Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Senri Oe was born on September 6, 1960, in Fujiidera city, Osaka, Japan. He began playing piano at the age of three, and was trained by his junior high school teacher Yumi Nara, who would go on to become an acclaimed opera singer. After each of the lessons, Nara would encourage him to improvise, and eventually he began to compose.

Upon being introduced to music by The Carpenters, Captain & Tenille and Gilbert O’Sullivan, Oe decided to become a singer-songwriter. Soon after, Oe’s music repertoire expanded to include jazz musicians such as Chris Conor, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Winton Kelly, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.

In 1975 at 15 Oe intended to study jazz but after participating in the final Yamaha Popular Song Contest POPCON, in 1980 he entered Kwansei Gakuin University majoring in economics while simultaneously beginning to pursue a professional music career. He formed his first band during his time at university, was scouted by Sony Music and signed to Epic Sony Japan in 1981. His pop career unexpectedly took off and he chose to put his jazz aspirations on hold.

At the New School for Jazz, in 2008 Senri moved to Manhattan, New Yorkand later He went on to start a prolific carrer as a pop singer/songwriter but in 2007 he began his serious study of jazz. After graduating from The New School for Jazz, he launched his jazz record label, Peace Never Die Records, in 2012. His jazz debut album was Boys Mature Slow the same year. As of 2021 he has released another six albums under the PND label.

Oe’s work towards composing for a drum-less trio was titled Collective Scribble, with saxophone, piano and upright bass. He has recorded as a leader with Sheila Jordan, Jon Hendricks, Theo Bleckmann and Lauren Kinhan. His Answer July was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Jazz Album category in 2017.

Pianist, composer, producer, actor, singer, and songwriter Senri Oe continues to compose, perform and stretch the realms of his jazz imagination, while writing and producing music for other artists and film soundtracks.

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JAZZ MUSIC AWARDS

~ Wayne Shorter | Lifetime Achievement Award

~ McCoy Tyner | Jazz Legend Award

~ James H. Patterson | Jazz Impact Award

~ Henry Threadgill | Jazz Composer Award

~ Ambrose Akinmusire | Jazz Innovator Award

~ Dr. Lenora Z Helm Hammonds | Jazz Educator Award

2022 Nominees

~ Best Mainstream Artist | Joey DeFrancesco, Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride & Inside Straight, Brandee Younger

~ Best Contemporary Artist | Brian Bromberg, Ben Tankard, Lindsey Webster, Ragan Whiteside

~ Best Duo, Group or Band | The Baylor Project, Jazzmeia Horn & Her Noble Force, Christian McBride & Inside Straight, Count Basie Orchestra, Kevin Eubanks & Orrin Evans

~ Best New Jazz Artist | Simon Moullier, Julieta Engenio, Kazemde George, Samara Joy

~ Best Vocal Performance | The Baylor Project, Somi, Stacey Kent, Shawnn Monteiro

~ Best Mainstream Album | Generation – The Baylor Project, The Magic Of Now – Orrin Evans, Sounds From The Ancestors – Kenny Garrett, Somewhere Different – Brandee Younger

~ Best Contemporary Album | The Stay At Home Series – Bob Baldwin & Friends, The Trilogy Red – Brian Culbertson, Soul Ascension – Sonny Emory, Tongue & Groove – Gabriel Mark Hasselbach

~ Song Of The Year | Back At Ya – Norman Brown, Feel The Love – Brian Culbertson, Gruv Kid – Justin~Lee Schultz, Up From Here – James “PJ” Spraggins

Performers

~ Terri Lyne Carrington – Music Director, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ledisi, The Baylor Project, Jazzmeia Horn, Lizz Wright

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BRUBECK BROTHERS QUARTET

A CELEBRATION OF BRUBECK featuring the Brubeck Brothers Quartet with the award-winning Frost Concert Jazz Band from the Frost School of Music and special guest Catherine Russell in the Knight Concert Hall

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bob Greene was born on September 4, 1922 in New York City, New York. He was active early in his career in Dixieland jazz revival groups, working with Sidney De Paris, Baby Dodds, Conrad Janis, and Johnny Wiggs.

Leaving music for a period, he got a degree from Columbia University and worked in radio and speechwriting, including for Lyndon Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy. After Robert Kennedy’s assassination, he quit speechwriting and returned to jazz in the late 1960s again, working with Zutty Singleton. Focusing on music full-time, Bob worked in the early 1970s with Don Ewell, Albert Nicholas, and the Peruna Jazz Band.

He put together a traveling ensemble which paid tribute to the music of Jelly Roll Morton. They toured worldwide, recorded several albums and among his sidemen in this setting were Danny Barker, Tommy Benford, Herb Hall, Milt Hinton, and Johnny Williams.

The nephew of Paul Blum, a former intelligence officer, he spent time writing his uncle’s biography, which was published in 1998. Pianist and bandleader Bob Greene transitioned on October 13, 2013 in Amagansett, New York.

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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

As the Jazz Voyager continues to social distance and wears his mask inside stores when grocery shopping and following doctor office protocol, he is still finding time to listen to great jazz. This week coming off the shelves is an album titled Blossom Time at Ronnie Scott’s by pianist and vocalist Blossom Dearie and is a live recording at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho, London, England in 1966. This was her first live album and was  released on the British record label, Fontana. The liner notes were written by Jimmy Parsons.

Her personal favorite recording, the swinging trio will intoxicate you with this set of songs just as if you were there in the intimate space listening. Her girlish, soft voice is her signature as she executes each song with style. This is the first of four albums she will record on the Fontana label.

Track List | 39:23

1. On Broadway (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) ~ 3:55
2. (Ah, the Apple Trees) When the World Was Young (Michel Philippe-Gérard, Angele Vannier, Johnny Mercer) ~ 4:20
3. When in Rome (Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh) ~ 4:45
4. The Shadow of Your Smile (Johnny Mandel, Paul Francis Webster) ~ 4:13
5. Ev’rything I’ve Got (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) ~ 4:29
6. Once Upon a Summertime (Eddie Barclay, Michel Legrand, Eddy Marnay, Johnny Mercer) ~ 3:51
7. I’m Hip (Dave Frishberg, Bob Dorough) ~ 2:48
8. Mad About the Boy (Noël Coward) ~ 5:05
9. The Shape of Things (Sheldon Harnick) ~ 2:42
10. Satin Doll” (Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Billy Strayhorn) ~ 5:15

• Blossom Dearie ~ piano, vocals
• Jeff Clyne ~ double bass
• Johnny Butts ~ drums

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