
The Jazz Voyager
From Oakland and the City By The Bay it’s a cross country flight to the Big Apple. Once landing at LaGuardia I will be heading across the Triboro to downtown Manhattan wherein lies Greenwich village. This Jazz Voyager will be taking in an Afro-Cuban experience for an evening at the Zinc Bar.
On stage the Axel Tosca Trio holds down The Cuban Jam. The three time Grammy-nominated Cuban pianist blends jazz, classical, hip-hop, and Afro-Cuban rhythms to create a genre-defying soundscape that captivates audiences.
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…
Bill Pierce, known to many as Billy Pierce, was born September 25, 1948 in Hampton, Virginia. He studied with Joe Viola and Andy McGhee at Berklee College of Music, and with Joe Allard.
In the early 1980s he was recruited by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Through the late Eighties and into the late 1990s he recorded simultaneously as a leader while also in Tony Williams’s quintet in the mid-1980s to early 1990s.
As a leader he has recorded seven albums and another 18 as a sideman with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Geoff Keezer, Kevin Eubanks, Makoto Ozone, Superblue, Tony Williams, and Lazlo Gardony.
As an educator Billy says he likes seeing music being carried on by young people developing, achieving their dreams, and being a part of history. Many of his students have made a name for themselves: Antonio Hart, Mark Gross, Javon Jackson, Walter Smith, Mark Turner, Miguel Zenon.
Saxophonist Billy Pierce, who is the former chair of the Berklee woodwind department, continues to perform, tour and educate.
More Posts: bandleader,educator,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone

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
More Posts: adventure,bandleader,club,genius,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,preserving,travel,vocal

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..



