Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Peter Charles Strange was born December 19, 1938 in Plaistow, Newham, London, England and played violin as a child before switching to trombone as a teenager. His first major gig was with Eric Silk and his Southern Jazz Band when he was just 18 years old.

In 1957, Silk’s clarinetist Teddy Layton split off and formed his own band, and Strange went with him. Called up for National Service in 1958 and became a bandsman in the Lancashire Fusiliers, whilst serving in Cyprus. Following this he played with Sonny Morris, Charlie Gall, and Ken Sims, before joining Bruce Turner from 1961 to 1964.

1964 saw Turner in a 10 year partial retirement for about 10 years, playing but when he returned Peter played with Turner permanently in 1974, and in 1978 co-founded the Midnite Follies Orchestra with Alan Elsdon.

In 1980, he founded the five-trombone ensemble, Five-A-Slide, which featured Roy Williams and Campbell Burnap. He joined Humphrey Lyttelton’s band in 1983, and remained with the ensemble until the leader died. With the other members of the Lyttelton band, Strange performed on the 2001 Radiohead album Amnesiac.

Trombonist, arranger and composer Pete Strange, who played with his group The Great British Jazz Band, died of cancer in Banstead, Surrey, England on August 14, 2004 at the age of 65.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Judi Marie Canterino was born on December 18, 1942 in New York City, New York. She began her musical training at the age of seven with classical piano and performed at the Juilliard School of Music through her thirteenth year. Then she turned her studies to voice, training classically through high school.

At 19 she turned her attention to jazz singing and was introduced to Lennie Tristano, with whom she began studying. As part of my jazz training, she would listen to Lennie Tristano perform at the Half Note. Early in her career she sat-in at the club with Zoot Sims, Al Cohen, Wes Montgomery, Buddy Tate, Bud Johnson, Jimmy Rushing, Van Dickenson, Major Holly, Milt Hinten, Doc Cheatham, Roy Eldridge, Ross Thompkins, Bobby Hackett and others.

Her style came from mentorship of those previously mentioned and the influences of singers Jimmy Rushing, Billie Holiday, Maxine Sullivan, Rosemary Clooney, Anita O’Day and Frank Sinatra. She took time off from performing to raise a family but remained active in the jazz world, resuming her career with guitarist Joe Puma. She’s appeared around New York and New Jersey.

I have been working with jazz greats Warren Vache, Scott Hamilton, Norman Simmons, Chuck Folds, Clark Terry, Mark Shane, Rio Clemente, Joe Cocuzzo, Phil Bodner, Spanky Davis, Bucky Pizzarelli, Kenny Daverne, Kenny Asher and before their deaths, the great Doc Cheatham and Red Richards.

Her debut as a leader was titled Gee Baby and her sophomore project is Live At Maureen’s jazz Cellar. Vocalist Judi Marie Canterino, the Swing Jazz Singer, is still taking the stage to this day.

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Jazz Poems

SOLOING

My mother tells me she dreamed

of John Coltrane, a young Trane

playing his music with such joy

and contained energy and rage

she could not hold back her tears.

And sitting awake now, her hands

crossed in her lap, the tears start

in her blind eyes. The TV set

behind her is gray, expressionless.

It is late, the neighbors quiet,

even the city–Los Angeles–quiet.

I have driven for hours down 99,

>over the Grapevine into heaven

to be here. I place my left hand

on her shoulder, and she smiles.

What a world, a mother and son

finding solace in California

just where we told it would

be, among the palm trees and all-

night super markets pushing orange

back-lighted oranges at 2 A.M.

“He was alone,” she says, and does

not say, just as I am, “soloing.”

What a world, a great man half

her age comes to my mother

in sleep to give her the gift

of song, which–shaking the tears

away–she passes on to me, for now

I can hear the music of the world

in the silence and that word:

soloing. What a world–when I

arrived the great bowl of mountains

was hidden in a cloud of exhaust,

the sea spread out like a carpet

of oil, the roses I had bought

from Fresno browned on the seat

beside me, and I could have

turned back and lost the music.

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Nicole Rampersaud was born on December 17, 1981 in Toronto,Canada. Studying trumpet through high school she then went to earn an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto in Jazz Performance. From there a scholarship led her studies to the New England Conservatory, where she earned her Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies. While at the Conservatory, Nicole studied with Danilo Perez, John McNeil, Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Morris, Herb Pomeroy, Joe Maneri, and Bob Moses. She also studied composition with Michael Gandolfi and Ken Schaphorst.

Developing her singular voice that intersects with a broad range of musical practices and traditions, Nicole has become a sought-after collaborator with a host of artists. A few of his contemporary musicians are Anthony Braxton, Joe Morris, Ra-kalam Bob Moses, Sandro Perri, and many more.

Rampersaud’s primary groups include Brass Knuckle Sandwich with pianist Marilyn Lerner, a duo with guitarist Joel LeBlanc, and she is a founding member of the trio c_RL alongside Allison Cameron and Germaine Liu. She has performed with AIMToronto Orchestra, Eucalyptus, Michael Vlatkovich 5 Winds, and Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra.

Since 2008, she has been building a catalogue of solo compositions that deconstruct the trumpet’s sonic possibilities and co-founded the improvisation-driven series, Understory. Trumpeter and composer Nicole Rampersaud continues to relentlessly seek out and create spaces to work with a diverse and expanding group of music-makers.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jeremy Bacon was born in New York City, New York on December 16, 1959 into a musical family that were big jazz fans. His father sang with the New York Choral Society and The Occasional Singers, an avant-garde group led by folk singer Gil Robbins. Her uncle designed album covers for Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley and numerous others for Riverside Records.

Taking piano lessons as a child he went on to  study in high school at the Center for Open Education and then jazz improvisation and composition at Oberlin. After college, Jeremy became the protégé of pianist Don Pullen. He worked regularly in a trio led by bassist Charles Fambrough, which rotated drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, trumpeters Johnny Coles and Michael Philip Mossman, saxophonists Joe Ford and Ralph Bowen, and guitarist Pat Martino.

He was musical director for Joey Arias’ Billie Holiday show at Carnegie Hall and accompanied many vocalists, including Kristin Chenoweth and Jeanie Bryson, daughter of Dizzy Gillespie. He recorded two albums as a leader Cloud Hands and Cage Free: Free Range, and Travels with the band Big Train. Bacon lent his talents to three recordings with saxophonist Joey Cavaseno, and one with vocalist Queen Esther.

Having established himself on the East Coast, a move to the Pacific Northwest in 2018 opened a new audience, performing regularly as a leader and accompanist. He taught piano on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts, accompanied dance classes in the theater department, and performed with Seattle JazzED at many regional elementary schools.

Jazz pianist Jeremy Bacon died at Franciscan Hospice House in Tacoma, Washington  on July 8, 2024, after months of treatment for metastatic colon cancer. He was 64 years old.

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