LIZZ WRIGHT
A steward of American music, acclaimed vocalist Lizz Wright is rising out of the pandemic and returning to stages across the globe. She has reclaimed her legacy with the launch of an independent record company, Blues & Greens Records. Wright’s label launched with the June 15, 2022 release of Holding Space, a brilliant live album capturing a Berlin, Germany concert where Wright and her band closed out their 2018 European summer tour.
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CON TUMBAO: ALL~STAR CELEBRATION OF LATIN RHYTHMS
Con Tumbao celebrates the common ingredient in Latin music that urges hips to sway. This is music of the people. In his new project, Con Tumbao, Cuban singer-songwriter Issac Delgado brings together an extraordinary band playing a repertory that speaks a familiar language in many accents.
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CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT
Three-time Grammy Award winner and MacArthur Fellow Cécile McLorin Salvant joins the 22-23 Jazz Roots season with her latest project, Ghost Song. Opening for Salvant is emerging jazz force Christian Sands and his trio.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hilde Hefte was born on September 1, 1956 in Kristiansand, Norway and received much of her musical education from the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo, Norway with piano as primary and vocals as secondary instruments. She played saxophone and clarinet for ten years when she was young, apprenticing with her father who was saxophone teacher and musician. She also trained as an actor, landing numerous roles.
During a period of years she taught music at Agder musikkonservatorium before she started as a full-time musician. She released her debut solo album Round Chet’s Midnight in 1999 to great reviews, from song others Down Beat Magazine. Hefte went on to quickly release five more albums under her own name, and has written lyrics and composed music to both her own albums and for a host of other artists.
Never far from acting, Hilde continues her leading roles at the theatre, among others, the main role as Edith Piaf. She has written and arranged music for various local theatre productions. To date she has recorded eight solo albums as a leader highlighting the music of Chet Baker, Bill Evans and bossa nova, as well as an album with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and inclusion in the Putamayo compilation Brazil Around The World.
With already ten collaborative albums under her belt with no sign of stopping, vocalist Hilde Hefte founded and runs Norsk Jazzforlag in 2003 and the record label Ponca Jazz Records the following year.
Bestow upon an inquiring mind a dose of a Kristiansand vocalist to motivate the perusal of the genius of jazz musicians worldwide whose gifts contribute to the canon…
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leslie Allen was born on August 29, 1902 in Ealing, London, England and at the age of 3, he and his family moved to Canada. As a child, he played clarinet alongside his father in the Queen’s Own Rifles Band and later learned to play the saxophone. He performed with the dance bands of Burton Till and Luigi Romanelli and in 1922 worked briefly in New York City before travelling to England in 1924 as part of a band of fellow Canadians recruited by Hal Swain. Intending his band to play at the Rector’s Club in London, once there, he found it closed.
The band found a residency at the New Prince’s restaurant in Piccadilly and became The New Princes Toronto Band. Under this name, they recorded for Columbia Records for eighteen months with Allen serving as alto saxophonist and occasional vocalist. Between 1926 and 1927, Allen joined several of his NPTB colleagues on a European tour where they performed as Dave Caplin’s Toronto Band under the leadership of banjoist Caplin.
After returning to England in 1927, Allen spent the next five years playing and singing with several leading British dance orchestras, including those of Carroll Gibbons, George Melachrino and Geraldo and making a number of freelance recordings, with duets with Al Bowlly.
In 1932, he joined Henry Hall’s BBC Dance Orchestra as a featured vocalist and enjoyed national hits with The Sun Has Got His Hat On and Auf Wiedersehen My Dear. Parting ways with Hall in 1934, he began a solo career, scoring hits with Tell Me Tonight, Love Is The Sweetest and the children’s ballad, Little Man You’ve Had A Busy Day on which his wife Anne and son Norman had speaking parts.
In 1935, he starred in the musical comedy Heat Wave, subsequently formed his own bands, the Les Allen Melody Four and the male voice singing group, Les Allen & His Canadian Bachelors, with fellow countrymen lead singer Jack Curtis, tenor Herbie King, and baritone and arranger Cy Mack.
During World War II, Les travelled and entertained Canadian troops. After the war, he played the juvenile lead in the 1945 revival of Miss Hook of Holland before returning to Toronto, Canada in 1948, where he started a second career in the office supply trade. Retiring in 1971, alto saxophonist and vocalist Les Allen transitioned in Toronto on June 25, 1996.
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