Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ettore Carucci was born on May 18, 1969 in Taranto, Italy and began playing the piano at the age of four. Graduating in classical piano he went on to join a jazz band named Taras Jazz Forum in 1989 and played with a jazz quintet composed of experienced jazz musicians from his area. By 1993/94 he attended two workshops, Siena Jazz and Umbria Jazz, where he won two scholarships. He studied jazz with Danilo Rea, Ray Santisi, and Paul Schmelling.

Throughout his career Ettore has had the opportunity to perform with a who’s who list of American musicians not limited to Benny Golson, Jerry Bergonzi, Eric Marienthal, Dennis Chambers, Christopher Thomas, Greg  Hutchinson, Mike  Moreno, Tony Scott, Bob Mintzer, Sonny Fortune, and Rachel Gould, as well as Anne Ducros, Maria Pia De Vito, Massimo Moriconi, Maurizio Giammarco, Marco Tamburini, Philip Catherine, Massimo Manzi, Fabrizio Bosso, Tullio  De  Piscopo, the Jazz Studio Orchestra and numerous others.

By 2001 he was participating in the Umbria Jazz Festival workshops where he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Ettore had the opportunity to perform with the Berkee College of Music Trio. In the same year he participated at the jazz festival in Orvieto with the Berklee Award Group during the edition of Umbria Jazz Winter.

2005 saw him playing at the Blue Note in Milan, Italy with the Sonny Fortune Quartet and two years later was playing with his peers in New York City. Pianist, composer and educator Ettore Carucci has recorded nine albums as a leader, thirty-eight as a sideman and has released twenty compilations. He continues to compose, teach, perform and work on various artistic projects..

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Pete Paul George Jacobsen was born on May 16, 1950 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Having lost his sight as a baby, due to a growth behind the optic nerve, he studied at the Worcester School for the Blind before forming his own trio, which was good enough to attract local television coverage. In 1969, he moved to London, England to study at the Royal Academy of Music. With a keen memory and perfect pitch, hi’s lack of sight was no obstacle.

In London, Jacobsen played with saxophonists Barbara Thompson, Isotope’s Gary Boyle, and Don Weller. He became a member of the jazz-fusion band Morrissey–Mullen, but it was not until 1985 that he recorded with them on This Must Be The Place and Happy Hour in 1988. Recommended by trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, he landed the piano chair in the Bobby Wellins Quartet and recorded four albums with the group from 1978 to 1989, Live… Jubilation, Dreams Are Free, ERCO Makes Light Work, and Birds of Brazil.

Pete regularly collaborated with Chris Biscoe and recorded tw albums with him and often performed as a duo, recording several BBC Jazz Club performances. He played and recorded with trombonist Jimmy Knepper, and contributed Song For Keith for the recording of the 1980 album Primrose Path. He would also write the song “Black Book” for the album Highly Committed Media Players.

During this time, Jacobsen was part of the resident rhythm section at the Cambridge Modern Jazz Club. He would go on to play with Robin Kenyatta, Alan Skidmore, Peter King, Eberhard Weber, Paul Carmichael, and Chris Fletcher. He gave memorable solo recitals, toured and played on three of their albums with the Celtic-jazz band Cármina.

In 1994, Jacobsen released his only solo album Ever Onward. Through the rest of the decade he performed with his own trio and with the Tim Whitehead quartet or trio. He spent much of his time in the East End of London playing obscure clubs with unknown or struggling musicians. Pianist Pete Jacobsen fell ill after a series of rural art center gigs and transitioned on April 29, 2002 at age 51.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Gerald Wiggins was born on May 12, 1922 in New York City. He started classical piano lessons when he was four but by his teenage years became interested in jazz. He doubled on bass while attending High School & Art and for a period in the 40s accompanied Stepin’ Fetchit. Following this he worked and toured with the big bands of Les Hite, Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter. Stationed in Seattle while in the military he played in the local jazz clubs.

By the mid 40s Wiggins relocated to Los Angeles and played music for television and film. He has worked with Lena Horne, Kay Starr, Nat King Cole, Lou Rawls, Jimmy Witherspoon Helen Humes, Joe Williams, Ernie Andrews and Eartha Kitt to name a few. He also worked at the Hollywood studios as a vocal coach and worked with Marilyn Monroe and others.

Always a highly flexible pianist, Wiggins was comfortable in swing and bop settings with a consistently witty style filled with catchy riffs became his distinctive signature. His best-known recording as an organist was Wiggin’ Out but it was Wiggins’ trio work with Andy Simpkins and Paul Humphreys that is legendary. Pianist Gerald Wiggins passed away at the age of 86 on July 13, 2008.

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Three Wishes

When the ladies took a moment for themselves, Nica inquired of Alice Coltrane what her three wishes would be if they were able to be given and she told her: 

1. 1. “I’d like to see my little daughter graduate from the University in Paris.”

   2. “I would dig an artist’s colony. Like one block of buildings, or area, where artists and musicians could get together, and teach, and study. Artists could display their art. Writers ~ we’d allow them in, too, but it’d be mostly artists and musicians. We’d have a library, concerts, and sessions, and rooms for tapings. Artists could come in and record. You know, you’ve got it!”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Steve Holt was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on May 9, 1954 and exhibited musical ability in early childhood, playing piano at the age of four. By the time he was a teenager, he was a regular on the Montreal club scene.

Self-taught until he entered McGill University, he received instruction from pianist Armas Maiste, whose bebop playing influenced him. Holt became a student of Kenny Barron, traveling regularly to New York City for private lessons. Graduating from McGill in 1981 with that university’s first Bachelor of Music major in Jazz Performance, he taught jazz improvisation there.

Steve’s 1983 debut album, The Lion’s Eyes was nominated for a Juno Award. He has worked with Larry Coryell, Eddie Henderson, and Archie Shepp. Moving to Toronto, Canada in 1987 he worked as an equity analyst and for a time he also continued playing clubs at night. He released three albums in the early Nineties ~ Christmas Light, Just Duet and Catwalk.

At the end of the decade Holt returned his concentration to music full-time and three years later his fifth album, The Dream, was released. He turned his attention to music production and stopped performing jazz live until 2014. A move to the countryside reignited his interest in jazz performance and in 2017 he opened a health food store in Warkworth, Ontario that operates as a jazz venue once a week.

Pianist Steve Hunt continues to play jazz while maintaining outside interests.

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