Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Henry Lowther was born Thomas Henry Lowther on July 11, 1941 Leicester, Leicestershire, England. Learning trumpet, his first experience was on cornet in a Salvation Army band. He studied violin briefly at the Royal Academy of Music but returned to trumpet by 1960 though he sometimes played violin professionally.
In the 1960s, he worked with pianist and composer Mike Westbrook, a relationship that lasted into the 80s, Manfred Mann, John Dankworth from 1967-77, Graham Collier, John Mayall, John Warren, and would appear with the Keef Hartley Band.
The Seventies brought work with Mike Gibbs, Kenny Wheeler, Tony Coe, Gordon Beck and Barbara in addition to his own ensemble, Quaternity. In the 80s Henry worked with the Buzzcocks, Talk Talk, Peter King, Gil Evans, Humphrey Lyttleton on a Buddy Bolden documentary.
He played with Charlie Watts’ band in the late 80s, and then led his own band, Still Waters. From the late 1980s he did much work in big bands, such as the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra and the London Jazz Composers Orchestra; in the Nineties he worked with Kenny Wheeler’s group, The Dedication Orchestra, the London Jazz Orchestra, George Russell’s Living Time Orchestra, and the Creative Jazz Orchestra. Trumpeter Henry Lowther most recently plays in the band Jazzmoss.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tanya Kalmanovitch was born in Fort McMurray, Alberta on July 5, 1970 and learned to play the viola as a child and would go on to master the violin. She attended and graduated in 1992 from Juilliard School with a degree in viola performance and soon after debuted her jazz chops with the Turtle Island String Quartet.
Her 2003 debut recording with her quartet Hut Five was hailed by the Montreal Gazette as “an exceptional recording, one of the more engaging recordings heard in some time” and was garnished with a number of stars by DownBeat magazine. Actively performing in New York City since 2004, Tanya has been named “Best New Talent” by All About Jazz New York, while Time Out New York identified her from a small pool of suspects as “the Juilliard-trained violist who’s been tearing up the scene”.
Tanya has performed with Mark Turner, Benoît Delbecq, Mark Helias, Dominique Pifarély, Andy Laster, Tom Rainey, Ernst Reijseger, Mat Maneri, and the Turtle Island String Quartet, Martin Hayes, John Cage and Shujaat Husain Khan. She has travelled frequently to India where she has studied Karnatic music with violinist Lalgudi G. J. R. Krishnan and veena player Karaikudi S. Subramanian while conducting doctoral dissertation research on jazz exotica.
Teaching regularly at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London UK, the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag NL, and as a member of the faculty of the department of Creative Improvisation at Boston’s New England Conservatory, she also conducts workshops on improvisation.
She is a founding member of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground, a collective of ten independent bandleaders based in New York City. She is also the Canadian representative to the International Association of Schools of Jazz, a founding member of the Jazz String Caucus of the International Association for Jazz Education, and a mentor to the Sisters in Jazz Program. Violist and violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch now lives in the spaces between modern jazz, classical music and free improvisation as she continues to compose, perform and educate.
MARIA HOWELL PRESENTS: GIRLS IN GOWNS
“Girls in Gowns” A Benefit Concert for Students Without Mothers
“Girls in Gowns” is a unique musical initiative and benefit concert created by singer and actor Maria Howell. The project brings together talented female performers to showcase a collaborative blend of various musical genres while dressed in elegant formal gowns, and above all, for a good cause.
Students Without Mothers (founded by Mary Torrence Williams), is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high school students without mothers help themselves by empowering them to continue their education. The organization’s main purpose is to provide scholarships for college-bound high school students who are without their mothers due to death or other unfortunate circumstances. For more info – www.studentswithoutmothers.org
The Girls:
Maria Howell ~ Vocal
Shana Blake~ Vocal
Ronee Martin ~ Vocal
Robyn Springer ~ Vocal
Karen Briggs ~ Violin
The Musicians
Noel Freidline – Piano/Keys – Bandleader
Alfred Sergel, IV – Drums
Zack Page – Bass
Tickets: Baby Grand Members ~ $41.95 | General Admission ~ $51.15
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KERSTEN STEVENS
Kersten Stevens — Queen of the Violin, is a genre-defying artist and composer whose electrifying, luminous performances turn every stage into a sanctuary. A Yale alumna and six-time winner of Amateur Night and Showtime at The Apollo, her sound is a bold fusion of jazz, gospel, soul, and storytelling that leaves audiences moved, seen, and electrified.
Her latest album, Queen Rising, co-written and produced by 8x Grammy winner Christian McBride, debuted in the JazzWeek Top 40. She’s been featured in Vogue, WBGO 88.3FM, and All About Jazz, and has shared the stage with Keyon Harrold, Kamasi Washington, Faith Evans, and Trombone Shorty. She’s performed for icons like Usher, Babyface, Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and Dionne Warwick.
Tickets: Streaming ~ $15.00 +fee | GA ~ $35.00 – $45.00 +fee
More Posts: adventure,bandleader,club,genius,instrumental,jazz,music,preserving,travel,violin
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Emanuel Sayles: The Banjoist Who Followed the Music HomeEmanuel Sayles was born on January 31, 1907, in Pensacola, Florida, and began his musical education in the classical tradition, playing violin and viola as a child. But the jazz spirit was calling, and Sayles answered by teaching himself banjo and guitar, the instruments that would define his career and connect him to the early New Orleans jazz tradition.
Following the Music to New Orleans
After high school, Sayles made the pilgrimage that so many musicians made: he relocated to New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, where he joined William Ridgely’s Tuxedo Orchestra, a prestigious gig that put him in the center of the city’s vibrant music scene.
What followed was a classic New Orleans apprenticeship: Sayles worked with the legendary pianist Fate Marable, violinist Armand Piron, and trumpeter Sidney Desvigne on Mississippi riverboats, those floating conservatories where musicians learned to swing, read charts, and play for dancers night after night. The riverboat gigs were grueling but invaluable, connecting Sayles to the earliest generations of jazz musicians and teaching him the repertoire that would sustain him for decades.
Making History in Chicago
In 1929, Sayles participated in recordings with the Jones-Collins Astoria Hot Eight—sessions that captured the raw, collective improvisation style of early New Orleans jazz before it became codified and nostalgic. These recordings remain treasured documents of a transitional moment in jazz history.
By 1933, Sayles had moved to Chicago, where he led his own group and became a sought-after accompanist on blues and jazz recordings, working frequently with the great barrelhouse pianist Roosevelt Sykes and others. Chicago in the 1930s was electric with blues and swing, and Sayles’ banjo added that distinctive rhythmic drive that made everything move.
Always Returning to New Orleans
In 1949, Sayles returned to New Orleans, the first of several homecomings, and joined forces with clarinetist George Lewis, one of the leading voices in the New Orleans traditional jazz revival. In 1963-64, he toured Japan with Lewis, bringing authentic New Orleans jazz to audiences halfway around the world who were hungry to hear the music in its original form.
Back in New Orleans, he played with the beloved pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, then traveled to Cleveland in 1960 to work with trumpeter Punch Miller. From 1965 to 1967, he was back in Chicago playing in the house band at the Jazz Ltd. Club, one of the premier traditional jazz venues in the country.
Preservation Hall and the Final Chapter
Returning once more to New Orleans in 1968, Sayles found his spiritual home with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the ensemble dedicated to keeping the traditional New Orleans sound alive for new generations. Preservation Hall wasn’t just a venue, it was a mission, and Sayles was perfectly suited to be part of it.
Documenting the Tradition
Sayles recorded prolifically as a sideman with cornetist Peter Bocage, trumpeter Kid Thomas Valentine, pianist Earl Hines, and drummer Louis Cottrell, each session a masterclass in the early New Orleans ensemble style. As a leader, he recorded extensively throughout the 1960s for GHB, Nobility, Dixie, and Big Lou record labels, ensuring that his particular approach to the banjo, rhythmically propulsive, harmonically sophisticated, never overplaying, would be preserved for future students of the tradition.
The Unsung Rhythm Master
Emanuel Sayles passed away on October 5, 1986, having spent nearly eight decades playing the music he loved. As a master banjoist, he represented something increasingly rare: a direct connection to the earliest days of jazz, when the banjo was king of the rhythm section and New Orleans was the only place the music existed.
Why His Story Matters
Sayles’ career is a reminder that jazz history isn’t just about the innovators who pushed the music forward, it’s also about the dedicated musicians who preserved what came before, who understood that the old New Orleans collective improvisation style had value and beauty that shouldn’t be lost in the rush toward bebop and beyond.
Every time he returned to New Orleans—and he kept returning, Sayles was affirming that the music’s roots mattered, that there was wisdom in the way the old-timers played, that the banjo had a place even as guitars became dominant. From Pensacola to riverboats to Chicago clubs to Preservation Hall, Emanuel Sayles followed the music wherever it led and always, eventually, back home to New Orleans, where it all began.