Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sahib Shihab was born Edmund Gregory on June 23, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. Schooled in New York from age 3, he first played alto saxophone professionally for Luther Henderson at 13. He studied at the Boston Conservatory, and played in and around New York with Art Blakey, Gigi Gryce, Benny Golson, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Dizzy Gillespie. He toured with the bands of Fletcher Henderson, Buddy Johnson, Roy Eldridge, Andy Kirk, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and the original 17 Messengers of Blakey.
During the late 1940s, Shihab played with Thelonious Monk, and on July 23, 1951 he recorded with Monk that was later issued on the album Genius of Modern Music: Volume 2. During the decade he recorded with Art Blakey, Kenny Dorham and Benny Golson. The invitation to play with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band saw his switch to baritone saxophone.
Between 1952 to 1955 he toured with Illinois Jacquet in Europe, as well as with Coleman Hawkins and Sarah Vaughn and toured with Dakota Stanton from 1956 to 1958. He was one of the musicians who showed up for the Art Kane photograph A Great Day In Harlem. Closing out the Fifteies he toured Europe with Quincy Jones, and subsequently settled in Scandinavia in 1960, married and raising a family. Shihab, disillusioned with racial politics in the United States, decided around this time to move to Europe.
As an educator he worked for Copenhagen Polytechnic and wrote scores for television, cinema and theatre. He composed and arranged for Swedish and Danish radio orchestras. He went on to perform with bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and together with pianist Kenny Drew, he ran a publishing firm and record company. Through the Sixties he joined the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band and remained a member of the band during its 12 years existence.
Returning to the United States in 1973 he toured with Quincy Jones and The Brothers Johnson. He returned to Copenhagen, Denmark three years later, where he produced albums for Metronome Records, along with Kenny Drew. The album is titled Brief Encounter, and features the voices of Debby Cameron and Richard Boone. At decade’s end he started a record company with Kenny Drew called Matrix and spent his remaining years between New York and Copenhagen, performed in partnership with Art Farmer and led his own jazz combo called Dues.
Hard bop baritone, alto, and soprano saxophonist and flautist, composer, arranger, producer and educator Sahib Shihab, who beginning of 1986 was a visiting artist at Rutgers University, died from cancer on October 24, 1989, in Nashville, Tennessee at age 64.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Louisa West was born in Thomasville, Georgia on June 14, 1979 and began playing flute at the age of ten. She went on to receive a Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Georgia and while studying there she performed in numerous ensembles including an orchestra conducted by Sammy Nestico. She studied privately with classical flutists Angela Jones-Reus, William Bennett, Mary Karen Clardy, and Mimi Stillman, as well as jazz flutists Nestor Torres and Holly Hofmann.
A winner of numerous competitions, after graduating from college in 2001, she relocated to southern California where she has been performing in the musical genres of world music, jazz, Latin jazz, and classical music. Playing extensively in the U.S, Canada and Mexico, Louisa has appeared onstage with touring acts such as Persian pop star Shakila, flutist Nestor Torres, and Brazilian singer Diogo Nogueira.
West recently attended California Brazil Camp, where she delved into the history and music of Brazil through workshops and performances by Brazilian jazz artists. This experience inspired her 2010 debut release with Jimmy Patton titled Sambarina.
Flutist Louisa West continues to perform, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Parker May 28, 1959 in Liverpool, England. A founding member of and composer for the British jazz band Loose Tubes in the 1980s. He has toured and performed with several noted bands and performers including Bheki Mseleku, Marvin Smith and John Parricelli. He has toured with the band Mister Vertigo, of which Parricelli is also a member, and conducts jazz workshops and performances involving young musicians. He was a lecturer in jazz at Middlesex University, where his students included Led Bib.
As a leader he has recorded three albums, a half doen with Loose Tubes and as a sideman he has recorded eight with Django Bates, A Man Called Adam, Keziah Jones, Oumou Sangare, Trevor Walters, and Mseleku.
Flutist and composer Eddie Parker continues to play keyboards during workshops and live performances.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Andrea Ventriglia was born in Capua, Italy on April 29, 1953 and studied the saxophone with the masters Franco Florio in Salerno and Eraclio Sallustio at the GB Martini Conservatory in Bologna, Italy. He later studied the flute with Aldo Ferrantini.
His professional career began while he was still a music student around the end of the 1960s, following the rhythm & blues and soul of James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Joe Cocker in fashion at that time and still today. At a very young age he was part of the best and
As a soldier Andrea was part of the National Band of the Italian Army. He moved to Verona, Italy in the mid 1970s and began playing in small bands in night clubs. He was invited to join the Big Band Citta’ di Verona directed by Maestro Mario Pezzotta, in the first tenor saxophone. At the same time he performed in Fernando Brusco’s small orchestra as an arranger and saxophonist.
Moving to the United States he initially played in small bands that performed on cruise ships where he met among others Count Basie, Mercer Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Harry James and Bob Crosby. Settling first in San Francisco, then in Los Angeles, California he played on the road with small bands collaborating with Harry James and Bob Crosby in the latter city.
Back in Italy he gained membership into Franco Rosselli’s orchestra and did the night club circuit in Florence, San Remo and Riviera Romagnola. Leaving Roselli he toured with Bobby Solo throughout Italy. His passion for jazz and big band led him to the Luciano Fineschi Orchestra, again sitting in the first tenor saxophone and flute chair.
After the orchestra disbanded Ventriglia went on to play in other big bands, duos, artistic partnerships, and guest appearances. For a decade he was a professor of saxophone at the Giuseppe Martucci Music High School in his hometown. He trained musicians currently working with famous artists or with their own groups and some of whom practice the profession of musician in the USA.
By the Eighties the public became more sensitive towards jazz, so Andrea led quartets performing in various Italian jazz clubs. that sprung up a bit everywhere in Italy. During his career and for professional reasons, saxophonist and flutist Andrea Ventriglia has performed on nearly every continent and continues to perform, tour and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Philip Militello a.k.a. Bobby M. was born on March 25, 1950 in Buffalo, New York. He was groomed by the legendary Sam Scamacca at Buffalo’s iconic Lafayette High School in the 1960s.
During the Seventies, Militello went on tour with Maynard Ferguson and returned to Buffalo in the early 1980s to work as a freelance musician.
Moving to Los Angeles, California he spent the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s as a member of orchestras led by Bill Holman and Bob Florence. He toured and recorded with Dave Brubeck from 1982 to 2012.
Saxophonist and flautist Bobby Militello leads a quartet that performs concerts dedicated to Brubeck.
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