Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobbi Humphrey was born Barbara Ann Humphrey on April 25, 1950 in Marlin, Texas but was raised in Dallas. She studied classical and jazz styles before graduating from Lincoln High School in 1968 and then continued her studies at Texas Southern University and Southern Methodist University. When Dizzy Gillespie saw her play at a talent contest at Southern Methodist, he inspired her to pursue a musical career in new York City.
Humphrey followed his advice, getting her first big break performing at the Apollo Theatre on Amateur Night. She eventually began playing regularly throughout the city. By 1972, she was recording for the Blue Note Jazz label, one of the first female instrumentalists to do so. Since her debut for the label she has performed with Duke Ellington, Lee Morgan, George Benson and Stevie Wonder amongst a host of other musicians.
In 1976, she was named Best Female Instrumentalist by Billboard. In 1994 Humphrey launched her label, Paradise Sounds Records, releasing Passion Flute, which continues to be one of her best-selling recordings. She has played the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, Montreux Jazz Festival and the Russian River Jazz Festival in Northern California, as well as other venues around the world.
Flautist and vocalist Bobbi Humphrey has a dozen albums in her catalogue, having taken a break from recording from 1979-1989 and has not recorded an album since her best selling Passion Flute in 1994. She continues to perform fusion, jazz funk and soul jazz music styles, compose, produce and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeff Clayton was born February 16, 1954 in Venice, California and studied oboe at California State University and undertook a tour with Stevie Wonder. Following this he recorded with Gladys Knight, Kenny Rogers, Michael Jackson, Patti Labelle, Madonna B. B. King, Joe Cocker and Ray Charles.
No stranger to jazz, joining his brother, bassist John Clayton, they founded the Clayton Brothers in 1977 and later formed the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra with drummer Jeff Hamilton. Clayton has performed and recorded with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Ethan Smith, Lena Horne, Kurt Elling, Diana Krall, and the Count Basie Orchestra under the leadership of Thad Jones. From 1989 to 1991 he was a member of the Phillip Morris Superband, and has toured with Gene Harris and Dianne Reeves.
In 2009 Brother To Brother by The Clayton Brothers received a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group. Alto saxophonist and flautist Jeff Clayton continues to perform, record and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Craig Bailey was born on February 3, 1960 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His interest in music began at age 8, learning to play the recorder with a small group of classmates. Following that, he became a part of the All City Boys Choir. He enrolled in the beginning band program in junior high and took up the clarinet, saxophone and flute, perfecting his skills in playing all three instruments in high school and college.
Bailey earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Miami and headed to New York in 1985. He worked with drummer Charlie Persip’s Superband. He went on to join the world-renowned group of Panama Francis and his Savoy Sultans, learning traditional swing music and traveling to Europe for the first time.
Two years later Craig landed an audition with Ray Charles and became his lead alto saxophonist from 1988-2004. During this period he collaborated the Tana Reid Quintet, Bobby Watson’s Tailor Made Big Band, Nancy Banks Orchestra and the Tom Harrell Big Band among others. He developed his small group writing and playing style, leading him to his own arranging and composing.
Bailey dropped his debut album, A New Journey in 1995 to critical acclaim and is referenced in The Encyclopedia of Jazz. His sophomore release, Brooklyn, received favorable review. He is one of the most consistently inventive and potentially significant reed players of his generation. In between his performing duties Craig Bailey currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Music in Jazz Saxophone at the University of Cincinnati.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sadao Watanabe was born on February 1, 1933 in Utsunomiya, Japan and first began learning music at the age of 18. He started performing professionally in 1953. By 1958 he had established himself as a world-class saxophonist having performed with leading musicians and quartets. In 1962 he left Japan to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Known for his bossa nova recordings, Sadao’s work encompasses a large range of styles with collaborations from musicians all over the world. Of his 72 albums to date, he has had 13 albums reach the top 50 Billboard charts and two within the Top 10. He has also had numerous albums reach number one on the jazz charts.
Watanabe has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun – the imperial medal of honor, the Fumio Nanri Award, and an honorary Doctorate Degree from Berklee College of Music.
In addition to his musical career, alto and soprano saxophonist and flutist Sadao Watanabe is also a published photographer with six books to his credit in Japan. He is also a U.S. citizen sharing his time between his homeland and Los Angeles, California as he continues to perform, record and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kat Parra was born on January 13, 1962 in San Francisco, California and spent part of her teenage years in Chile. Upon her return, she move to southern California to attend University of California at Los Angeles where she studied classical flute and voice for a year. Moving to the Silicon Valley area she shifted her educational focus to jazz, studying voice at San Jose State University alongside singer Patti Cathcart of Tuck & Patti, who was a major influence.
Kat spent five years as a lead vocalist for the Bay area salsa band Charanga Nueve, and they opened for the likes of Celia Cruz and Los Van Van of Cuba. But despite all that musical activity, she still had a “day gig” working for the tech giant Cisco Systems. In 2006 she left Cisco to be a full-time singer and concentrate on music exclusively.
That very same year Parra recorded her first solo album, Birds In Flight produced by Bay Area-based trombonist Wayne Wallace on JazzMa Records. After that, she signed with Wallace’s indie label, Patois Records, releasing her second solo album, Azucar de Amor (Sugar of Love) in 2008.
Kat is a flexible and broad-minded jazz vocalist who has very strong Latin leanings but has also been affected by Middle Eastern, Arabic, and North African music as well as greatly influenced by Afro-Cuban jazz. She has also combined jazz with everything from Brazilian samba to Afro-Peruvian music. She plays flute, guitar, and piano, and continues to perform in several different languages, including English, Spanish (which she speaks fluently), Portuguese, French, and Ladino, which is the language of Sephardic Jews and is considered one of the romance languages.
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