Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mundell Lowe was born April 21, 1922 in Laurel, Mississippi and in the Thirties he played country music and Dixieland jazz. He later played with big bands and orchestras, and on television, and in the 1960s he composed music for films and television in New York City Los Angeles.

Mundell has performed and/or recorded with with a Who’s Who list not limited to Billie Holiday, Bobby Darin, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, Helen Humes, Charles Mingus, Stan Getz, Doc Severinsen, Kai Winding and Sarah Vaughan. He also worked with Carmen McRae, Benny Carter, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Barry Manilow, Andre Previn, Ray Brown, Kiri Te Kanawa, Tete Montoliu, Harry Belfonte and numerous others.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s Lowe was also a well-respected teacher at Dick Grove Music Workshop, later the Grove School of Music, in Studio City, California, teaching guitar as well as film scoring.

Lowe was responsible for introducing the pianist Bill Evans to producer Orrin Keepnews resulting in Evan’s first recordings as a leader. He is a regular featured performer at the annual W.C. Handy Music Festival and a member of the W.C. Handy Jazz All-Stars. He was inducted into the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame, was conferred an honorary Doctorate of Arts from Millsap College and proclaimed Mundell Lowe Day as July 18 by his home town of Laurel. The guitarist continues to teach, perform and record.

Inspire A Young Mind

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Greg Ruggiero was born on April 11, 1977 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and and studied the guitar as a youth. Then at the age of twenty-seven he decided to make his jazz mark in the clubs of New York City and moved to Brooklyn in 2004. It was just three years later that he released his debut record as a leader “Balance” on the jazz label Fresh Sound New Talent.

As a sideman he has recorded with Luisa Sobral, Mark Turner, Nasheet Waits, Greg Osby, Matt Brewer, Logan Richardson, Nick Halley and Gavin Fallow and has several projects that are still in production. Greg has the honor of featured artist at the Canjazz Festival in Galicia, Spain; taught workshops, recorded two records, and performed in concert.

As an educator he sits on the New School University Applied Music faculty, has taught at the Academy of Creative Education in Los Angeles, California, and has been a guest artist and clinician at the Crossties Jazz Festival hosted by Delta State University in Greenville, Mississippi along with Mulgrew Miller.

Ruggiero was a part of the Jazz of Enchantment radio program and educational series as one of the top 20 Jazz artists associated with his home state of New Mexico, along with Frank Morgan, Bobby Shew, Rob Wilkerson and Matt Brewer. Greg has performed with Matt Brewer, Logan Richardson, and many others.

Of late, Greg has renewed his passion for the jazz standard repertoire leading his trio or quartet. Taking license from the classic vocal performances of Billy Holiday, Nat Cole, Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald to name a few, his passion has led the guitarist to release his sophomore project “My Little One”, a collection of original music set to lyrics.

Put A Dose In Your Pocket

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jeff Barone was born on April 2, 1970 in Syracuse, New York and after hearing a Joe Pass recording received his first guitar at age eight. By age 16 he was playing in local jazz clubs and invited to play with touring bands coming to his hometown. During this period he also performed with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra as well as vocalist Al Martino.

Jeff went on to matriculate through Ithaca College studying classical guitar and percussion. His next stop was the Manhattan School of Music leaving with a Masters in jazz performance. While in New York he worked small clubs with Evelyn Blakey, was part of the Harlem organ scene, and did a stint with Reuben Wilson.

Teaming with guitarist Jack Wilkins, who was instrumental in getting Barone gigs with the Vanguard and the Mingus Epitaph Orchestras, they co-produced Crazy Talk, his first album, with a mix of standards and originals. His next project would be Open Up. He would go on to work with Tom Harrell, Warren Chiasson, Joe Magnarelli, Eddie Montiero and Bobby Caldwell’s Big Band.

He is the guitarist and assistant conductor for the Big Apple Circus in New York City, has subbed on Broadway shows such as Wicked, Seussical and The Dead, and was recently included in Scott Yanow’s book The Great Jazz Guitarists: The Ultimate Guide. Guitarist Jeff Barone continues to perform, record and tour in between his other duties.

Dose A Day – Blues Away

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ximo Tebar born Maximum Tébar in Valencia, Spain on March 30, 1963 and began playing the guitar at age seven. By seventeen he decided to pursue music professionally. Since then, he has toured and recorded throughout Spain, Europe and the Americas leading his own group or with Johnny Griffin, Benny Golson, Joe Lovano, Tom Harrell, Tete Montoliu, Anthony Jackson, Lou Bennett, Lou Donaldson, Louie Bellson, Joey DeFrancesco, Jan Ackerman and too many to mention.

He has played all the major festivals, won awards for best soloist two consecutive years of 1989-90, moved to New York City in 2003 and entered the jazz scene playing with the likes of Anthony Jackson, Arturo O’Farrill, Dave Samuels, in Clubs like Smoke, Dizzy’s and Birdland. Signing with Sunnyside Records he played on numerous sessions and produced recordings.

Considered by international critics specialized as the creator of the Son Mediterranean, his 14 discs consists of traditional jazz  “The Jazz Guitar Trios” comprising 4 volumes recorded with the best organists including Joey DeFrancesco, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Lou Bennett, Idris Muhammad, Billy Brooks and many others.

Guitarist Ximo Tebar currently resides between Valencia and New York, tours, records, produces and holds master classes and seminars, is the director of his label Omix Records and artistic director of one of the most innovative projects in Spain, “Ivam Jazz Ensemble”, an initiative of the IVAM (Museum of Modern Art in Valencia) that promotes creation and experimentation programs about modern music and jazz continuously as an integrated part of the museum’s activities.

Jazz Is Global – Share

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Daily Dose Of jazz…

Ralph Towner was born on March 1, 1940 in Chehalis, Washington. Born into a musical family, his mother a piano teacher and his father a trumpet player, Towner learned to improvise on the piano at the age of three. He started trumpet lessons at the age of five, but did not take up guitar until attending the University of Oregon.

Ralph first played jazz in New York City in the late 1960s as a pianist and was strongly influenced by the renowned jazz pianist Bill Evans. He began improvising on classical and 12-string guitars in the late 1960s and early 1970s; and formed alliances with musicians who had worked with Evans, including flautist Jeremy Steig, Eddie Gomez, Marc Johnson, Gary Peacock ad Jack DeJohnette.

He began his career as a conservatory-trained classical pianist, who picked up guitar in his senior year in college, then joined world music pioneer Paul Winter’s Consort ensemble in the late 1960s. Leaving Winter along with band mates Paul McCandless, Glen Moore and Colin Walcott, they formed the group Oregon, mixing folk, Indian classical, avant-garde jazz and frr improvisation.

Around the same time, Towner began a longstanding relationship with ECM Records, releasing virtually all of his non-Oregon recordings since his 1972 debut as a leader Trios / Solos.  As a sideman he has ventured int jazz fsion with Weather Report on the 1972 album I Sing The Body Electric.

Unlike most jazz guitarists, Ralph only uses 6-string nylon-string and 12-string steel-string guitars. He tends to avoid high-volume musical environments, preferring small groups of mostly acoustic instruments that emphasize dynamics and group interplay. He make significant use of overdubbing, allowing him to play piano or synthesizer and guitar on the same track. During the Eighties he used more synthesizer but has returned to the guitar in recent years.

Composer, arranger, bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Ralph Towner, who plays 12 string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion and trumpet, has an impressive catalogue of some five-dozen recordings spread between his role as a leader, with Oregon, and as a sideman with Paul Winter and Weather Report among others. He continues to perform, record and tour.

Put A Dose In Your Pocket

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