Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Roland Prince was born on August 27, 1946 in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda. He was active player on the world stage in the 1960’s and Seventies and in 1977 he released his debut album Color Vision as a leader along with sidemen Virgil Jones, Frank Foster, Kenny Barron, Al Foster, Eddie Moore and Bob Cranshaw.
Followed by two more albums as a leader, he has also recorded as a sideman with Roy Haynes, Billy Mitchell, David Murray, Compost, Elvin Jones, Shirley Scott and Buddy Terry before returning to his home in Antigua & Barbuda.
Once home he remained active on the music scene in Antigua and across the Caribbean playing jazz with the Roland Prince Quartet until his passing on July 15, 2016 aged 69 in Antigua.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pat Martino was born Pat Azzara in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 25, 1944 and began playing professionally at the age of 15 after moving to New York City. He resided with Les Paul for a while before moving into a suite in the President Hotel on 48th Street. He started playing jazz clubs like Smalls Paradise and would play at Smalls for six months of the year and then in the summer play at Club Harlem in Atlantic City.
Early in his career Martino played and recorded with Lloyd Price, Willis Jackson, Eric Kloss, Charles Earland, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Jack McDuff, Don Patterson, Trudy Pitts, Jimmy Smith, Gene Ludwig, Bobby Pierce and Joey DeFrancesco.
He has been awarded Guitar Player of the Year in Down Beat Reader’s Poll in 2004, NARAS Songs from the Heart Award, been nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Live at Yoshi’s, and Best Jazz Instrumental Solo on ‘All Blues‘ and has received Philadelphia Alliance Walk of Fame Award and National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences “2nd Annual Heroes Award among others.
The list of jazz musicians he has performed and recorded as a sideman with are John Handy, Jimmy Heath, Charles McPherson, Sonny Stitt, The Philadelphia Experiment as well as released three-dozen albums as a leader. Guitarist and composer Pat Martino, noted for his mathematical approach to the instrument and plays in the post-bop, fusion, mainstream and soul jazz idioms, continues to perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Peter Leitch was born August 19, 1944 in Montreal, Canada. He has recorded seventeen albums as a leader and was a sideman with Oscar Peterson, Woody Shaw and Dominique Eade. He performed with Kirk Lightsey, Rufus Reid, Al Grey, Jeri Brown, Pepper Adams and Pete Yellin.
During his career he was nominated for a Juno Award for Best Traditional Jazz Album of the Year. He has written an autobiography, Off the Books, giving a real, raw, look at the life of a musician playing creative music. In addition to his music he became a very talented photographer with a number of exhibitions of his work.
Prior to his retirement due to medical issues on July 21, 2015, guitarist Peter Leitch was an educator who taught privately for a number of years.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz..
Herb Ellis was born Mitchell Herbert Ellis in Farmersville, Texas on August 4, 1921 and raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas. He first heard the electric guitar performed by George Barnes on a radio program which inspired him to take up the guitar. He became proficient on the instrument by the time he entered North Texas State University, majored in music, but with no guitar program he studied string bass. With a lack of funds he dropped out in 1941 and toured for six months with a band from the University of Kansas.
In 1943, he joined Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra and it was here that he got his first recognition in the jazz magazines. Leaving Gray for the Jimmy Dorsey band, he got his initial opportunities to recorded solos. Ellis remained with Dorsey through 1947, traveling and recording extensively, but with a six-week hole in the schedule, he John Frigo and Lou Carter took a gig in Buffalo that lasted six months and where the group Soft Winds was born he wrote the classic jazz standard Detour Ahead.
The group fashioned themselves after the Nat King Cole Trio. and stayed together until 1952. Herb then replaced Barney Kessel in the Oscar Peterson Trio in 1953. His prominence not only with his performing with the trio alongside Ray Brown until 1958 but also because he was the only white person in the group in a time when racism was still very much widespread.
With the addition of a drummer, the Oscar Peterson Trio, served as the house rhythm section for Norman Granz’s Verve Records. They supported the likes of Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Sweets Edison, Buddy Rich, Lester Young, Benny Carter, Victor Feldman, Mel Brown, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong among numerous others.
The trio were a mainstay of Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts as they swept the jazz world, from 957 to 1960 Ellis toured with Ella Fitzgerald, and along with fellow jazz guitarists Barney Kessel, Charlie Byrd and Tal Farlow, he created another ensemble, the Great Guitars.
In 1994 he was inducted into the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame, received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of North Texas College of Music. Guitarist Herb Ellis, released twenty-two albums as a leader before passing away from Alzheimer’s disease at his Los Angeles home on the morning of March 28, 2010, at the age of 88.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stanley Jordan was born July 31, 1959 in Chicago, Illinois and when he was six, he started on piano, then switched to guitar at eleven. He began his career playing in rock and soul bands, however in 1976, he won an award at the Reno Jazz Festival. AIt was while attending Princeton University that he studied music theory and composition with Milton Babbitt, computer music with Paul Lansky, and performed with Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie.
In 1985, Bruce Lundvall became president of Blue Note Records and Stanley was the first person he signed. They released his album Magic Touch, which sat at No.1 on Billboard ‘s jazz chart for 51 weeks, setting a record. He has worked with Quincy Jones, Onaje Allan Gumbs, Michal Urbaniak, Richie Cole, The Dave Matthews Band, The String Cheese Incident, Phil Lesh, Moe, and with Umphrey’s McGee, among others.
A favorite at festivals he has played Kool Jazz Festival, Concord Jazz Festival, and the Montreux International Jazz Festival to name a few. He has released fourteen albums as a leader, another seventeen across musical genres as a sideman, released three videos, more than a dozen television appearances, has written seven papers and presentations on guitar and technique, and has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award and four Grammy Awards.
Guitarist Stanley Jordan, whose technique involves tapping his fingers on the fretboard of the guitar with both hands, has appeared in the film Blind Date with Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger, has scored short film and tv specials and continues to compose, perform and record.
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