Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ike Sturm was born June 29, 1978 and was raised in a musical home in Wisconsin, learning from his father, renowned composer and arranger, Fred Sturm. He studied jazz and classical bass and composition while earning undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Eastman School of Music. In addition, he studied privately with legendary bassist Dave Holland.

Sturm went on to serve as Music Director for the Jazz Ministry from 2004-2021, commissioned him to compose Jazz Mass, a work for voices, strings and soloists that merges diverse musical languages into a powerfully unified aesthetic. The piece was released to critical international acclaim, named Best Albums of the Year by Downbeat and has been performed across the U.S., Scandinavia and Europe.

He has performed with Gene Bertoncini, Theo Bleckmann, Ingrid Jensen, Donny McCaslin, Bobby McFerrin, Ben Monder, Maria Schneider and Kenny Wheeler. He has played on four Downbeat award-winning recordings, several Steve Reich releases on Canteloupe and Nonesuch Records and performed with Alarm Will Sound and the International Contemporary Ensemble, along with numerous creative ensembles in New York.

Bassist Ike Sturm currently leads a new worshiping community in New York City called Finding Our Way Home. He was commissioned by Montview Presbyterian Church in Denver, Colorado to write a new large-scale piece called River for 100 voices, string orchestra and the Ike Sturm Ensemble.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Nick Drozdoff was born on June 28, 1953 in Glencoe, Illinois. Holding degrees in music, engineering and physics, in 1978 he began his professional career in Maynard Ferguson’s band. Leaving the band in 1981 he ran his own contracting business and after completing his masters in classical trumpet, he began leading a double life in 1991 when he took on a day gig as a high school physics teacher at Winnetka’s New Trier High School.

After leading a double career existence and garnering awards as a high school science teacher, Nick developed endorsement deals as a jazz trumpeter at night. Retiring from teaching he pursued his musical passion. Now he spends time in Door County, Wisconsin and in the Northern Suburbs of Chicago where he regularly performs in both locations. He  lives equal time in both places, depending on his performance and lecture/masterclass schedule.

His latest project centers on his new band, The Variable D Postulate Ensemble. This band is minimally a quartet of drums, guitar, keybaord and trumpet. It is primarily jazz driven but not exclusively. Drozdoff built a studio where he does his recording and has built connections as a trumpeter all over the world.

He has recorded with Grilly Brothers, Marshall Vente, Doug Lofstrom, Chuchito Valdes, and Guy Fricano. He is currently on call as solo trumpet with the Chicago Grandstand Big Band, The Jazz Consortium Big Band and the Starfall Big Band. Trumpeter Nick Drozdoff frequently appears as a classical soloist for churches, recitals andleads one of the Chicago area’s finest brass quintets.

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NOEL FRIEDLINE & MARIA HOWELL

NOEL FREIDLINE (Bandleader/Piano)
Pianist, vocalist, writer, arranger and educator, doesn’t come close to all things Noel Freidline! As a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of North Florida, with a BA in Music, Noel has been the bandleader of The Noel Freidline Quintet for over 26 years. He has numerous recordings to his credit, and has performed at jazz festivals from the Jacksonville Jazz Festival (FL)…to the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland)…not to mention, a 3-year stint at the world famous Bellagio in Las Vegas, as the house band, leading his NFQ, where he performed for actress Julia Robert’s surprise 35th birthday party.

Noel was named Best Jazz Musician by Charlotte Magazine in 2006 and in 2009 and was named “Best Musical Director”, by the Metrolina Theatre Association of the Carolinas. In 2011 Freidline was chosen for the Blumenthal Performing Arts Association – Center Stage Award (Charlotte, NC), in recognition of his excellence in service to the arts. And in May, 2015, Noel Freidline was inducted into the Jacksonville Jazz Hall of Fame. 

MARIA HOWELL (Vocals)
For over 35 years, this petite NC native, who splits her time between both the east coast and the west coast, has developed her career as a singer, actor, and voiceover artist. Her debut acting role was the choir soloist in the Oscar Nominated film, “The Color Purple”. She has gone on to appear in hit TV shows as Lifetime’s “Army Wives”, NBC’s “Revolution”, and CBS’s “Criminal Minds”. Feature films…“The Blind Side”, “Hidden Figures”, and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”. As a song stylist, Maria has shared the musical stage with legendary artists as, Nancy Wilson, George Benson, Ray Charles, Earl Klugh, brothers Ronnie and Hubert Laws, and veteran actor/singer, Keith David.

Join Noel & Maria and special guest Adrian Crutchfield as they celebrate what the world needs now: Love, Sweet Love.  The best of the love songs, from classics to contemporary.

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The Jazz Voyager

From Northern California to Charm City sitting on the Chesapeake Bay for a night of music and then a short hop down to the Eastern Shore for the best crab cakes on the East Coast. The spot this Jazz Voyager will be in, the Keystone Korner Baltimore, is the second iteration of the famous club of the same name that held jazz down in SAn Francisco during the upheaval of music leading to the rise of rock and R&B.

This week the band taking the stage is The Heavy Hitters, a band composed of leader Mike LeDonne on piano, Eric Alexander on tenor saxophone, alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, trumpeter Sean Jones, Alexander Claffy on bass with drummer Kenny Washington. This voyager will be in the audience to savor the ambience and the jazz .

The venue is located at 1350 Lancaster Street, Baltimore, MD 21231. For more information you are invited to visit keystonekornerbaltimore.com.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ronald “Ronnie” Hughes was born in Aberystwyth, Wales on June 27, 1925 and  took up the trumpet at the age of eleven. The following year he was playing local semi-pro gigs. At nineteen he was in the RAF until 1947, spending part of his service in India. After returning to Wales to study photography, he then moved to London, England to join the Trinidadian clarinettist Carl Barriteau band. He worked for a year with the Teddy Foster Band from 1948 until 1949, and was a member of the Ted Heath band from 1949 until 1954.

In the late fifties, Ronnie was in the bands of Geraldo and Jack Parnell, and after his marriage broke up had a spell working on ocean liners. A fluent jazz improviser and reliable and ubiquitous session player during the heyday of TV work, he was one of the original members of the BBC Big Band. He was a member of the Sinatra band and a long-term friend of fellow trumpeter Mannie Klein.

He would go on to appear in the film Quartet directed by Dustin Hoffman, who was captivated by his playing. Throughout his career he worked with Nat Allen, Lesle Holmes’ Londonairs, Harry Parry, Teddy Foster, Cyril Stapleton, Johnny Evans, BBC Radio Orchestra and led own quintet in 1958. He was a member of the Berlin Big Band, Eric Winston & His Orchestra, Johnny Keating and 27 Men, The Pride of London Big Band, and the Ray Davies Orchestra.

Trumpeter Ronnie Hughes died on April 1, 2020 in Banstead, Surrey at the age of 94.

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