Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harold “Geezil” Minerve was born in Havana, Cuba on January 3, 1922, and raised in Florida and began playing music at age 12. He played with drummer Jeff Gibson and vocalist Ida Cox early in his career, then worked as a freelance musician in New Orleans, Louisiana. Following stints with Clarence Love and Ernie Fields, Minerve served in the Army from 1943–46, then returned to play with Fields for a short time.
He worked with Buddy Johnson from 1949~1957, then with Mercer Ellington in 1960, Ray Charles from 1962 to 1964, and then worked as musical director for Arthur Prysock. In 1971 he joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra, filling Johnny Hodges’s spot after Hodges’s death. Minerve remained with the Ellington Orchestra until 1974, then returned to play with Mercer Ellington with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
Following the success of the Broadway hit Sophisticated Lady when he played with the orchestra on stage and the touring company, Harold left for a brief time, playing with Ruth Brown’s Black and Blue Review in Paris, returning to Ellington in the Eighties. He did further freelance work later in the 1970s.
He would go on to work freelance in and around New York. Alto saxophonist, flutist, and clarinetist Harold Minerve passed away on June 4, 1992.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jackie Williams was born on January 2, 1933 in Harlem, New York City, New York. Taking on the role of the sideman, he has played and recorded with Doc Cheatham for 18 years at Greenwich Village’s Sweet Basil. He played and recorded with Buck Clayton on a U.S. State Department tour of the Middle East and Africa.
Jackie’s list of performances and recordings is a who’s who not limited to Benny Golson, Bobby Hackett, Illinois Jacquet, Duke Ellington, Alberta Hunter, Buddy Tate, Junior Mance Quintet, The Cliff Smalls Septet, The Dan Barrett Octet, The Howard Alden / Dan Barrett Quintet, Warren Vaché Quartet, Warren Vaché, Jr. And His All-Stars, Earl Hines, Milt Hinton, Alberta Hunter, Illinois Jacquet, Jay McShann, Bobby Short, Buddy Tate and Teddy Wilson, as well as many others.
Drummer Jackie Williams is a recipient of Yale University’s Duke Ellington Fellowship Medal. He is the drummer for the Junior Mance Trio and though he has not recorded as a leader but has continued a prolific career, in part, as a member of the Floating Jazz Festival Trio.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack Reilly, also known as Sean Petrahn was born on January 1, 1932, in Staten Island, New York. At age 7, he began classical piano and gave his first recital while still in grammar school. In high school, during his teen years, he formed a jazz band that proved to be pivotal in his choice of jazz as the major musical force in his life.
From 1951 to 1953 he played in a U.S. Navy band while stationed in Puerto Rico and it was there that he met Bill Evans. After military duty, Jack received a four-year scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music majoring in piano and composition. There he met Bill Russo, Phil Woods, Zoot Sims, John Lewis, John LaPorta, and Hall Overton. The year he graduated from MSMJohn LaPorta hired Jack to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958.
The critics gave high praise for the quartet’s performance and raves for Jack’s playing. During this time he also worked with Warren Covington, George Russell, Lennie Tristano, and Jerry Wald. He moved to California briefly in the mid-1960s to study Indian classical music with Ali Akbar Khan, and returned to Manhattan where he composed the large-scale piece Requiem Mass for Chorus and Jazz Quartet. This work was performed in New York with Sheila Jordan, Jack Six, Norman Marnell, Joe Cocuzzo, and the contemporary chorale with Carol Lian conducting.
In 1967, Jack presented an entire evening of his solo and trio works at Carnegie Recital Hall. His Liturgical Jazz ~ The Psalms, sung by Sheila Jordan was a true synthesis of the blues and classical music. A second choral work, commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, was titled The Light of The Soul. The jazz musicians included Jimmy Giuffre~flute and tenor sax, Jack Six~bass, and Joe Cocuzzo~drums.
Reilly served on the faculties of New York University, Berklee College of Music, The Mannes College of Music, and the New School for Social Research. He was chairman of the Department of Jazz Studies at the New England Conservatory of Music as well as the Jazz Program at La Musica A Villa Scarsella in Diano Marina, Italy. He presented lecture/recitals at numerous universities in Europe and in North America including a presentation at the prestigious International Piano Festival and Competition at the University of Maryland.
Pianist Jack Reilly released nine albums during his career and passed away on May 18, 2018, at the age of 86.
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Three Wishes
When she asked Ram Ramirez what he would say his three wishes were he replied to Nica:
- “To be rich.”
- “To be richer.”
- “To find the Fountain of Youth, lay claim, and own it! With all that equipment, how dare you? How can you possibly compete with me? If I’m going to be sick, let me be young and sick. Not ‘like’ young and sick, but young and sick.”
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Requisites
Some Other Spring is an album by Norwegian vocalist Karin Krog with American saxophonist Dexter Gordon recorded in Norway in 1970 and originally released on the Sonet label in Europe. The session was produced by Hallvard Kvale and Johs Berg on May 10, 1970, in Oslo, Norway.
Tracks | 61:54
- Some Other Spring (Arthur Herzog, Jr., Irene Kitchings) – 5:00
- Blue Monk (Abbey Lincoln, Thelonious Monk) – 3:55
- How Insensitive (Antônio Carlos Jobim, Norman Gimbel) – 4:30
- Blue Eyes (Berndt Egerbladh, Karin Krog) – 4:50
- Jelly, Jelly (Billy Eckstein, Earl Hines) – 4:55
- I Wish I Knew (Harry Warren, Mack Gordon) – 5:25
- Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool (Ace Adams, Lionel Hampton) – 4:35
- Shiny Stockings (Frank Foster, Ella Fitzgerald) – 3:40
- Karin Krog – vocals
- Dexter Gordon – tenor saxophone, vocals
- Kenny Drew – piano
- Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen – bass
- Espen Rud – drums
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