Daily Dose Of Jazz…
David Murray was born on February 19, 1955 in Oakland, California to musical parents, his mother played piano and his father, guitar. He was introduced to jazz while in the Berkeley school system playing alto in the school band. By thirteen he was in a local group called the Notations of Soul, but it was hearing Sonny Rollins that gave him the inspiration to switch from alto to tenor.
Influenced by Stanly Crouch while attending Pomona College, he moved to New York at 20 during the jazz loft era in lower Manhattan. Joining up with Crouch they opened their own loft space called Studio Infinity and Crouch occasionally played drums in Murray’s trio with Mark Dressler.
Murray’s early work was raw filed with multiphonics, extreme volume and upper register forays. By 1976 he recorded his first album “Flowers For Albert” and along with Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett became a founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet. Around the same time Joseph Papp commissioned David for a big band assemblage that enjoyed a modicum of critical success.
Through the 80’s he continued to play with the WSQ, his octet and various small bands, recording mostly for Italy’s Black Saint label, showcasing his rough and unformed talent as a composer. His recording dates became a flurry for the next two decades, leading more sessions than any other contemporary jazz musician. His playing matured and he began relying on the standard jazz repertoire when playing in small combo configurations. Yet by the time he was 40, his relative predictability was offset by his attention to the craft of playing and his inimitable style while his increased skill as a composer. In addition to winning a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Group Performance for Blues for Coltrane: A Tribute to John Coltrane, over the course of his career he has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, received a Bird Award, the Jazzpar Prize and has been named Musician of the Year by Newsday and Musician of the Decade by the Village Voice.
Murray mainly plays tenor saxophone and bass clarinet influenced in the free jazz genre of Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp. He has played with a host of world-renowned musicians, of which he is a member and continues to perform, record and tour.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Pete Christlieb was born on February 16, 1945 in Los Angeles, California to bassoonist Don Christlieb. He began his musical career playing the violin at seven, adding the tenor sax by thirteen. After high school he played with diverse L.A. bands in the early 60’s including those led by Chet Baker, Woody Herman and Sy Zenter. He joined Louis Bellson in 1967 and stayed into the eighties.
He recorded his first leader session for the Jazz City label in 1971 and by the early 80’s he started his own label, Bosco Records that would issue small group albums as well as records by Bellson and Bob Florence.
Christlieb has long been in demand as a studio player and the saxophonist has played with innumerable artists including Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Quincy Jones and Sarah Vaughan while also knocking out legendary solos on Steely Dan’s Deacon Blues, Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable and the extended solo on the movie theme FM. He held a longtime seat in Doc Severinsen’s band on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Pete Christlieb, a bebop, hard bop and West coast tenor saxophonist currently plays with his group the Tall and Small Band, the Bill Holman Orchestra and his own quartet.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wardell Gray was born the youngest of four children on February 13, 1921 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Though his early years were spent there, in 1929 his family moved to Detroit. By 1935 he attended Northeastern High but soon transferred to Cass Technical High, whose noted alumni were Donald Byrd, Lucky Thompson and Al McKibbon. After year and before graduating Wardell dropped out and began playing the clarinet, but it was hearing Lester Young that drove him to pick up the tenor.
He played around Michigan in various bands led by pianist Dorothy Patton, Jimmy Raschel and Benny Carew and by 1941 a short-lived marriage produced a daughter. Gray got his big break when he joined the Earl Hines Orchestra in 1943, not only nationally known but had nurtured the careers of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. For the young tenor he toured all over the country for the next three years becoming a featured soloist and subsequent recordings showed a relaxed, fluent stylist.
After leaving Hines, Wardell settled in Los Angeles and started recording under his own name for the Sunset label. He also worked with Benny Carter, Billy Eckstine and blues singer Ivory Joe Hunter. But it was Central Avenue that he found his greatest pleasure playing after-hours sessions, attracting the owner of Dial Records to hire him to play showcases for Charlie Parker, showing no signs of intimidation. On the avenue Gray held tenor battles with Dexter Gordon and his light sound and swift delivery was a match for Dexter’s big sound. The tenor jousts soon became a symbol for the Central Avenue scene.
With his career moves progressing he joined Benny Goodman’s small groups in 1947 and although musically successful, it was not financially. In ’48-‘50 he moved between Count Basie and Benny Goodman, recorded with Tadd Dameron, ended his second marriage and formed a septet that included Clark Terry and Buddy DeFranco bringing to audiences a very relaxed swinging band. Over the next few years he got married for the third time, did a few recording dates with Art Farmer, Hampton Hawes, Dexter Gordon and Teddy Charles, and performing most notably with Gerald Wilson’s Orchestra trading choruses with Zoot Sims and Stan Getz.
One of the top tenors to emerge during the bop era, Wardell Gray passed away under mysterious circumstances, found on a stretch of desert outside Las Vegas with a broken neck, on May 25, 1955.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paul Bascomb was born into a family with nine siblings on February 12, 1912 in Birmingham Alabama. From an early age he felt the urge to create music and by his late teens he was an accomplished clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. Attending Alabama State Teacher’s College he was a founding member of the Bama State Collegians, a respected regional swing band that stayed together from the mid-thirties on assuming leadership under Erskine Hawkins. Paul was a part of this band till the mid 40’s, save a stint with Count Basie’s band from 38-39. During this period he co-wrote the tune Tuxedo Junction with Hawkins but by 1945 left the band a co-led small combos with his brother Dud.
1946 saw Bascomb in New York recording with a small combo for Alert records. A year later he moved to the Jersey based Manor label recording a series of sides for them, went to the London label and recorded Pink Cadillac and in ’48 did a session with The Riffs who eventually became famous with King Pleasure.
In 1950 Paul relocated to the Midwest and began a long association with the Chicago and Detroit nightclubs where owners were allowing black and white musicians to play together. By 1952 he started recording extensively with United Records and later for Mercury as he ventured into the R&B world.
By the late fifties he demand changed and took a job with the city of Chicago. He returned to music in the late 70s, was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1979, and played well into the 80s for well receiving European audiences. It was the last hurrah for tenor saxophonist Paul Bascomb, who passed away at 74 years old on December 2, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Saxophonist Pony Poindexter was born Norwood Poindexter on February 8, 1926 in New Orleans, LA. Poindexter began on clarinet and switched to playing alto and tenor sax growing up. In 1940 he studied under Sidney Desvigne followed by his move to Oakland to attend Candell Conservatory.
From 1947 to 1950 he played with Billy Eckstine, 1950 he played in a quartet with Vernon Alley, from 1951 to 1952 he was with Lionel Hampton and in 1952 he played with Stan Kenton. Neal Hefti wrote the tune “Little Pony”, named after Poindexter, for the Count Basie Orchestra.
Through the end of the 1950s Poindexter played extensively both as a leader and as a sideman, recording with Charlie Parker, Nat King Cole, T-Bone Walker and Jimmy Witherspoon. In the early sixties he backed up Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, who together also recorded a vocal version of “Little Pony”.
He was one of the first bebop saxophonists to begin playing soprano saxophone in the early 60’s, recording with Eric Dolphy and Dexter Gordon before moving to Paris in ’63 and recording with Annie Ross, Phil Woods, Lee Konitz and Leo Wright. He lived in Spain and Germany before returning to the states in ’77, residing in San Francisco to record again.
Pony Poindexter published his autobiography, Pony Express in 1985 but he had already slipped away into obscurity and never gained the recognition he deserved by the time of his passing on April 14, 1988 in Oakland.
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