The Jazz Voyager

The Jazz Voyager is leaving the confines of Baltimore and heading north to Old Lyme, Connecticut to pay a visit to the Old Lyme Inn the once housed a riding academy of some renown. Now it has 13 charming and luxurious guest rooms and a quaint, intimate one of a kind venue just steps away known as The Side Door.

Born into a family of musicians, painters, and poets, Tatiana Eva-Marie began her career at age four, immersed in the world of show business. Before her twenties, she had already recorded many albums, established herself as an actress and director. Choosing New York she quickly built up a reputation as a singer, and started the Avalon Jazz Band, which overnight became the number one reference for French swing around the world.

The venue is located at 85 Lyme Street 06371. For more information visit thesidedoorjazz.com.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Seger Pillot Ellis was born on July 4, 1904 in Houston, Texas and began his career as pianist playing live for a local Houston radio station in the early 1920s. In 1925, he was added to the orchestra of Lloyd Finlay for a recording session for Victor Records, and was also allowed to cut two piano solos. This led to Ellis being invited to Victor’s regular recording studio in Camden, New Jersey, to cut a number of piano solos, all or most of them compositions of his own. These were among the earliest records Victor made using the new electric microphone and recording equipment.

After his first recording experiences, Ellis returned to Houston and radio work as well as playing in vaudeville theaters. During this period Seger began adding singing to his piano playingwhich led to an invitation to New York City to make vocal test recordings. His first issued vocal record was “Sunday” on the Columbia label, then a string of records for Okeh Records. 

Ellis selected many of the best jazz musicians of the time, including Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Andy Sannella and Louis Armstrong. His first recording career ended in 1931, however, in the late Thirties he returned to conducting and singing with his own big band, Choirs of Brass Orchestra. Later in his career, he focused more on songwriting, but recorded sporadically as well as playing the piano.

In 1939, Ellis reorganized and his new band featured the conventional four-man reed section. He disbanded in 1941, and was enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in 1942. After his discharge he moved back to Texas and began to be less active as a performer and more a songwriter and composer. His compositions were recorded by Harry James, Gene Krupa, Bing Crosby, Count Basie with a Mills Brothers vocal. 

Pianist and vocalist Seger Ellis, who made a few brief film appearances in collaboration with director Ida Lupino, died on September 29, 1995 in a Houston retirement home.

Acquaint an inquisitive mind with a dose of a Houston pianist who is in the company of musical genius around the world as a member of the jazz canon…

Seger Ellis: 1904~1995 | Piano, Vocal

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JOE GRANSDEN QUINTET

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NOEL FRIEDLINE & MARIA HOWELL

NOEL FREIDLINE (Bandleader/Piano)
Pianist, vocalist, writer, arranger and educator, doesn’t come close to all things Noel Freidline! As a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of North Florida, with a BA in Music, Noel has been the bandleader of The Noel Freidline Quintet for over 26 years. He has numerous recordings to his credit, and has performed at jazz festivals from the Jacksonville Jazz Festival (FL)…to the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland)…not to mention, a 3-year stint at the world famous Bellagio in Las Vegas, as the house band, leading his NFQ, where he performed for actress Julia Robert’s surprise 35th birthday party.

Noel was named Best Jazz Musician by Charlotte Magazine in 2006 and in 2009 and was named “Best Musical Director”, by the Metrolina Theatre Association of the Carolinas. In 2011 Freidline was chosen for the Blumenthal Performing Arts Association – Center Stage Award (Charlotte, NC), in recognition of his excellence in service to the arts. And in May, 2015, Noel Freidline was inducted into the Jacksonville Jazz Hall of Fame. 

MARIA HOWELL (Vocals)
For over 35 years, this petite NC native, who splits her time between both the east coast and the west coast, has developed her career as a singer, actor, and voiceover artist. Her debut acting role was the choir soloist in the Oscar Nominated film, “The Color Purple”. She has gone on to appear in hit TV shows as Lifetime’s “Army Wives”, NBC’s “Revolution”, and CBS’s “Criminal Minds”. Feature films…“The Blind Side”, “Hidden Figures”, and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”. As a song stylist, Maria has shared the musical stage with legendary artists as, Nancy Wilson, George Benson, Ray Charles, Earl Klugh, brothers Ronnie and Hubert Laws, and veteran actor/singer, Keith David.

Join Noel & Maria and special guest Adrian Crutchfield as they celebrate what the world needs now: Love, Sweet Love.  The best of the love songs, from classics to contemporary.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Arthur Doyle was born June 26, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama and was inspired to play music as a child after watching Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington on television. During his high school years, he began listening to Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, and picked up gigs as a saxophonist. While still a teenager, he played with saxophonist Otto Ford, trumpeter Walter Miller and in R&B and blues groups.

After graduating high school, Doyle attended Tennessee State University in Nashville, receiving a degree in Music Education. While there he played with trumpeter Louis Smith and singers Gladys Knight and Donny Hathaway. He briefly went to Detroit, Michigan to play with hard bop trumpeter Charles Moore. He gravitated toward free jazz after playing at a Black Panthers festival.

Moving to New York City in 1968, Doyle worked with Sun Ra and Bill Dixon, and met and befriended saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and guitarist Sonny Sharrock. The following year, he recorded with Noah Howard and while in the city he met drummer Milford Graves, who encouraged him to pursue his natural affinity for pure sound. In 1977 he recorded his debut album Alabama Feeling, his first as a leader. He began playing with guitarist Rudolph Grey, and in 1980 along with Grey and drummer Beaver Harris, they became known as The Blue Humans and recorded Live NY 1980.

At around this time, Arthur began struggling with anxiety issues, and moved to Endicott, New York, where he worked as a counselor. In 1981, he moved to Paris, France where he began an association with multi-instrumentalist Alan Silva and his Celestrial Communication Orchestra, and participated in the recording of the album Desert Mirage in 1982. The following year, while in France, he was accused of rape and imprisoned. Maintaining his innocence he was pardoned and released in 1988 and during his time in prison, he wrote over 150 songs and assembled what he called the Arthur Doyle Songbook.

In the early Nineties Doyle returned to the United States, moving back to Endicott, and restarted his involvement in music. He resumed his association with Grey, playing at CBGB and releasing Arthur Doyle Plays and Sings from the Songbook Volume One on Grey’s Audible Hiss label. Over the next decade, he played and recorded with drummers Hamid Drake, Sabu Toyozumi, and Sunny Murray, among others, and formed The Arthur Doyle Electro-Acoustic Ensemble.

Saxophonist, bass clarinetist, flutist, and vocalist Arthur Doyle, who was best known for playing what he called free jazz soul music, died on January 25, 2014 in his hometown.

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