Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Michel Petrucciani was born on December 28 1962 in Orange, Vaucluse, France into a musical family with father playing guitar and brothers playing bass and guitar. He came into the world with a genetic disease that caused brittle bones and short stature. Due to this illness, throughout his career Michel was often carried to and from the piano when he performed.
Enthusiastic of Duke Ellington, his desire to be a pianist was driven by his main interest in jazz but trained for years as a classical musician giving his first professional concert at the age of 13. By the age of 18 he was part of a successful trio and in 1982 he moved to the US where he successfully encouraged Charles Lloyd to resume playing actively. Three years later, on February 22, 1985, with Petrucciani cradled in his arms, Lloyd walked onto the stage at Town Hall in New York City and sat him on his piano stool for what would be an historic evening in jazz history: the filming of One Night with Blue Note.
The following year Petrucciani recorded a live album with Wayne Shorter and Jim Hall and throughout his career has played with other greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Stephane Grappelli, Joe Lovano, Stanley Clark, Lenny White, Gil Goldstein and many others. He has recorded over thirty albums, wrote a biography, has a mosaic in the 18th district of Paris and in 1994 was granted a Legion d’honneur.
Michel Petrucciani, whose style is reminiscent of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, died on January 6, 1999 from a pulmonary infection, nine days after his 36th birthday. He was posthumously honored in 2009 with a special broadcast event on the French music channel Mezzo.
Inspire A Young Mind
More Posts: piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Don Pullen was born on December 25, 1941 and was raised outside Roanoke, Virginia and learned to play the piano at an early age. He played with the choir in his local church, was heavily influenced by his jazz pianist cousin, Clyde “Fats” Wright and took some lessons in classical piano. He knew little of jazz, concentrating mainly on church music and the blues.
Leaving Roanoke for Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina to study for a medical career, Pullen soon realized that his true vocation was music. After playing with local musicians and being exposed for the first time to albums of the major jazz musicians and composers he abandoned medical studies for music.
By 1964 he was in Chicago with Muhal Richard Abrams, then moved to New York City and immersed in the avant-garde recording with Giuseppi Logan. Along with band mate Milford Graves formed a duo, started a small label and recorded his first sessions that did great in Europe. He turned to more profitable organ and during the 60’s and 70s played trio dates and backed such vocalists as Arthur Prysock, Irene Reid, Ruth Brown, Jimmy Rushing and Nina Simone. He held a brief position with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1972.
Over the course of his career he would play with Charles Mingus, lead his own groups, form the George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet, put together the African Brazilian Connection, worked with Native American drummers and choir, and played with Nilson Matta, Carlos Ward, Gary Peacock, Tony Williams, Hamiet Bluiett, Bill Cosby, Jack Walrath, Maceo Parker, Roy Brooks, Jane Bunnett and David Murray among others.
Don Pullen jazz pianist, organist and composer of blues to bebop, who recorded over 30 albums as a leader and more than three dozen as a sideman, passed away of lymphoma on April 22, 1995.
Put A Dose In Your Pocket
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ray Bryant was born Raphael Homer Bryant on December 24, 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began playing piano at age six. He played bass in junior High School. Turning professional before his age of maturity, he made a name for himself in his hometown playing a steady gig at the Blue Note Club.
From the late 1950s, he led a trio, performing throughout the world, and also worked solo. He recorded his first album with Betty Carter in 1955 titled “Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant” that marked his initial ascent. His first solo piano album “Alone With The Blues” in 1958 became the precursor to many more solo projects.
A noted jazz composer, with well-known themes such as “Cubano Chant,” “Monkey Business,” “Little Susie” and “The Madison Time,” the latter being resurrected in the 1988 movie Hairspray and subsequently used in the Broadway show.
Ray has performed and recorded with such players as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Melba Liston, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Carmen McRae and Aretha Franklin. Along with his brother Tommy and Oz Perkins he formed a trio as the back-up band in 1964 for the off-Broadway run of the comedy show Cambridge Circus starring John Cleese.
Ray Bryant, sensitive yet firm pianist who was comfortable with tonalities of gospel and blues and excelled as both sideman and leader passed away at age 79 on June 2, 2011.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge
More Posts: piano
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Timmons was born Robert Henry Timmons on December 19, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Studying piano from the age of six by the age of 19 he was moving to New York, playing with the likes of Kenny Dorham’s Jazz Prophets, Chet Baker, Sonny Stitt and Maynard Ferguson. He became a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers from 58-59 touring Europe and became well known for his composition “Moanin”.
He joined Cannonball Adderley for a year, recorded two soul-jazz compositions that became hits “This Here” and “Dat Dere” and rejoined Blakey for a brief stint in the Sixties. Over the course of his career he recorded some 16 albums for Riverside, Milestone and Prestige record labels and recorded another twenty-three as a sideman with Art Blakey, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, Nat Adderley, Kenny Burrell and the Young Lions.
However sophisticated and versatile a pianist he proved to be, Timmons’ success of his compositions, which have become jazz standards, could not compensate for his artistic frustrations and his battle with alcoholism. Pianist and composer Bobby Timmons passed away from cirrhosis at the age of 38 on March 1, 1974.
Jazz Is Global – Share
More Posts: piano,vibraphone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Carroll Booker III was born on December 17, 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana to piano playing Baptist ministers. He spent most of his childhood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where his father pastored and got a saxophone from his mother. However his interest lay stronger with the keyboard and he started playing organ in his father’s church.
Returning to New Orleans in his early teens, Booker attended the Xavier Academy Preparatory School, learning some elements of his keyboard style and playing Bach and Chopin among other classical composers, in addition to memorizing solos by Errol Garner and Liberace. He became a masterful interpreter of jazz and other pop music styles combining performance elements of stride, blues, gospel and Latin piano styles.
Booker made his recording debut in 1954 on the Imperial label, with “Doin’ the Hambone” and “Thinkin’ ‘Bout My Baby.” This led to some session work with Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis and Lloyd Price. In 1958, when just 18, James had the opportunity to play and astonish Arthur Rubenstein who revealed he could never play at that tempo. He would go on to matriculate through Southern University, record a few moderately successful singles, hit the Billboard charts, and venture into the drug world ultimately serving a brief sentence.
By the 70s he was recording for Paramount, then Island Records, performing at the Nice, Montreux and New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festivals, touring Europe, house pianist at the Maple Leaf Bar, played and toured with Jerry Garcia, and his “Let’s Make A Better World” would be the last record produced in the former East Germany.
James Booker died on November 8, 1983, while seated in a wheelchair, waiting to be seen at the emergency room at New Orleans Charity Hospital. The cause of death was renal failure due to his life-long struggle with drug abuse and alcoholism.
Give The Gift Of Knowledge