Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marco Cortesi was born on May 18, 1962 in Locarno, Switzerland. Though learning the guitar early he began taking music seriously at the age of 20. He attended several Italian summer camps with Joe di Jorio, Jim Hall, Mick Goodrick and others. From 1985 to 1991 he enrolled at the Swiss Jazz School (SJS) in Bern, Switzerland where he studied and played with Frank Sikora, Rachel Gould, Woody Shaw, Sal Nistico and others.
After graduation at SJS in 1991, he started a musical and artistic relationship with American and European musicians and started working regularly with Gene Calderazzo in a trio that features special guests such as Franco Ambrosetti, Walt Szymansky, Jon Davis, Mark Abrams, Dario Deidda, Jeff Gardner, Rick Margitza, Giorgio di Tullio, Alberto Bonacasa and many others. He went on to perform in trio to quintet configurations at festivals and in clubs.
In 1997 he’s in London, England for a tour with the Gene Calderazzo Quartet. That same year the Swiss label Altri Suoni released his first CD Triblu. In 1999 he was in New York City he worked, toured and recorded with pianist Jeff Gardner. He went on to tour with tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza, with whom he also recorded with his sophomore project Why Not in 2000. He has collaborated with Franco Ambrosetti, trumpeter Hilaria Kramer, lute player Luca Pianca, and viola player Walter Fähndrich.
Guitarist Marco Cortesi composed all the music and soundtracks played and recorded by his group. He writes music for jingles, radio tunes, and electronic compositions for professional use in the media business.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eric Ross was born on May 14, 1948 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania and began studying piano at the age of seven under Jean Krantz-Thomas. Ten years later he started to write his own compositions and in the late 1960s and early 1970s he studied guitar and attended the electronic music composition course with Charles Dodge at Columbia University.
1972 saw him finishing college and beginning his career as a musician by playing and working in recording studios. Three years later Eric began playing the theremin and the following year he played his music exclusively, allowing him to develop it as a voice in his compositions. In 1982 he released his first album, Songs for Synthesized Soprano, and performed in concert at the Lincoln Center in New York.
He has performed throughout the United States and toured Europe, in addition to performing on radio, television and film. For over twenty years Eric’s ensemble featured John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins, Youseff Yancy, Lydia Kavina, and Robert Dick, among others.
Along with his wife Mary, the couple created memorable multimedia performances that intertwined music with images, video projections, and dance. As an educator he has lectured on the theremin, piano, guitar, and electronic music at colleges, universities and schools in the USA and Europe.
Pianist and guitarist Eric Ross, who also plays synthesizers and is a master of the theremin, continues to blend classical, jazz, serial and avant-garde in his performances.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jim Douglas was born Robert James Elliot Douglas on May 13, 1942 in Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. He played drums in his youth before switching to guitar and in his teens he accompanied clarinettist Pete Kerr.
As part of a Dixieland band, he performed in Germany in 1960 and soon after Jim began playing with Alex Welsh. In 1971 he appeared on the album Freddy Randall and His Famous Jazz Band. Other than Kerr and Welsh, he worked with Alan Elsdon, Lennie Hastings, Ed Polcer, and Keith Smith.
Douglas wrote and self-published a semi-autobiographical book, Tunes, Tours and Travel-itis – Eighteen Years of Facts, Faces and Fun with the Alex Welsh Band. He followed this up three years later with Teenage to Travel-itis – Growing Up in a World of Jazz. The sequel chronicles his adventures in the Jazz world before and after his time with the Alex Welsh Band.
Guitarist, banjoist, and author Jim Douglas, who played with Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Ruby Braff from 1962 until 1981 while in the Welsh band, continues to perform.
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PETER BERNSTEIN QUARTET
Bernstein began playing piano when he was eight but switched to guitar when he was thirteen, learning the instrument primarily by ear. He studied jazz at Rutgers University with Ted Dunbar, and Kenny Barron.
He began his caeer playing the JVC Jazz Festival in 1990, he then appeared on albums with Jesse Davis, Lou Donaldson, Larry Goldings, Michael Hashim, Geoff Keezer, and Melvin Rhyne. He released his first album as a leader with pianist Brad Mehldau. He has also worked with Jimmy Cobb, Tom Harrell, Nicholas Payton, Diana Krall, Lee Konitz, Eric Alexander, Joshua Redman, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Walt Weiskopf. He is a member of the Blue Note 7.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Cal Collins was born on May 5, 1933 in Medora, Indiana and first played the mandolin professionally as a bluegrass musician in the early 1950s. After his Army service he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio he switched to jazz guitar after hearing swing guitarists Charlie Christian, Irving Ashby and Oscar Moore. He played in Cincinnati for twenty years.
In 1976 Benny Goodman hired him at the age of 43 and had a three year stint with the orchestra. Cal then spent three years making albums for Concord Jazz. As a leader and sideman, he worked with Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Rosemary Clooney, Ross Tompkins, Woody Herman, John Bunch, and Marshal Royal.
Returning to Cincinnati in the early Eighties, Collins slowed down his career. He joined the Masters of the Steel String Guitar Tour in 1993 with Jerry Douglas and Doc Watson. Over the course of his career he recorded a dozen albums as a leader with his debut recording being Cal Collins In San Francisco in 1978 on the Concord label.
He recorded twenty-eight albums with John Bunch, Rosemary Clooney, Concord Jazz All Stars, Concord Super Band, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Eiji Kitamura, Marshal Royal, Warren Vache, Bob Barnard, Michael Moore, Jimmy Madison, Kenny Poole, Scott Hamilton and Buddy Tate, Hank Marr, and Ross Tompkins.
In 2001, guitarist Cal Collins, who recorded his last album in 1998, died of liver failure on August 27th in Dillsboro, Indiana.
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