Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tony Oxley was born on June 15, 1938 in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. A self-taught pianist by the age of eight, he first began playing the drums at seventeen and was taught by Haydon Cook. While playing evening gigs with local dance bands at night, he was sacked from his regular job, at a cutlery-making company, for falling asleep.
During his National Service from 1957 to 1960 with the Black Watch military band he studied music theory and improved his drumming technique. After leaving the army he became a member of a dance band playing for passengers on the Queen Mary and made several trips to New York. When on shore leave Tony visited clubs and heard Philly Joe Jones, Horace Silver, Art Blakey. From 1960 to 1964 he led a quartet which performed locally back home.
1963 saw Oxley playing Saturday afternoon gigs with other aspiring young jazz musicians and working with Gavin Bryars and guitarist Derek Bailey, in a trio known as Joseph Holbrooke. Moving to London, England in 1966 he became house drummer at Ronnie Scott’s, where he accompanied visiting musicians such as Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz, Charlie Mariano, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, and Bill Evans until the early 1970s. He was a member of bands led by Gordon Beck and Mike Pyne.
As a sideman he appeared on the John McLaughlin 1969 album Extrapolation and formed a quintet with Bailey, Jeff Clyne, Evan Parker, and Kenny Wheeler, releasing the album The Baptised Traveller. Tony helped found Incus Records with Bailey and others and Musicians Cooperative. The label would go on to release more than 50 albums, received a three-month artist-in-residence job at the Sydney Conservatorium in Australia and joined the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and collaborated with Howard Riley.
Oxley wwent on to join saxophonist Alan Skidmore’s quintet, tutor at the Jazz Summer School in Barry, South Wales, and form the band Angular Apron, and start the Celebration Orchestra He toured and recorded with Anthony Braxton, and began a working relationship with Cecil Taylor. Over the next few decades he joined several bands, recorded a series of albums and ventured into electronic and acoustic percussion music.
Free improvising drummer and electronic musician Tony Oxley died on December 26, 2023.
LOUIS HAYES & THE CANNONBALL LEGACY BAND
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KRANTZ CARLOCK LEFEBVRE
KCL, the iconic, genre-bending powerhouse trio led by visionary guitaristWayne Krantz and featuring drummer Keith Carlock(Steely Dan, Sting, John Mayer) and bassist Tim Lefebvre (Tedeschi Trucks Band,David Bowie), held a Thursday-night residency at NYC’s 55 Bar throughout the first decade of the new millenium. Cutting live recordings from the club and posting them online in the early days of the internet and touring only sporadically, KCL developed a thoroughly original style of interactive group improvisation inspired in part by the great Miles Davis Quintet of the 60s, but played out in spontaneously generated contexts of heavy funk, rock and electronica instead of straight-ahead swing.
As other instrumental bands of the day dabbled in derivative fusion and retro-jazz, KCL became an underground phenomenon, cultivating an international following of devoted fans of every stripe looking for an alternative creative music that served the mind, body and spirit. Relentlessly grooving, always innovative, never complacent -KCL made contemporary music that resonated beyond category.Other sideman obligations sidelined the band soon after their Abstract Logix release, “Krantz Carlock Lefebvre,” in 2010, but their reputation continued to expand globally through fan circulation of the band’s many live videos and recordings. Now, in 2020, KCL re-ignites to tour with incendiary shows throughout the USA, Europe and Asia.
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JOE FARNSWORTH
A true mentor who leadsby example, drummer and composer Joe Farnsworth brings his intergenerational ensemble to Dizzy’s Club. Over four nights, the award-winning artist’s Time to Swing Quintet presents a high-octane program of blistering solos, dynamic ballads, and joyful spontaneity at its highest level. Don’tmiss this special performance that features three generations of master artists.
Joe Farnsworth, drums
Sean Jones, trumpet (6/20, 6/22, 6/23)
Sarah Hanahan, alto saxophone (6/21, 6/22, 6/23)
Caelen Cardello, piano (6/20 only)
Emmet Cohen, piano (6/21, 6/22, 6/23)
Yashushi Nakamura, bass (6/20, 6/22 & 6/23)
Peter Washington, bass (6/21 only)
Dizzy’s Club requires a minimum food and/or beverage purchase of $21 per person.
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THE HEAVY HITTERS
Mike LeDonne piano | Eric Alexander tenor saxophone | Vincent Herring alto saxophone | Sean Jones trumpet | Alexander Claffy bass | Kenny Washington drums
The Heavy Hitters is the eponymous album from a brand-new sextet featuring some of the most established players in the jazz game. The group is led by Mike LeDonne, New York-based bop pianist best known for his sideman work with Milt Jackson and Benny Golson. His partner in crime, Eric Alexander (himself a first-rate soloist working with Harold Mabern amongst others) was his quartet-mate on a well-received series of releases on the Venus label in the mid-2000’s. The two friends came together for this, their first sextet release as leaders, featuring a set composed entirely of originals.
The music is built to tickle your mind, hit you in the heart and get your head swaying back and forth. The Heavy Hitters have been swinging hard their whole lives! It’s a true “Jazz” sound, recorded by some of the greatest jazz musicians of their generation.
“Together, these two ‘Heavy Hitters’ offer us a smokin’ hot production featuring five other heavy-hitters and a product plush with crème de la crème of both musicianship and original compositions.” – Dee Dee McNeil, Musical Memoirs
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