Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George “Geordie” Hormel was born on July 17, 1928 in Austin, Minnesota. He was the grandson of George A. Hormel, the founder of Hormel Foods. He claimed to have invented the corn dog when he was a teenager growing up in Minnesota.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Hormel composed music for numerous television shows including The Fugitive, Lassie, Naked City and The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. He also sang as part of The Utility Muffin Research Kitchen Chorus on Frank Zappa’s triple album Joe’s Garage in 1979. He’s also done music for Capitol Records, most importantly the Hi-Q production music library.
In 1968 Geordie bought the Masonic Temple for $125,000 and founded a major independent studio, The Village Recording Studio, in Los Angeles, California of which he was proprietor until his death. It was one of, if not the first 24 track studio and Dolby Sound. He owned the Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix, Arizona and the Wrigley Mansion Club housed within it.
Geordie Hormel, who was a pianist, composer, record company owner, equipment dealer and always, ahead of his time,. transitioned on February 12, 2006 in Paradise Valley, Arizona at 77 years old.
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MONTY ALEXANDER
Nearly sixty years after he moved to the United States from Kingston, Jamaica, his hometown, Grammy nominated pianist Monty Alexander is an American classic, touring the world relentlessly with various projects, delighting a global audience drawn to his vibrant personality and soulful message. A perennial favorite at Jazz festivals and venues worldwide and at the Montreux Jazz Festival where he has appeared 23 times since 1976, his spirited conception is one informed by the timeless verities: endless melody-making, effervescent grooves, sophisticated voicings, a romantic spirit, and a consistent predisposition, as Alexander accurately states, “to build up the heat and kick up a storm.” In the course of any given performance, Alexander applies those aesthetics to a repertoire spanning a broad range of jazz and Jamaican musical expressions—the American songbook and the blues, gospel and bebop, calypso and reggae. Documented on more than 75 recordings and cited as the fifth greatest jazz pianist ever in The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time (Hal Leonard Publishing), the Jamaican government designated Alexander Commander in the Order of Distinction in 2000 and conferred on him the national honor of the Order of Jamaica in 2022 for “Sterling Contributions to the Promotions of Jamaican Music and the Jazz Genre Interpretations Globally”. In 2018 the University of The West Indies bestowed him with an honorary doctorate degree (DLitt) in recognition of his accomplishments.
Monty’s latest album (released August 19, 2022) is titled Love Notes and is his first recording featuring his vocals. The release of “Love Notes” will be accompanied by tour dates worldwide. Also in the works is “The Monty Alexander Movie,” a documentary on Monty’s life and music. Directed by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Jefferson Miller, and veteran filmmaker Arthur Gorson, the project is currently in production in Jamaica, the U.S. and Europe.
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JEB PATTON TRIO
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ron Rubin was born in Liverpool, London, England on July 8, 1933, to David and Louise Rubin. Music was important to the family and he learned piano from an early age. Becoming interested in jazz in his early teens while attending Liverpool College school, he was suspended for playing jazz on the school piano. Not being put off, he studied law under his uncle but it wasn’t for him and he signed up for the Royal Army Service Corps for a two year stint.
In the army he played piano with the Rhine River Jazz and Germany Rhine bands in Germany where he was stationed. After his service, in 1953 he picked up some gigs around Merseyside, London where he was playing guitar and clarinet at this time. Ron practiced hard on the piano and found solo work at clubs in London’s Soho. Taking up the double bass in 1955 and within a few weeks he was playing gigs with Ralph “Bags” Watmough and Tony Davis’s Gin Mill Four. In 1957 he played opening night at the Cavern Club with the Merseysippi and Watmough bands.
Moving to London in the 60s Ron played with a wide variety of bands on piano and double bass with Glyn Morgan, Dick Williams, Brian Leake, the Fairweather-Brown band, Mike Taylor, Group Sounds Five, the Ronnie Selby Trio, Fat John Cox and Bruce Turner. He accompanied visiting musicians Bill Coleman, Henry “Red” Allen and Ray Nance and with groups like those of Long John Baldry and the Hoochie-Coochie Men, and Manfred Mann.
Through the 1970s Rubin toured with the Lennie Best Quartet, Sandy Brown, Keith Ingham, Alex Welsh, Colin Purbrook, and accompanied Billy Eckstine. He had his own band at the Roundhouse Bar and was with the John Picard Band for three years and recorded regularly. The Eighties saw him touring with Wild Bill Davison and playing with Fatty George, Geoff Simkins, Keith Smith and Oscar Klein, George Howden, Brian Leake and Earl Okin.
By the end of the decade he was playing bass with the Bruce Turner Quartet before joining George Melly and John Chilton’s Feetwarmers. The following decades he played with Campbell Burnap’s band, then joined George Melly and John Chilton again and continued playing and touring. After surviving cancer in 2001 he slowed down to playing occasionally. In his later years Ron spent many happy hours writing his Jottings From A Jazzman’s Journal, a record of his life as a musician.
Pianist, bassist and poet Ron Rubin, who for many years was at the centre of the British jazz scene, transitioned on April 14, 2020 at the age of 86.
NOEL FRIEDLINE & MARIA HOWELL
MOTOWN REIMAGINED!
27 #1 hits, over 60 top 10 hits. Motown had so many hits that one could put together five separate shows of their music and still have plenty of songs left over. The exemplary songwriting of Smokey Robinson, Holland/Dozier/Holland, as well as Berry Gordy himself, along with the interpretation by such legends as Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes and many more has left us with a repertoire that is prime for reinterpretation. Join Noel & Maria as they reinterpret and reimagine the music that defined the 60’s, the Motown Sound! Mere words can only capture the refrain of MARIA HOWELL’s awesome talent. She is the ballad of beauty and elegance. The melodies flowing from the petite vocalist are truly amazing. While casting a spellbinding smile, she mesmerizes her captive audience with incredible harmonies and rhythms. Best known for her role as the choir soloist in the 1985 Oscar-nominated film The Color Purple, Maria Howell is the perfect combination of artistry and entertainment. AS AN ACTOR, she has appeared in hit TV shows such as Lifetime’s, “Army Wives”, and Marc Cherry’s, “Devious Maids”. Eric Kripke and J.J. Abrams’ apocalyptic, “Revolution”, and “Aquarius”, starring X-Files’ David Duchuvny, both on NBC, and “Criminal Minds”, alongside Joe Mantegna. Theatrical credits include, “The Blind Side”, “Addicted”, starring Sharon Leal and Boris Kodjoe, “Hunger Games: Catching Fire”, as Seeder, and “Christmas Wedding Baby”, by Award-Winning Writer/Director Kiara C. Jones.
She also stars in Writer/Director, Shea Sizemore’s “The Next Day.” In addition, she recurs in Bounce TV’s, “Saints & Sinners” as Lt. Hawkins, and as Ms. Sumner is the Oscar nominated film, “Hidden Figures”. A SONG STYLIST in her own right, Maria has shared the musical stage with such legendary artists as Nancy Wilson, George Benson, Ray Charles and Earl Klugh, and Ronnie Laws. After a very successful 6 year stint in Asia, Maria relocated back to the U.S. and performed at Sambuca Jazz Café for 9 consecutive years. She and pianist Bill Wilson (son of legendary jazz pianist Teddy Wilson), held the distinction of being the longest running act at the Atlanta, GA location. As of 2017, Maria hosts her live Hollywood music series called #DUETS, featuring “songs to soothe your soul.” Maria is not only a song stylist and actor, but a very devoted supporter of her charity of choice, Students Without Mothers, where she has served as a board member for over 8 years.
As the leader of the Noel Freidline Quintet for the last 26 years, Freidline has recorded 8 CDs, performed at jazz festivals as diverse as the Jacksonville (FL) Jazz Festival to the Bethlehem (PA) Musikfest to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, served as artistic director for the Columbia Museum of Art jazz concert series, Jazz on Main, launched a new jazz concert series in Jacksonville, FL called Jazz with Noel Freidline and Friends, held down a three-year house band position at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and performed for actress Julia Roberts’ surprise 35th birthday party.
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