Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Meyers was born on March 31, 1945 in Courtlandt Manor, New York. His early influences were classical and chamber music. When he was five he first heard the music of Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. It was at that age he began his music studies.
He attended George Washington University in Washington, DC earning his BA in History with minors in Music and Geology. He went on to study with Jack DeJohnette, Frank Dunlop, Henry Adler and Jim Chapin as well as extensive private study as an adult.
As an educator he has taught on both coasts focusing on technique, mechanics, musical application and interpretation on the drum set. Though specializing in jazz many of his students have gone on to be professionally active in jazz, rock and funk.
He has performed with Joe Lovano, John Abercrombie, Judi Silvano, Sheila Jordan, Ray Nance, Jaki Byard, Julian Priester, Gary Peacock, Diane Schurr, Mal Waldron, Kirk Lightsey, Avishai Cohen, Essiet Essiet, Santi Debriano and Vic Juris among numerous others.
As a leader he has recorded eighteen records. Drummer Bob Meyers continues to teach and perform as a leader and a sideman.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Dave Stryker was born March 30, 1957 and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. At ten years old he was inspired by the Beatles to start playing guitar. His interest was rock and roll until he heard the albums My Favorite Things by John Coltrane and Beyond the Blue Horizon by George Benson. By seventeen, he was a jazz guitarist in town.
In 1978 he moved to Los Angeles, California where he took lessons from another Omaha native, Billy Rogers, and met organist Jack McDuff. After moving to New York City, he toured with McDuff in 1984 and1985, then spent ten years with saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.
Forming a band with Steve Slagle and a trio with Jared Gold and Tony Reedus he went on to work with Kevin Mahogany as sideman, composer, and arranger. Dave appeared with him at Carnegie Hall, and toured with him in Europe and Japan. He has also worked with Eliane Elias, Javon Jackson, and Andy LaVerne.
As an educator he teaches jazz guitar at Indiana University, Montclair State University, at the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop, the Litchfield Jazz Camp, and the Veneto/New School Workshop in Italy.
He recorded 38 albums as a leader, 5 with the Stryker/Slagle band, 2 with Trio Mundo and as a sideman he recorded 34 albums with Jared Gold, Steve Slagle, Allan Botschinsky, Don Braden, Kendall “Keyz” Carter, Rondi Charleston, Royce Campbell, Mike Freeman, Spellbound, Giacomo Gates, Craig Handy, Javon Jackson, Matthew Kaminski, Andy LaVerne, Pete Levin, Kevin Mahogany, Jorge Nila, Tony Reedus, Larry Schneider, Stanley Turrentine, Charenee Wade, and Matthew Whitaker.
Guitarist Dave Stryker, who has been named Top Ten Guitarists and Rising Star by Down Beat magazine, continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Chisholm was born on March 29, 1915 in Glasgow, Scotland and at the age of fifteen in the late 1930s he moved to London, where he played in dance bands led by Bert Ambrose and Teddy Joyce. He later recorded with jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Fats Waller and Benny Carter during their visits to the UK.
During the Second World War, he signed on with the Royal Air Force and joined the RAF Dance Orchestra, known popularly as the Squadronaires, remaining in the band long after he was demobbed. George followed this with freelance work and a five-year stint with the BBC Showband, the forerunner of the BBC Radio Orchestra. As a core member of Wally Stott’s orchestra on BBC Radio’s The Goon Show, he made several minor acting appearances.
He had roles in the films The Mouse on the Moon, The Knack …and How to Get It and Superman III. He was part of the house band for the children’s programs Play School and Play Away. He also sang and was a storyteller on Play School occasionally.
During the 1980s despite undergoing heart surgery, Chisholm continued to play, working with his own band the Gentlemen of Jazz and Keith Smith’s Hefty Jazz among others, and playing live with touring artists.
By the mid-1990s he retired from public life suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Trombonist and vocalist George Chisholm, who was appointed as an Officer of the British Empire (OBE), died on December 6, 1997 at the age of 82.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Born Charles Isaacs on March 28, 1923 in Akron, Ohio, he initially played trumpet and tuba as a child before settling on bass. He served in the Army during World War II, where he took lessons from Wendell Marshall. After the war he played with Tiny Grimes from 1948–50, Earl Bostic from 1951 to 1953, Paul Quinichette in 1953, and Bennie Green in 1956.
Ike, as he was affectionately called, led a local band in Ohio in 1956, then played for two years in the trio behind Carmen McRae, whom he married late in the decade. He went on to work with Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, then with Count Basie, Gloria Lynne, and Erroll Garner in the Sixties,
With his own small groups he recorded only once as a leader, At The Pied Piper in 1967 for RGB Records. On this recording he plays in a trio with Jack Wilson on piano and Jimmie Smith on drums. As a coleader he recorded two albums with Maxine Sullivan.
As a sideman he recorded twenty-six albums with Count Basie, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Roy Brown, Ray Bryant, Harry Edison, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Pee Wee Erwin, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Erroll Garner, Bennie Green, Al Grey, Jon Hendricks, Carmen McRae, Big Miller, Esther Phillips, Dan Wall, Jack Wilson, and Joe Williams.
Bassist Ike Isaacs died on February 27, 1981.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lisa Lindsley was born March 27, 1957 in Ogden, Utah. Growing up she listened to her father’s records of jazz greats like Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Her mother, a film actress who had to leave Hollywood in the 1950s because of the McCarthy-era blacklist, imbued in her a love of theater.
While as a young teen attending Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Utah Lindsley gravitated to the rock and pop music of the day, she discovered musical theater in high school, a passion that carried through to college. After graduating from the California Institute for the Arts theater program, she spent a decade touring and performing with The Imagination Company. However, raising two daughters put her performing ambitions on hold for years, but she developed a successful career as a voice over artist, cast in national ad campaigns, radio shows and video games.
Comin to jazz singing in mid-life, she earned national attention with her stellar 2010 debut release Everytime We Say Goodbye, featuring bassist Fred Randolph and pianist George Mesterhazy. At the behest of her high school contortionist daughter’s desire to hone her French while studying at the Fratellini Circus School, she moved to Paris, France in 2013. This was the next natural step in her musical evolution. Settling in the 19th arrondissement filled with cultural vitality Lisa quickly developed a network of regular gigs with skilled accompanists. These relationships on her sophomore album, Long After Midnight, with pianist Laurent Marode, drummer Mourad Benhammou, Esaie Cid on flute, clarinet and tenor saxophone, and Bay Area bassist Jeff Chambers.
Back in the States and living in the San Francisco Bay area, Lindsley has been working steadily around the Bay Area over the past decade. She has honed her skills with Roger Letson at Contra Costa College, and studied with Maye Cavallero, Laurie Antonioli and Pamela Rose at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley.
Vocalist Lisa Lindsley, who received essential on the job training from Bay area pianist/drummer Kelly Park, continues her career of performance and recording.
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