Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Thurman Green was born on August 12, 1940 in Texas. A jazz trombonist, who primary performed in the bebop orientation, spent time playing in Los Angeles with swinging big bands, such as, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. He an occasional member of the Horace Tapscott Quintet, one of many groups headed by the late pianist that no one bothered to record. Thurman was open-eared enough to play quite credibly in free settings now and then.
Thurman recorded as a sideman with Willie Bobo, Donald Byrd and Bobby Hutcherson on the Blue Note label. In 1962, Green and baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett were jamming buddies at the Navy School of Music in Washington D.C. They soon went their separate ways but hoped to team up again some day.
It was thirty-two years later, in 1994, that Bluiett was able to give his old friend his first opportunity to lead his own record date with Dance of the Night Creatures that had pianist John Hicks, bassist Walter Booker or Steve Novosel and drummer Steve Williams. It is a shame that it took over four years for the music to finally come out because Green suddenly died at age 57 on June 19, 1997.
More Posts: trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Conny Bauer was born Konrad Bauer on July 4, 1943 in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. While in senior high school in 1957 he became interested in modern music and dance genres such as swing, boogie-woogie, blues and rock and roll. He taught himself to play guitar and piano and after graduation while trying to play in several bands was nicknamed “Conny” by his friends.
Recognizing his lack of musical knowledge to become a professional Bauer studied modern dance music from 1964 to 1968 taking up the trombone. In 1968 he left for Berlin to improve his skills with private lessons. From 1969 until 1971 he started his career as guitarist and singer in the band of Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, while doubling as a trombone soloist.
During the second half of the 1970s Bauer became a prominent jazz player in European free jazz, helping to found numerous groups that influenced the development of jazz in East Germany. By 1986 he was touring Japan, went on to direct the National Jazz Orchestra of the former East Germany, worked with artists such as Tadashi Endo, Sheryl Banks, Tony Oxley, Barry Altschul and George Lewis to name a few.
He has recorded two-dozen albums, received the German SWR jazz prize for his solo recordings Hummelsummen, and continues to perform, tour and record.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill Russo was born William Russo on June 25, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois and studied piano under Lennie Tristano. He would become an arranger and composer and by the 1950s was writing groundbreaking orchestral scores for the Stan Kenton Orchestra. He would compose for Kenton 23 Degrees N 82 Degrees W, Frank Speaking, Portrait of a Count and one of his most famous Halls Of Brass, featuring Buddy Childers, Maynard Ferguson and Milt Bernhart.
By the 60s Russo moved to England, founded the London Jazz Orchestra, and contributed to the Third Stream movement that sought to close the gap between jazz and classical music. Returning to Chicago by mid-decade he founded Columbia College’s music department, became the director of its Center for New Music, the college’s first full-time faculty member and the Director of Orchestral Studies at Scuola Europea d’Orchestra Jazz in Palermo, Italy.
Bill has composed classical symphonies, choral works, operas and several works for the theater. He has received a Koussevitsky award, had his work performed by the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, and has set music to the poetry of Gertrude Stein as well as scores for dance and film.
Russo has worked with Manny Albam, Teo Macero, Teddy Charles, Donald Byrd, Phil Woods, Bill Evans, Eddie Costa, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Art Farmer among others. Starting the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, which is dedicated to preserving and expanding jazz, He was succeeded by Jon Faddis and it is currently under the artistic direction of Dana Hall. Trombonist, composer, arranger, eudcator and author Bill Russo passed away on January 11, 2003 after a bout with cancer. He was 74 years old.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eje Thelin was born Eilert Ove Thelin on June 9, 1938 in Jönköping, Sweden. He started his own quintet in 1961 and from 1969 to 1972 he was on the faculty of the Music Academy in Graz, Austria. For the rest of the 1970s, he led his own Eje Thelin Group in Sweden.
By the 1980s he expanded into composition, writing commissioned works for large European orchestras, sometimes featuring himself as soloist. In spite of the attention given to the obvious technical side of his playing, Thelin was also known for his warm approach to traditional ballads, a somewhat retro-romanticism that comes through in his later playing.
An innovator, Eje was widely admired among fellow trombonists for his facile technique, rhythmic intensity and was, perhaps, the first jazz trombonist to translate that technique into the so-called “Sheets of Sound” style that characterized much of the music of tenor saxophonist John Coltrane and, in general, free jazz of the late 1960s and 1970s. He would play with Joachim Kuhn and Don Cherry while leading his own groups.
Trombonist Eje Thelin, one of the strongest trombone voices of modal and free jazz to emerge in the European 60s, passed away on May 18, 1990.
More Posts: trombone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill Watrous was born William Russell Watrous III on June 8, 1939 in Middletown, Connecticut. Introduced to the jazz trombone at an early age by his trombonist father, it was while serving in the Navy that he studied with jazz pianist and composer Herbie Nichols. His first professional performances were in Billy Butterfield’s band.
Bill’s career blossomed in the 1960s, playing and recording with many Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, Quincy Jones, Johnny Richards and fellow trombonist Kai Winding. From 1965 – 68 he was a member of the house band on the Merv Griffin Show.
In the Seventies he played with the jazz-fusion group Ten Wheel Drive, formed his own band – The Manhattan Wildlife Refugee Big Band, recorded two albums for Columbia, and relocated to southern California.
He worked actively since the 1980s as a bandleader, studio musician, and performing at various jazz clubs. He is most known for his rendition of Johnny Mandel’s “A Time For Love”. Bill Watrous continued to perform and record as a solo artist, bandleader and in various small ensembles for a number of different labels until his passing on July 2, 2018 at age 79. He published an instructional manual Trombonisms and was on the faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.
More Posts: trombone