Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rebecca Kilgore was born September 24, 1949 and grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts honing her voice. By the age of thirty she left the East Coast for the West, settling in Portland, Oregon. She began her music career fronting an area swing band dubbed the Wholly Cats and recorded a 1982 LP titled Doggin’ Around. Following the group’s 1984 breakup, she formed her own unit, the Rebecca Kilgore Quintet, and quickly became a mainstay of the Northwest jazz scene. In 1989 she released the cassette-only I Hear Music.
She has recorded twenty-two albums as a leader, performing and/or recording a total of 21 with jazz pianist Dave Frishberg, trombonist Dan Barrett, tenor saxophonist Harry Allen, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, BED, the Wholly Cats and numerous other musicians. In 2010 she was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame
Vocalist Rebecca Kilgore, who has been slated as one of the best interpreters of the Great American Songbook, continues to perform locally in her Northwest home as well as worldwide at jazz festivals, cruises and other venues.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Matthews was born on September 23, 1912 in Dominica, British West Indies and received classical training in New York City and played with local dance and jazz bands. In the early 1930s he joined Tiny Bradshaw’s group, being adept on tuba, trumpet, and trombone.
Later in the decade he worked with Willie Bryant, Louis Armstrong, Chick Webb, and in the Forties he recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Lucky Millinder, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. After World War II, Matthews worked extensively with Count Basie, then joined Erskine Hawkins’s group in the early 1950s, while recording with Dizzy Gillespie, and Dicky Wells. In the 1960s he played with Lucille Dixon, Clark Terry, and recorded with Cannonball Adderley and Ray Charles in the Sixties.
Trombonist George Matthews, who never led a recording session, transitioned on June 28, 1982.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Samuel “Savoirfaire” Williams was born on September 22, 1973 in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of three he began playing violin at his parents’ church and two years later joined a group of child prodigies under the tutelage of Suzuki Violin instructor, Betty Haag. His first performance was at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall during a public television broadcast which became an annual event spanning more than 35 years.
He attended the Merit School of Music in Chicago, studying music theory while participating in youth orchestras including the City Youth Symphony, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Protégé, All-City and All-State. He took private lessons from Afro-Panamanian musician Joseph Williams when he was 16. During this time he played lead for the City Youth String Ensemble’s viola section, then received a scholarship at Interlochen where he sat in with vibraphonist Milt Jackson.
Meeting and performing with Wynton Marsalis while working at the Chicago Symphony Center, Williams continued his studies and busked on the streets to pay for violin lessons. During one of his street performances, guitarist Kenny Burrell observed his skill and invited him to collaborate with himself, Willie Pickens and Larry Gray on a Bebop performance at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase.
In 2000, he was voted into the Chicago Chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), which earned him the moniker “Savoirfaire.” That same year, he began an apprenticeship with luthier Martin Sheridan to learn the art of violin-making, later owning the violin shop and managing it for three years.
After self-releasing three live albums, Bob Koester discovered his work and in 2004 Delmark Records produced the internationally acclaimed release Running Out of Time. Over the years, Savoirfaire has been invited to record with a plethora of artists in various genres and at international Jazz festivals.
In 2015, Williams founded the Chicago Gypsy Project with guitarist Dave Miller and bassist Charlie Kirchen. He continues to perform with his group Savoirfaire Jazz Quartet as well as busking on the streets, and in various venues throughout Chicago.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sunny Murray was born James Marcellus Arthur Murray on September 21, 1936 in Idabel, Oklahoma and was raised by an uncle who later died after being refused treatment at a hospital because of his race. He began playing drums at the age of nine, however, during his teen years he lived in a rough part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and spent two years in a reformatory.
By 1956, he was in New York City working in a car wash and as a building superintendent. During this time, he played with among others, trumpeters Red Allen and Ted Curson, pianist Willie “The Lion” Smith, and saxophonists Rocky Boyd and Jackie McLean. 1959 saw him playing for the first time with pianist Cecil Taylor and subsequently turned his direction towards experimenting with creative new ideas. In 1961, Murray made a recording with Taylor’s group that was released under the auspices of Gil Evans as one side of Into the Hot.
In 1962 Sunny went to Europe for the first time with Taylor and saxophonist Jimmy Lyons. During that time, the group made a stylistic breakthrough while in Sweden and started playing free. While in Denmark later that year, the trio recorded the influential concerts released as Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come.
That same year Taylor and Murray met saxophonist Albert Ayler, with whom the group recorded together for Danish television as the Cecil Taylor Unit. Upon their return to the United States, the group performed at the Take Three club in Greenwich Village and at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center in New York City on New Year’s Eve 1963 as the Cecil Taylor Jazz Unit, with a healthy Grimes on bass.
Continuing to play with Ayler, Sunny went on to join Ayler’s trio with bassist Gary Peacock. He recorded a number of albums with Ayler, and his unchained approach to percussion gave Ayler the freedom to travel his own road that had hitherto been lacking. In 1964 he played with John Coltrane, however, declined the offer to join the band.
He recorded his debut album as a leader in 1965 with Sonny’s Time Now, which was released on Leroi Jones’s Jihad label. This was followed by twenty more leader albums on various labels until 2011 with the recording of Boom Boom Cat. Over the course of his career he would record as a sideman for a host of musicians, but his final recording session as a sideman was Corona, once again teamed with Cecil Taylor, released posthumously in 2018. Drummer Sunny Murray, who had a documentary made in 2008 titled Sunny’s Time Now: A Portrait of Jazz Drummer Sunny Murray, transitioned on December 7, 2017 from multiple organ failure at the age of 81.
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Three Wishes
Zoot Sims was given the proposition of three wishes by Pannonica that if they could be fulfilled what would they be and he said this to her:
- “Peace of mind.”
- “Woman I could live with.”
- “Piece of ground.”
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