Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harold Leon Breeden was born on October 3, 1921 in Guthrie, Oklahoma. At three his parents moved to Wichita Falls, Texas where he grew up and graduated from high school. He attended Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth, Texas on a scholarship and later transferred to Texas Christian University where he completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. A move to New York City had him doing graduate work at Columbia University, he studied clarinet with Reginald Kell with whom Benny Goodman studied.
In 1944 after military duty he became the Director of Bands at Texas Christian University and later served as Director of Bands at Grand Prairie High School, then Director of Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas College of Music, where Breeden remained until his retirement in 1984.
Breeden also played saxophone and studied composition and arranging at Texas Christian. As a producer of the NBC Symphony, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, he declined a position as staff writer and arranger for the orchestra to take care of his ill father. Moving back to Texas he worked as music coordinator for KXAS-TV in Fort Worth, known at the time as WBAP-TV.
In the last several years of his life, Leon frequently soloed on clarinet with The Official Texas Jazz Orchestra. In 2009, The University of North Texas awarded him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Clarinstist, educator, composer and director Leon Breeden, who made the One O’Clock Lab Band internationally famous, died of natural causes on August 11, 2010 in Dallas,Texas.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,composer,educator,history,instrumental,jazz,music
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Norris Jones, better known as Sirone, was born September 28, 1940 in Atlanta, Georgia. He worked in Atlanta late in the 1950s and early in the 1960s with “The Group” alongside George Adams. He recorded with R&B musicians such as Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson.
In 1966, in response to a call from Marion Brown, he moved to New York City, where he co-founded the Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team with Dave Burrell. He also worked with Brown, Gato Barbieri, Pharoah Sanders, Noah Howard, Sonny Sharrock, Sunny Murray, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, and Sun Ra, as well as with John Coltrane when he was near the end of his career.
He co-founded the Revolutionary Ensemble with Leroy Jenkins and Frank Clayton in 1971. Jerome Cooper later replaced Clayton in the ensemble, which was active for much of the decade. The 1970s and early 1980s saw Sirone recording with Clifford Thornton, Roswell Rudd, Dewey Redman, Cecil Taylor, and Walt Dickerson.
In the 1980s, he was a member of Phalanx, a group with guitarist James “Blood” Ulmer, drummer Rashied Ali, and tenor saxophonist George Adams. From 1989, he lived in Berlin, Germany, where he was active with his group Concord with Ben Abarbanel-Wolff and Ulli Bartel.
Bassist, trombonist, and composer Sirone, who was involved in theater, film, and was a practicing Buddhist, died in Berlin, Germany on October 21, 2009, at the age of 69.
More Posts: bandleader,bass,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trombone
NNENNA FREELON
Jazz singer and composer Nnenna Freelon brings her “Beneath The Skin” CD Release to Catalina Jazz Club, in Hollywood!
“An album that ultimately feels like a novel, a succession of scenes that leave an indelible mark. This is a work of art of the highest caliber, earning its rightful place among our collection of Essential Albums.” – Paris Moves.
Cover: $35.00 +fee | Two drink minimum or dinner
More Posts: adventure,bandleader,club,composer,genius,jazz,music,preserving,travel,vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mark Simon was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 26, 1959 and by age 13 he was listening to Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Roy Eldridge and other jazz legends, and playing along with old Jazz At The Philharmonic records from his father’s massive and eclectic record collection, which ran the gamut from early jazz master Louis Armstrong to avant-garde Cecil Taylor.
His high school jazz band director Don Owens was an important part of his jazz education. Mark soon graduated to jazz sessions, further honing his keyboard skills while beginning to play occasional jazz gigs. From sitting in with the JATP, he enrolled in a youth summer jazz camp at the University of Illinois, where he was exposed to the live side of jazz. Mark would sneak out of the dorm at night to sit in with the faculty on jam sessions,
Simon’s influences were grounded by jazz artists such as pianists Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner, Charles Mingus, Gary Burton and Sonny Rollins. Growing up in jazz, He gained experience playing extensively with Leroy Vinnegar, Hadley Caliman, Bud Shank, Jeff Clayton, Joshua Breakstone, Julie Kelly, Teddy Edwards, Red Holloway and Herb Ellis.
Bassist Mark Simon continues to compose and perform solo piano gigs, accompanying vocalists, playing with jazz groups including his self-named trio, as well as teaching piano.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Bryant Woode was born September 23, 1926 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, for whom he was named, was a music teacher and pianist who had played with Hot Lips Page. He studied piano and bass in Boston, Massachusetss at Boston University and at the Conservatory of Music, as well as at the Philadelphia Academy.
He joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1955 and appeared on many of Ellington’s recordings, including Such Sweet Thunder and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, recorded in 1957. Jimmy performed at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival issued on Ellington at Newport. In 1960 he left the Orchestra to live in Europe.
An original member of The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, in 1995 he also toured with Lionel Hampton’s Golden Men of Jazz. 2003 saw Woode forming a trio with drummer Pete York and German jazz musician/comedian Helge Schneider, touring in Germany with his interpretation of jazz classics like Georgia and Summertime. As a consequence of his co-operation with Schneider, he also starred in the 2004 feature film Jazzclub in the role of a struggling jazz bassist.
Woode’s song Just Give Me Time was covered by Carola in 1966, first released on her album Carola & Heikki Sarmanto Trio, reaching the Finnish charts in 2004.
Bassist Jimmy Woode, who was born on the same day, the same month, the same year as saxophonist John Coltrane, died April 23, 2005, at age 78 at his home in Lindenwold, New Jersey, of complications following a surgery for a stomach aneurysm.