Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Booker Telleferro Ervin II was born October 31, 1930 in Denison, Texas but didn’t take up the saxophone until he was an adult. After teaching himself tenor saxophone while in the USAF, he moved to the Boston area and studied at Berklee College of Music. His tenor playing was characterized by a strong, tough sound, blues/gospel phrasing and perhaps inspired by growing up in the south. Some thought Coltrane influenced him but it is also thought that they developed their styles independently, and beyond some sheets of sound similarities, they were distinctively different.

Moving to New York, Ervin joined Horace Parlan’s quartet, with whom he recorded “Up & Down” and “Happy Frame of Mind” on Blue Note. He went on to work with Charles Mingus from 1956 to 1963, appearing on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” on the album “Mingus Ah Um” and “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting” on the Blues and Roots session in 1959, as well as the Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus recording.

 During the Sixties Ervin also led his own quartet, recording for Prestige with ex-Mingus associate pianist Jaki Byard along with bassist Richard Davis and Alan Dawson on drums. Ervin later recorded again on Blue Note and played with pianist Randy Weston.

Tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin had 18 albums as a leader and two dozen as a sideman with Teddy Charles, Andrew Hill, Mal Waldron and others, died of kidney disease in New York City on July 31, 1970 at the age of 39.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Warne Marion Marsh was born October 26, 1927 in Los Angeles, California into an affluent family, his father was a cinematographer, mother a violinist and his aunt May Marsh an actress.

Tutored by Lennie Tristano and, along with Lee Konitz became one of the pre-eminent saxophonists of the Tristano-inspired “Cool School”. Of all of Tristano’s students, Marsh came closest to typifying Tristano’s ideals of improvised lines, in some respects, even transcending the master himself. He often recorded in the company of other Cool School musicians, and remained one of the most faithful to the Tristano philosophy of improvisation. His distinctively pure tone without the inflections popular among many other tenor saxophonists at that time such as honks, growls, etc. set him apart from other Lester Young and Ben Webster-influenced saxophonists.

Warne’s rhythmically subtle lines are immediately recognizable and have been called by Anthony Braxton as “the greatest vertical improviser.” In the 1970s he gained renewed exposure as a member of Supersax, a large ensemble that played orchestral arrangements of Charlie Parker solos. Marsh also recorded one of his most celebrated albums, “All Music”, with the Supersax rhythm section during this period.

Marsh died onstage at the Los Angeles club Donte’s on December 18, 1987, in the middle of playing the tune “Out of Nowhere”. Though he remains something of a cult figure among jazz fans and musicians, his influence has grown since his death. Younger players such as Mark Turner have borrowed from his music as a way of counterbalancing the pervasive influence of John Coltrane.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Odean Pope was born October 24, 1938 in Ninety Six, South Carolina to musical parents but was reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when the family moved when he was ten. His lifelong study of music began at the Graniff School of Music and the Benjamin Franklin High School music program.

Pope grew up in a rich musical environment with other Philadelphia jazz luminaries as John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Kenny Barron, Jimmy and Percy Heath, Clifford Brown, Philly Joe Jones, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Golson to name a few. Early in his career, the young tenor saxophonist, while at Philadelphia’s Uptown Theater, played behind a number of noted rhythm and blues artists including James brown, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, however, it was Coltrane who chose him as his replacement in Jimmy Smith’s group when he left to join Miles Davis in New York.

 He went on to play briefly with Jimmy McGriff in the 1960s and late in the decade began working with Max Roach and touring Europe. Odean was a member of Philadelphia group Catalyst in the early and mid-1970s, and in 1977 assembled the “Saxophone Choir” consisting of nine saxophones and a rhythm section. He became a regular member of Roach’s quartet in 1979 and has recorded extensively with him, in addition to numerous releases as a leader.

His never-ending quest to study his craft led him to study orchestration, modern harmony, African rhythms, be-bop art forms and arrangement with Kenny Clarke at the Paris Conservatory.  He would go on to study with Ray Bryant, Jimmie Merritt, and Hasaan Ibn Ali and with Max Roach for some twenty-two years. Pope is known for saying, “Studying with Max was like going to the highest institution in the world.”

Odean perfected the techniques of circular breathing and multiphonics, both allowing him to stretch his solo improvisations from dazzling elevations to the throbbing, husky sounds for which he is so well known, to all kinds of delicacy in getting from one to the other.

Pope has won “Best Tenor Saxophone Player” at the North Sea Jazz Festival, received numerous citations from the City of Philadelphia, and has received awards from the Pew Fellowship, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Chamber music America. He started the jazz studies program at the Settlement Music School and he continues to give master classes in the Philadelphia School District as well as nationally and internationally.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jane Bunnett was born on October 22, 1956 in Toronto and began her musical educational as a classical pianist then switched to woodwinds at the Royal Conservatory. Inspired by Charles Mingus and Rahsaan Roland Kirk in 1979 San Francisco, she was studying jazz at York University. This led her to study with Barry Harris, James Newton, Frank Wess and James Moody and ultimately Steve Lacy in Paris in 1991.

Her debut recording “In Dew Time” featured an ambitious mix of Canadian and American players – pianist Don Pullen, tenor Dewey Redman and Vincent Chancy on French horn. This led to touring Canada and Australia and recording of her sophomore project a year later followed by two more by 1994.

Jane has become one of the foremost jazz musicians in Canada, and has gained recognition around the world for her improvising talents, technical proficiency, and writing and band leading abilities. She has received accolades and won awards from the Village Voice, SOCA, Downbeat Magazine, the National Jazz Awards of Canada, the Smithsonian Institute and the Jazz Journalist Association, her work has been nominated for several Grammy awards and received Canada’s highest award, the Order of Canada.

With sixteen albums under her belt, the saxophonist and outspoken humanitarian, Jane Bunnett continues to perform at jazz clubs, festivals, and concert halls and for broadcast throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Cuba, with her groups, and as a featured solo artist.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Don Byas was born Carlos Wesley Byas October 21, 1912 in Muskogee, Oklahoma into a musical family, his mother a pianist and father playing clarinet. He started training in classical music, first on the violin, then clarinet and finally the alto saxophone, which he played until the end of the 1920s. He started playing in local orchestras at the age of 17, with the likes of Bennie Moten, Terrence Holder and Walter Page’s Blue Devils.

In 1931 while at Langston College in Oklahoma he founded and led his own college band, “Don Carlos and His Collegiate Ramblers”. Switching to the tenor saxophone when he moved to West Coast, through the Thirties he played with various Los Angeles bands such as Bert Johnson’s Sharps and Flats, Lionel Hampton, Eddie Barefield, Buck Clayton, Lorenzo Flennoy and Charlie Echols bands.

By 1937 Byas moved to New York working with Eddie Mallory and his wife Ethel Waters, went on to work with Don Redman, recorded his first solo in 1939, played with the bands of lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk, Edgar Hayes and his childhood idol Benny Carter. He played and recorded with Billie Holiday, Pete Johnson, Hot Lips Page, Big Joe Turner, Charlie Christian, Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke in after hour sessions.

However Byas’ big break came in early 1941 when Count Basie selected him to fill the seat vacated by Lester Young. Through the forties he played the best New York nightspots, had some success with a few hits, collaborated with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, George Wallington, Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach. Despite his bebop associations, Byas always remained deeply rooted in the sounds of swing. He started out by emulating Coleman Hawkins, but always cited Art Tatum as his greater influence: “I haven’t got any style, I just blow like Art”.

In 1946 Byas went to Europe and forgot to return to America. A bon vivant in the true sense he was seen on the Riviera, St. Tropez often sporting mask and flippers, sport fishing, shooting pool or dishing up Louisiana style menus for his female admirers all while recording and playing regularly throughout Europe.

Settling in Amsterdam he continued to tour and play with the likes of Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, Bud Powell, Jazz At The Philharmonic and Ben Webster to name a few. He returned once to the U.S. to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival. Tenor saxophonist Don Byas died on August 24, 1972 from lung cancer in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the age 59.

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