DALINE JONES & DIEGO RIVERA

Daline began singing as a child and her singing and songwriting chops are the legacy of her famous Beat-poet father and jazz surrealist, Ted Joans. He  made sure Daline spent her early years listening to, and seeing, the Jazz greats in the clubs of their native New York City. That  exposure lead her to pursue a life in music. Her earliest recording sessions were for Lionel Richie and the Commodores, working with the top studio session vocalists in the business. She released several of her own critically acclaimed albums; achieving Billboard’s “Top 20” on the Contemporary Jazz charts.

She headlined the famous Starlight Room in San Francisco, Daline was the lead singer for the renowned Starlight Orchestra from 1995-2005, and has since performed around the world with pianist/composer Diego Ramirez.  They have written and recorded many original songs and recorded several albums and CDs.  They are currently at work on a new album of original songs for release in early 2024 and will perform in Copenhagen in Summer 2024.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Arne Gunnar Valter Hülphers was born April 4, 1904 in Trollhättan, Sweden.  Early in his career he played at the club Felix-Kronprinsen from 1924 to 1927, and played in dance bands into the early 1930s.

He founded his own ensemble in 1934 which became one of Sweden’s most important jazz big bands. They toured Europe and recorded until 1940. Sidemen in his group included Miff Görling, Zilas Görling, and Thore Jederby.

Later in his career, he concentrated more on popular musical styles; he led an orchestra in which Fred Bertelmann played. Pianist and bandleader Arne Hülphers died on July 24, 1978 in Norrköping Municipality, Sweden.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

William James Finegan was born on April 3, 1917 in Newark, New Jersey and grew up in a household full of piano players. While growing up in Rumson, New Jersey, he attended Rumson-Fair Haven High School, and taught orchestration to schoolmate Nelson Riddle. He studied piano with Elizabeth Connelly, piano and musicianship with flautist/alto saxophonist Rudolph John Winthrop., and spent time studying at the Paris Conservatory.

He had his first professional experience leading his own piano trio before being offered a job as a staff arranger for Glenn Miller after Tommy Dorsey bought a copy of his Lonesome Road and recommended him. Finegan remained with Miller until 1942 and arranged such hits as Little Brown Jug, Sunrise Serenade, Song of the Volga Boatmen, Stardust, A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square and Jingle Bells. He arranged these songs in collaboration with Glenn Miller, but also arranged music for films in which the band appeared in the early Forties. He then worked off and on for Tommy Dorsey from 1942 to 1952.

In the late Forties Bill studied in New York City, then lived in Europe from 1948-1950 where he studied with Darius Milhaud and Valérie Soudères. After returning to the States in 1952, along with Eddie Sauter formed an ensemble, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, which remained active until 1957.

Following this collaboration, Finegan found work in advertising, writing music for commercials. In the Seventies, he arranged for the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Mel Lewis’s orchestra. He taught jazz at the University of Bridgeport in the 1980s. He wrote arrangements for cornetist Warren Vaché and the vocal group Chanticleer until his death in 2008.

Pianist, composer and arranger Bill Finegan died from pneumonia on June 4, 2008 in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the age 91.

ROBYN B. NASH

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WCLK AT 50 | LIL JOHN & HIS ALL-STAR BAND

To celebrate WCLK 91.9’s 50th Anniversary the Atlanta Jazz Festival is presenting WCLK At 50: Featuring Lil John Roberts with an Atlanta All-Star Band.

Award-winning drummer Lil John Roberts will lead an Atlanta All-Star Band including these outstanding musicians: Phil Davis, Rodney Edge, Tres Gilbert, Derek Scott, Miguel Gaeten, Melvin Jones, Joe Gransden, Kebbi Williams, Jamel Mitchell, Mike Burton, Saunders Sermons, and Daniel Wytanis.

There will be special guest performances by Kathleen Bertrand, Cleveland Jones, Rhonda Thomas, Imani Grace-Cooper, Julie Dexter, Tony Hightower, Dashill Smith, and Alexandra Jackson.

As the Narrator, Jon Goode will weave in stories about the history and legacy of WCLK. Lil John Robert serves as the concert’s Music Director. The event is Co-Produced by Jamal Ahmad, Lil John Roberts, and Ray Cornelius.

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OMAR SOSA

Quarteto Americanos is Omar Sosa’s first U.S.-based jazz ensemble since the 1990s! The group came together in February 2021 when Omar was in the Bay Area for several live streams. Connecting with Josh and Sheldon was a gratifying reunion for Omar, as he played extensively with them during his early days in San Francisco and Oakland in the late 1990s. Josh Jones’ Trio at the time, including Omar and bassist Geoff Brennan, played frequently at Bay Area clubs. Josh remains one of Omar’s favorite drummers – a versatile musician and educator equally at home in Latin, jazz, hip-hop, and fusion styles.

Sheldon Brown was a member of Omar’s first Septet ensemble in the Bay Area, performing in San Francisco and Oakland and around the world in support of Omar’s earliest recording projects, ‘Free Roots’, ‘Spirit of the Roots’, and ‘Bembon’, also known as the Roots Trilogy. Sheldon is a talented composer, arranger and producer whose first recording, Shifting Currents, caught Omar’s ear when he initially moved to San Francisco in 1995. Ernesto Mazar Kindelan is a dynamic Cuban musician who came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 following a ten-year stint with Charanga Habanera, the celebrated Cuban timba band from Havana.

Omar’s Quarteto Americanos plays a number of arrangements of Omar’s signature compositions from his early career, including ‘My Three Notes’, ‘Angustia’, and ‘Toridanzón’, as well as new songs written by Omar in Barcelona during the lockdown in 2020. Like Omar’s oeuvre, Quarteto Americanos’ repertoire is eclectic and energizing. Its improvisational approach seamlessly fuses elements of jazz, Latin, hip-hop, and electronica into an exciting, passionate, contemporary sound.

 

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