AXEL TOSCA’S CUBAN JAM
Axel Tosca Trio and the Legendary Xiomara Laugart | The Cuban Jam
Three time Grammy-nominated Cuban pianist Axel Tosca. Blending jazz, classical, hip-hop, and Afro-Cuban rhythms, Tosca creates a genre-defying soundscape that captivates audiences. Born into a prestigious musical family, he was a prodigy on stage by age seven, learning under jazz greats like Miriam Valdez. Tosca has performed with legends such as Roy Hargrove, The Roots, and George Clinton. His weekly “Jam” features collaborations with jazz icons and showcases his virtuosic talent.
Xiomara Laugart has performed Cuban Nueva trova, jazz standards, and Broadway numbers on local and international stages. She joins her son Axel and combines the beloved Cuban sounds of home from the 1950s to today with Tosca’s eclectic take on modern jazz, swing, and bebop.
Cover: $35.00
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Isidore Jean “John” Barbarin was born September 24, 1871 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He began learning cornet at age 14, then played in various New Orleans brass bands, like the Onward Brass Band, the Excelsior Brass Band, and Papa Celestin’s Tuxedo Brass Band.
He did not make it on to record until 1945, when he recorded with Bunk Johnson; in 1946 he recorded with the Original Zenith Brass Band. He was a mainstay of the New Orleans jazz scene in the decades around the turn of the 20th century.
Cornet and alto horn player Isidore Barbarin died on June 12, 1960 in New Orleans.
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On The Bookshelf
Jazz Singing | Will Friedwald
The four hundred and fifty five page book is a testament to America’s great voices from Bessie Smith to bebop and beyond. Friedwald has over the past two decades, emerged as the single most recognized authority on jazz singers. His liner notes have enhanced hundreds of vocal reissues, and his books and newspaper columns are equally perceptive.
As the title promises, Friedwald has broadened his scope to 210 singers that are not exclusively jazz but now include pop singers, such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and Patti Page. For serious jazz vocal fans, he gives us seminal performers Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong and Sinatra, whose analysis of specific albums is consistently enlightening. There are lesser lights-Jackie Paris, David Allyn, Edythe Wright, Irene Reid and several dozen others. The list also reminds us of Doris Day, Jack Jones, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gormé, Judy Garland and Martha Raye.
Read at your leisure, dive in for one story or two and discover precious nuggets to add to your understanding of a time when jazz was king..
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Bryant Woode was born September 23, 1926 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, for whom he was named, was a music teacher and pianist who had played with Hot Lips Page. He studied piano and bass in Boston, Massachusetss at Boston University and at the Conservatory of Music, as well as at the Philadelphia Academy.
He joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1955 and appeared on many of Ellington’s recordings, including Such Sweet Thunder and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, recorded in 1957. Jimmy performed at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival issued on Ellington at Newport. In 1960 he left the Orchestra to live in Europe.
An original member of The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, in 1995 he also toured with Lionel Hampton’s Golden Men of Jazz. 2003 saw Woode forming a trio with drummer Pete York and German jazz musician/comedian Helge Schneider, touring in Germany with his interpretation of jazz classics like Georgia and Summertime. As a consequence of his co-operation with Schneider, he also starred in the 2004 feature film Jazzclub in the role of a struggling jazz bassist.
Woode’s song Just Give Me Time was covered by Carola in 1966, first released on her album Carola & Heikki Sarmanto Trio, reaching the Finnish charts in 2004.
Bassist Jimmy Woode, who was born on the same day, the same month, the same year as saxophonist John Coltrane, died April 23, 2005, at age 78 at his home in Lindenwold, New Jersey, of complications following a surgery for a stomach aneurysm.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Doug Beavers was born September 22, 1976 in Bellflower, California. He received a BA in music from California State University, East Bay, an MA in composition from the Manhattan School of Music. He is the founder of the music production company and record label, Circle 9.
As a performer Doug has worked with Eddie Palmieri, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Mingus Big Band, Christian McBride, Paul Simon, and others. He also served as an adjunct professor at Los Medanos College and music faculty of Jazz Trombone at California State University, East Bay.
His most recent album recording,Sol, was released in 2020. In 2021, he received a New Jazz Works grant from Chamber Music America. Trombonist, arranger, composer and producer Doug Beavers, a Grammy Award-winning musician, is currently an adjunct faculty member at the College of New Jersey.
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