Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sonny Greer was born William Alexander Greer on December 13, c. 1895 in Long Branch, New Jersey. He played with Elmer Snowden’s band and the Howard Theatre Orchestra in Washington, D.C., before joining Duke Ellington. Meeting him in 1919, he was Ellington’s first drummer, playing with his quintet, the Washingtonians. He then moved with Ellington into the Cotton Club.
As a result of his job as a designer with the Leedy Drum Company of Indiana, Greer was able to build up a huge drum kit worth over a then-considerable $3,000, including chimes, a gong, timpani, and vibes.
A heavy drinker, as well as a pool-hall hustler when he needed to retrieve his drums from the pawnbroker, in 1950, Ellington responded to his drinking and occasional unreliability by taking a second drummer, Butch Ballard, with them on a tour of Scandinavia. This enraged Greer, and the consequent argument led to their permanent estrangement.
Sonny continued to play, mainly as a freelance drummer, working with musicians such as Johnny Hodges, Red Allen, J. C. Higginbotham, Tyree Glenn, and was there for the iconic 1958 Art Kane black-and-white photograph A Great Day In Harlem. He was part of a tribute to Ellington in 1974, which achieved great success throughout the United States.
Never recording as a leader, he was quite active as a sideman recording with not only seven albums with Duke but another twelve albums with Johnny Hodges, Bernard Addison, Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, Lionel Hampton, Lonnie Johnson, Brooks Kerr, Oscar Pettiford, Rex Stewart, Victoria Spivey, and Josh White.
Drummer Sonny Greer , best known for his work with Duke Ellington, passed away of a heart attack on March 23, 1982 in Lenox Hill, on the upper East side of Manhattan.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Anthony Tillmon Williams was born of African, Portuguese, and Chinese descent on December 12, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied with drummer Alan Dawson at an early age, and began playing professionally at the age of 13 with saxophonist Sam Rivers. Saxophonist Jackie McLean hired Williams when he was 16.
At 17 Williams gained attention when he joined Miles Davis in what was later dubbed Davis’s Second Great Quintet. A vital element of the group, his playing helped redefine the role of the jazz rhythm section through the use of polyrhythms and metric modulation.
He recorded his first two albums as leader at nineteen for the Blue Note label, Life Time in 1964) and Spring in 1965.. He also recorded as a sideman for the label including, in 1964, Out to Lunch! with Eric Dolphy and Point of Departure with Andrew Hill.
By 1969, he had formed his trio, the Tony Williams Lifetime, with John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ. Lifetime was a pioneering band of the fusion movement. Disbanding the group, in 1975 he put together a band he called The New Tony Williams Lifetime, featuring bassist Tony Newton, pianist Alan Pasqua, and English guitarist Allan Holdsworth, which recorded two albums for Columbia Records..
In mid-1976, Tony reunited with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Wayne Shorter. Freddie Hubbard replaced Miles Davis who was in the midst of a six-year hiatus. The resulting record was later released as V.S.O.P. and the group toured for several years and produced a series of live albums released under the name V.S.O.P. or V.S.O.P.: The Quintet.
1979 saw Williams, McLaughlin and bassist Jaco Pastorius united for a one-time performance at the Havana Jazz Festival. This trio came to be known as the Trio of Doom. In 1985, returning to Blue Note he released six albums through 1993, playing his compositions almost exclusively ubtil he left Blue Note for the final time.
He lived and taught in the San Francisco Bay Area, was one of the pioneers of jazz fusion, and was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1986. On February 20, 1997 he checked into Seton Medical Center in Daly City, California, suffering from stomach pain. Three days later, while recuperating from gallbladder surgery, drummer Tony Williams passed away of a heart attack at 51 on February 23, 1997.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
In The Now is an album by the accomplished percussionist and drummer Cindy Blackman recorded on November 18, 1997 by engineer Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It was released on the HighNote label on May 19, 1998.
The producer on the date was Don Sickler, the art direction performed by Wendi Horowitz with photography by Carl Posey. The liner notes were written by Chip Stern.
Track List | 63:23 All compositions by Cindy Blackman except where noted
- In The Now ~ 6:45
- A Banana for Ron ~ 3:22
- Passage ~ 6:40
- A King Among Men ~ 15:00
- Sophia ~ 7:24
- Prince of Darkness (Wayne Shorter) ~ 7:13
- Happy House (Ornette Coleman) ~ 4:34
- A Strawberry for Cindy ~ 4:30
- Let Love Rule (Lenny Kravitz) ~ 7:55
- Cindy Blackman ~ Drums
- Ravi Coltrane ~ Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone
- Jacky Terrasson ~ Piano, Fender Rhodes
- Ron Carter ~ Bass
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alan Lawrence Turnbull was born November 23, 1943 in Melbourne, Australia and after taking drum lessons from Graham Morgan he commenced his professional career at the age of 14. He played with top local jazz musicians such as Graeme Lyall, Keith Hounslow and Brian Brown while filling in for drummer Stewart Speer at Horst Liepolt’s Melbourne jazz venue, Jazz Centre 44.
Moving to Sydney in the late 1960s, Turnbull soon became very active in the jazz scene and worked regularly as a freelance musician, including a number of years with the Don Burrows quartet which worked regularly at various clubs, concerts, festivals and other venues throughout Australia and in the United States.
His partnership of drums/double bass with American double bassist Ed Gaston set a new standard for swing jazz rhythm sections in Australia that would influence Australian rhythm sections for decades.
In the following years he worked with the likes of Milt Jackson, Joe Henderson, Gary Burton, Sonny Stitt, Barney Kessell, Richie Cole, Cleo Laine, Billy Eckstine, Cab Calloway, Billy Field, and Neil Sedaka as well the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Pops Orchestra.
Appearing on numerous recordings, including those of Don Burrows, Rolf Stube’s Jazz Police, Graeme Norris Band, The Jazz Co-op, The Two with Paul Macnamara, Neil Sedaka and Billy Field, drummer Alan Turnbull, who was also a freelance professional musician, passed away on August 28,2014.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Still quarantining as much as possible as the Delta variants continue to ravage the country, those of us who are continuing to wear our masks and social distancing we put on music to soothe our souls. Though most people go to the vintage classics, this week I am pulling out one of my favorite albums of recent years, With Pride For Dignity. This 2018 album was recorded by drummer Henry Conerway III at Avatar Studios, New York City on February 27~28, 2017.
The album was produced by Michael Carvin, with Conerway as executive producer. The engineers were Robert Smith and Dave Darlington with assistance from Nate Odden. It was mixed and mastered at Bass Hit Studios in New York City. The art director was Adrian Suare, cover photography by Adrian H. Tillman, and studio photography by Greg Routt.
Track Listing
- Slippery (Ray Brown, arr. Smith) ~ 6:19
- With Pride For Dignity (Kenny Banks Jr.) ~ 8:09
- Sugar Ray (Phineas Newborn, arr. Banks, Smith, Conerway) ~ 7:01
- Cottontail (Duke Elllington, arr. Conerway) ~ 4:29
- Hopscotch (Marcus Printup, arr. Banks, Conerway) ~ 7:58
- Gingerbread Boy (Jimmy Heath, arr. Banks, Conerway) ~ 6:19
- The Feel Goods (Kenny Banks Jr.) ~ 5:34
- Carvin’s Agreement (Henry Conerway III) ~ 2:48
- Henry Conerway III ~ drums
- Kenny Banks Jr. ~ Piano
- Kevin Smith ~ Bass
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