Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Motohiko “Toko” Hino was born on January 3, 1946 in Tokyo, Japan. His father was a dancer and musician and taught him and his brother Terumasa to tap dancing as children. At the age of ten, he began playing drums and by age 17 was playing professionally.
In the mid-1970s, Hino was repeatedly voted by Swing Journal the best jazz drummer in Japan, though from 1978 he was based in New York City. He released an album under his own name in 1971 and two more in the early 1990s.
He played with musicians such as Joanne Brackeen, Joe Hnedrson, Takehiro Honda, Karen Mantler, Hugh Masekela, John Sofield, Jean-Luc Ponty, Sonny Rollins, Jon Faddis and Billy Harper among others.
On May 13, 1999 drummer Motohiko Hino passed away of cancer.
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Daily Dose Of jazz…
Nick Fatool was born on Jan. 2, 1915 in Milbury, Massachusetts and studied drums as a youth. He first played professionally in Providence, Rhode Island, followed with time in Joe Haymes’s band in 1937 and then Don Beston’s in Dallas soon after. By 1939 he was playing briefly with Bobby Hackett, and then took a chair with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.
Becoming one of the most visible drummers of the 1940s, Nick played with several bands led by Artie Shaw, Alvino Rey, Claude Thornhill, Les Brown and Jan Savitt. In 1943 he moved to Los Angeles, California and recorded profusely as a session musician. The short list of his credits includes Harry James, Errol Garner, Louis Armstrong, Jess Stacy, Tommy Dorsey, Matty Matlock, Glen Gray, Bob Crosby and the Crosby Bobcats.
From1944 to 1958 Fatool played on sessions for Capitol Records as a sideman for Johnny Mercer, Betty Hutton, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee, Billy May, Nat “King” Cole, Wingy Manone, Dean Martin, Gordon MacRae, Red Nichols, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Ray Anthony, Jack Teagarden, The Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, Andy Griffith, and Robert Mitchum to name a few during this period.
In the 1950s and 1960s Nick found much work on the Dixieland jazz revival circuit, playing with Pete Fountain from 1962-1965 and the Dukes of Dixieland. His only session as a bandleader was as the head of a septet in 1987, “Nick Fatool’s Jazz Band & Quartet” leading Eddie Miller, Johnny Mince, Ernie Carson and others. Drummer Nick Fatool passed away on September 26, 2000 in Los Angeles, California. He was 85.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billie Davies was born on December 10, 1955 in Bruges, West Flanders, Belgium. An autodidact and naturally talented she was surrounded by music from birth as her mother played the best in jazz and classical music. From the age of ten she was singing in choirs until her voice changed around the age of 22.
A few years later Davies would embark on learning to play the drums and became a professional jazz musician shortly after declining Max Roach’s invitation to attend Berklee College of Music. Her music is an improvisational conversation between musicians and musical instruments.
Billie has played with Leroy Vinnegar, John Handy, Joe Fuentes, Saul Kaye, Michael Godwin, Lee Elfenbein, Drew Waters, Pierre Swärd, Tom Bone Ralls, Manny Silvera, Oliver Steinberg, Daniel Coffeng, Adam Levy and has appeared all over the world.
Drummer, composer, director, arranger and bandleader Billie Davies has been honored as Jazz Artist of the Year at the Los Angeles Music Awards, drums in rhythms of jazz, cool jazz, Avant jazz and avant-garde and continues to mold it into her own neo-humanistic expressionist jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robby Ameen was born on December 7, 1960 in New Haven, Connecticut of Lebanese origins and studied drums with Ed Blackwell and classical percussion with Fred Hinger. He would go on to graduate from Yale with a degree in Literature.
In 1985 he became a member of Ruben Blades’ Seis del Solar band, winning a Latin Grammy for best Salsa record Todos Vuelven Live, Vol. 1 and 2. He would have long-term residencies with Dave Valentin, Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side of…All Stars, Kip Hanrahan, and Jack Bruce and the Cuicoland Express. As a sideman he has recorded on other Grammy winning records including Ruben Blades and Seis del Solar’s Escenas and Brian Lynch’s Simpatico.
Robby has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Palmieri, Paul Simon, Mongo Santamaria, Carly Simon, Hilton Ruiz, Kirsty MacColl and Steve Swallow among others. As a session musician Ameen has recorded numerous jingles, film scores, and TV music, including the popular HBO series Sex and the City. In 2012, Ameen was the subject on an episode of the Emmy Award-winning Detroit Public Television series Arab American Stories.
As an educator, he co-authored with bassist Lincoln Goines the best-selling instructional book Funkifying the Clave: Afro-Cuban drums for Bass and Drums. He is an international clinician, percussion/drum festival participant and is currently on the faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Drummer and bandleader Robby Ameen is best known for the unique and powerful Afro-Cuban style he has created and is regarded as one of the world’s most prominent drummers in the area of Latin Jazz.
Jazz Is Global – Share
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roy McCurdy was born November 28, 1936 in Rochester, New York. He attended the Eastman School of Music from sixteen to eighteen, during which time he also played professionally with Roy Eldridge, Eddie Vinson at seventeen. Among the influences he cites Louie Bellson, Shelly Manne, Sam Woodyard, Buddy Rich, Pap Joe Jones, and the bands of Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford and Lionel Hampton.
He started out playing with the Jazz Brothers – Chuck and Gap Mangione, In 1960 he joined the Art Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet, remaining for two years, as well as Bobby Timmons, Betty Carter and Sonny Simmons from 1963-64. He played on the classic album Sonny Meets Hawk!.
In 1965 he joined Cannonball Adderley Quintet in 1965 and stayed with the band, recording 18 albums until Adderley’s death. He recorded a half-dozen with Nat Adderley, and has also played and/or recorded with Count Basie, Nancy Wilson, Gene Ammons, Wes Montgomery, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Joe Williams, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson,, Bud Powell, Art Pepper, Joe Zawinul, Betty Bennett and the jazz rock group Blood, Sweat and Tears.
He appears on the classic 1983 recording Jackson, Johnson, Brown & Company featuring Milt Jackson on vibes, trombonist J.J. Johnson, bassist Ray Brown, Tom Ranier on piano and John Collins on guitar.
As of 2010, in between performing and recording drummer Roy McCurdy is an Adjunct Professor in the Jazz Studies Department of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.
Inspire A Young Mind
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