Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Shirley Scott was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 14, 1934. She began her musical journey with piano and trumpet in high school but her admiration for Jimmy Smith moved her to the Hammond organ as her primary instrument, though she continued to play piano.
In the Fifties she came to prominence working with saxophonist Eddie Davis, but by the ‘60s Scott married Stanley Turrentine and the subsequent musical collaboration was fruitful with releases.
A very melodic player, Shirley graduated to an aggressive, highly rhythmic approach of organ player blending intricate bebop harmonies with blues and gospel with soul jazz. Her visibility waned in the seventies as labels interest in organ combos was replaced by fusion and pop jazz.
By the 1980s she would become a jazz educator and recording for Muse with the new found interest in organ late in the decade. Scott, a superb pianist, exclusively played piano during the Nineties in Philly jazz clubs and recorded trio projects for Candid.
By the turn of the new century with her health declining, she was diagnosed with heart damage due to adverse effects from the diet pill “fen-phen”. She was awarded $8 million in a lawsuit against the drug manufacturers. Shirley Scott died of heart failure on March 10, 2002.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Colligan was born on December 29, 1969 in New Jersey and raised in Columbia, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. He attended the Peabody Institute, majoring in classical trumpet and music education. In high school he learned to play the drums and later switched to piano.
Moving to New York City he quickly became an in-demand sideman working with Phil Woods, Billy Higgins, Gary Bartz, Nicholas Payton, Buster Williams, Don Byron, Vanessa Rubin, Christian McBride and Cassandra Wilson and many others.
George’s eclectic style incorporates everything from show tunes to funk, from free improvisation to modern classical music. He performs at festivals all over the world, including the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and the Cancun Jazz Festival.
As an educator, Colligan has taught at the Juilliard School of Music, the University of Manitoba, was the songwriter-in-residence at Aqua Books and has taught jazz history, piano, drums, trumpet, and led many different master classes. Continuing to perform and record, George Colligan is currently an Assistant Professor and Jazz Ensembles Coordinator at Portland State University in Oregon.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pete Levin was born on December 20, 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts and started his musical journey on the French horn under the direction John Corley, director of the MIT concert band. Inspired by his teacher, he enrolled at Julliard School of Music in New York City.
Moving to New York in the 70s, Pete began a 15-year association with the Gil Evans Orchestra as both a French horn and electric keyboardist, receiving two Grammy awards during his tenure. This he followed with eight years with Jimmy Giuffre.
As a bandleader, he signed his first record deal with Grammavision Records in 1990, releasing his solo jazz project “Party In The Basement” followed by “Solitary Man” the following year. He went on to release four new age albums and produced the album Deacon Blues in 2007.
He plays Hammond organ, clavinet and Moog synthesizer, has performed, composed or arranged for such film and television scores as Missing In Action, Lean On Me, The Color of Money, The Guiding Light, Spin City, America’s Most Wanted, Star Trek and the Discovery Channel’s Secret of the Humpback Whales among others.
As a sideman Levin has performed with Carla Bley, The Brubeck Brothers, Jimmy Cobb, Hiram Bullock, Rachelle Ferrell, Chuck Mangione, Gregory Hines, Wayne Shorter, David Sanborn, Miles Davis, Vanessa Williams, Lenny White, Lew Soloff and Gerry Mulligan on the short list. He continues to perform, record, arrange and tour.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Larry Young was born on October 7, 1940 in Newark, New Jersey. He played the organ with various R&B bands in the 1950s before gaining jazz experience with Jimmy Forrest, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley and Tommy Turrentine. He began recording as a leader for Prestige from 1960, making a number of soul-jazz discs, Testifying, Young Blues and Groove Street.
Larry moved to Blue Note in 1964, his music began to show the marked influence of John Coltrane and during this period, he produced his most enduring work. He recorded many times as part of a trio with guitarist Grant Green and drummer Elvin Jones. Into Somethin’ with saxophonist Sam Rivers became Young’s Blue Note debut, though 1965’s Unity remains his best-known album featuring Joe Henderson and a young Woody Shaw.
Young’s subsequent Blue Note albums like Contrasts, Of Love and Peace, Heaven On Earth and Mother Ship drew on elements of the ’60s avant-garde, and utilized local Newark musicians. He then became a part of some of the earliest fusion experiments: first in “Lifetime”, then “Emergency!” with Tony Williams and John McLaughlin, and also on Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew. Branching out, Larry was also known to rock fans for a jam he recorded with Jimi Hendrix on the album Nine to the Universe.
Organist Larry Young, also known as Khalid Yasin (Abdul Aziz), who pioneered a modal approach and whose characteristic sound involved management of the stops on the Hammond organ, producing overtone series that caused an ethereal, drifting effect; a sound that is simultaneously lead and background, passed away on March 30, 1978 in New York City.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Larry Goldings was born on August 28, 1968 in Boston, Massachusetts and Larry studied classical piano until the age of twelve. While in high school he attended a program at the Eastman School of Music and during this period Errol Garner, Oscar Peterson, Dave McKenna, Red Garland and Bill Evans were prime influences. As a young teenager, Larry studied privately with Ran Blake and Keith Jarrett.
Goldings moved to New York in 1986 to attend The New School and while in college he studied piano with Jaki Byard and Fred Hersch. As a freshman he traveled to Copenhagen with Sir Roland Hanna and played piano with Sarah Vaughan, Harry Sweets Edison and Al Cohn. His later college years saw him touring worldwide with Jon Hendricks and subsequent collaboration with guitarist Jim Hall.
In 1988, Larry started developing his organ style while gigging at Augie’s (now Smoke) in New York City. His 1991 debut release was Intimacy Of The Blues and since then has performed and/or recorded with Charlie Haden, Jack Dejohnette, Carla Bley, Pat Metheny, Madeleine Peyroux, Michael Brecker, Luciana Souza, Steve Gadd, Melody Gardot, David Sanborn, Al Jarreau, Sia, John Scofield and India.Arie to name a few.
Pianist, organist, producer/arranger and composer Larry Goldings has 16 albums as a leader, eighty-four as a sideman, half dozen film and tv credits, has been nominated for a “Best Jazz Album of the Year” Grammy, has twice been a Jazz Journalist Association Winner “Best Organist/Keyboardist of the Year”, has won The New Yorker Magazine Best Jazz Albums for “Awareness” and “Big Stuff” and continues to compose, perform, tour and record.