Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Matthew Mitchell was born July 19, 1975 and grew up in Exton, Pennsylvania. He first played the piano aged six, and composed from the age of 10. He had lessons in jazz and theory at a university from the age of twelve and at this stage he was influenced by pianists Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock.
He attended Indiana University for three years and then completed a master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music in the late Nineties before settlling in New York City. After holding down several jobs in the city Matt decided to move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he worked in a library at The University of the Arts for nine years before leaving when he had too many gigs to fit in.
2011 saw him leading the sextet Central Chain, the following year he introduced a new trio with bassist Chris Tordini and Dan Weiss on drums. During this decade Mitchell was also part of Berne’s Snakeoil band, and John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble and Claudia Quintet. He joined and recorded with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa’s band.
Mitchell was awarded a Pew Fellowships in the Arts in 2012. He has released fifteen albums as a leader or co-leader and recorded as a sideman on thirty albums.
Pianist and composer Matt Mitchell, who is a faculty member at New York’s Center for Improvisational Music, continues to expand his jazz catalogue through performance, composition and recordings.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ivor Mairants was born in Rypin, Poland on July 18, 1908 and moved with his family to the United Kingdom in 1913 where he attended Raine’s Foundation School in Bethnal Green. He began learning the banjo at the age of 17 and became a professional musician three years later.
In the 1930s he was a banjoist and guitarist for British dance bands led by Bert Firman, Ambrose, Roy Fox, Lew Stone, Geraldo, and Ted Heath. In 1950 Mairants established the Central School of Dance Music in London, England which he ran for 10 years. All instruments were taught at this establishment, but emphasis was given to guitar. Among the teaching staff at the school were Johnny Dankworth, Jack Brymer, Kenny Baker, Bert Weedon and Ike Isaacs, and Eric Gilder. In 1960 Mairants handed the school over to Gilder, who renamed it as the Eric Gilder School of Music.
In the Sixties and Seventies his guitar playing was often heard on television, radio, film soundtracks, and many recordings with the Mantovani orchestra and with Manuel and his Music of the Mountains. His 1976 recording of the Adagio from Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with Manuel sold over one million copies.
He wrote many occasional pieces for jazz bands, was a columnist for Melody Maker, BMG, and Classical Guitar, and was a member of the Worshipful Society of Musicians, a British guild, and a Freeman of the City of London. In 1997 the Worshipful Society inaugurated an annual competition for the Ivor Mairants Guitar Award.
Guitarist, composer and teacher Ivor Mairants, who with his wife Lily in 1958 he created the Ivor Mairants Musicentre, a specialist guitar store in London, died on February 20, 1998.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alan Dawson was born on July 14, 1929 in Marietta, Pennsylvania and raised in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he played with the Army Dance Band while stationed at Fort Dix from 1951 to 1953. During his service, Dawson explored the post-bop era by performing with pianist Sabby Lewis. After being discharged from the army, Dawson toured Europe with Lionel Hampton.
In early 1960, he resided in Boston, Massachusetts for a regular engagement with bassist John Neves and pianist Leroy Flander. He was an early teacher of drummers Tony Williams, Joseph Smyth, Terri Lyne Carrington, Julian Vaughn, Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Smith, Kenwood Dennard, Gerry Hemingway, Jeff Sipe, Billy Kilson, Joe Farnsworth, Bob Gullotti, and many others.
Dawson began teaching at Berklee College of Music in 1957. He suffered a ruptured disc in 1975 which led to him halting his touring schedule, to leave Berklee and limit his teaching to his home in Lexington, Massachusetts.
While teaching, Dawson also maintained a prolific performing and recording career. He was the house drummer for Lennie’s on the Turnpike in Peabody, Massachusetts, from 1963 through 1970. Throughout the 1960s he recorded almost exclusively with saxophonist Booker Ervin on Prestige Records. In 1968, he replaced Joe Morello in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and continued until 1972. His performance credits also included stints with Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Jaki Byard, Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, Lee Konitz, Quincy Jones, Charles Mingus, and Tal Farlow.
Drummer Alan Dawson died of leukemia on February 23, 1996. He was 66.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Chris White was born Christopher Wesley White on July 6, 1936 in Harlem, New York and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In 1956 he graduated from City College of New York, and in 1968 from the Manhattan School of Music. Continuing his education six years later he earned his Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1994, he did postgraduate Advanced Computer Study at Berklee College of Music.
An occasional member of Cecil Taylor’s band in the 1950s, he was credited on the 1959 Love for Sale album. From 1960 to 1961 he accompanied Nina Simone and subsequently he was a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s ensemble until 1966.
He founded the band The Jazz Survivors and was a member of the band Prism. Throughout his career he collaborated with Billy Taylor, Eubie Blake, Earl Hines, Chick Corea, Teddy Wilson, Kenny Barron, Mary Lou Williams, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Billy Cobham.
Bassist, arranger, producer and educator Chris White, who was on the creative arts and technology faculty at Bloomfield College in New Jersey, died on November 2, 2014.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mat Marucci was born Mathew Roger Marucci III on July 2, 1945 in Rome, New York into a musical family with his sister Mena, a concert pianist and his brother Ed, a trumpeter. He was classically trained on the piano and switched to drums at the age of 19.
After graduating high school from St. Aloysius Academy in 1963, Marucci studied drums with Dick Howard in Auburn, New York for two years. Receiving a business management degree at Auburn Community College in 1965, he relocated to the west coast four years later. Attending Sacramento City College in California, he received his associate degree in music, in 1973.
In addition to recording and performing, Marucci has authored several books on drumming for both Ashley Publications and Mel Bay Publications. His recordings and books have garnered four and five star reviews in JazzTimes, Jazziz, Modern Drummer, DownBeat and DRUM! magazines. He also wrote articles for several magazines and jazz websites.
In his role as a jazz educator, Mat has been a professor at several California colleges in Sacramento and Berkeley and an applied drum set instructor at the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society.
Drummer Mat Marucci, who has lived between New York City, Los Angeles and Sacramento and has recorded seventeen albums as a leader and eight as a sideman, continues to explore and perform.
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