Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mathias Rüegg was born on December 8, 1952 in Zurich, Switzerland and began playing jazz in secondary school. Trained as a schoolteacher, he taught for a while in special-needs schools. From 1973 to 1975 he attended the Musikhochschule in Graz, Austria, studying classical composition and jazz piano. While in Vienna, Austria he performed in a nightclub as a solo jazz pianist, joined later by saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig. The duo formed the core of an ensemble that in 1977 became the Vienna Art Orchestra (VAO).
His distinctive, often humorous compositions have drawn on a range of influences, from traditional folk music to classics. He has also led the VAO to explore the big band repertory of American jazz composers such as Duke Ellington. Besides the traditional big-band complement, his orchestrations have prominently featured such instruments as the tuba, piccolo, bass clarinet, alphorn, exotic percussion, and wordless vocals. Beyond jazz, Mathias has composed for big bands, and classical orchestras, as well as theatre music, film music, soloist and chamber orchestra.
Rüegg has conducted workshops, worked as artistic director for music festivals, and headed multimedia and music-related projects. Rüegg founded the Porgy & Bess music club in Vienna and the Hans Koller Prize for Austrian jazz.
Composer, bandleader and educator Mathias Rüegg continues to compose and direct orchestras.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Conti was born November 21, 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was an autodidact, first performing locally at age fourteen and mentoring with Pat Martino. In 1966, after four years on the road touring North America, he settled in Jacksonville, Florida.
In 1970, he dropped out of the music business to work in the securities field. Six years later he picked up his guitar and by 1979, he signed with Discovery Records. Conti released Solo Guitar as his debut as a leader and his sophomore project Latin Love Affair. By 1982 he left music again for the business world but again in 1985 he released another album. The following year he headlined the Florida National Jazz Festival, with Jimmy McGriff and Nick Brignola as his sidemen.
In mid-1988 he was offered a position under filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis in Beverly Hills, California. After a lengthy recovery from a back injury in late 1988, he was offered a position as resident jazz guitarist at the Irvine Marriott, a job he held until 1998.
Since starting his website in 2000, he has released 30 educational DVDs on jazz guitar, including pro chord melody and improvisation using his No Modes No Scales approach to teaching jazz guitar. Guitarist and educator Robert Conti, who has his own line of solid spruce thinline archtop jazz guitars since 2009, continues to teach, and perform.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Theak was born on November 10, 1970 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and was raised in a house of impromptu parties. His childhood found him listening to his downstairs neighbor teaching piano every afternoon which led to lessons and a piano for Christmas. His bandmistress at Mona Vale PS introduced him to the saxophone but paid his dues on the baritone horn for a couple of years. After a brief stint at the Conservatorium High School, he returned to the local high school with some enthusiastic music teachers. They encouraged us to improvise and created opportunities for us to play in jazz and rock bands.
he following years saw David practicing, composing, gigging, releasing his own albums and organizing tours of Australia & Europe for his quartet, theak-tet, but with limited opportunities in the 90’s, he became involved with a musician led organization, the Jazzgroove Association, which received NSW and Federal government funding that allowed presentation of new music every week as well as create a record label and form an original creative jazz orchestra, The Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra.
He went on to become involved with SIMA, WAYJO and the formation of the Australian National Jazz Orchestra and ANJO Youth Big Band. David has been running a boutique international jazz festival for the past five years, is currently a Senior Lecturer in Jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Artistic Director of the Australian National Jazz Orchestra, an advisory panel member of the Western Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra, President of the Sydney Improvised Music Association and Artistic Director of the Sydney Con Jazz Festival.
Jazz saxophonist, composer, bandleader, educator, festival director and jazz protagonist, David Theak, who continues to compose, perform and tour, is the artistic director of the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra and collaborates with a who’s who of international jazz musicians.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gabrielle Goodman was born October 23, 1964 in Baltimore, Maryland and her early years of singing in church in Baltimore gave her the skillset to blend jazz and gospel. As a protege of Roberta Flack began her international performance career as a backing vocalist for Flack in the mid-1980s while at the Peabody Institute. She continued to tour and record with her mentor for several years opening for Miles Davis, Ray Charles, the Crusaders and other legends in Japan, Switzerland, Brazil and others around the world.
Goodman’s breakthrough as a solo recording artist happened when she appeared on Norman Connors 1988 album Passion on Capitol Records. She sang lead on five songs, which led to her recording two jazz albums Travelin’ Light in 1993 and Until We Love the following year with Kevin Eubanks, Christian Mcbride, Gary Bartz, Gary Thomas, and Terri Lyne Carrington.
It would be another ten years before she would drop her third album which landed in the soul jazz category ~ Angel Eyes, Songs From The Book and Spiritual Tapestry for the Goodness label. As a touring and performing solo artist she has played festivals and with symphony orchestras.
Goodman has written and arranged songs for Chaka Khan and Roberta Flack, performed alongside Dee Dee Bridgewater and Michael Buble, and also provided vocals for Patti Labelle, Nona Hendryx, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Patrice Rushen, Freddie Jackson, Bryan Ferry, and George Duke.
Vocalist, composer, author, and educator Gabrielle Goodman has a four-octave vocal range and has been an associate professor of voice at Berklee College of Music since 1998.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fred Hersch was born October 21, 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Jewish parents and began playing the piano at the age of four, composing music by eight. By ten he won national piano competitions.
Hersch first became interested in jazz while at Grinnell College in Iowa. He dropped out of school and started playing jazz in Cincinnati, continuing his studies at the New England Conservatory under Jaki Byard and attracting attention from the press in a college recital. Upon graduation, he became a jazz piano instructor at the college.
1977 saw Fred moving to New York City, then gigged with Art Farmer in Los Angeles, California in 1978. He would play with Farmer again three years later, played for singer Chris Connor, then with Joe Henderson. He would go on to perform with Jane Ira Bloom, Jamie Baum, Toots Thielemans, Eddie Daniels, and Janis Siegel. A fortuitous firing of his pianist by Art Pepper gave Hersch the launch of his career when he filled in for the pianist.
In 1986, he taught at Berklee College of Music, performed and recorded sixty-four albums as a leader or co-leader, seventy-nine as a sideman and wrote an autobiography, Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz.
In 1993, Hersch came out as gay and has been treated for HIV since 1984. He fell into a coma in 2008 for two months but when he regained consciousness, he had lost all muscular function as a result of his long inactivity and could not play the piano. After rehabilitation, he was able to play again. He continues to compose, perform and record.
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