Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Doug Carn was born on July 14, 1948 in New York City but was raised in St. Augustine, Florida, where his mother, Gwendolyn Seniors Carn, taught music in the St. Johns County Public School System. Her unique and special teaching abilities provided a fertile ground for his future development, and he started piano lessons at the age of five but switched to the alto sax at eight.
Doug was introduced to all of the jazz of the late Forties and early Fifties by his a jazz aficionado and deejay uncle, Bill Seniors. By his early teens, Doug had formed his first group, The NuTones, that played a variety of jazz, R&B and Rock ‘n Roll hits for dances, proms and club dates all over Florida and southeast Georgia. In addition, he held down a post as organist for the A.M.E. church in its 11th Episcopal District.
During his sophomore year in high school, Doug started to play the oboe that would eventually earn him a full scholarship to Jacksonville University. Graduating valedictorian of his high school class, Carn turned down a full scholarship to the U.S. Air Force Academy to pursue his music.
After college Carn settled in Los Angeles where his creative writing abilities and spiritual ideology began to bear fruit. He was leading an organ trio and studying with Larry Young, Jr. when the word started to get around about Doug’s multi-faceted talents. He was soon discovered by Gene Russell who had heard about Doug’s innovative lyric adaptation of contemporary jazz classic, i.e., Wayne Shorter’s “Infant Eyes” Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” Bobby Hutcherson’s “Little B’s Poem” and Horace Silver’s “Peace.”
He garnered critical acclaim as a “jazz spatialist” for his “deft orchestrations” and horn arrangements. They were inspired by a natural ability to speak the be-bop language and a solid foundation in the classical tradition. He produced several landmark albums on the Black Jazz label such as “Adam’s Apple” and with his wife Jean “Infant Eyes” and “Search for a New Land”. He has worked with many great jazz musicians over the years, a list to numerous to name but included Lou Donaldson, Stanley Turrentine and Irene Reid and continues to record, perform and tour.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ahmad Jamal was born Freddy “Fritz” Jones on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A child prodigy, he began playing the piano at the age of three and started formal studies at 7. While attending Westinghouse High School, he completed the equivalent of college master classes under the noted African-American concert singer and teacher Mary Caldwell Dawson and pianist James Miller. Joining the musicians union at 14, he began touring with first the George Hudson Orchestra upon graduation at the age of 17. He followed that employ with The Four Strings, that drew critical acclaim for his solos.
Jamal moved to Chicago in 1950, formed his first trio, The Three Strings and was discovered and signed by record producer John Hammond while performing at New York’s The Embers Club. At Okeh Records the trio cut their first sides in 1951. Working as the house trio at the Pershing Hotel in Chicago they recorded and released the landmark classic album “But Not For Me” which stayed on the Ten Best selling charts for 108 weeks. The financial success from this one album allowed Jamal to open a restaurant and club call The Alhambra.
Miles Davis, Randy Weston, Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock cite him as a major influence in use of rhythm and space as well as his innovative use of multi-tonal melodic lines and his unique extended vamps. Over the course of his career Ahmad Jamal’s style has changed steadily from the lighter, breezy style heard on his 1950s recordings to the Caribbean styling of the 1970s and onto the large open voicing and bravura-laden playing of the Nineties.
He performed the title tune by Johnny Mandel for the soundtrack of the film “Mash”, has received the American Jazz Masters award from the National Endowment for the Arts; named a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University; and two tracks from his hit album But Not For Me – “Music, Music, Music,” and “Poinciana” were featured in Clint Eastwood’s film The Bridges of Madison County. The French government has inducted Ahmad Jamal into the prestigious Order of the Arts and Letters, naming him “Officer de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Pianist Ahmad Jamal continues to tour with his trio, playing the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals exclusively on Steinway pianos.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Elmo Hope was born St. Elmo Sylvester Hope on June 27, 1923 in New York City, he began his career with the Joe Morris band. From 1953 he recorded in New York as a leader and as a sideman with Sonny Rollins, Lou Donaldson, Clifford Brown and Jackie McLean. Losing his cabaret card in New York for drug use he moved to Los Angeles in 1957. On the West Coast he performed with Chet Baker before moving, followed with a stint with Lionel Hampton, then recorded with Harold Land and Curtis Counce.
Elmo led recording sessions with Frank Foster, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Art Blakey, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. On a number of occasions Hope recorded in the trio format and more rarely as a leader of a quintet for Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside and other labels.
Disillusioned with the West Coast scene, Hope returned to New York in 1961, where he went to prison briefly on drug charges then returned to playing, recording duet albums with his pianist wife Bertha but recorded more rarely. Pianist Elmo Hope died of an overdose on May 19, 1967.
Though overshadowed by his contemporaries Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, with his highly individual playing Hope holds a significant place alongside them, cited by later pianists Frank Hewitt and Sasha Perry, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel as their main influence, and Roswell Rudd composed “Hope No. 2” in his honor and during a concert with Archie Shepp, called Elmo Hope “ A great and fine composer and remains one of America’s well kept secrets”.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eumir Deodato was born Eumir Deodato de Almeida on June 22, 1943 in Rio de Janiero of Italian and Portuguese parents. He began his musical training at twelve on the accordion but rapidly learned instrumental and orchestral skills that gave him his first recording session at 17.
Originally working as pianist and arranger in the Rio bossa nova scene, he rapidly outgrew this and, along with many other Brazilian musicians during the military dictatorshipin their country, moved to New York and began working with composer Luis Bonfa and later with producer Creed Taylor as an arranger. Additionally, he became keyboardist in Taylor’s expanding group of CTI backing artists.
His first U.S. album “Prelude” released in 1973 for CTI was a big band Latin jazz project that immediately attracted a wide audience. His funky version of Also Sprach Zarathustra won him the 1974 Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and hitting #2 on the charts.
Deodato has been in demand as a producer and arranger since the 1960s. In all, he has worked on more than 500 albums, fifteen of which have reached platinum. His skills as an arranger provided entree to the American recording industry, writing charts for Wes Montgomery, Astrud Gilberto, Frank Sinatra, Bjork, k.d. lang and Kool and the Gang among others.
He has scored several films over his career and recorded a live album in Rio in 2007. He continues to produce and arrange.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eric Reed was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 21, 1970 and began playing piano at age two, transitioning into his minister father’s church at five and at seven began formal study at the Philadelphia Settlement Music School. By the time he was 11 his family was moving to Los Angeles where he studied at the Colburn School of Arts.
In 1986 his encounter with Wynton Marsalis would greatly aid his career beginning with him joining his septet in 1990 and over the next five years he would work with Wynton along with Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard. In 1996 he joined the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and towards the end of the decade he was venturing out to lead his own group, Black Note, that released several albums during the 1990s.
Eric has worked with jazz luminaries such as Irvin Mayfield, Cassandra Wilson, Mary Stallings, Clark Terry, Dianne Reeves, Elvin Jones, Ron Carter, Paula West and Benny Carter.
Eric has also worked as a composer, scoring music for independent and mainstream films, including the comedy ‘Life’, featuring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. With nearly two dozen albums under his belt, he most recently recorded his Monk project, having already released The Dancing Monk in 2011 and The Baddest Monk in 2012 with an audience anticipation of the final recording as he continues to perform, tour and record.
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