Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Fionna Duncan was born on November 5, 1939 in a temperance hotel in Garelochhead, Scotland a few weeks into the Second World War. The doctor had refused to come to the family home in Portincaple, on the shores of Loch Long, because a blackout was in operation. The youngest of three, she initially preferred to sing, although she later began to accompany herself on guitar and ukulele.
When she was six, the family moved to Rutherglen and it was there, thanks to Rutherglen Academy’s ballads and blues club, that she added folk and skiffle songs to the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas she sang at the local music society. By sixteen, while still at school, she was singing in talent competitions and with local jazz bands. One competition win resulted in an audition for television and the chance to make a recording.
A family trip to the United States had her singing on radio and television, and Riverside Records offered Fionna a recording contract. Not wanting to live in the States, a stipulation of the deal, she turned it down along with the chance to become label-mates with pianists Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans, and saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane. Back in Glasgow, Scotland appearances on the weekly TV show Skiffle Club with the Joe Gordon Folk Four, singing with the Steadfast Jazz Band, and another talent competition win and auditions, she met clarinettist Forrie Cairns.
With her mother’s blessing Fionna joined Cairns’ All-Stars whom she would go on to work into the 2000s. In 1959 she and Forrie were invited to join the Clyde Valley Stompers, a traditional jazz band and recorded the album, Have Tartan Will Trad.
She won the JazzBeat Award for Top Singer in 1960 met Louis Armstrong at his own insistence when they shared a bill, and also met Lena Horne and the Beatles. She continued touring until 1964, then took up residence in London, where she hosted the Georgian Nightclub in the West End, singing with Kenny Ball and Humphrey Lyttelton, among other prominent musicians of the time. Suffering five slipped discs and being hospitalized for a year, Fionna changed careers and trained as a hairdresser. However, the lure of the microphone and telling stories in song pulled her back to performing.
In 1985 she put together her own group with her partner, bassist Ronnie Rae, Ronnie’s son John on drums and Brian Kellock on piano. Together they became the house trio for Fionna’s Vocal Jazz Workshops, where she became a supportive mentor. if also quite a tough critic to a veritable legion of budding jazz singers as her workshops developed into a regular feature at Glasgow Jazz Festival. The festival’s late-night club also benefited from Fionna’s ‘strict but fair’ hosting skills for several years.
Vocalist Fionna Duncan continued to sing and teach into her seventies, was voted Best Jazz Vocalist and received a Lifetime Achievement award at the Scottish Jazz Awards, died at 83 on December 6, 2022.
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RON SAVAGE
The Ron Savage Berklee Trio features two of Berklee’s stalwart and renowned
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Christopher Burnett was born in Olathe, Kansas on November 2, 1955 and grew up in a military family that moved often before settling in the Kansas City area. He was exposed to music growing up as his mother introduced him to the piano and he was a member of the youth choir at his church. He took up saxophone and clarinet in his school band. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Music Program where he performed and pursued higher education, studying at the Armed Forces School of Music, Webster University, Missouri’s Columbia College, Berklee College of Music, and American University.
Spending 22 years in the military, Chris rose to the rank of 1st Sergeant in the position of Enlisted Bandleader, staff and faculty assignment at the Armed Forces School of Music, and the leading Chief Petty Officer of the NATO Band in Naples, Italy. He served as NATO Ceremonial Band Conductor, directed the jazz band, played the lead alto saxophone chair with the West Point Military Academy Band’s Jazz Knights, and a featured soloist with the Hof Symphony Orchestra in Germany.
After leaving the military Burnett continued to teach, holding the position of director of the jazz ensemble program and adjunct lecturer at Missouri University of Science and Technology, formerly University of Missouri-Rolla, where he worked as an Adjunct Lecturer for a decade.
He has performed with artists like Bobby Watson, Will Matthews, Marcus Hampton, Ahmed Alaadeen, and many more. Burnett is the Founder and Artistic Director of KC Area Youth Jazz and along with colleagues Erica Lindsay and Sumi Tonooka is a co-founder of the large independent recording label, Artists Recording Collective.
He has held residencies at the historic Drum Room and the Black Dolphin in Kansas City, and appeared as a guest artist and clinician for the Northwest Missouri State Jazz Festival. He released his debut album as a leader, Time Flies in 2013, Firebird in 2014, in 2021 The Standards, Vol. 1, and Live at The Drum Room in Kansas City in 2022.
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ERIC KENNEDY
Eric Kennedy & Friends: Tribute to Lisa
A Baltimore, Maryland native, Eric Kennedy is a drummer, vocalist, percussionist, educator, arranger and composer. He started performing at the age of three with a family band and encouraged by visiting local and national musicians.
Eric was the 2004 runner-up in the Billie Holiday Vocal Competition and first-place band member in the Chick Webb Jazz Combo Competitions 2008 and 2009. Eric also won the Jazz Journalists Association of America 2023 award for Baltimore Jazz Hero.
Eric has performed, toured, and recorded with Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Heath, Gary Bartz, Phil Woods, Billy Harper, Curtis Lundy, Bobby Watson, Gary Thomas, Fred Wesley, Wallace Roney, Cyrus Chestnut, Ethel Ennis, Larry Willis, Cecil McBee, Donald Harrison, Joe Locke, TK Blue, John Hicks, Richard Wyands, Yusef Salim, Eddie Henderson, Joe Bonner, Carl Grubbs, David Murray, Oliver Lake, Pansori master Ahn Sook Sun and many others.
The Band:
Eric Kennedy ~ drums
Marc Cary ~ piano
John Lee ~ guitar
Kelly Shepherd ~ alto saxophone
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Patrick Dease was born August 25, 1982 in Augusta, Georgia. He attended John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet High School where he studied saxophone and voice. He achieved all-state vocal honors for three consecutive years.
At 17 Michael taught himself to play trombone and was soon invited to join the inaugural class of the Juilliard jazz studies program by Wycliffe Gordon. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees while at the school. While at Juilliard he won many awards, including the Frank Rosolino Award, J.J. Johnson Award, the Sammy Nestico Jazz Composers Award, ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, and the Fish Middleton Jazz Competition.[2]
He began his career in Illinois Jacquet’s Big Band in 2002, and has performed as a featured member of the big bands of Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton, Jimmy Heath, Charles Tolliver and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars. He also performs with small groups led by Claudio Roditi, Rodney Whitaker, Wycliffe Gordon, and David Sanborn. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America. In addition to performance, Dease serves as president and producer at his jazz record label, D Clef Records.
Dease conducts master classes and workshops at universities and conservatories around the world, holds the position of Associate Professor of Jazz Trombone at the Michigan State University College of Music. He has held similar positions at Queens College, CUNY, and The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.
Tenor and bass trombonist, composer, producer and educator Michael Dease continues to perform, compose, record and educate.
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