Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ulf Karl Erik Wakenius was born April 16, 1958 in Halmstad, Sweden and raised in Gothenburg. In the 1980s he played with Peter Almqvist in Guitars Unlimited during the intermission for 600 million viewers of the Swedish International Finale of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1985. He went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that same year and began recording the first of three records with Sivuca, Aquarela Do Brazil, followed by Rendez-Vous in Rio in 1986 and Let’s Vamos in 1987.
During the Eighties Ulf collaborated with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen also started this decade, and during the mid to late Nineties they recorded Those Who Were and This Is All I Ask. He led the U.W. Group, releasing Venture with Jack DeJohnette on drums, Bill Evans and Bob Berg on saxophones, trumpeter Randy Brecker, pianist Niels Lan Doky, Chris Minh Doky and Lars Danielsson on bass. In 1994 he recorded New York Meeting with Niels Lan Doky, Ira Coleman and Billy Hart.
He would go on to work with Lars Jansson, Lars Danielsson, Raymond Karlsson, Gösta Rundqvist, Yasuhito Mori, Jukkis Uotila, Carsten Dahl, Morten Lund, Lars Danielsson, Haakon Graf, John Scofield, Dennis Chambers, Gary Grainger, Oscar Peterson, Michel Legrand, Ray Brown, Pat Metheny Jon Larsen, Stian Mevik, Jimmy Rosenberg Lisa Nilsson, Cæcilie Norby, Viktoria Tolstoy, Esbjörn Svensson and Youn Sun Nah among others.
Guitarist Ulf Wakenius,a member of of Oscar Peterson’s last quartet from 1997 and a member of the Ray Brown trio, continues to lead his own band and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Freeman was born on April 10, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. By mid-1947, the guitarist was a member of the sextet led by Johnny Griffin and Joe Morris. He supported touring musicians such as Lester Young and Charlie Parker, recording with the latter on the Savoy Records label.
The mid-1950s,saw George beginning a long association with organist Richard “Groove” Holmes, recording as a sideman and song contributor on Holmes’ World Pacific and Prestige.
After touring with Gene Ammons and Shirley Scott,
Freeman decided against any more road work and based himself in his home city. He often collaborated with his brothers, tenor saxophonists Chico and Von Freeman throughout their careers.
His debut solo album, Birth Sign in 1969 featured saxophonist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and organist Sonny Burke. He has worked with Ben Webster, Shirley Scott, Illinois Jacquet, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Criss, Buddy Rich, Charles Earland, Jimmy McGriff, Les McCann, Eldee Young, Harold Mabern, Kenny Barron, Bob Cranshaw, Buddy Williams, Kurt Elling, Red Holloway, Corey Wilkes, and the Deep Blue Organ Trio. Guitarist George Freeman continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alexander Gafa was born on April 9, 1941 in New York City and worked as a student in the city from 1964 to 1969, playing guitar with Kai Winding and Sam Donahue . During the late Sixties he was a part of the New York Playboy Club playing with Winding, Earl May and Al Foster.
From 1969 to 1970, he was musical director and accompanist for Carmen McRae and performed as a member of the Sammy Davis Jr. orchestra in 1970 and 1971. During this decade he also did some live dates with Sarah Vaughan, one of which aired on PBS.
In 1971 Al played with Dizzy Gillespie and joined his group and toured with him for a period. Under his own name, he recorded the album Leblon Beach in 1976 for Pablo Records. He has recorded as well with Susannah McCorkle, Paul Simon, The Monkees, Alex Leonard, Duke Pearson, Johnny Hartman, Joe Albany and Sonny Stitt.
Before the fall of the World Trade Centers, he and bassist Dr. Lyn Christie would play in a duo configuration in the restaurant on the top floor. He is also part of Tom Lord’s 34 recording sessions from 1934 to 2011 of acoustic and electric guitar, and banjo. Guitarist Al Gafa currently resides in Brooklyn, New York where he performs occasionally.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ray Crawford was born on February 7, 1924 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the war years from 1941-1943 he played tenor saxophone and clarinet with Fletcher Henderson but tuberculosis forced him to give them up.
Switching to guitar he became an important part of Ahmad Jamal’s early groups from 1949 to 1955. Ray’s ability to make his guitar sound like bongos by hitting it was soon adopted by Herb Ellis. He went on to record with Gil Evans from 1959 to 1960, then played off and on with Jimmy Smith from 1958 into the Eighties.
In the Sixties he settled in Los Angeles, California. He led fairly obscure records for Candid in 1961 that were not released until the 1980s, and also recorded for Dobre and United National record labels in the Seventies. Guitarist Ray Crawford, who played mainly in the hard bop and soul jazz genres, passed away on December 30, 1997 in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Earl Theodore Dunbar was born on January 17, 1937 in Port Arthur, Texas. He became interested in jazz at the age of seven and in the 1950s he joined several groups while studying pharmacy at Texas Southern University and during that period he became influenced by Wes Montgomery.
He trained as a pharmacist at Texas Southern University, but by the 1970s only did pharmacy work part-time. Dunbar was also a trained numerologist and had studied other aspects of mysticism. At one point he received accolades from Ebony and Down Beat.
In 1966 Ted moved to New York City and gained more experience. In 1972 he became one of the first jazz professors at Rutgers University and taught Kevin Eubanks, Vernon Reid and Peter Bernstein, as well as many others. He published four volumes on jazz.
He recorded five albums as a leader and another fifteen albums with Gene Ammons, Kenny Barron, Richard Davis, Gil Evans, Curtis Fuller, Albert Heath, Willie Jackson, Charles McPherson, David “Fathead” Newman, Don Patterson, Bernard Purdie, Sam Rivers, Johnny “Hammond” Smith, McCoy Tyner and Tony Williams among others. Guitarist and educator Ted Dunbar passed away on May 29, 1998 of a stroke in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
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