Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jack Wilson was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 3, 1936 but grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana from the age of seven. From 1949-54, he studied piano with Carl Atkinson at the Fort Wayne College of Music where he was introduced to the music of George Shearing.
Wilson later picked up the tenor saxophone and played in the Central High School band. He began performing locally leading small combos. By his fifteenth birthday, he had become the youngest member ever to join the Fort Wayne Musicians Union, Local 58. At 17, James Moody hired him to play a two-week stint as a substitute pianist.
After graduating from Central High, Jack spent a year-and-a-half at Indiana University, where he met Freddie Hubbard and Slide Hampton. Then touring with a rock ‘n roll band, he wound up in Columbus, Ohio and connecting with then unknown Nancy Wilson and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
After a year in Columbus, he moved to Atlantic City and led the house band at the Cotton Club, adding organ to his musical arsenal. At the Club he met Dinah Washington and worked with her from 1957-58.
A return to Chicago, Wilson was playing with Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Eddie Harris and Al Hibbler and holding down the gig at the Persian Lounge. Drafted into the Army, he went to Fort Stewart, GA. and became the first Black music director for the Third Army Area, playing tenor saxophone in the army band.
In 1961, jack received an honorable medical discharge due to diabetes, returned to Dinah Washington’s band for a year and encouraged by Buddy Collette moved to Los Angeles, California. It was here he worked with Gerald Wilson, Lou Donaldson, Herbie Mann, Johnny Griffin, Sammy Davis Jr., Sarah Vaughan, Lou Rawls, Eartha Kitt, Julie London, as well as Sonny & Cher. He composed and recorded the title track for Earl Anderza’s debut album Outa Sight!
Wilson recorded his debut as a leader for Atlantic Records with The Jack Wilson Quartet featuring Roy Ayers followed by a sophomore project, then three for the label’s subsidiary Vault Records and three albums for Blue Note including the classic Easterly Winds in 1967. From there he focused on work with vocalist Esther Phillips, went back to the studio for Discovery Records, and returned to be a sideman with Lorez Alexandria, Tutti Camarata and Eddie Harris.
His final recording session simply titled In New York, took place on June 4, 1993 and featured legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb. Composer and pianist Jack Wilson died on October 5, 2007 due to complications from his life with diabetes.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gaspare “Gap” Mangione was born July 31, 1938 in Rochester, New York and learned to play the piano as a child. Along with his Grammy-winning flugelhornist brother Chuck, they started performing together as the Jazz Brothers in 1958 and eventually recorded three albums for Riverside Records.
In 1968, Gap Mangione released his first solo album, “Diana in the Autumn Wind”, featured new compositions and arrangements, and was conducted by Chuck Mangione. The 1970s brought more solo albums along with tours with his own group and many as featured pianist in his brother’s orchestral performances.
By the Eighties, Gap began spending less time on the road and more time playing in and around Rochester. In 1990, he formed the Gap Mangione New Big Band, which remains the premier dance and concert big band in the Rochester area. The New Big Band has released four recordings since 1998.
Many major rappers and producers, including Jaylib, Talib Kweli, Guerilla Black, Ghostface Killah, Slum Village and People Under The Stars have sampled Gap’s “Diana in the Autumn Wind” for their recent works.
Gap Mangione has received the Artist of the Year Award from the Arts & Cultural Council of Greater Rochester, continues to make regular appearances at Rochester locations, among them the Woodcliff Hotel and Spa, Pier 45 at the Port, as well as the Rochester International Jazz Festival. The composer, arranger, bandleader and pianist continues to play with his brother.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sadik Hakim was born Argonne Thornton on July 15, 1919 in Duluth, Minnesota and was taught piano by his grandfather and started playing professionally about 1939. In 1944 he moved to New York City and was hired by Ben Webster. A participant in the emergence of bebop, he shared piano duties with Dizzy Gillespie on Charlie Parker’s famous “Ko-Ko” session.
He recorded with Dexter Gordon and Lester Young, heard on the latter’s I’m Confessin’, also credited with co-writing Thelonious Monk’s standard “Eronel” and is rumored to have written a few famous bop tunes credited to other composers. He adopted his Muslim name in 1947.
Hakim moved to Montreal after visiting in 1949 and was a big fish on the small bebop scene there, working with Louis Metcalf’s International Band. Compelled to leave Canada following a drug bust in 1950 he returned to New York and through the decade worked with James Moody and George Holmes Tate.
He returned to Montreal from 1966 to 1976, leading bands and recording with Charles Biddle. He led a few recording dates from 1976–1980 and cut an album with Sonny Stitt in 1978. Hakim played “Round Midnight” at Monk’s funeral in 1982, and the pianist and composer passed away himself the following year on June 20, 1983.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Peter Cincotti was born July 11, 1983 in New York City. The singer, songwriter and pianist started playing a toy piano at the age of three and attended the Horace Mann School. While in high school, he regularly performed at clubs throughout Manhattan and performed at the White House.
At the 2000 Montreux Jazz Festival he won an award for a rendition of Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunisia” and in 2002 Peter reached No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional jazz Charts, the youngest solo artist to do so to date.
Cincotti appeared in a small role and contributed to the soundtrack of the 2004 Bobby Darin biopic Beyond The Sea, had a small role as the Piano Player in Spider-Man 2, and his song “December Boys” is featured in the 2007 film of the same name.
His self-titled debut album is a compilation of traditional jazz songs, while his second album, “On The Moon” featured some of the artist’s own songs, that was followed by his third “East of Angel Town”. Combining pop, jazz, rock and dance, Peter created his fourth studio album, “Metropolis” and released worldwide in the spring of 2012.
That same year, Peter and his sister Pia Cincotti wrote and produced an original full-length musical titled “How Deep Is The Ocean?” that debuted at The New York Musical Theater Festival to sold out audiences in New York. He continues to perform, compose, record and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eric Watson was born July 5, 1955 in Wellesley, Massachusetts. After graduating from Oberlin Conservatory he moved to Paris and by 1982 he recorded his first trio album with Paul Motian and Ed Schuller followed by two solo albums.
He worked in a long-time duo with double-bass player John Lindberg that became extended with Albert Mangelsdorff and Ed Thigpen. He has played and recorded with Steve Lacy, Linda Sharrock and Joelle Leandrein1991. His trio with Mark Dressler and Ed Thigpen recorded “Silent Hearts” in 1998 that became the basis for the “Full Metal Quartets” a year later with saxophonist Bennie Wallace.
Eric’s current small catalogue of seven recordings includes a solo piano project “Sketches of Solitude” in 2002 that became one of the best-selling jazz albums in France. Between 2003 and 2005 he toured Europe, Asia, and Australia with tenor saxophonist Christof Lauer.
His dance score The Peking Ballet was commissioned by Radio City Music Hall to a record summer attendance of 200,000. Watson has presented commissioned works at the Lyon Opera, the State Theatre in Poitiers, he has written for Martial Solal and the Orchestra National de Jazz and for Australian violinist Jane Peters.
In 2001, Eric Watson was appointed artistic director of La Villette Jazz Festival, is musical consultant to the director of the Cité de la Musique, and in 2003 he was appointed as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
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