ALTHEA RENE
Detroit soul jazz flutist & Billboard chart-topping sensation brings her red hot band back to the Rubber City in a sizzlin’ return to BLU!
Althea was born December 25th in Detroit, Michigan and began her musical journey at the tender age four. She studied classical music while attending Howard University in Washington D.C. and later gained further musical inspiration from the accomplishments of Yusef Lateef, Ian Anderson, and her father, one of Motown’s original Funk Brothers, Dezie McCullers.She has since developed her own creative style.
For more than 10 years she was employed as a Wayne County Deputy Sheriff (Detroit, Michigan). Today, she is a full-time performing/recording artist and some regard her as a “master of her craft” and one of the world’s most exciting solo improvisational flutists.
In May 2013, she released her fifth project “In The Flow”. Collaborating with Grammy award winning producer Michael Broening, (producer for legendary icons George Benson and Paul McCartney) she cowrote the title track. That single became her biggest hit and reached number one ranking on both the Billboard Chart and the Smooth Jazz Chart. Althea Rene made history by becoming the first flute player in the history of Billboard Chart to reach the number one spot.
In April 2015, Althea Rene recorded her first live project. She and her rhythm section annihilated the stage of the beautiful Detroit Public Library with a free concert. Music fans from all over Michigan enjoyed a scorching hot performance. A compilation of some of her greatest hits, “Live in Detroit” is arguably her strongest work to date.
Cover: $48.25
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Theodore Malcolm Nash Sr. was born on October 31, 1922 in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts. His goal was to become a classical flutist until he began playing saxophone in his early teens. He started playing professionally when he went on the road with a succession of dance bands. In 1944, he became tenor saxophonist for the Les Brown big band.
The late 1940s had him married and settling in Los Angeles, California where he became an active session musician in the Hollywood movie and television studios. In 1956, he recorded with Paul Weston’s orchestra the album Day by Day, with vocals by his former colleague and close friend, Doris Day.
He was the featured soloist on The Music from Peter Gunn soundtrack, performing the alto saxophone solo on the theme and on the second bridge of Dreamsville. Through the 1950s and 1960s, he worked as a sideman for June Christy, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Nancy Wilson. During the 1970s, he worked with Judy Collins and Quincy Jones.
Retiring in the 1980s, saxophonist, flutist and clarinetist Ted Nash Sr. died on May 12, 2011.
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Mwata Bowden was born on October 11, 1947 in Memphis, Tennessee. He is part of a group known as 8 Bold Souls and frequently engages in collaborations with Tatsu Aoki. He helped establish the Miyumi Project which was a blend of music with different ethnic backgrounds, highlighting contributions from Japanese taiko drumming in the framework of jazz music.
As part of his regular repertoire, Bowden plays a range of saxophones and clarinets, including the E-flat clarinet, B-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, contra-alto clarinet, and contrabass clarinet, as well as flute, zamada, and didgeridoo.
As an instructor in improvisational jazz at the University of Chicago teaches young aspiring musicians in the Chicago area. Saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist Mwata Bowden, who is a part of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, continues to perform.
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Ronald Wayne Laws was born on October 3, 1950 and raised in Houston, Texas. He is the fifth of eight children and started playing the saxophone at the age of 11. He went on to attend Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, for two years.
In 1971 he journeyed to Los Angeles, California to embark upon a musical career. He started performing with trumpeter Hugh Masekela and the following year joined Earth, Wind & Fire, where he played saxophone and flute on their album Last Days and Time. Eighteen months later he decided to become a solo artist. Laws released his debut album Pressure Sensitive on Blue Note Records in 1975.
His first two albums charted on Billboard and by his third album, Friends and Strangers in 1977 was certified gold. Ronnie produced and sang on his sister Debra’s 1981 album Very Special. He would go on to play saxophone through the Eighties on albums by Ramsey Lewis, Sister Sledge, Deniece Williams, Jeff Lorber, Alphonse Mouzon, and Howard Hewett. In the 1990s he recorded with Norman Brown and again with Earth, Wind & Fire.
Saxophonist, flutist and vocalist Ronnie Laws, who has also worked with Guru, Brian Culbertson, and the Crusaders, also influenced Boney James and Norman Brown, and continues to explore the boundaries of his talent.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Rigby was born on September 3, 1940 in Harlem, New York and grew up in the Sugar Hill neighborhood where his neighbors included Johnny Hodges, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, and Kenny Burrell. He started playing piano when he was six and began playing flute and clarinet in high school. His focus eventually switched to the saxophone after hearing John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.
Graduating from the College of Staten Island he earned a bachelor’s degree in Music and a minor in Music Education. Rigby would go on to study privately with Joe Allard, Garvin Bushell, and Anders Paulsson. He taught instrumental music with the New York City Board of Education from 1989 until he retired in 2004, and was named New York’s Music Teacher of the Year in 1996.
Performing on alto, soprano, baritone and sopranino saxophone, Joe began performing professionally with Milton Graves, Johnny Copeland, and Steve Reid, with whom he led the Master Brotherhood. In the late 1970s, he formed and led his own group, Dynasty.
Establishing his Homeboy record label, he released a record with trumpeter Ted Daniel, and the album Music as a solo artist in 2009. The same year he recorded on French label Improvising Beings, releasing For Harriet with a quartet which included bagpiper player Calum MacCrimmon.
Tenor, alto, baritone, soprano and sopranino saxophonist Joe Rigby, who also plays flute and piccolo, died on July 16, 2019 at the age of 78.
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