Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Richard Enos “Butch” Thompson was born on November 28, 1943 in St. Croix, Minnesota, began playing piano at the early age of three, and began taking lessons at age six. At Stillwater Area High School, he played clarinet in the band and in 1962 he joined the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band in Minneapolis, Minnesota and remained with them for twenty years.
>From 1974 to 1986, he was a regular and the original pianist on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion. From its inception in the 1960s he led the Butch Thompson Trio.
The 1970s saw Thompson’s recordings gaining popularity in Europe and he toured the continent extensively during the decade and into the 1980s, both as a solo artist and as a band leader or member.
He wrote for jazz publications and produced a radio show, Jazz Originals, for KBEM-FM in Minneapolis. Pianist and clarinetist Butch Thompson, best known for his ragtime and stride performances, died on August 14, 2022.
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The Jazz Voyager
The Jazz Voyager is on the road again, this time leaving Tennessee for Georgia. Heading north of Atlanta on 400 for the progressive city of Alpharetta where The Velvet Note does its thing. The 40 plus eating offers an intimate atmosphere where one comes to listen to jazz, not talk through the set.
On tap this week is trumpeter Russell Gunn & Blackhawk. The project’s name, Blackhawk, is a nod to the legendary 1961 album Miles Davis In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk. That record is famous for capturing Miles Davis at his most raw and hard-swinging, performing in a gritty San Francisco club with no rehearsals and no safety net.
The Velvet Note is located at 4075 Old Milton Parkway, 30005. For more information visit https://thevelvetnote.com
Tickets: $54.00
More Posts: adventure,club,ensembles,genius,jazz,music,preserving,travel,trumpet
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michel Portal was born on November 27, 1935 in Bayonne, France into a musical family and home filled with several instruments growing up. His interest in jazz began after hearing it on the radio after World War II. He studied clarinet at the Conservatoire de Paris and conducting with Pierre Dervaux.
Gaining experience in light music with the bandleaders Henri Rossotti and with Perez Prado in Spain in 1958, Michel performed with drummer Benny Bennett, Raymond Fonsèque, Aimé Barelli and for many years, the singer Claude Nougaro.
Portal co-founded the free improvisation group New Phonic Art. During 1969, he played on a recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Aus den sieben Tagen.
He began scoring music for films in the 1980s. He won the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film three times. Playing both jazz and classical music and is considered to be “one of the architects of modern European jazz.
Composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist Michel Portal continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jon De Lucia was born on November 26, 1980 in Quincy, Massachusetts. He is predominantly a student of jazz, but also has a deep interest in the folkloric music and instruments of Cuba, Japan, Ireland and Italy. He has performed on a variety of ethnic flutes, drums and stringed instruments.
Having led his groups and played as a sideman in Boston, Massachusetts, New York City and all over Japan, he has worked with Tommy Crane, David Tronzo, Bob Moses, Bob Gullotti, John Lockwood and Thomas Morgan among others.
He leads the Jon De Lucia Group, and the baroque improvising Luce Trio. Saxophonist and composer Jon De Lucia, now based in Brooklyn, New York, continues to compose, perform and teach full time at BMCC in Tribeca, New York.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
On The Bookshelf
Original Jazz Classics Collector’s Guide
An easy guide to 200 of the most popular classic jazz albums currently available on CD. Includes complete listings of tunes and personnel, cover graphics, historical and contemporary critical notes, selected biographies, and never-before-seen-photographs plus a complete numerical listing of OJCs on compact disc.
Original Jazz Classics Collector’s Guide: 1995
Fantasy Inc.
