Yolanda Rabun is a Renaissance Woman. A wife, mother, corporate lawyer, and national recording and performing artist, this North Carolina based go-getter lives life on purpose.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Juhani Aaltonen was born December 12, 1935 in Kouvola, Finland. He began playing professionally at the end of the Fifties. He played in a sextet led by Heikki Rosendahl during that time, and then studied flute performance at the Sibelius Academy and in the U.S. at the Berklee College of Music.
Moving back to Finland, he settled in Helsinki and began working both as a session musician and with fusion groups. Late in the 1960s he formed a duo with Edward Vesala, played in the group Eero Koivistoinen and with Tasavallan Presidentti. He recorded with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis and with Heikki Sarmanto late in the decade and early 1970s. His debut album as a soloist, Etiquette, was released in 1974.
The following year Juhani became a member of the New Music Orchestra, and worked with the Nordic All Stars, Arild Andersen, and Peter Brötzmann before the end of the decade. The Eighties saw him working with the UFO Big Band, Jan Garbarek, Charlie Mariano, and others. He led a touring quartet from 1990 to 1992.
In 2001 he released a duo recording, Rise, and his trio album Mother Tongue won a Jazz-Emma in Finland. Saxophonist and flautist Juhani Aaltonen continues to perform as well as teach at the annual Nilsiä Music Camp.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill McGuffie was born on December 11, 1927 in Carmyle near Glasgow, Scotland. After three years studying the piano he had an accident as a child which caused the loss of his second finger of his right hand, but despite the accident he started playing again and modified his technique. By the time he turned eleven he was awarded the Victoria Medal for his piano proficiency by the Victoria College, Glasgow.
Finding it difficult he decided to stop playing until friends and colleagues suggested playing dance music. Towards the end of World War II when he was 17, he moved to London and began a career in 1946 playing in the Teddy Foster Orchestra at the Lyceum.
Working with other top bands followed until 1952 when he got his big break when the BBC formed their own show band run by Cyril Stapleton. McGuffie was a featured artist with a big public following, which led to a recording contract and he was voted in top place in the Melody Maker readers’ poll from 1953 to 1955. This led to him appearing in the early Esquire jazz poll winners records and recorded with trumpeter Kenny Baker’s Dozen.
He made a limited number of records which were jazz tinged and a big band record. Bigger success came with his light music and his albums with strings. Noted for his great musicianship and his impeccable good taste, his jazz records with the Kenny Baker Dozen and one track from the Melody Maker’s All-Stars are available. He also recorded albums with no jazz content, and worked extensively with bandleader Joe Loss, where he was featured.
He won an Ivor Novello Award in 1960 for his composition Sweet September, a Song Writers’ Guild Badge of Merit, and the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors Gold Badge of Merit.
Pianist Bill McGuffie, who went on to be a film composer and conductor, and with the onset of cancer, died on March 22, 1987 at the age of 59.
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YOLANDA RABUN TRIBUTE TO NANCY WILSON
For two nights only the holiday season will honor the contributions of songstress Nancy Wilson as songs are interpreted by the great North Carolina-based singer Yolanda Rabun, while the story of her life is told by Jazz Historian Carl Anthony.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jim Hession was born on December 10, 1947 in Pasadena, California, where he studied piano with composer Oscar Rasbach. By the time he turned twenty he was a fixture in the traditional jazz scene, with his incredibly accurate two-handed piano style. He was a founding member of the Maple Leaf Club, receiving his degree in composition from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied under Paul Chihara and Lalo Schifrin.
Jim met and began recording with Eubie Blake and while recording with Eubie Blake in New York City he began exploring more contemporary jazz venues, while retaining his handle on traditional jazz styles like ragtime, stride and boogie-woogie.
He met his future wife Martha while they were attending UCLA, where she was studying piano and voice. She began singing professionally with Jim and started a professional association with the Walt Disney Company in 1967 until relocating to the Gulf Coast in 2003.
Over the years they have performed with such luminaries as Teddy Wilson, Al Hirt, Bob Crosby, Johnny Guarnieri, Max Morath, Shelton Brooks, Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, and Disney songwriters the Sherman Brothers. They have acquired an incredible knowledge of the history of American music and hold 85,000+ pieces, one of the largest privately-held collections of original sheet music in the United States.
They have lectured at many colleges and educational venues across the country. The couple have performed as a jazz duo, headlined the American Jazz Quintet, appeared on television, produced stage shows, and historical lectures. Pianist Jim Hession and Martha Hession continue to bring a level of talent and versatility not often found on the music scene.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bob Smith was born on December 9, 1945 in Columbus, Ohio and was the first child of a young pair of Swing Kids. Growing up he listened to the radio and records playing big band instrumentals and vocals. He became familiar with Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and the Andrews Sisters in the family’s Ohio State University campus area apartment.
By the time he turned ten he had rented a metal clarinet from a local shop and started his entrance into the music industry. Two years later Bob began lessons on the clarinet with David Hite and at Columbus Linden-McKinley high school joined the dance band by learning to play baritone saxophone. This was followed by the purchase of a Selmer Mark VI alto and fell in love.
Attracting national attentionhe as a member of the dance band in 1961-62 the band was invited those two years to the Stan Kenton National Stage Band Camps as a featured guest band. They enjoyed the thrills of being rehearsed by Stan Kenton, Buddy DeFranco, Buddy Morrow, John LaPorta, Don Jacoby, Buddy Baker and others. Then Kenton and DeFranco took them to Chicago’s McCormick Place to perform for the Midwest Band and Orchestra Directors Convention.
At the Ohio State University School of Music he majored in Music Education and alto saxophone was his major instrument. Smith added bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, tenor and bass saxes to his arsenal of instruments.
He taught instrumental music in southern and northwest Ohio and privately in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio. Along with being an educator Bob spent the majority of his working career in business sales, retiring in 2008. Over the decades alto saxophonist Bob Smith has played in numerous big bands in Ohio and currently performs in Toledo’s Swingmania All-Stars, a band that never recorded an album or a song.
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