Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michael Baird was born Lusaka, Zambia on July 5, 1954 and moved to the Netherlands at an early age, where he learned to play drums. Since the mid-1970s he has worked with several Dutch jazz groups and from 1975-83 he played and recorded with Gijs Hendriks, Slide Hampton, Kenny Drew, Raul Burnet, Sonny Grey, Siggi Kessler, Michel Herr, Michel Grailler, Joe Diorio, Jan Akkerman, Wim Overgaauw, Stan Tracey, and Kenny Wheeler.
He founded his own label SWP Records in 1986, led his group Sharp Wood for a decade beginning in 1986 and the octet Utrecht Deep Artment for two years. In 2000 he put together a quintet CapeAbility, followed by sextet Trendy 3D Junk and by 2002 was performing solo concerts along with various other projects and composition commissions.
He has compiled and produced a 22 Cd series “Historical Recordings by Hugh Tracey” of African music from the 40s and 50s, made his own field recordings in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and released both on SWP Records.
Drummer, percussionist and keyboardist Michael Baird continues to perform, record and push the boundaries of jazz.
More Posts: bandleader,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,keyboards,music,percussion
BOB JAMES
From his first days in Marshall, Missouri, the music of Bob James has captivated audiences throughout the world. Discovered by Quincy Jones at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival in 1963, James recorded his first solo album, Bold Conceptions, that same year for Mercury Records. More than 60 albums and innumerable awards would follow through the nearly six decades.
Bob James honed his skills working with Creed Taylor, and on albums for artists like Hank Crawford and Grover Washington, Jr, among others. While with CTI, James found great popular success overseeing significant hits for Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Maynard Ferguson, and Kenny Loggins.
While James is recognized as one of the progenitors of smooth jazz, his music has also had a profound effect on the history of hip hop. Two of James’ songs – “Nautilus” from 1974’s One and “Take Me to the Mardi Gras” from 1975’s Two – are among the most sampled in hip hop history.
Showtimes:
7:00 pm | Fri, Sat~$55 Sun~$40.00
9:00 pm | Fri, Sat~$55 Sun~$20.00
$15 food/beverage minimum per person not included in ticket price.
More Posts: adventure,album,club,genius,jazz,keyboards,museum,music,preserving,restaurant,travel
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Django Bates was born Leon Bates on October 2, 1960 in Beckenham, Kent, England where he attended Sedgehill School. While at this school, for six years he also attended the Centre for Young Musicians in London, England, where he learned trumpet, piano, and violin. In 1977 he studied at Morley College. The following year he enrolled at the Royal College of Music to study composition but left after two weeks.
He founded Human Chain in 1979 and, in the 1980s, he rose to prominence in a jazz orchestra called Loose Tubes. In 1991, Django started the 19-piece jazz orchestra Delightful Precipice. He also assembled the Powder Room Collapse Orchestra and created Circus Umbilicus, a musical circus show. As a sideman he was a member of Dudu Pukwana’s Zila, Tim Whitehead’s Borderline, Ken Stubbs’s First House, Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, Sidsel Endresen, and in the bands of George Russell and George Gruntz.
As an educator, he has tutored at the Banff Centre jazz program, and was appointed Professor of Rhythmic Music at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. Bates was appointed visiting professor of jazz in 2010 at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the next year was appointed Professor of Jazz at HKB Bern Switzerland.
He has performed with Michael Brecker, Tim Berne, Christian Jarvi, Vince Mendoza, David Sanborn, Kate Rusby, and Don Alias. Pianist, keyboardist, tenor hornist Django Bates continues to perform and record.
More Posts: bandleader,educator,history,instrumental,jazz,keyboards,music,piano,tenorhorn
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ernest Hood was born on June 2, 1923 in Portland, Oregon. During the 1940s he was a jazz guitarist in the Portland, Oregon area in the 1940s. He played with his brother Bill and saxophonist Charlie Barnet.
Hood contracted polio in the 1950s, which confined him to using a wheelchair for the rest of his life. No longer able to hold a guitar, he started playing the zither. He played zither on some of Flora Purim’s early albums.
His only studio album, Neighborhoods, was recorded and self~released in 1975 and is a work of ambient music that explores the soundscapes of Portland, Oregon suburbia through a collage of field recordings layered with Hood’s zither and synthesizer melodies. Only one thousand copies were pressed during its original production run. After remaining in obscurity for over 40 years, it was reissued by Freedom to Spend in 2019.
Hood, who often went by Ern or Ernie, was a major figure in Portland’s music scene. He helped found KBOO, a nonprofit FM radio station that still exists today in the city. The radio show he hosted, Radio Days, on KBOO and KOAP, aimed for the same kind of audience his record Neighborhoods did, one that wanted to relive the serenity of the past.
He was also involved in launching the city’s first jazz club, The Way Out. Avant~garde zither and keyboardist, and radio host Ernest Hood, passed away in 1995.
More Posts: bandleader,club owner,history,instrumental,jazz,keyboards,music,radio host,zither
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Narada Michael Walden was born on April 23, 1952 in Kalamazoo, Michigan and after graduating from college he was a member of rock bands in Miami, Florida.
Atlantic Records released his first album, Garden of Love Light, in 1977, followed by I Cry I Smile and The Awakening. The latter album charted during the 1980s including a duet with Patti Austin and appeared on the Bright Lights, Big City movie soundtrack.
Fusing jazz with R&B he built his studio in 1985 and produced music for The Temptations, Stacy Lattisaw, Aretha Franklin, Angela Bofill, Lisa Fischer, Sister Sledge, Herbie Hancock, Patti Austin, Whitney Houston, Clarence Clemons, George Benson, Kenny G, Lionel Richie, Al Jarreau, and Mariah Carey.
Walden has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and won three including Best R&B Song for Freeway of Love; Producer of the Year, Non-Classical; and Album of the Year for The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album.
Drummer, keyboardist and bassist Narada Michael Walden, who got his nickname Narada from Sri Chinmoy, is currently the drummer for Journey.
More Posts: bass,drums,history,instrumental,jazz,keyboards,music