JASON MARSALIS VIBES QUARTET

Jason Marsalis is the youngest son of piano patriarch and jazz luminary Ellis Marsalis Jr. and their famous New Orleans music family, declared “America’s First Family of Jazz” upon the presentation of their NEA Jazz Masters Award in 2011, the nation’s highest jazz honor. In addition to his renown as a drummer, Jason is also a respected vibraphonist whose 2018 release “Melody Reimagined” with his 21st Century Trad Jazz Band rose swiftly to the top of the Billboard jazz chart. With a fire in his heart and a passion for the music, his will to swing has never been more resolute. The maturity and the command Jason possesses over his music is clearly evident to those who have heard or seen him.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

David Arthur Carey was born November 8, 1914 in Coulsdon, Surrey, England. His father was a pianist. In the early Thirties he had his own band that performed in the Croydon borough of London. After the start of World War II he opened a music shop in Streatham before being drafted into military service. In 1946 he opened The Swing Shop in Streatham, where he sold musical instruments and records and which he expanded into a mail order business.

He also played in dance and jazz bands in 1947 with Rex Stewart, who was visiting England, with whom he also recorded in London in September 1949, and in 1948 with Graeme Bell’s Australian Jazz Band. In the same year, Carey took part in recordings by Humphrey Lyttelton for Wilco, in 1950 with the boogie-woogie pianist Roy Vaughan. He was in Lyttleton’s band for a year in 1948 until he was replaced by Bernard Saward. The mid-1950s Dave led his own traditional jazz formations and recorded a number of records for Tempo Records and Decca Records.

Carey performed at the Royal Festival Hall in 1957 and contributed to pianist Pat Hawes’ recordings for Tempo. He worked as a music historian, collaborating with Albert McCarthy and the six-volume work Jazz Directory spanning 1949 to 1952. In the Sixties he led his own band in the 1960s.

According to his colleague Pat Hawes, his drumming was influenced by Baby Dodds, but also by drummers of the swing era such as Gene Krupa, Cozy Cole and George Wettling.

Drummer, bandleader and jazz researcher Dave Carey, who also plays vibraphone and washboard, transitioned on July 18 , 1999 in Croydon.

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Three Wishes

Pannonica finally got the opportunity to ask Lionel Hampton what he would wish for and his retort was:

1. 1. “To be in tune with jazz. Jazz to me is like the human emotion of the Negro. From the time he was in bondage praying to God to give him freedom – that was the blues then, coming from the spiritual vein – and when he was freed some, he would make jazz more happy. It was coming from the Negroes. From the time of the slave in the cotton fields, swinging up, you dig? From the time it got popularized and commercial, and left the cotton fields and railroad tracks, and they were putting it in the cafes. It was the days of King Oliver and Sidney Bechet..”
   2. “The colored man always has been the one to change the color of jazz. As the country advanced, they changes the music. It’s always been moving along, integrated by Negroes, turning to his feelings as he advanced. From Louis Armstrong up to Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Edgar Sampson, and Sy Oliver. They started changing the picture of jaz. It was their orchestrations, their chart that made jazz. They began writing arrangements for Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and so on – for the ofay bands. fats Waller, Jimmie Lunceford, those guys were all great arrangers. Then Monk, Dizzy, Prez, Don Byas, and Charlie Parker, they came in, all influencing the music, all great instrumentalists. As the Negro got free he added more ingredients. You’d need an encyclopedia to tell it all. I hope I’ll always be tuned so I can dig the transitions in jazz. Because there are more transitions coming.”
   3. “Lots of white folks write about jazz, but they don’t know the pains of it. You should be the one to write about it, because you understand. And musicians will talk to you. Gotta get down on that stand now, but I’ll be over to your pad tomorrow, and we’ll do this with the tape recorder. It’ll take another three of four hours, at the very least. I’ve not done more than get started on the first answer yet, you dig?”

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

John Cocuzzi was born in Camp Springs, Maryland on Andrews Air Force Base on October 26, 1964. Taking a very early interest in playing drums, immediately after graduating from high school, in 1982 he attended Montgomery Junior College in Rockville, Maryland as an applied percussion major. While there he also studied arranging with Bill Potts, who wrote for Buddy Rich and others.

Towards the end of the decade he had established himself, performing in and around the nation’s capital. During these years, in addition to playing drums, Cocuzzi also played piano and vibraphone, gradually advancing his skills on the latter instrument until it became the dominant force in his impressive arsenal.

The early 90s saw John appearing at numerous festivals across the country, as well as  Belgium and the Netherlands. Throughout his career he has mainly led his own small groups and has also played piano with the swing, blues and jump band, Big Joe And The Dynaflows, led by Big Joe Maher.

He has worked and/or recorded with Howard Alden, Joe Ascione, Louie Bellson, Bobby Gordon, Chuck Hedges, Nat King Cole, Milt Hinton, Dick Hyman, Russell Malone, Ken Peplowski, Bucky and John Pizzarelli, Houston Person, Eddie Locke, Barbara Morrison, Peter Appleyard, Russell Malone, Ed Polcer, Daryl Sherman, Warren and Allan Vaché, Johnny Varro, Bob Wilber and Snooky Young. A dynamic and swinging drummer, Cocuzzi is a fluently inventive improviser on piano. His vibraphone playing ably blends the urgent thrust he displays in his drumming with the fluid grace of his piano playing.

On radio, Cocuzzi recorded a session for NPR’s “Riverwalk: Live at The Landing” with the Jim Cullum Band. It was a tribute to Benny Goodman, The Swing Shift: Jazz on Late-Night Radio, and featured Allan Vaché on clarinet with Nicholas Payton on trumpet.

For 15 years, he was the music director for the 219 Restaurant’s Basin Street Lounge in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. He was also music director for the Crystal City Jazz Celebration from 2003 to 2006.

Jazz, blues and swing vibraphonist, pianist and drummer John Cocuzzi, whose influences are Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo, continues to perform

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Sadi Pol Lallemand was born on October 23, 1927 in Andenne, Belgium. His first instrument was the xylophone, which he played in a circus in the 1930s. After World War II, he turned professional playing the vibraphone and performed with Bobby Jaspar in the Bob Shots, then with Don Byas.

Moving to Europe he lived in Paris, France from 1950 to 1961 where he played with Aimé Barelli, Django Reinhardt, and Martial Solal. In the Sixties, Fats moved to Brussels, Belgium and was a member of Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band.

He worked for RTBF, the TV channel of the French Community in Belgium. Sadi led both a quartet and nonet, and won the Belgian Golden Django for best French-speaking artist in 1996.

Vibraphonist, percussionist, vocalist and composer Fats Sadi, who chose the name “Sadi” because he disliked his last name, which means “the German” in French, transitioned on February 20, 2009 in Huy, Belgium.

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