Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carol Morgan was born on July 11, 1968. Originally from Texas, she decided to matriculate through and graduated from The Julliard School, subsequently making her home in New York City. A definitive voice unto herself, the influences of Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong can be heard in her playing. She has released five CDs as a leader working in trio, quartet and quintet setings with her latest in 2013 titled Retroactive.
She has worked with Chris Gekker, Mark Gould, Ingrid Jensen, Dennis Dotson Mike Stern, Chris Cortez, Danielle Reich, Harvie S, Rich DeRosa, Joel Frahm, Martin Wind and Matt Wilson among others. She has been a side-woman on recording dates with the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, Hawk-Richard Jazz Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and NPR’s The Engine Of Our Ingenuity.
As a composer Carol has been commissioned to create works for the Diverse Works, the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble, the Archdiocese of Houston/Galveston and the St. Thomas Presbyterian Church in Houston. She has authored The Practicing Improviser, a highly regarded method for jazz improvisation.
She is a member of the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, a variety of ensembles under the name of Stiggall & Associates and the group Gingerbread led by Brad Linde. Trumpeter, composer, educator and author Carol Morgan continues to record and perform across the United States and in Europe.
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Doc Severinsen was born Carl Hilding Severinsen on July 7, 1927 in Arlington, Oregon. Nicknamed “Little Doc” after his father who was a dentist, he originally wanted to play the trombone, which he discovered at neighbor Art Fletcher’s home, but his father urged him to study that instrument instead. Insisting on the trombone, he had to settle for the trumpet, as it was the only horn available in Arlington’s small music store. A week later, with the help of his father and a manual of instructions, the seven-year-old was good enough to be invited to join the high school band.
At the age of twelve, Severinsen won the Music Educator’s National Contest. While still in high school he was hired to go on the road with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra, however, his stay with the group was cut short by the World War II draft. After serving in the Army he made his broadcasting debut playing live popular music on KODL radio in Dalles, Oregon.
In 1952 during Steve Allen’s tenure as host of the Tonight Show, Doc played first trumpet in the band directed by Skitch Henderson. He actually joined the band several months before Johnny Carson became host in October 1962. Severinsen took over as bandleader in 1967 and soon became noted for his flashy fashions. It gave him the opportunity to update many well-known swing music and jazz standards including classics by Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie and others.He remained the bandleader until Carson’s retirement in 1992.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Doc released a number of albums of jazz standards. He recorded with the Enoch Light Comand Records label, with Tito Puente, Clarke-Boland Big Band, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis band, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Henry Mancini and Don Caneva’s John Hersey High School Bands.
Over the course of his career he has conducted the Phoenix, Milwaukee Minnesota and Pacific orchestras, the Buffalo Philharmonic, his recording of Abblasen has been use as the theme for CBS’s Sunday Morning, he has scored films, co-wrote hit single with Mac Davis, was named Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music and Katherine K. Herberger Heritage Chair for Visiting Artists at Arizona State University. He still performs regularly with the San Miguel 5 playing gypsy jazz, Latin, American ballads and classical Spanish styles.
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Daily Dose OF Jazz
Ken Watters was born July 6, 1964 in Huntsville, Alabama. He attended the University of North Texas and became a part of the Lab Band program. He studied trumpet with internationally renowned teacher Leonard Candelaria prior to studying in New York City with Lew Soloff and Wynton Marsalis.
Ken is a member of several noted performing groups, including Tabou Combo, Natalie Cole Band, the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, Ray Reach and Friends and the W.C. Handy Jazz All-Stars. He recorded his debut release with his Haitian-Caribbean jazz septet RIYEL and has recorded a total of six projects as a leader.
He has recorded and released three CDs titled “Brothers” with his trombonist brother Harry. His latest musical project is an ongoing venture co-led alongside vocalist Ingrid Felts, called the Watters-Felts Project. The jazz-oriented sextet included pianist Keith Taylor, bassist Abe Becker, percussionist Darrell Tibbs and drummer Marcus Pope.
Trumpeter Ken Watters is also an educator currently sitting as an adjunct professor at University of Alabama in Huntsville, where he directs the UAH Jazz Ensemble I. He continues to perform, record and tour.
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Daily Dose OF Jazz…
Jeff Beal was born in Hayward, California on June 20, 1963 and began trumpet studies in the third grade after attending a school music assembly at Castro Valley’s Marshall Elementary School with his father. Upon hearing the trumpet played, he chose it as his instrument and his grandmother, pianist Irene Beal, gave him a recording of Miles’ collaboration with Gil Evans, Sketches of Spain.
Beal wrote his first long-form composition for the Oakland Youth Symphony Orchestra while a student at Castro Valley High School, combining his love of jazz improvisation with an orchestral accompaniment. This merging of improvisation with classical composition has remained a hallmark of his music. He went on to matriculate through the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York studying composition and trumpet earning a Bachelor of Music degree.
Beal composed and recorded his debut album, Liberation, for Island Records. His jazz band went on to perform at The Blue Note and the Montreaux Jazz Festival. At the request of Chick Corea, Beal composed and recorded a concerto for the virtuosic jazz bassist, John Patitucci for Corea’s Stretch Records label.
John’s signature work, Alternate Route, was composed for improvised trumpet and orchestra. Written fifteen years after his first long form composition, this piece was again premiered by Kent Nagano for the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, spotlighting him as trumpet soloist. He also composed improvisatory concerti for Dave Samuels, Larry Coombs, and the Turtle Island String Quartet.
By the mid-1990s, he relocated to Los Angeles and got his first critical notice in 2001, for his minimalist Americana score to Ed Harris’ directorial debut, Pollock. He has been nominated for thirteen Emmy Awards including Carnivale, Rome and House of Cards. He has won three. Trumpeter and composer Jeff Beal continues to work in film and television, recording and performing concerts.
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Anita Brown was born June 17, 1959 in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. She attended and graduated the Pingree School and Andover High School before her family moved to Long Island, New York in 1977. It was at this juncture in her life that she began studying voice, phrasing and inflection with Lennie Tristano, first imitating Billie Holiday and then singing the solos of Lester Young.
A year later she enrolled at SUNY Old Westbury, majored in Music Education, adding photography, dance and choreography to her schedule. In 1980 Anita transferred her major to the University of New Hampshire concentrating on classical piano and voice. In her junior year that she discovered her passion of conducting and by the time she graduated she had a considerable transcript of instrumental and choral conducting along with score study under her belt.
Brown began her career in conducting also in her third year at UNH as a part time band director, prior to graduation and moving back to New York. In addition to studying clarinet, she took on and mastered the trumpet, continuing to play, write and teach. By 1995 she was at the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop and building a body of work for jazz orchestra guided by Jim McNeely, Manny Albam and Mike Abene. There she composed and contributed compositions that were featured in the annual concerts and was a finalist in 2001 and 2003 Charlie Parker Composition Competitions.
In 2000 she founded the Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra, independently recording and releasing her debut CD, 27 East, to critical acclaim and was appeared in six categories on the ballot for the 46th Grammy Awards. She was the first recipient of the ASCAP/International Jazz Composers’ Symposium New Music Award for Big Band Works for her piece The Lighthouse, selected by Bob Brookmeyer, ohn Clayton and Dave Douglas.
She has written arrangements for Nnenna Freeelon, The ount Basie Orchestra, the Jon Faddis jazz Orchestra, Chiuck Owen, and the Jazz Surge, Roseana Vitro, Bobby Short and a number of New York R&B bands.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, BMI New York Jazz Orchestra and numerous college and high school jazz ensembles have performed her original works. As an educator she is on the faculty of New Jersey City University and Sara Lawrence College, and established her Composer Residency Project.
Conductor, arranger and composer Anita Brown consults planning and producing recordings and performances, has served as copyist and/or assistant to Jim McNeely, Maria Schneider, Many Albam, Don Sebesky, John Pizzarelli, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band while serving as archivist for the Gil Evans and Manny Albam estates.
Music: https://youtu.be/9KZo1ItnDCE
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