The Jazz Voyager

From Charlotte to New York City is the flight plan for this Jazz Voyager. Landing at LaGuardia I’m taking a private car to just above the theater district on Broadway and 59th Street where Dizzy’s Club sits. Jazz At Lincoln Center has established an intimate venue with panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline where world class musicians come to perform. The club soars high above the expansive views of Central Park.

Trombonist, arranger, composer, bandleader and educator Wycliffe Gordon will be gracing the stage on this trip. Aside from being a stellar trombonist, he also sings and plays didgeridoo, trumpet, tuba, and piano. Always bringing something new I am anticipating his arrival on stage to witness what he will be laying down on this show.

The venue is located at 10 Columbus Circle, 10019 and for more information you can visit notoriousjazz.com/event/wycliffe-gordon-friends

CALIFORNIA JAZZ FOUNDATION

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David W. Bargeron was born September 6, 1942 in Atho, Massachusetts. He became the lead trombonist with Clark Terry’s Big Band and played bass trombone and tuba with Doc Severinsen’s Band between 1968 and 1970.

In 1970 he joined Blood, Sweat, and Tears after Jerry Hyman departed and first appeared on the album B, S & T; 4. While with this group, he recorded the jazz-rock solo on the tuba in And When I Die/One Room Country Shack on the album Live and Improvised. His recording credits with BS&T include eleven albums. A break in their schedule allowed him to join the Gil Evans Orchestra in 1972.

After leaving Blood, Sweat, and Tears he became a freelance musician recording with Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Mick Jagger, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, David Sanborn, Carla Bley, and Pat Metheny.

He has performed with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band from Switzerland, the George Russell Living Time Orchestra, and was a long-time member of Jaco Pastorius’s Word of Mouth Band. He has recorded and toured with Tuba Tuba, a jazz tuba band which includes Michel Godard, Luciano Biondini, and Kenwood Dennard.

He is a member of Howard Johnson’s Gravity, a six-tuba group that has been together since 1968. Trombone and tubist David Bargeron, who has released several albums as a soloist and collaborator, at 80 still performs.

CALIFORNIA JAZZ FOUNDATION

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Booker Collins was born on June 21, 1914 in Roswell, New Mexico. Emerging from the New Mexico Military Institute to play in Bat Brown’s Band, a territory band. By the mid-’30s he was keeping very good company playing with pianist Mary Lou Williams and Her Kansas City Seven, cutting sides with her when he was only 16. In 1934, his break came when he got into the band of Andy Kirk and His Clouds Of Joy, staying for the next decade and playing alongside Williams in the rhythm section. Kirk’s hiring replaced the tuba with the double bass.

Booker’s final job of note was with Chicago, Illinois guitarist and drummer Floyd Smith as part of his trio, a stint that lasted from 1946 until the early ’50s, when this great bass man finally laid his big instrument down in terms of full-time playing. He made a few appearances at festival occasions in the ensuing decades but was in Chicago’s recording studios in the late ’50s cutting sides for independent labels.

Returning to performing he joined a combo called the Shades of Rhythm to backup blues singer Mad Man Jones on the demanding Come Here. Collins’ involvement with this group of shifting personnel began in 1952 when he was part of a version that took the risk of cutting sides for the Chance label.

He also performed and recorded with Bert Johnson and the group Six Men And A Girl. Little is known about the death of double bassist Booker Collins who also played the valve trombonist and tuba. It appears he faded into obscurity.

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Gene Mayl was born in Dayton, Ohio on December 30, 1928. He lived in France after World War II, where he worked with Claude Bolling, Don Byas, and Claude Luter.

In 1948, he formed his own Dixieland revival ensemble, the Dixieland Rhythm Kings, which recorded for London Records and Riverside Records, and was active through the mid-1970s. Among those he worked with in this group were Speckled Red and Terry Waldo.

Mayl worked extensively with George Brunis in the 1960s and 1970s, and also worked with Wild Bill Davison, Billy Maxted, Bob Scobey, and Muggsy Spanier. Double-bassist, tubaist, and vocalist Gene Mayl transitioned on May 5, 2015 in Harrison Township, Ohio.

GRIOTS GALLERY

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Joe Bishop was born November 27, 1907 in Monticello, Arkansas and learned piano, trumpet, and tuba when he was young. He also played flugelhorn and mellophone. He attended Hendrix College and played professionally with the Louisiana Ramblers in 1927, including in Mexico.

Bishop played with Mart Britt, Al Katz, and Austin Wylie before joining the Isham Jones band for five years. He was a founding member of Woody Herman’s band in the 1930s, but he contracted tuberculosis in 1940 and had to leave the group. He was rehired by Herman as a staff arranger later in the 1940s, and his arrangements and compositions were recorded frequently by Herman, appearing on some 50 of Herman’s albums.

As a performer, Joe played with Cow Cow Davenport and Jimmy Gordon’s Vip Vop Band, but retired from studio work due to his health in the 1950s. Joe quit music and opened a store in Saranac Lake, New York, and later retired to Texas. His compositions include Midnight Blue, Woodchopper’s Ball, and Blue Prelude with Gordon Jenkins.

Tubist, pianist and composer Joe Bishop, whose work has been covered by musicians as diverse as Ten Years After and Lawrence Welk,  transitioned on May 12, 1976.

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