Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Oscar Feldman was born on June 12, 1961 in Cordoba, Argentina listening to his father’s jazz collection. He attended Conservatorio Provincial de Musica and was soon part of the prominent music scene in his hometown, becoming a founding member of acclaimed band Los Musicos del Centro.
Beginning in 1979 when he was 19 Oscar accepted an invitation to join bandoneonist Hermeto Pascoal and Dino Saluzzi to join his group. Moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina his career took off and he became a sought after studio musician. He recorded more than 40 albums as a sideman and toured with Argentina’s most prominent artists. Winning the Outstanding Performance Award as the Best Soloist in Fusion in 1986, he went on to procure the Achievement Scholarship Award from Berklee College of Music and graduated cum laude in 1995 with a Major in Professional Music.
Realizing he could bridge two worlds he joined Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra conducted by Paquito D’ Rivera. Moving to New York City his reputation grew as a versatile musician, and worked with Al Di Meola, Eumir Deodato, Jeff Tain Watts, Avantango, Alex Acuna, Bebo Valdes and His All Star Latin Jazz Band. He toured and performed across the United States, Europe and Africa.
As a leader Feldman has led numerous tours Horacio Negro Hernandez, Alex Acuna, Dave Samuels, Otmaro Ruiz and Tom Kennedy. As an educator he is currently on the faculty at the New York Jazz Academy, has taught workshops and clinics at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He leads his own music jam classes weekly in New York and has written an article for Down Beat Magazine.
By the end of the 1990’s he recorded his debut as a leader El Angel on the Songosaurus record label. For his sophmore ten track album Oscar e Familia was released in 2009 on Sunnyside, he put together a Pan-American cast of Mexican drummer Antonio Sanchez, Cuban pianist Manuel Valera, Puerto Rican bassist John Benitez and Curacao percussion master Pernell Saturnino.
Alto saxophonist and composer Oscar Feldman. known for his splendid tonalities and melodically outstanding charts, continues to transcend his musical horizons.
More Posts: bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gösta Theselius (was born June 9, 1922 in Stockholm, Sweden and was the younger brother of musician Hans Theselius.
He worked in the 1940s with a number of European big bands, including those of Thore Jederby, Hakan von Eichwald, Sam Samson, Lulle Elboj, and Thore Ehrling.
He played jazz into the 1950s, both as a saxophonist and a pianist. The latter instrument with Benny Bailey, Arne Domnerus, James Moody, and Charlie Parker, and composed copiously for film in the 1950s and 1960s.
Arranger, composer, film scorer, pianist and saxophonist Gösta Theselius died in Stockholm on January 24, 1976.
More Posts: arranger,bandleader,composer,film scorer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mel Martin was born on June 7, 1942 in Sacramento, California. Both parents were singers and early piano and clarinet lessons led him to Benny Goodman and Glen Church’s Jazz Rhythm & Blues radio program. The big bands of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Shelly Manne and His Men, and Cannonball Adderley, passing through town kept his interest high. Forming a small combo of clarinet, accordion and drums, his father got him his first gig, afterwards they played at Mel’s Drive-In for tips.
While still a teenager, Martin was good enough to sit in with Wes Montgomery and his brothers. Already jamming with Black musicians in the community, he’d hit the clubs to hear the Montgomery Brothers when they played, sometimes sitting in on flute.
At San Francisco State in 1962 while majoring in music he met fellow undergraduate John Handy and played with him in his Freedom Band. At the same time, Mel was learning how to play bop with the musicians who hung out at Bop City, Soulville, the Jazz Workshop, Shelton’s Blue Mirror, Jack’s on Sutter and later the Both/And.
In the late 1960s and early Seventies Martin played with progressive rock and Latin bands including The Loading Zone, Cold Blood, Azteca and Boz Scaggs, Doug Sahm’s Honky Blues Band, Wayne Talberty, Chuck Berry, Dr. John and others. Creating Listen in 1977 which became part of the early West Coast jazz fusion scene, he recorded three albums before the end of the decade.
He was the artistic director of Bebop and Beyond, a group he founded in 1983 and released four albums. Martin has received five National Endowment for the Arts grants, and was honored by the San Francisco Jewish Museum. As performer, composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist he contributed music to television and film. He was a bandleader, contractor and sideman, he played in) big bands for McCoy Tyner and Dizzy Gillespie and played with the Freddie Hubbard Quintet and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Orchestra.
As an educator he taught the Stanford Jazz Workshop at Stanford University from 1984 to 1995, produced a series of Jazz Workshops for the Marin Jewish Community Center and regularly conducts workshops at his studio in Novato and in the Marin public schools.
Saxophonist, composer, arranger, and bandleader Mel Martin, who also played flute, clarinet and piccolo, died of a heart attack on November 17, 2017 at age 75.
More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
GERALD ALBRIGHT, KANDACE SPRINGS, THE DANGERFIELD NEWBIES
MABRA LAW and 91.9 JAZZ WCLK present The WCLK JazzFest featuring saxophonist Gerald Albright, Kandace Springs and the Dangerfield Newbies for one spectacular night of music.
Gerald Albright is a Los Angeles, California born saxophonist and bass guitarist who has been a central figure in contemporary jazz since the 1980s. He’s known for his R&B instrumentals and has played with artists like Anita Baker, Whitney Houston, and The Temptations. Albright’s solo career began in 1987 with Just Between Us and has included 19 albums, chart-topping hits, and Grammy nominations. He’s also toured with Phil Collins and Summer Horns.
Kandace Springs is a Nashville-based singer and pianist who blends jazz, soul, and pop with contemporary influences. Her smoky voice and piano mastery have led to performances at the Afropunk and Bonnaroo festivals, as well as a sold-out Royal Albert Hall concert. Springs cites Norah Jones, Roberta Flack, and Nina Simone as her biggest influences. Her father, Scat Springs, sang backup for artists like Aretha Franklin and exposed her to a wide range of music.
The Dangerfeel Newbies are Jamal Ahmad, Darren “DJ” Wagner and Mark Angel. Inspired by the story of Dangerfield Newby, one of five African-Americans in the John Brown party, this Atlanta-based trio delivers a set that is deeply rooted in blues, jazz, soul, funk, hip-hop & house.
Tickets: $45.00
Bring your own food and libations. Food trucks on hand to purchase favorites.
More Posts: adventure,bandleader,festival,genius,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,preserving,saxophone,travel,vocal
The Jazz Voyager
Getting out of Philadelphia the Jazz Voyager is on his way to Andy’s Jazz Club in a much warmer Chi-Town this month. Originally a lounge oasis for the newspaper personnel in the 1950s, by the late Seventies it changed hands and became a destination for jazz. Offering first Jazz at Noon, the club expanded to Jazz at Five and Jazz at Nine.
Having never seen the soul jazz, hard bop, post bop and modal group Sabertooth, this jazz voyager is anticipating a fervent showing of talent. Headed by saxophonists Cameron Pfiffner and Pat Mallinger, who put the group together thirty-five years ago, they play the classics by the likes of Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, Lester Young, John Coltrane, covers by the Beatles, Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and Bob Marley as well as their original compositions.
Showtimes: 6:00pm-7:15pm & 8:15pm-9:30pm
Cover: $15.00
Andy’s Jazz Club is located at 11 E. Hubbard Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611. For more information contact the venue at https://andysjazzclub.com.
More Posts: adventure,club,genius,jazz,museum,music,preserving,saxophone,travel