Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wik Horn was born on August 9, 1943 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Classically trained piano education for 4 years starting at 10, when he was 14 he started to play classic jazz with his younger brother trumpeter Fred.
After playing in several school bands he formed his first real band in 1965,The Court Town Rhythm Kings. The band played authentic old jazz in the way of Oliver, Morton, early Armstrong, Williams, Beiderbecke and Half Way House.
The band broke up in 1972 due to moving members and Wik moved from The Hague to resettle in Amsterdam. There along with his brother they founded in 1973 as Madam Zenja and Her Jazz Horns in 1973, together with singer Zenja Damm, recording two albums, Changes and Was It A Dream. From 1974 to 1980 he was president of the oldest and famous Jazzclub in Holland, the Haarlemse Jazz Club. Many of the great American musicians who came to Europe and Amsterdam performed there.
Settling in the little village of Leiderdorp between Amsterdam and The Hague, he spent some time in advertising and public relations. He started the jazz club De Wagenschuur from 1984 to 1994 and a new band, Swingin’ Crash, that started as a little swing ensemble but grew within a year into a small big band.
He went on to write charts and arrangements for the band and well as compose, song texts and write a little booklet for special occasions like the 60th anniversary of the The Hague Jazz Club. Pianist Wik Horn retired but has continued to have a life filled with music, writing and painting.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Adam Shulman was born on August 1, 1979 in San Francisco, California. Taking what he learned studying piano during his formative years, he headed to Santa Cruz he matriculated through the University of California with a degree in classical performance. While at UCSC he studied jazz piano with Smith Dobson.
Returning home he became a staple on the city’s jazz scene, leaning towards and playing in the bop genre. Adam has been seen working with countless bay area musicians and vocalists such as Marcus Shelby, Anton Schwartz, Ed Reed and Kellye Gray among many others. Beyond the locals he has played and/or recorded with Stefon Harrism Willie Jones III, Dayna Stephens, Mark Murphy, Alan Harris, Luciana Souza, Sean Jones, Grant Stewart and John Clayton to name a few.
A consummate sideman, Adam is a composer and arranger. He has done much of the arranging for the jazz and cabaret singer Paula West and has released four albums of original music as a leader and continues to perform, arrange and compose.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Walt Weiskopf was born in Augusta, Georgia on July 30, 1959 and grew up outside of Syracuse, New York. His father, a physician by profession, was also a serious classical pianist. Classically trained, it wasn’t the albums of Al Hirt or Herb Alpert his mother brought home but Miles Ahead that turned his attention. Already filled with Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane at 14 he set his sight in earnest on jazz. At 16, he began playing alto saxophone in a local big band alongside the great tenorist J.R. Monterose, who became his first mentor.
Heading to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Walt acquired a B.A. and after a move to New York City at twenty in 1980 he made a name for himself in jam sessions and was drafted into the Buddy Rich Big Band, adding tenor to his arsenal. By 1983, he began a 14-year association with Toshiko Akiyoshi, touring and recording with her jazz orchestra and small group.
The late ’80s, saw him playing with and writing for his first quartet that included his brother Joel, bassist Jay Anderson, and drummer Jeff Hirshfield. In 1989, he released his debut album as a leader, Exact Science, with that band. A sextet album followed as his sophomore project with Conrad Herwig, Andy Fusco, Joel Weiskopf, Peter Washington, and Billy Drummond. This began a long association with Criss Cros,s Jazz in which eleven albums were recorded and released.
His latest project, the debut of the European Quartet takes him further into his composing, arranging and thematic compositions. The group has released a number of albums, such as Worldwide, Introspection and Introspection 2.0, and a three song ep A Little Christmas Music.
As outstanding as this output is and all of his efforts as a sideman are (he is especially great on Billy Drummond’s Dubai), Weiskopf is best known to many fans for his work with Steely Dan over the past 20 years—before and after the untimely passing of its genius co-founder Walter Becker in 2017.
As an educator he has taught at numerous schools including the Eastman School of Music, Temple University, New Jersey City University and the New School. He published numerous books, Intervalic Improvisation, Around the Horn, and Understanding the Diminished Scale. Moving to Virginia, he retired from teaching and working commercially and is concentrating on practicing and composing.
Tenor saxophonist, composer, arranger and educator Walt Weiskopf, who was a 20 year staple of the studio-only jazz rock fusion band Steely Dan, continues to push the realm of his music.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Donald Neff Bagley was born on July 18, 1927 in Salt Lake City, Utah and received formal training on the double bass. He went on to study in Los Angeles, California and played in 1945 with Shorty Sherock and Wingy Manone, and in 1948 with Dick Pierce.
During the early Fifties from 1950 to 1953, and sporadically thereafter, Bagley played with Stan Kenton. HIs time with Kenton, A Study for Bass by Bill Russo and Bags by Bill Holman were written to feature Bagley’s playing. By 1954 he was fronting his own ensembles. His session work between 1950 and 1952, Don worked extensively with Nat King Cole, Maynard Ferguson, and Dexter Gordon. He played in Europe with Zoot Sims, Lars Gullin, Frank Rosolino, and Åke Persson. He would go on to work with Les Brown, Jimmie Rowles, Shelly Manne, Pete Fountain and Phil Woods. In 1957 and 1958, he recorded three albums under his own name.
The Sixties saw him playing with Ben Webster and Julie London. Into the 1970s and 1980s he worked with Burt Bacharach while composing and arranging for film and television, including the scores to Mama’s Dirty Girls, The Manhandlers, The Swinging Barmaids, The Student Body, Young Lady Chatterley and Sacred Ground.
Double bassist, composer and arranger Don Bagley transitioned of natural causes on July 26, 2012 at the age of 85.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Previte was born July 16, 1951 in Niagara Falls, New York. He started playing early but went on to earn a degree in economics from the University at Buffalo, New York where he also studied percussion.
Moving to New York City in 1979 he began professional relationships with John Zorn, Wayne Horvitz, and Elliott Sharp. While Previte is a talented drummer he has also received critical acclaim for his exceptional abilities as a composer and orchestrator. His compositions are often tightly arranged, although they leave room for significant amounts of improvisation. Additionally, Previte often uses unusual instrumentation and also draws on many non-jazz musics for his compositions.
As a performer much of his work is also improvisational. He has recorded three dozen albums as a leader or co-leader and as a sideman played on 85 recording sessions across numerous genres of music. Drummer, composer and orchestrator Bobby Previte, who has delved into the jazz, avant~garde and rock genres as a leader, continues to expand his career.
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