Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Billy Kilson was born William Earl Kilson on August 2, 1962 in Washington, DC. He started on trumpet at ten, switched to trombone at 11, then to drums at 16. He studied at the Berklee College of Music from 1980 to 1985, took private lessons from Alan Dawson during 1982-89, and then toured Europe with Walter Davis.
Kilson has played with such notable jazz musicians as Ahmad Jamal, Dianne Reeves, Greg Osby, George Duke, Steps Ahead, Tim Hagans, Terumasa Hino, Bob James, Dave Bob Belden, Kevin Mahogany, Kirk Whalum, Chris Botti, Freddie Jackson, Donald Brown and Paula Cole.
He is perhaps best known for his work with Dave Holland playing on the 1999 Grammy Award nominated album Prime Directive and his Grammy-winning 2002 release What Goes Around. He also has chops as a leader with his own quartet ensemble along comprised of James Genus and Tim Hagans. Releasing his debut compact disc in 2006 as a leader, titled Pots and Pans, it was followed by a sophomore DVD project, Rhythm Dancer, in 2012. Drummer Billy Kilson continues to record, perform and tour.
Jazz Is Global – Share
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Massimo de Majo was born in Rome, Italy on July 8, 1957 and began studying music at a very young age. By 1980 while matriculating through Rome University studying Music and Literature he earned a Masters Degree in Percussion Instruments. He went on to study, apprentice and refine his skills under David Liebman, Elvin Jones, Marvin Bugalu Smith, Horace Parlan, Billy Hart, Max Roach, Richie Beirach, Wayne Shorter, Buster Williams, Harold Land, Carlos Santana and Larry Coryell.
He has developed an intense energy flow, wide dynamics and an acute sense for interplay, being comfortable playing free form music, as well as within more structured frameworks. Over the course of his career de Majo has spent most of his life outside Italy performing across Europe, the United States, Scandinavia and Japan. Though not widely known to the general public, the percussionist is regarded as a musicians’ musician and sought after on the jazz circuit.
During the last thirty years, focusing mostly on performing and teaching, he has recorded with Horace Parlan, Per Goldschmidt, Al Swainger, Andy Williamson, Biancamaria Stanzani Ghedini and Philip Clouts, among others. As a composer he has also created pieces for the theatre, contemporary dance, video, sound design and installation art. Drummer Massimo de Majo is also an educator and sits on the faculty of the University of Malta teaching several different courses in the Music Department. He continues to perform and record.
Dose A Day – Blues Away
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Vladimir Tarasov was born in Archangelsk, Russia on June 29, 1947. He learned to play the drums in his youth and though chose them as his primary instrument he has transcended performance to become a composer as well. In 1968 at age 21 he moved to Vilnius, Lithuania where he has lived and worked. For many years Tarasov performed with the Lithuanian Symphonic Orchestra and other symphonic, chamber, and jazz orchestras in Lithuania, Europe and the USA.
From 1971 to 1986, Tarasov was a member of the well-known contemporary jazz music trio – GTC with Viatcheslav Ganelin and Vladimir ChekasinHe has recorded over 100 albums and CDs as a soloist, with the trio, as a sideman and with orchestras. He has performed and recorded with Andrew Cyrille, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Anthony Braxton, Lauren Newton, and Josef Nadj to name a few.
Vladimir has worked and collaborated in the visual artist field with Ilya Kabakov and Sarah Flohr, participating in numerous one-person or group exhibitions around the world. He has composed music for film and theatre on both sides of the Atlantic, has directed a play and opera, and has been an educator and lecturer at universities and music academies in Bremen, Berlin and Dusseldorf – Germany, Stockton and Sacramento – California, and Pont Aven and Orleans, France. He has authored the books Trio and Tam Tam, has received a grant from the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany and has been awarded the Triumph Prize in Moscow for the highest achievements in literature and art. Drummer and composer Vladimir Tarasov continues to perform, compose and record.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mousey Alexander was born Elmer Alexander on June 19, 1922 in Gary, Indiana. He studied at the Roy Knapp School in Chicago, Illinois. It was there that he started a working relationship with Jimmy McPartland and soon afterward began playing with is wife Marian.
By the middle of the 1950s he played with the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra and performed in a small group with guitarist Johnny Smith. In 1956 he accompanied Benny Goodman on a tour of the Far EAst. Later in the decade he often worked with Bud Freeman and Eddie Condon. He would go on to play with Charlie Ventura, Billie Holiday, Red Norvo, Clark Terry, Ralph Sutton, Sy Oliver and Doc Severinsen.
Freelancing during the 1960s with many bands, it was in the 1970s Alexander started recording for Harry Lim under the Famous Door record label. A great well-schooled drummer able to swing any band, he performed with his friend Buddy Rich, who thought highly of his playing.
Drummer Mousey Alexander had a bad stroke in 1980 but fully recovered over time, and played up until his death of heart and kidney failure on October 9, 1988 at age 66.
Inspire A Young Mind
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Della Griffin was born June 12, 1925 in Newberry, South Carolina but grew up in New York, the 19th of 20th children. She greatly admired and was influenced by Count Basie, Charlie Barnet, and most specifically Billie Holiday. She began singing when she was 12 and a few years after her graduation in 1943 from Jamaica High School in Queens, New York, she began singing professionally.
1950 found Griffin and Frances Kelley forming one of the first all female R&B singing group that played in small clubs whenever they could for about a year. In 1951, Della invited Jerry Blaine, the owner of Jubilee Records, to hear the group perform. So impressed by the group that he signed them the next day and in January 1952 Jubilee released “The Enchanters” first record, they began touring, dropped their second record and two members left the group.
Della and Kelley were determined to continue their careers and replaced the two members becoming the “Dell-Tones” after lead singer and drummer Della. They went on to record with Brunswick and Rainbow record labels, and toured with Jimmy Forrest. By 1957 the Dell-Tones slowly began to drift apart and Della left to perform on her own.
Over the years Griffin migrated towards jazz touring with and playing in support to many artists including Sonny Stitt, Benny Green, Illinois Jacquet, and Etta Jones. She began performing again in New York City clubs including the Blue Note and The Blue Book where she stayed for years.
In 1984, Della was hit by a car and took a break from singing. She came back as a featured singer that garnered her more attention than her drumming. Recording with Houston Person, she began performing overseas at age 88, she has since all but ceased her performances and appearances. While singing remained her passion, vocalist Della Griffin, who was also proficient on the drums, alto saxophone, and piano, transitioned in New York City on August 9, 2022, at the age of 100..
Inspire A Young Mind