Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bill Reichenbach was born William Frank Reichenbach Jr. on November 30, 1949 in Takoma Park, Maryland. He began playing in high school for bands in the Washington, D.C. area and also sat in with his father’s group, playing with Milt Jackson, Zoot Sims, and others.

He went to Rochester, New York to study at the Eastman School of Music with the legendary teacher Emory Remington and after graduating joined the Buddy Rich band. He would go on to work in the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band in Los Angeles, California in the mid/late 1970s. After that move he became known for music for television and film.[2]

He played trombone on The Wiz and, with the Seawind Horns including Jerry Hey on Michael Jackson’s albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and HIStory. He was a composer for Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. 

He recorded a solo album, Special Edition, where he is featured on bass trombone as well as tenor. Trombonist, euphoniumist, composer and session musician  Bill Reichenbach, who has collaborated on eighty-six albums with artists from Al Jarreau and George Benson to Barbra Streisand, Patti Austin and Bette Midler to Christopher Cross and Selena, continues his career in television, films, cartoons, and commercials.

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Three Wishes

While hanging out with Nica having conversation one evening, she inquired of Willie Bobo that if given three wishes that would be granted what would he wish for and he replied:

  1. “Health.”
  2. “Wealth.”
  3. “Time to enjoy it!”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

SUITE TABU 200

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JOHN BROWN LITTLE BIG BAND FEATURING NNENA FREELON

Six-Time Grammy Award Nominee Nnenna Freelon is known worldwide as a compelling and captivating live performer. The John Brown Big Band is a professional large jazz ensemble made up of top musicians, specializing in performances of traditional compositions from the Great American Songbook and today’s cutting-edge arrangements. Together, these two forces will bring an unforgettable evening of music to the JPAC as they perform all your favorite Holiday favorites such as “Let it Snow, “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night.” John Brown ~ Bass.

Doors Open: 6:45 PM

John Brown “Little” Big Band Featuring Special Guest Nnenna Freelon Holiday Show – Pre-Concert Hors d’oeuvres Reception** ~ $35.00 | 5:30

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Albennie Jones was born on November 29, 1914 in Errata, Mississippi. She grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi where she sang in the Mount Holy Baptist Church, before moving to New York City in 1932. Her first professional engagement was at Elk’s Rendezvous Club, where she was so successful that she was retained for nine months. She also sang in other clubs, including Club Harlem, Village Vanguard and Murrains Café.

She first recorded, as Albinia Jones, for National Records in late 1944, with a band that included electric guitarist Leonard Ware and pianist Cliff Jackson. The following year, her accompanists also included jazz greats, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonist Don Byas and pianist Sammy Price. She was promoted at the time as the “New Queen of the Blues”, and toured widely with Blanche Calloway, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Tiny Bradshaw and the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra.

As Albennie Jones, she recorded again with Price for Decca Records in 1947 and 1949. One of her last recordings with Price in 1949 was a rocking R&B number, Hole in the Wall, co-written by record producer Milt Gabler and featuring the line “we’re going to rock and roll at the Hole in the Wall tonight”, a notably early use of the phrase.

Following an onstage fall in the early 1950s, she had to use a crutch at her club performances, and shortly afterwards retired from the music business. Albennie Jones, also credited as Albinia, after suffering from leukemia, transitioned on June 24, 1989 in the Bronx at the age of 74.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jesper Thilo was born on November 28, 1941 in Copenhagen, Denmark to a pianist-actress mother and architect father. He started to play clarinet at age 11 and from 1955 to 1960 he played clarinet and trombone in various amateur Dixieland jazz bands with the occasional paid jobs as a musician. Early he knew that he wanted to become a professional jazz musician but to get an education he chose to study classical clarinet at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

While at the Academy, Thilo joined Arnved Meyer’s orchestra from 1960 to 1964 and again from 1967 to 1974 and it was Meyer who convinced him to shift to saxophone. He would go on to play with Ben Webster, Benny Carter, Harry Edison, Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins. During this part of his career his virile swing style was chiefly inspired by Webster and Hawkins and his own quintet which he put together in 1965 and co-lead with Torolf Mølgaard and Bjarne Rostvold.

From 1966 to 1989, he was a member of the DR Big Band under bandleaders Palle Mikkelborg and Thad Jones. He mainly played alto saxophone but occasionally also tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone, concert flute, clarinet or bass clarinet. Through the Eighties, Jesper played in Ernie Wilkins’ Almost Big Band. Other collaborators have included Wild Bill Davison and Niels Jørgen Steen.

By 1989, leaving the DR Big Band and Ernie Wilkins’s orchestra he led his own bands with Søren Kristiansen, Olivier Antunes, Hugo Rasmussen og Svend-Erik Nørregaard. He first recorded as a leader for Storyville Records in 1973 and in the 1980s on Storyville his sidemen at various times included Kenny Drew, Clark Terry and Harry “Sweets” Edison, and appeared on the Miles Davis album Aura.

Considered to be one of the top European straight-ahead jazz musicians of the post-1970 period, tenor saxophonist, alto saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist Jesper Thilo continues to perform and record.

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