Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack Reilly, also known as Sean Petrahn was born on January 1, 1932, in Staten Island, New York. At age 7, he began classical piano and gave his first recital while still in grammar school. In high school, during his teen years, he formed a jazz band that proved to be pivotal in his choice of jazz as the major musical force in his life.
From 1951 to 1953 he played in a U.S. Navy band while stationed in Puerto Rico and it was there that he met Bill Evans. After military duty, Jack received a four-year scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music majoring in piano and composition. There he met Bill Russo, Phil Woods, Zoot Sims, John Lewis, John LaPorta, and Hall Overton. The year he graduated from MSMJohn LaPorta hired Jack to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958.
The critics gave high praise for the quartet’s performance and raves for Jack’s playing. During this time he also worked with Warren Covington, George Russell, Lennie Tristano, and Jerry Wald. He moved to California briefly in the mid-1960s to study Indian classical music with Ali Akbar Khan, and returned to Manhattan where he composed the large-scale piece Requiem Mass for Chorus and Jazz Quartet. This work was performed in New York with Sheila Jordan, Jack Six, Norman Marnell, Joe Cocuzzo, and the contemporary chorale with Carol Lian conducting.
In 1967, Jack presented an entire evening of his solo and trio works at Carnegie Recital Hall. His Liturgical Jazz ~ The Psalms, sung by Sheila Jordan was a true synthesis of the blues and classical music. A second choral work, commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, was titled The Light of The Soul. The jazz musicians included Jimmy Giuffre~flute and tenor sax, Jack Six~bass, and Joe Cocuzzo~drums.
Reilly served on the faculties of New York University, Berklee College of Music, The Mannes College of Music, and the New School for Social Research. He was chairman of the Department of Jazz Studies at the New England Conservatory of Music as well as the Jazz Program at La Musica A Villa Scarsella in Diano Marina, Italy. He presented lecture/recitals at numerous universities in Europe and in North America including a presentation at the prestigious International Piano Festival and Competition at the University of Maryland.
Pianist Jack Reilly released nine albums during his career and passed away on May 18, 2018, at the age of 86.
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Three Wishes
Tom McIntosh had only one wish when asked by Pannonica:- “To be exactly as the Creator wished me to be. Then everything else would have to be alright.”
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Requisites
The album by Claus Ogerman and His Orchestra, Watusi Trumpets, was recorded and released in 1965 on the RCA Victor label. All the compositions were arranged, written and conducted by Ogerman, produced by Andy Wiswell and the session engineer was Mickey Crofford. The liner notes were written by Arnold Falleder.
The tracklist includes It’s Not Unusual, Stingray, Watusi Trumpets, El Watusi, Downtown and Right Now on Side A. Along with the B side featuring Harlem Watch, One Step Above, The Joker, Poinciana, La Bamba and Land Of 1,000 Dances. Filled with jazz, rock, soul, lounge and Latin rhythms this is an inspired look at a number of pop, rock, Brazilian and a classic tunes.
Steeped in the music of the Sixties this finger-popping disc may not change your life but just may take you back to those mod years and have you shaking on the dance floor.
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Requisites
The Blues And The Abstract Blues is an album by jazz composer/arranger and saxophonist Oliver Nelson recorded in 1961 for the Impulse label. Rudy Van Gelder was the recording engineering, Chuck Stewart took the photograph and Pete Turner designed the cover.
The albums length is a mere 36 minute and 33 seconds long but remains Nelson’s most acclaimed album. It is an exploration of the mood and structure of the blues, though only some of the tracks are structured in the conventional 12-bar blues form.
All the songs are composed by Nelson Stolen Moments, Hoe-Down, Cascades, Yearnin’, Butch and Butch and Teenie’s Blues. The musicians on the session were Oliver Nelson on alto and tenor saxophone, Eric Dolphy on flute and alto saxophone, George Barrow on baritone saxophone, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Roy Haynes.
The most famous composition from the album, Stolen Moments, is also his most recorded and performed, both instrumental and vocal, by numerous artists such as Phil Woods, J.J. Johnson, Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, Frank Zappa, Mark Murphy, Ahmad Jamal, Booker Ervin, New York Voices, the United Future Organization and the Turtle Island Quartet, to name just a few.
More Posts: arranger,choice,classic,collectible,collector,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Nathaniel Baker Jr. was born on December 21, 1931 in Indianapolis, Indiana and took up the trombone attending Crispus Attucks High School. He went on to matriculate through Indiana University, earning his Bachelor and Master degrees in Music, having studied with J. J. Johnson, János Starker, and George Russell.
His first teaching position was at Lincoln University in Jefferson, Missouri in 1955, a historic black institution, but Baker had to resign his position under threats of violence after he had eloped to Chicago, Illinois to marry white opera singer Eugenia (“Jeanne”) Marie Jones. Thriving in the Indianapolis jazz scene of the time, he was as a mentor of sorts to Indianapolis-born trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. Forced to abandon the trombone due to a jaw injury that left him unable to play, he subsequently learned to play cello.
The shift to cello largely ended his performing career but began his life as a composer and pedagogue. Among the first and most important people to begin to codify the then largely aural tradition of jazz he wrote several seminal books on jazz, including Jazz Improvisation in 1988. Baker taught in the Jazz Studies Department at Indiana University and made the school a highly regarded destination for students of jazz. His students included Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Peter Erskine, Jim Beard, Chris Botti, Jeff Hamilton, and Jamey Aebersold.
Baker’s compositions range from Third Stream to traditional to symphonic works. He composed some 2000 compositions, has been commissioned by over 500 individuals and ensembles, nominated for a Pulitzer and a Grammy award, honored three times by Down Beat magazine, and was the third inductee to their jazz Education Hall of Fame, as well as several other jazz awards.
Trombonist, cellist, composer and pedagogue David Baker, who performed with his second wife Lida, a flautist, since the Nineties and has more than 65 recordings, 70 books, and 400 articles to his credit, passed away on March 26, 2016, at age 84 at his Bloomington, Indiana home.
