Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Patti Wicks was born Patricia Ellen Chappell on February 24, 1945 and began playing the piano at the age of three. She later attended the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

Influenced by Bill Evans, she began to perform professionally and moved to New York City, where she played in small ensembles. She founded her own trio featuring bassists such as Sam Jones, Richard Davis, Brian Torff, and Mark Dresser, and drummers Curtis Boyd, Louis Hayes, Mickey Roker, and Alan Dawson.

In the 1970s, Wicks moved to Florida where she worked as a musician with, among others, Clark Terry, Larry Coryell, Frank Morgan, Ira Sullivan, Flip Phillips, Anita O’Day, Rebecca Parris, Roseanna Vitro and Giacomo Gates.

As an educator she taught jazz piano at colleges and gave private lessons. In 1997, Patti released her debut album Room at the Top: The Patti Wicks Trio. She was a guest on Marian McPartland’s NPR program Piano Jazz.

Vocalist and pianist Patti Wicks died on March 7, 2014.

BRONZE LENS

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Connell Elrick was born on December 29, 1903 in Aberdeen, Scotland. His first ambition was to be a doctor but financial constraints prevented this. Still in his teens, he began playing drums for local dance bands and by 1928 had formed his own band, the Embassy Band. The group swept the prizes in the All-Scottish Dance Band Championship that year.

Turning professional, George moved to London, England where he became friends with the crooner Al Bowlly, and began singing himself. He joined the Henry Hall Orchestra as a vocalist and drummer and their 1936 recording of The Music Goes Round and Round made him a star. Leaving Hall in 1937 he formed his own band, and two years later began his solo career, which was moderately successful through the years of World War II.

In 1948, he took a touring revue around Britain, and was asked by the BBC to stand in for two weeks as disc-jockey on the morning record request show Housewives’ Choice. The temporary job lasted almost twenty years, as his Scottish accent and liberal use of catchphrases became highly popular.

In later years, he became something of an impresario and acted as an agent for numerous musicians such as Mantovani. He was a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats, and was also a life member of the Variety Club of Great Britain.

Drummer George Elrick, who published his autobiography titled Housewives’ Choice: The George Elrick Story, died on December 15, 1999.

GRIOTS GALLERY

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Rod Mason was born September 28, 1940 in Plymouth, England and as a young man played with the local Tamar Valley Jazz Band, in which his father, Frank “Pop” Mason, had played drums. At Kelly College, in Tavistock, England he played the bugle with the cadet corps, then the valve trombone. He played this in his father’s band until the trumpet player left, whereupon he replaced him using a brass-band style cornet.

He went on to play briefly with the Cy Laurie band from 1959 to 1960 and two years later went with Monty Sunshine who left the Chris Barber band to form his own group. Sunshine hired Mason on the recommendation of Kenny Ball. In the mid-1960s after leaving Sunshine, Rod worked in the family business and played occasionally, until a winning appearance on Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks TV talent show which led to a flood of offers.

A facial paralysis forced him to use other mouthpieces, which allowed him to extend the range of his instrument. In 1965, he established his own band. From 1970 he played in the Acker Bilk Paramount Jazz Band, before he founded a band together with Ian Wheeler in 1973. He recorded numerous recordings for the Reef label. The 1980s saw Mason playing in the Dutch Swing College Band. In 1985, he founded the Hot Five band and released a number of albums for Timeless Records and regularly toured Europe.

Trumpeter, cornetist, vocalist Rod Mason who recorded thirty-two albums as a leader, played his last gig in Kaarst, Germany in December 2016 and died three weeks later on January 8, 2017 after developing peritonitis and pneumonia.

CALIFORNIA JAZZ FOUNDATION</p

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Joëlle Léandre was born September 12, 1951 in Aix-en-Provence, France on Opera Street across from a theatre. She studied the standard double-bass repertoire intensively in her hometown conservatory and at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris. By her late teens she was subbing in the bass sections of large classical ensembles. Drawn to Paris jazz clubs, she wasn’t involved in the scene because her pizzicato playing off-putting the jazz field’s standard.

Her appreciation of improvisation came from her chance discovery of Bowin’ Swingin’ Slam, by swing bassist Slam Stewart. Around the same time Joëlle received a one-year scholarship to study at the Center for Creative and Performing Arts in Buffalo, New York. Not only was she exposed daily to serious music from composers and travelled to New York to listen to improvisers.

She began her career in the early 1970s when she was still a student at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, France. She studied with renowned bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse and developed a unique style that fused avant-garde jazz with classical music. In 1974, she formed the ensemble Musica Elettronica Viva with Italian composer and electronic musician Luciano Berio.

Collaborating with many on the avant-garde jazz scene including John Cage, Anthony Braxton, Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, George E. Lewis, India Cooke, Steve Lacy, Sylvie Courvoisier, John Zorn and Cecil Taylor, among others. She is also a founding member of the improvising trio Fish Music with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Barry Guy. Aside from performing as a soloist, her bands have been trio, quartet configurations.

In 1983 she became a member of the European Women Improvising Group (EWIG), which evolved from the Feminist Improvising Group. In the early 1990s she co-founded the feminist improvising trio Les Diaboliques, with Irène Schweizer and Maggie Nicols.

Double bassist, vocalist, and composer Joëlle Léandre remains active in new music, avant~garde and free improvisation.

CALIFORNIA JAZZ FOUNDATION

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STRAIGHT AHEAD

The Group: 

Gayelynn McKinney ~ Drums
Alina Morr ~ Piano
Marion Hayden ~ Bass
Kymberli Wright ~ Vocals

Showtimes: 7:30pm & 9:30pm

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