Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Laura Ellis was born on May 11, 1972 and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She had the fortune to become a protégé of The Manhattan Transfer founding member Alan Paul which guided the honing of her vocal skills. Steeped in the Great American Songbook she ventured on a four year run of The Vintage Voice, and toured with The Wonderelles, covering the music of the famous girl groups.
Ellis has a penchant for cinema noir of the 40s and 50s and replicates those vintae tunes by bringing those seedy characters to life. Her Cinema Sweethearts celebrate the days of teen idols and her cabaret performances transport listeners back in time. Her blend of jazz and nostalgia has entertained audiences across the nation..
She has recorded a contemporary vocal jazz album, Here Lies Love, produced by Alan Paul, and Femme Fatale, featuring the classic songs from the dangerous dames of film noir. In 2016 she released Broken Lovely, a compendium of love songs of the broken, mended, and free.
Now calling Los Angeles, Californiar home, vocalist Laura Ellis has lent her voice to History Channel’s Route 66, Modern Marvels documentaries, the HBO series Carnivale, a commercial appearance with the late Della Reese, and ABC’s Modern Family.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles William Porter was born May 10, 1978 in Boynton Beach, Florida. He studied trumpet at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Paris Conservatory. His mentors include Wynton Marsalis, Mark Gould, Raymond Mase, Guy Touvron, and Laurie Frink.
Porter started in the New York jazz scene in the 1990s while studying classical music under Wynton Marsalis at the Juilliard School. He became a long-standing member of the Absolute Ensemble, and is a frequent member of the Charlie Porter Quintet, The Alan Jones Sextet and the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra.
As a bandleader, he has toured as both a jazz and classical musician, and released his debut self-titled album, Charlie Porter, and a sophomore project Immigration Nation. As a sideman he has recorded some two dozen albums with Philip Glass, Absolute Ensemble, Paquito D’Rivera, Tristan Murail, Billy Martin, Anthony Coleman, Russ Spiegel, Majid Khaliq, Chuck Israels, Alan Jones, and Derek Hines.
As an educator he is currently based in Portland, Oregon and presently holds the position of adjunct professor of jazz trumpet at Portland State University. Trumpeter, composer and music educator Charlie Porter, who has won several trumpet competitions and awarded a Grammy for his collaboration on the Joyce DiDonato album Songplay, continues to perform, record and teach.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,educator,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Diego Maroto was born in Mexico City, Mexico on May 9, 1968. He started taking private saxophone lessons in 1985 from teachers Larry Roussell and Alfonso Martínez. Two years later he studied art history at the Universidad Iberoamericana and in 1988 he joined the jazz worksop at the Escuela Superior de Música (INBA), where he learned improvisation, arrangement and composition by Francisco Tellez. His continuing education took him to private lessons from Danny Matusack and Darryl Winsman.
In 1991, Diego became an active member of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). During this period he participated in worksops and courses with David Liebman, Ernie Watts, Arturo Sandoval, Brian Bromberg, David Baker, Jerry Bergonzi, Ran Blake, Mike Campbell, Bill Dobbins, Andy Laverne, Don Sickler and Chris Vandala.
He has recorded and performed on projects with some of Mexico’s top jazz musicians like Eugenio Toussaint, Agustin Bernal, Enrique Neri, Fernando Toussaint, Cristobal López, Chilo Moran, Miguel Salas, Francisco Téllez, Iraida Noriega, and Big Band Arte 01, to name a few. In 2004, Maroto recorded his debut solo album Mundo Paralelo. He has performed at Dizzy’s in New York, and has shared stages with Antonio Sanchez, George Duke and Stanley Clarke. He has since formed the Diego Moaroto Asian Trio, and recorded a live album in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the No Black Tie jazz club.
As an educator, Diego has given lessons, clinics and seminars in important schools and institutions in Mexico. Tenor saxophonist Diego Maroto continues to perform, record, tour and teach.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leah Souza was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts on May 8, 1982 and began singing at a very early age. She started performing at functions and outdoor concerts when she was thirteen. At 16, she was the lead vocalist of a seven piece band that was selected in a national talent search to perform in California. In high school she was the jazz band’s featured vocalist and played the tenor saxophone in multiple bands. She got her big break nationally singing on a song with her flugelhornist father, appropriately titled A Song for My Father.
Leah studied with jazz singer and vocal coach Rebecca Parris while in high school. For several years she regularly attended a Jazz All-Stars show at “Ricky T’s Jazz Club” on the South Shore. There she listened to the top jazz musicians in New England on a weekly basis and eventually began sitting in with the different All-Star bands. Studying these musicians helped her develop as a musician herself, as well as, the opportunity to meet and perform with many wonderful and often legendary performers.
She crafts her duo, trio, quartet or quintet to the venue she is playing with performances that may be lively and exciting, or romantic and full of standard ballads. Souza has performed at the cream-of-the- crop venues in Boston, Massachusetts and throughout New England.
Vocalist Leah Souza continues to pursue her burgeoning career as she expands her reach.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,vocal
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Vic Berton was born Victor Cohen on May 7, 1896 in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a violinist who began his son on string instruments around age five. He was hired as a percussionist at the Alhambra Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1903 when he was only seven years old. By 16, he was playing with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. While serving in World War I he played drums for John Philip Sousa’s Navy band.
In the early 1920s, Berton played in the Chicago bands of Art Kahn, Paul Beise, and Arnold Johnson. He led his own ensemble which played at the Merry Gardens club. 1924 saw him become the manager of The Wolverines, and occasionally played alongside Bix Beiderbecke in the ensemble. Later in the decade, he played with Roger Wolfe Kahn, Don Voorhees, Red Nichols and Paul Whiteman. He worked extensively as a session musicianbefore moving to Los Angeles, California in 1927.
During his time in Los Angeles he played with Abe Lyman and recorded in studios for film soundtracks. Vic served as director of Paramount Films’s music division for a period and worked in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 1940s, he worked as a percussionist in the studios for 20th Century Fox.
Drummer Vic Berton died on December 26, 1951 in Hollywood, California from lung cancer.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music