Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Herbie Mann was born Herbert Jay Solomon on April 16, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York and while attending Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach, failed a music class. Be that as it may his first professional gig was in the Catskills at age 15. During the 1950s was primarily a bop flutist, playing in combos with artists such as Phil Woods, with occasional forays into bass clarinet, tenor sax and solo flute.
An early pioneer in the fusing of jazz and world music, he has incorporated elements of African, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Reggae, Middle-Eastern and Eastern European styles into his music. During the Sixties he was jazz’s preeminent flutist with his emphasized groove approach coming to the fore on his albums Memphis Underground and Push Push due to the rhythm section locked in one perception. It was mid-60’s period that he hired a young Chick Corea to play in some of his bands.
Mann’s shift to a more smooth jazz during the Sixties brought criticism from purist but allowed him to remain relevant as interest in jazz waned. He worked with Cissy Houston, Duane Allman, Larry Coryell, Donald “Duck” Dunn and Chuck Rainey, along with Al Jackson and Bernard Purdie out of Muscle Shoals in Alabama. His #1 dance hit Hijack stayed on the charts for three consecutive weeks in 1975.
In this period Mann had a number of songs cross over to the pop charts, a rarity for a jazz musician. He has provided music for the animated short film Afterlife, founded his own label, Embryo Records, that produced jazz albums, such as Ron Carter’s Uptown Conversation, Miroslav Vitous’ first solo album, Infinite Search; and Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival. In 1996, Mann collaborated with Stereolab on the song “One Note Samba/Surfboard” for the AIDS-Benefit album Red Hot + Rio.
Herbie Mann’s final appearance was on May 3, 2003 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at age 73, passing away that same year on July 1, 2003 after a long battle with prostate cancer.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Nicole Mitchell was born on February 17, 1967 in Syracuse, New York where she was raised until age eight, when her family moved to Anaheim, California. She began with piano and viola in the fourth grade; however, she was classically trained in flute and played in youth orchestras as a teenager. Her initial college major in math was superseded by jazz while in college and took to busking in the streets playing jazz flute. After two years at the University of California, San Diego, in 1987 she transferred to Oberlin College.
In 1990 a move to Chicago saw her playing once again on the streets and working for third World Press and meeting members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Mitchell soon started playing with the all-women ensemble Samana under the AACM umbrella. Over the next several years she moved to New Orleans, became a mother, returned to school earning her BA and Masters, met and extensively began playing with Hamid Drake, then worked with saxophonist David Boykin prior to starting her group the Black Earth Ensemble” and co-hosting the Avant-Garde Jazz Jam Sessions in Chicago.
Releasing her debut album “Vision Quest” in 2001, she has been named “Rising Star” flautist for 2004 -2006 by Down Beat and by Down Beat International Critics Poll in 2010 & 2011. As an educator, Nicole has taught at Northern Illinois, Chicago State, Northeastern Illinois University, Wheaton College and the University of Illinois at Chicago; and has been co-president of the AACM since 2006.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Steve Wilson was born February 9, 1961 in Hampton, Virginia. As a teenager, Wilson played in various R&B and funk bands and after a year of playing with Stephanie Mills he attended Virginia Commonwealth University. By 1987 he moved to New York, where he established himself as a sideman performing with American Jazz Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band and the Smithsonian Jazz Orchestra among others.
Wilson toured Europe in 1988 with Lionel Hampton and was a member of “Out Of The Blue”, an ensemble featuring young Blue Note musicians. An accomplished flautist and alto and soprano saxophonist, he also plays the clarinet and piccolo and has played and recorded with the Dave Holland Quintet, the Chick Corea Origin Sextet, with Japanese composer Yoko Kanno, has been a member of the Seatbelt’s New York Musicians, the Blue Note 7 and has performed as a soloist for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
In 1997 he formed the Steve Wilson Quartet and has performed together for over a decade and produced two CDs. He also heads a larger ensemble, Generations, which performs jazz classic and original compositions.
He has held teaching positions in several schools and Universities, as well as holding jazz clinics, notably at the Manhattan School of Music, SUNY at Purchase, Columbia University, has been artist-in-residence at Hamilton College, Old Dominion and University of North Carolina and continues to maintain a busy career as a session musician both in studio and on tour.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill Easley: A Life Lived Through Every Era of Modern Jazz
Some musicians pass through jazz history. Bill Easley has lived it—from Harlem jam sessions to Stax Records, from Arctic military bands to Broadway’s brightest lights.
A Prodigy from Upstate New York
Born January 13, 1946, in Orleans, New York, Easley was already a working professional by age thirteen, gigging with his parents and absorbing the craft from the inside. When he arrived in New York City in 1964, he dove straight into the deep end—studying part-time at the legendary Juilliard School while simultaneously earning his real education in Harlem’s uptown jazz clubs, learning directly from the masters who made the music breathe.
An Unexpected Arctic Interlude
Then came an unexpected detour: the draft. Suddenly, Easley found himself stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the 9th Army Band. It wasn’t exactly 52nd Street, but as any true musician knows, you make music wherever you are—even when surrounded by snow instead of skyscrapers.
The Real Education Begins
Back in action by the late ’60s, Easley was playing the legendary rooms that defined the era—Minton’s Playhouse, the Plugged Nickel, The Jazz Workshop, The Hurricane—standing shoulder to shoulder with George Benson. These weren’t just gigs; they were nightly master classes in jazz history happening in real time, each set a conversation with the greats.
Memphis Soul and Stax Swagger
The ’70s brought a southern migration to Memphis, where Easley entered Isaac Hayes’ orbit, laying down tracks at the iconic Stax and Hi Records—the studios where soul music was being redefined. Even while pursuing his formal education at Memphis State University, he was out there every night with big bands and show bands, whatever was swinging.
Then came the gig that changes everything for any jazz musician: touring with the Duke Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington in the mid-’70s. To play that book, to carry that legacy—it’s a responsibility and an honor few ever experience.
The Great White Way Calls
By 1980, Broadway beckoned, and Easley answered. His theater credits read like a greatest-hits compilation: Sophisticated Ladies, The Wiz, Black and Blue, Jelly’s Last Jam, Fosse—the shows that defined an era of musical theater and kept the jazz tradition alive on the world’s most famous stages.
Never Just a Pit Musician
But here’s the thing about Bill Easley: he never stopped being a jazz cat. Between curtain calls, he was in recording studios with pianists Sir Roland Hanna and Mulgrew Miller, organists Jimmy McGriff and Jimmy Smith, vocalist Ruth Brown, and drummers Grady Tate and Billy Higgins. He recorded for respected labels like Sunnyside and Milestone, keeping one foot firmly planted in the jazz tradition even as the other tapped out Broadway rhythms.
Master of Many Voices
Saxophone, flute, clarinet—Easley commands them all with the hard-won wisdom of someone who’s witnessed every chapter of modern jazz unfold firsthand. From bebop to soul jazz, from Broadway pits to intimate club dates, he’s been there, absorbed it, and made it part of his musical DNA.
Still Writing the Story
And the best part? Bill Easley is still out there, still playing, still adding new chapters to a story that now spans six decades and counting. In a world obsessed with the next new thing, there’s something deeply reassuring about a musician who has mastered the art of being present—in every era, in every room, in every note.
That’s not just a career. That’s a life lived in service to the music itself.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Morris “Moe” Koffman was born on December 28, 1928 in Toronto, Canada. At the age of nine he began his musical studies in his native city, studying violin. He attended the Toronto Conservatory of Music, where he was a student of Samuel Dolin.
Dropping out of school when he found work performing in dance bands, in 1950, he moved to the United States, where he played with big bands including those of Sonny Dunham and Jimmy Dorsey. In 1955, he returned to Toronto where he formed a quartet and later a quintet and recorded Swinging Shepherd Blues in 1957 which helped establish his reputation as a flautist.
Koffman was inspired by Rahsaan Roland Kirk to play multiple instruments at once. He had a modified set of straps to hold a tenor and alto saxophones so that he could put forward incredible chords and improvise at the same time. He performed with Dizzy Gillespie and Peter Appleyard during the 1980s, as well as continuing to front the Moe Koffman Quintet. He often performed with Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass.
He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1993 and inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1997.
Saxophonist, flautist, composer and arranger Moe Koffman, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2000, died of cancer in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada on March 28, 2001 at the age of 72.
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