lenz joining drummer Peter Giger in Clarinet Contrast, an avant garde band around the clarinetists Perry Robinson, Theo Jörgensmann, Bernd Konrad and Michel Pilz. As a member of the Manfred Schoof Quintet he recorded for ECM/Japo.
In the late 1970s Günter founded his combo, Günter Lenz Springtime, an international jazz-fusion band with members as Bob Degen, Claus Stötter, Frank St. Peter, Johannes Faber, Leszek Zadlo and Joe Nay. He recorded as part of the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra. In 1991 he recorded “Life at the Montreux Music Festival” in trio-formation with Uli Lenz and Allen Blairman
Lenz created orchestral arrangements for Plácido Domingo, and from 2001 to 2006 as a professor he taught bass at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart. During that period of education he received the Hesse state Jazz prize awarded by the State Minister for Higher Education, Research and the Arts Udo Corts.
Bassist Günter Lenz continues to perform, compose, arrange and educate.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie LaVere was born Charles LaVere Johnson on July 18, 1910 in Salina, Kansas to a Union Pacific Railroad blacksmith and where he first acquired an interest in music. His first musical instrument was a cornet, then later acquired an upright baritone horn, on which he learned to play many popular songs of the day. Studying piano in the 4th grade was the turning point in his decision to make it his instrument of choice.
At age twelve, after attending a Willard Robison and his Deep River Orchestra he gained an interest in jazz. He studied piano throughout high school and performed in various recitals and assemblies. At the age of eighteen he visited Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where he was introduced to Jack Teagarden, his brother Charlie Teagarden and where he studied Music at the University of Oklahoma at Norman. He performed with Frank William’s Oklahomans on campus and in local venues. He would go on to tour in 1929 during the Wall Street Crash, with brief stints in various bands including Louis Armstrong.
Relocating to Chicago, Illinois in 1932 he shared an apartment with the Teagarden’s and their spouses. He began playing regularly with Joe and Marty Marsala, Floyd Towne, Jim Barnes, Ray Biondi, Shorty Cherock, Larry Russel, Clark Galehouse, Carl Bean and Wingy Manone. He would perform his first recorded sessions supporting Wingy Manone and Teagarden in addition to leading his own bands.
After touring Texas and the mid-west with Eddie Neibauer and Dell Coon in 1934, he returned to local Chicago venues, working regularly with Joe Marsala. He assembled a multiracial group of musicians, befriended writer and jazz critic Helen Oakley, and recorded for Brunswick Records and Columbia Records. LaVere then found steady work in radio, performing on the Fibber McGee and Molly show for NBC. He also sang and arranged songs for a vocal group. Charlie briefly relocated to Fort Worth, Texas to perform in Paul Whiteman’s group and later touring throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, before heading West.
He worked as a recording artist for Decca Records at their studios on Melrose Avenue with The Andrew Sisters, Victor Young, John Scott Trotter, and Gordon Jenkins, and under his own name.
In 1944 he formed the LaVere’s Chicago Loopers featuring Billy May, Artie Shapiro, Floyd O’Brien, Joe Venuti, Matty Matlock, Nick Fatool, and George Van Eps. He would go on to perform for Walt Disney, Gordon Jenkins, George Burns, Bobby Darin, Bob Crosby and Wingy Manone.
As rock music became more popular his work became more sporadic and in 1964 LaVere accepted a position as assistant conductor at the Melodyland Theater. He performed piano and accordion on cruise ships, arranged and performed with Russ Morgan in Las Vegas, Nevada and continued to work with Gordon Jenkins, performing on Harry Nilsson’s album of jazz standards. From the 1960s onward he ran his own piano repair shop in the San Diego, California area, in addition to performing solo residencies at resorts in California, Oregon, and Colorado.
Pianist, vocalist, bandleader, and composer Charlie LaVere transitioned on April 28, 1983 in Ramona, California.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dan Peter Sundland was born in Oslo, Norway on July 15, 1986 and grew up in Børsa, a village outside Trondheim, Norway. He started playing bass at age 14 and studied with bass players Andreas Bergsland and Mattis Kleppen. He was a member of Middle-Norwegian Youth Big Band and went on to become a member of the S. Møller big band.
Attending Sund Folk College from 2005 to 2006 he then attained a bachelor’s degree in jazz performance at NTNU Music Institute in Trondheim in 2010. He went on to get his European Jazz Masters degree (EUJAM) at NTNU Music Institute with exchange to Berlin Jazz Institute in 2012 and Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2013.
Active in the jazz and improvisation scenes in Norway and Berlin, Germany he has set himself apart by his expressive, wide ranging playing techniques, including cello-like bowing and a varied palette of percussive colours. Has been featured with musicians including Jim Black, John Hollenbeck, Axel Dörner, Tobias Delius, Hans Hulbækmo, Hanna Paulsberg, Eirik Hegdal, John Pål Inderberg and Tor Haugerud.
His discography includes compositional work for his own eleven-piece Elevenette, the Berlin based improvising quartet Home Stretch and sideman work and collective groups including Lina Allemano’s Ohrenschmaus, Simon Kanzler’s hardcore opera and singer-songwriter Port Almond.
Electric bassist and composer Dan Peter Sundland, who has led Trondheim Improvisation Orchestra together with Peder Simonsen, continues to compose, perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nat Janoff was born on July 13, 1970 in New Jersey and began his musical education on the piano before switching to bass. After hearing Eddie Van Halen he settled on the guitar. Growing up in the 80’s his musical interests were all things rock and metal and soon earned a reputation for being one of the best shred guitarist in the area. However, seeking a platform to improvise longer than a standard rock riff led him to jazz and hearing the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds of Fire for the first time.
He pursued jazz earning his Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Performance from William Paterson University in 1996 and set to work forging his own musical path.
Recording his debut album, Looking Through, he enlisted the talents of electric bassist, Matthew Garrison and drummer Gene Lake, that showcased him as a player and a composer. Two more albums as a leader followed, a live acoustic date and a studio session, then contributing to the ESC tribute album Mahavishnu Redefined II.
In addition to playing with his own groups, Janoff has performed with Joe, David “Pic” Conley, Norman Simmons and drummer Victor Jones’ group Culturversy, Debelah Morgan, and Roland Clark.
Guitarist, composer and educator Nat Janoff teaches guitar privately, has been a guest instructor at the annual William Paterson University summer jazz camp, and continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kenneth John Moule was born on June 26, 1925 in Barking, Essex, England and was the only child of Frederick and Ethal Moule. Surviving an early childhood illness, left him with a cadaverous look which went well with his ridiculous sense of humor.
In the Forties Moule played piano with the Johnny Dankworth Quartet before leaving to join Oscar Rabin in 1945. He would go on to perform with Remo Cavalotti for a summer season and Joe Daniels before working on the Queen Mary in Bobby Kevin’s Band, with Ronnie Scott and Johnny Dankworth. He closed out the decade working with several bands including Jiver Hutchinson, Bert Ambrose, Frank Weir and Ken Mackintosh.
During the early 1950s Ken worked with Raymonde’s Orchestra, again with Ambrose and then with Frank Weir on several occasions. 1954 saw him form under his own name a septet, which was comprised of two-tenor, baritone, trumpet and three rhythm group. He resigned from the septet in 1955 and from 1956–1959 he arranged for Ted Heath’s orchestra. During this time he composed the suite Jazz at Toad Hall, and was released on Decca Records in 1958. He worked in Sweden and toured Europe with Kurt Weill’s Band until 1960.
The 1960s saw his return to England and worked freelance as an arranger, especially with Lionel Bart. He was the musical director for the shows Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be and Twang!!. From 1962 he broadcast regularly with his 15 piece orchestra, and later broadcasted and recorded with a larger band called The Full Score. His Adam’s Rib Suite was recorded by the London Jazz Chamber Group in 1970 with Kenny Wheeler on the recording issued on Ember Records.
He scored Cole Porter songs for the musical Cole! performed at the Mermaid Theatre in 1974, and worked with Dankworth again around that time with his London Symphony Orchestra collaborations. He worked out of Germany for part of the 1970s before ill health caused him to move to the warmer climate of Spain.
Pianist, composer and arranger Ken Moule transitioned in Marbella in January 27, 1986, aged 60.
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