Sunday, June 20, 2010

ALBERT "TOOTIE" HEATH


Jazz hard bop drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath, was born on May 31, 1935, the brother of tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and double-bassist Percy Heath.
He first recorded in 1957 with John Coltrane. From 1958 to 1974 he worked with, among others, J/.J. JOhnson, Wes Montgomery, Art Farmer and Benny Golson's's Jazztet, Cedar Walton, Bobby Timmons, Kenny Drew, Dexter Gordon, JOhnny Griffin, Herbie Hancock and Yusef Lateef.


In 1975, he, Jimmy and Percy formed the Heath Brothers. He remained with the group until 1978, then left to freelance. He has recorded extensively throughout his career.
Among his many workshop and classroom teaching assignments, Tootie Heath is a regular instructor at the Stanford Jazz Workshop.


Tootie Heath is now the producer and leader of The Whole Drum Truth, a jazz drum ensemble featuring Ben Riley, Ed Thigpen, Jackie Williams, Billy Hart, Charlie Persip, Leroy Williams and Louis Hayes.
The Heath Brothers.

Recommended CDs ( as leader)

1969: Kawaida - with Ed Blackwell, Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams
1974: Kwanza (The First) (Muse Records) - with Percy Heath,Jimmy Heath, Kenny Baron, Ted Dunbar, Curtis Fuller


As sideman

With John Coltrane

Coltrane (1957)
Lush Life (1960)
With Nina Simone

Little Girl Blue (1958)

Nina Simone and Her Friends (1959)
With The Young Lions
The Young Lions (1960) Vee Jay Records
With Wes Montgomery

The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (1960)
With George Rusell

George Russell Sextet at Beethoven Hall (1965)
With Herbie Hancock

The Prisoner (1969)



Reference - Wikipedia

DAVE McKENNA

Jazz pianist Dave McKenna, was born on May 30, 1930 in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, into a musical family. His father William McKenna, a postman, played the drums part-time, and two sisters are singers. His mother, Catherine Reilly McKenna, was Dave's first piano teacher. In additions to being a good piano player, she was a fine violinist as a young woman. He also took lessons from Preston "Sandy" Sandiford in Boston, a fine piano teacher Dave liked very much. He explained that he developed his trademark left-handed bass style because "I wanted to hear something like what I heard on the records."

Dave began his career with Boots Mussulli Band, then left home to play with the Charlie Ventura band, followed by a stint with Woody Herman. After two years in the army, he returned to Charlie Ventura's band, then worked with Gene Krupa, Stan Getz, and Zoot Sims and Al Cohn. He often worked with Bobby Hackett, including some gigs at Eddie Condon's in Manhattan, playing what Hackett called "Whiskeyland Jazz." Among Dave's biggest influences was Nat King Cole. He was known for his "three-handed swing" and was a leading proponent of solo piano style.

He worked with a variety of top swing and Dixieland musicians including Gene Krupa, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Bob Wilbur, Eddie Condon, and Bobby Hackett but became primarily a soloist after 1967, especially in the Northeast United States. McKenna performed with Louis Armstrong at the 1970 Newport Jazz Festival.


He started to be recognized in his own right during the 1970s, but chose to play in his local area rather than travel extensively. He preferred playing in clubs and hotels to getting center stage in major venues. He could be found playing in hotel piano bars in Massachusetts, including a decade-long run at the Copley Plaza in Boston, until his retirement around the turn of the millennium. A loyal Boston Red Sox fan, he was known to listen to games on his transistor radio while performing.


McKenna was also known as a wonderful accompanist, recording with such singers as Rosemary Clooney, Teddi King and Donna Byrne and recording a PBS special with Tony Bennett.
McKenna died in 2008 from lung cancer.



His musical presentation relies on two key elements relating to his choices of tunes and set selection, and the method of playing that has come to be known as "three-handed swing".
McKenna liked to make thematic medleys, usually based around a key word that appears in the titles, such as teach, love, women's names, dreams, night or day, street names, etc. There may be ballads and up-tempo songs blended together with standards, pop tunes, blues, and even TV themes or folk material. McKenna's renditions usually began with a spare, open statement of the melody, or, on ballads, a freely played, richly harmonized one. He often stated the theme a second time, gradually bringing more harmony or a stronger pulse into play.


The improvistion then began in earnest on three levels simultaneously, namely a walking bass line, midrange chords and an improvised melody. The bass line, for which McKenna frequently employes the rarely-used lowest regions of the piano, is naturally being played in the left hand, often non-legato, to simulate an actual double bassist's phrasing, the melody in the right. The chords are interspersed using the thumb and forefinger of the right hand or of both hands combined, if the bass is not too low to make the stretch unfeasible. Sometimes he also adds a guide-tone line consisting of thirds and sevenths on top of the bass, played by the thumb of the left hand.


His famous four-to-the-bar "strum" is achieved by the left hand alone, playing a bass note (root/fifth/other interval) plus third and seventh, leading to frequent left-hand stretches of a tenth, which is why these voicings frequently appear arpeggiated, with the top two notes being played on the beat, the bass note slightly before. These voicings are often subtly altered every two beats, for variety. This playing style is frequently mistaken for a stride piano, which it is clearly not, as it is of a four-beat nature, as opposed to the two-beat "oom-pah" of true stride piano, as exemplified by Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, and the like. McKenna usually reserves all-out stride for sections where a bassist would play half notes, i.e. ballads and Dixieland-tinged material. The result is the sound of a three piece band under one person's creative control.
McKenna can weave a spontaneous melodic line, usually with lots of chromaticism and blues licks, over the bass line. The bass can be anything from single notes to repeated chords like a rhythm guitar to a full-blown stride piano, the latter often reserved for the height of a song's development.


The characteristic that perhaps most distinguishes McKenna's playing is his sense of time. One of the most commonly cited difficulties of solo jazz piano is the need to provide a compelling time feel, in part by emulating the rhythmic landscape normally provided by three or four players in a small group. By conceiving of multiple "parts" and playing them with distinct volume levels and time feels (often with right hand chords ahead of the beat and the melody behind the beat), McKenna showed a unique ability to reproduce the small group sound on the piano.
His recordings on the Concord record label attest to both the excitement and tenderness of his playing. His contribution to the development of jazz piano as a solo voice will not be forgotten by musicians or the history books. Art Tatum, often considered the greatest soloist in jazz piano history, praised McKenna as someone he considered a complete musician.


McKenna had an extensive recording career from 1958 to 2002, and recorded for ABC- Paramount (1956), Epic (1958), Bethlehem (1960) and Realm (1963). McKenna made several recordings for Chiaroscuro Records in the 1970s, including his comeback album "Solo Piano". McKenna debuted with Concord in 1979, where the majority of his catalogue rests, including one volume of Concord's 42-disc series recorded live inside Maybeck Recital Hall. McKenna's last recording, "An Intimate Evening With Dave McKenna" was released on Arbors Records in 2002.


Recommended Cds


Giant Strides, 1979, Concord Records
Bill Evans: A Tribute, 1982, palo Alto Records



Dave passed away on October, 2008.




Dave McKenna plays.




Reference - Wikipedia

GLADYS KNIGHT, THE EMPRESS OF SOUL



American R&B and soul singer song-writer, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian and author, Gladys Maria Knight, was born on May 28, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Woods) and Merald Knight Sr, a postal worker.



She first achieved minor fame by winning Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour TV Show contest at the age of 7 in 1952. The following year, she, her brother Merald, sister Brenda, and cousins Williams and Eleonor Guest formed a musical group called The Pips (named after another cousin, James "Pip" Woods).Known as the "Empress of Soul", she is best known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s and 1970s, for both the Motown and Buddah Records labels, with her group Gladys Knight and the Pips, the most famous incarnation of which also included her brother Merald "Bubba"Knight and her cousins Edward Patten and William Guest.



Knight discovered she was pregnant in 1960, and married her high school sweetheart James Newman. After a miscarriage, Knight returned to performing with the Pips. In 1961, Bobby Robinson produced the single "Every Beat of My Heart" for the group, which became a #1 R&B and #6 pop hit when released on Vee Jay Records. In 1962, Langston George left the group, which at that time renamed itself Gladys Knight & the Pips and continued as a quartet.
In 1962, after scoring a second hit, "Letter Full of Tears", Knight became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, Jimmy III, that year. She retired from the road to raise her child while "The Pips" toured on their own. After giving birth in 1963 to a daughter, Kenya, Knight returned to recording with the Pips in order to support her family.


Knight and the Pips perform aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger on November 1, 1981.
Gladys Knight & the Pips joined the Motown roster in 1966, and, although regarded as a second-string act, scored several hit singles, including "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," (recorded later by Marvin Gaye), "Friendship Train" (1969), "If I Were Your Woman" (1970), "I Don't Want To Do Wrong" (1971), the Grammy Award winning "Neither One of Us ( Wants to be the First toi Say Good Bye)" (1972), and "Daddy Could Swear (I Declare)" (1973). In their early Motown career Gladys Knight and the Pips toured as the opening act for Diana Ross and The Supremes. Gladys Knight stated in her memoirs that Miss Ross kicked her off the tour because the audience's reception to Knight's soulful performance overshadowed her. Berry Gordy later told Gladys that she was giving his act a hard time.


The act left Motown for a better deal with Buddah Records in 1973, and achieved full-fledged success that year with hits such as the Grammy-winning "Midnight Train to Georgia" (#1 on the pop and R&B chart), "I've Got to Use My Imagination," and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me." In the summer of 1974, Knight and the Pips recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield.


The act was particularly successful in Europe, and especially the United Kingdom. However, the Buddah hits all followed a number of years after their success in the U.S.. For example "Midnight Train to Georgia" hit the UK pop charts Top 5 in the summer of 1976, a full three years after its success in the U.S..
During this period of greater recognition, Knight made her motion picture acting debut in the film Pipe Dreams, a romantic drama set in Alaska. The film failed at the box-office, but Knight did receive a Golden Globe Best New Actress nomination.


Knight and the Pips continued to have hits until the late 1970s, when they were forced to record separately due to legal issues, resulting in Knight's first solo LP recordings--Miss Gladys Knight (1978) on Buddah and Gladys Knight (1979) on Columbia Records.


In the early 1980s, Johnny Mathis invited Gladys to record two duets – "When A Child Is Born" (previously a hit for Mathis) and "The Lord's Prayer".


In 1987, Knight decided to pursue a solo career, and she and the Pips recorded their final LP together, All Our Love (1987), for MCA Records. Its lead single, "Love Overboard", was a successful hit and won a third Grammy for the act as well. After a successful 1988 tour, the Pips retired and Knight began her solo career. Gladys Knight & the Pips were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Her solo LP, "Just for You", went gold and was nominated for the 1995 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album.


In 2006 she realeased her CD "Before Me" where she revisits the great songs of the Great American Songbook,


In 2008, a duet between Knight and Johnny Mathis was released on Mathis' album "A Night to Remember". Knight is ranked number eighteen on VH1 network's list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock.


In the spring of 2008, Knight appeared alongside Chaka Khan, Patti Labelle and Diana Ross at the 'Divas with Heart' concert in aid of cardiac research, at New York's Radio City Hall.


In 2008 Gladys, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller performed on American Idol to raise money for charity. In March 2010, Randy Jackson mentioned on a new episode of the same show that he is back in the studio with Gladys Knight working on a new album.

In 2009 Knight sang "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" and "The Lord's Prayer" at the funeral service for Michael Jackson.

Gladys sings "Neither One of Us"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp5f8dEnmHY

Reference - Wikipedia







RAMSEY LEWIS, THE GREAT PERFORMER

Jazz composer, pianist and radio personality Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. , was born on May 27, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois to Ramsey'Lewis Sr. and Pauline Lewis. Lewis began taking piano lessons at the age of four. At 15 he joined his first jazz band, "The Cleffs". The seven-piece group provided Lewis first involvement with jazz; he would later join Cleffs drummer Isaac "Redd" Holt and bassist Eldee Young to form the Ramsey Lewis Trio.

He has been referred to as "the great performer", a title reflecting his performance style and musical selections which display his early gospel playing and classical training (Bach,Beethoven,Brahms, etc.) along with his love of jazz and other musical forms. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received five gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.



The trio started as primarily a jazz unit and released their first album, Ramsey Lewis And The Gentlemen of Swing, in 1956. Following their 1965 hit "The In Crowd" (the single reached #5 on the pop charts, and the album #2) they concentrated more on pop material. Young and Holt left in 1966 to form the Young-Holt Trio and were replaced by Cleveland Eaton and Maurice White. White was replaced by Maurice Jennings in 1970. Later, Franky Donaldson and Bill Dickens replaced Jennings and Eaton; Felton Crews also appeared on many 1980's releases.


By 1966, Lewis was one of the nation’s most successful jazz pianists, topping the charts with "The in Crowd", "Hang On Snoopy", and "Wade in the Water". All three singles each sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs. Many of his recordings attracted a large non-jazz audience. In the 1970s, Lewis often played electric piano, although by later in the decade he was sticking to acoustic and using an additional keyboardist in his groups.


In addition to recording and performing, Lewis hosted a morning show on Chicago "smooth jazz" radio station WNUA (95.5 FM) until May 22, 2009. His weekly syndicated radio program Legends of Jazz, created in 1990, features recordings from artists such as David Sanborn,George Duke, Herbie Hancock,Charlie Parker,Dizzy Gillespie, Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau and Miles Davis. The show can be heard in 60 U.S. cities and overseas.



On December 4, 2006, the Ramsey Lewis Morning Show became part of Broadcast Architecture's Smooth Jazz Network, simulcasting on other Smooth Jazz stations across the country for the first time. However, the show was still based in Chicago until it was cancelled when WNUA switched over to a Spanish format.

In 2006, a well-received 13-episode Legends of Jazz television series hosted by Lewis was broadcast on public TV nationwide and featured live performances by a variety of jazz artists including Larry Gray,Lonnie Smith, Joey Defrancesco, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Kurt Elling, Benny Golson, Pat Metheny and Tony Bennett.


Lewis is artistic director of Jazz at Ravinia (an annual feature at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois) and helped organize Ravinia's Jazz Mentor Program. Ramsey also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Merit School of Music, a Chicago inner-city music program and The Cgicago High School for the Arts, the new public arts high school in Chicago. Early in 2005, the Ramsey Lewis Foundation was created to help connect at-risk children to the world of music. As an offshoot of that foundation, Lewis plans to form a Youth Choir and Youth Orchestra. In January 2007, the Dave Brubeck Institute invited Lewis to join its Honorary Board of Friends at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.



Lewis still lives in Chicago, Illinois, the city of his musical roots. He has seven children, fourteen grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Ramsey Lewis and his Trio play "The In Crowd"
Recommended CDs

Ramsey Lewis's Finest Hour-2000
Urban Knights IV-2001
Meant To Be (with Nancy Wilson)-2002
20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Ramsey Lewis-2002
Urban Knights V-2003
Simple Pleasures-2003
Time Flies-2004
Urban Knights VI-2005
With One Voice-2005
The Best of Urban Knights-2005
The Very Best of Ramsey Lewis-2006
Mother Nature's Son-2007
Songs from the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey-2009
Reference - Wikipedia

Saturday, June 19, 2010

HUMBERTO AMORIM, VOCALISTA DE JAZZ


O radialista e vocalista brasileiro de jazz Humberto Amorim, nasceu no 26 de maio de 1951 em Pôrto Velho, Rondônia . Filho do empreendedor, radialista e representante das gravadoras Phillips e RCA Victor em Rondônia Humberto Amorim, que despertou a musicalidade do filho através das gravações em discos acetatos, 58 rotações e "long playing" dos grandes cantores e cantoras da inesquecível "Era de Ouro" do rádio brasileiro.




Humberto que na infancia era chamado de Beto, recebeu as primeiras noções de musica, canto e piano, levado por sua mãe Arlete Botelho Amorim, da irmã salesiana Maria Luiza ( Irmã Lulu) do Colégio N.S. Auxiliadora em Pôrto Velho, com a qual estudou por quatro anos.




Mudou-se com a familia para Manaus em Outubro de 1962 e completou seus estudos primário e colegial no Colégio Dom Bosco. Aos 16 anos, em dezembro de 1969 (mesmo ano do Woodstock Festival) foi para os Estados Unidos estudar e morar na cidade de Tarrytown em Westchester County, Upstate New York. Vizinha a cidade de Tarrytown se encontra a cidade de Irvington-on-the-Hudson, foi lá que travou amizade no High School, com David Getz, filho do famoso saxofonista de jazz Stan Getz. Convidado por David a conhecer seu pai, que na época desfrutava da fama e dos lucros à ele propocionados pelo sucesso obtido com a divulgação da nova musica brasileira, a bossa nova. Na casa de Stan em Shadowbrook Lane em Irvington, durante os ensaios, Humberto conheceu o baterista Tony Williams, João Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Sivuca, Chick Corea, Victor Young, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Keely Smith, Sheila Jordan entre outros, sem saber então, exatamente, quem eram aqueles musicos e a importancia de cada um. Isso só veio a acontecer anos depois. O resto é muita história pra contar...




De volta ao Brasil foi viver no Rio de Janeiro onde começou a militar, devido a fluência no inglês, no turismo carioca pela empresa americana Brazil Safaris & Tours. Cantou em inglês, pela primeira vez, no karaoke da boite do Hotel Sheraton, inaugurado em meados do ano de 1976 e gostou. Em 1977, retornou definitivamente para Manaus onde assumiu a gerência de operações da empresa Luciatour Turismo, a convite do empresário Dahilton Pontes Cabral.






Em 1979, foi convidado pelo então governador José Lindoso para assumir a diretoria de turismo da Empresa Amazonense de Turismo (1979/1983), nos fins-de-semana, costumava frequentar o Mandy's Bar, situado no lobby do antológico Hotel Amazonas da familia Vasquez, o mais famoso clube noturno de Manaus, onde dava "canjas" com o maestro e pianista Jerê.




Com a fundação em 1985, pelo casal Socorro e Francisco de Assis Mourão do clube noturno "Clave de Sol" em plena Avenida Djalma Batista, passou a cantar nas sextas feiras por volta da meia-noite, os clássicos do Great American Book, tendo Assis Mourão ao piano e Carlos Malta na bateria, para uma seleta platéia de amantes da boa música. Infelizmente, depois de muitas idas e vindas o "Clave de Sol" acabou fechando as portas em 2000, definitivamente.




Humberto, sem ter onde cantar em Manaus, passou a dar as suas "canjas" nos bares e clubes que visitava quando viajava pelo Brasil e exterior. Um dos momentos memoráveis dessas viagens aconteceu em um pequeno clube na montanha, com vista para o Monte Branco na Suiça, quando, acompanhado ao piano pelo saudoso colunista social do jornal A Critica em Manaus, Gilberto Barbosa, (Gil) cantou os clássicos do jazz, enquanto nevava lá fora, para a platéia de turistas e parceiros de viagem que degustavam alegremente as iguarias e os excelente vinhos suiços. Foi ai e então que nasceu a sua paixão por vinhos. Outro episodio interessante aconteceu em Madrid (2004) quando atendendo convite dos musicos americanos e espanhois da banda de jazz da casa, que se apresentava sem vocalista, cantou durante uma hora. Ao término da apresentação, o dono do local se aproximou do Humberto e perguntou: "Eres legal? Puedes trabajar?" Foi muito divertido. A última vez que se apresentou no exterior foi em Atlanta,Georgia (2009) onde cantou em inglês, numa fria noite do inverno sulista, com vários graus abaixo de zero, as inesqueciveis canções de Tom Jobim e Vinicius.




No dia 7 de abril de 1995, dia do aniversário de nascimento de Billie Holiday, Humberto colocou no ar em Manaus, através da Radio Amazonas Fm 101,5 o programa "Momentos de Jazz" com o proposito de iniciar a promoção do jazz no Estado do Amazonas. Com muito sucesso, o programa completou no último mês de abril, 15 anos de transmissão ininterrupta sempre aos domingos ao meio dia e muitas conquistas, entre estas, o fato de ser apresentado pelo mesmo locutor, na mesma cidade, na mesma estação e horário, por tanto tempo.


Hoje, Manaus é considerada, principalmente por Humberto Amorim e muitos apreciadores do estilo jazz, como a Capital Brasileira do Jazz. Após o evento do programa radiofonico de jazz, o governo do Estado criou o Festival de Jazz ( 2005) e a banda Amazonas Band.




Humberto não parou por ai. Em 2006 iniciou este blog "Jazz is Timeless", que até o presente momento, foi lido por mais de 27.000 leitores em 5.950 cidades de 119 paises.


Mas, o grande feito, pelo qual Humberto tem o maior orgulho, foi a criação da banda "All That Jazz"' no dia 17 de junho de 2006. A formação inicial da banda teve os seguintes componentes: Humberto Amorim - vocal , Robson Silva - Piano, Roger Vargas - baixo-acústico e Leonardo Pimentel - bateria. A formação atual tem Cezar Serafim ao piano em substituição de Robson Silva e Junior Leal no saxofone.


A banda "All That Jazz" iniciou as apresentações no Café e Bar Adrianópolis e Sax Bar e Restaurante, respectivamente. Nestes últimos anos se apresentou em clubes, casamentos, um deles na cidade natal do Humberto, festas e eventos particulares, uma vez em praça pública e evoluiu para atualmente se apresentar sob contrato no primeiro sábado de cada mês, no gastropub "O Chefão", um dos lugares noturnos mais requintados e bem frequentados da cidade de Manaus.


Hoje, constam do repertório em inglês do vocalista Humberto Amorim, exatamente, 94 canções do Great American Songbook.


Os próximos passos estão no forno e darão forma aos projetos: "Tocando com a Juventude", livro sobre o jazz em Manaus e um programa televisivo de jazz.


O melhor ainda está por vir e a esperança da continuidade musical da familia agora aponta para a graciosa Sofia Amorim Nelson, neta do Humberto e muito parecida com ele em muitos aspectos, inclusive o musical.


Nicholas Artanis, filho do Humberto, aprecia musica, apoia e tem orgulho do talento musical de seu pai.


Referencia - Humberto Amorim


MILES DAVIS


O trompetista, compositor e bandleader de jazz Miles Dewey Davis Jr, mais conhecido como Miles Davis, nasceu no 26 de maio de 1926, em Alton, Illinois. Miles é considerado um dos mais influentes músicos do século XX, e esteve na vanguarda de quase todos os desenvolvimentos do jazz desde a Seginda Guerra Mundial até a década de 1990.


Ele participou de várias gravações do "bebop" e das primeiras gravações do "cool jazz". Foi parte do desenvolvimento do jazz modal, e também do jazz fusion que originou-se do trabalho dele com outros músicos no final da década de 1960 e no começo da década de 1970.


Miles Davis pertenceu a uma classe tradicional de trompetistas de jazz, que começou com Buddy Bolden e desenvolveu-se com Joe "King"Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge e Dizzy Gillespie. Ao contrário desses músicos ele nunca foi considerado com um alto nível de habilidade técnica. Seu grande êxito como músico, entretanto, foi ir mais além do que ser influente e distinto em seu instrumento, e moldar estilos inteiros e maneiras de fazer música através dos seus trabalhos.


Muitos dos mais importantes músicos de jazz fizeram seu nome na segunda metade do século XX nos grupos de Miles Davis, incluindo: Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea e Herbie Hancock, os saxofonistas John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, George Coleman e Kenny Garrett, o baterista Tony Williams e o guitarrista John McLaughlin.


Como trompetista Davis tinha um som puro e claro, mas também uma incomum liberdade de articulação e altura. Ele ficou conhecido por ter um registro baixo e minimalista de tocar, mas também era capaz de conseguir alta complexidade e técnica com seu trompete.


Em 13 de março de 2006, Davis foi postumamente incluído no Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ele foi também incluído no St. Louis Walk of Fame, Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame, e no Down Beat's's Jazz Hall of Fame.



Miles faleceu em setembro de 1991 em Santa Monica, California.

Miles and John Coltrane do "So What"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4TbrgIdm0E
Referencia - Wikipedia

EDDIE ROSNER,THE WHITE LOUIS ARMSTRONG



Polish and soviet jazz musician and trumpeter Adolph Ignatievich Rosner, best known as Eddie Rosner, was born on May 26, 1910 in Berlin, Germany. He as called "The White Louis Armstrong" or "Polish Louis Armstrong" in different sources. This is in part because of his rendition of the St. Louis Blues. He also served as a prisoner in the Gulag Prison camp in the former Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.


In 1916, a child of six, he was taken to stern's musical conservatory in Berlin. He initially studied classical music, but became drawn to jazz by the age of fifteen. In 1920 he completed the conservatory as a violinist with excellent marks and passed to the High School of Music in Berlin, on the Kantstrasse, near the Opera. During the 1920s he caught the jazz bug and switched to trumpet. At that time he changed his name to "Eddy" and played with other Polish musicians in Marek Weber's orchestra.



Eddie Rosner made a creative fusion of his classical music education with the newest beat of jazz. After playing with several bands in Berlin, he joined "The Syncopators", led by Stephan Weintraub, and toured around Western Europe. In the 1930s Eddie Rosner and "The Syncopators" By 1934 he had gained acclaim for his trumpet playing and ability to play two trumpets at once. In his tour of Europe in the 1930s the French celebrated his work and he was featured on many magazines.



During the 1930s Eddie Rosner worked with "The Syncopators" at the "New York" transatlantic steamer. There Eddie Rosner entertained the passengers cruising between Hamburg and various American seaports. By that time, Rosner had made several recordings of his trumpet playing with the band, and planned on starting a new career in America. For that matter he was involved in a correspondence with the famous American bandleader and drummer Gene Krupa. At that time, Eddie Rosner was considered the best jazz trumpeter in Europe and was compared to the American trumpeter Louis Armstrong.



"In 1939, it didn't help being a Jew playing Negro music, even if your name is Adolf," joked Eddie Rosner. He left Nazi Germany for Poland. In 1939, in Warsaw, he married Ruth Kaminska, the daughter of Polish actress Ida Kaminska. His career and life could have been in jeopardy after the invasion of Poland by the Nazi Germans on September 1, 1939, but he soon fled occupied Poland and escaped from the Nazis on the outbreak of the Second World War. In September 1939, Eddie Rosner and a group of musicians from his band crossed the newly established German-Soviet border and came to the city of Bialystok in what was then the western part of Belarus, which became part of the Soviet Union. Eddie Rosner was initially welcomed by the Soviet authorities and was allowed to perform in the Soviet Union which at that time embraced the music of jazz.



In 1939 Eddie Rosner settled in Belostok and formed the "Belostok Jazz", a big band, which soon became the State Jazz of the Belorussian Republic of the USSR. During the following two years, Rosner and his jazz band toured all over Belarus, and also toured around the Soviet Union, having several performances in Moscow ans other big cities.



Eddie Rosner initially achieved an equally glowing reception in the USSR as he had in Europe. Before and during the Nazi occupation of the USSR in the Second World War Rosner's performances were often broadcast over the national radio of the Soviet Union, and several records were released and distributed across the USSR. Joseph Stalin even called Rosner to say he enjoyed his performance for him. This led to Rosner being made the leader of the Soviet State Jazz Orchestra for a time. He and his band recorded such hits as "Caravan" and "St.Louis Blues" among many other popular themes.



After the war everything changed. By 1946 Stalin became increasingly hostile to Jewish people and also foreigners. In that year the Soviet censorship had all foreign art and music banned, even the leading Russian musicians, like Sergey Prokofiev and Dmitry Shostakovich were censored, and Rosner fell into disfavor and planned to emigrate from the Soviet Union. He was arrested by the Soviet KGB in the city of Lvov in the Ukraine, and then he was sent to a Gulag prison camp in Siberia on false charges of "anti-Soviet" treason with a ten-year sentence. For the next eight years Rosner continued to perform in the Gulag camp near Magadan, and was allowed to use music, or be used, to lift the spirits of other prisoners of the Soviet Gulag. He was released in May 1954, more than a year after Stalin's death.



In the mid 1950s, Eddie Rosner founded and led the one of most famous Russian big bands. His band was touring about the Soviet Union and made several recordings from 1954 until 1971. In 1956 Rosner and his jazz band were filmed in the popular Soviet comedy The Carnival Night, gaining further popularity among the movie fans. However, the Soviet official press and critics were instructed to avoid mentioning Eddie Rosner in publications and critical works, authorities also restricted him from performances in major concert halls of the former Soviet Union. During the 1960s Rosner and his jazz band were gradually pushed into obscurity, albeit the intellectuals and advanced public were aware of Rosner's musicianship and artistry, and he remained popular among jazz fans for a while.



By the early 1970s Rosner suffered from poor health. Sensing that the end is near, he applied to the Soviet authorities for permission to immigrate to his birthplace, and was allowed to return to his native Berlin in 1973. He did not earn any royalties in the Soviet Union, and died in poverty three years later. Although during the war he had gained widespread popularity with many of the Allied troops, not just the Soviets, he has since fallen into near obscurity in the West. However, in 1999, a documentary on him was released, leading to something of a revival of interest.


Eddie passed away in August, 1976 in West Berlin.


Eddie Rosner does "Caravan"





Reference - Wikipedia

JIMMY HAMILTON


American jazz clarinetist,tenor saxophonist, arranger, composer and music educator Jimmy Hamilton, was born on May 25, 1917 in Dillon, South Carolina, and grew up in Philadelphia. Having originally learned to play the piano and brass instruments, in the 1930s he started playing the latter in colacl bands, before switching to clarinet and saxophone.



In 1939 he played with Lucky Millinder, Jimmy Mundy, and Bill Doggett, going to join the Teddy Wilson sextet in 1940. After two years with Wilson, he played with Eddie Heywood and Yank Porter.



In 1943 he replaced Barney Bigard in the Duke Ellington orchestra, and stayed with Ellington until 1968. His style was very different on his two instruments: on tenor saxophone he had an R&B sound, while on clarinet he was much more precise and correct, though fluent. He wrote some of his own material in his time with Ellington.


After he left the Ellington orchestra, Hamilton played and arranged on a freelance basis, before spending the 1970s and 1980s in the Virgin Islands teaching music (though he occasionally returned to the U.S. for performances with John Carter's Clarinet Summit). On his retirement from teaching he continued to perform with his own groups from 1989 to 1990.


Hamilton died in St.Croix, Virgin Islands at the age of seventy-seven, in September,1994.


Jimmy plays.




Reference - Wikipedia

NAILOR AZEVEDO, O PROVETA


O clarinetista, saxofonista, compositor e arranjador brasileiro Nailor Azevedo, o Proveta, nasceu no 25 de maio de 1961 na cidade de Leme em São Paulo. Antes de aprender a ler as letras do nosso alfabeto, Proveta já lia as notas musicais.

Aos 6 anos de idade, tocava clarinete na banda da sua cidade natal. Também muito cedo, iniciou sua carreira profissional tocando em bailes no conjunto liderado por seu pai o acordeonista e tecladista Geraldo Azevedo.



Estudou saxofone e passou a integrar outras formações musicais da região dentre as quais a Banda do Brejo, da cidade de Valinhos-Sp. Mudou-se para São Paulo e, apenas com dezesseis anos de idade, já era integrante da orquestra do Maestro Sylvio Mazzucca, famosa em todo o Brasil. Em seguida, participou da banda do 150 Night Club no Hotel Maksoud Plaza, badalada casa noturna de São Paulo que apresentava regularmente grandes atrações internacionais.


Proveta teve então oportunidades de dividir o palco com renomados artistas, entre os quais Anita O’Day, Joe Williams, Paquito D’Rivera, Benny Carter, Natalie Cole. Fez diversas turnês pelo Brasil tocando na orquestra de Ray Conniff.



Freqüentou cursos de aperfeiçoamento musical e formou os grupos – Banda Aquarius, Sambop Brass e, por último, a Banda Mantiqueira – liderando essas formações e escrevendo a maioria dos arranjos. Já no seu primeiro CD “Aldeia”, a Banda Mantiqueira foi nominada ao Prêmio Grammy, em 1998, na categoria Melhor Performance de Jazz Latino.



É um dos músicos mais requisitados pelos estúdios de gravação e figura numa centena de álbuns dos mais consagrados artistas da música popular brasileira, não só como instrumentista mas, também, como arranjador.


Apresenta-se com muita freqüência no exterior com César Camargo Mariano, Joyce, Mônica Salmaso e outros.É também freqüentemente convidado para ministrar workshops nos principais festivais de música que ocorrem no Brasil. Pode-se dizer, sem medo de errar, que Proveta ocupa lugar de destaque na galeria dos principais músicos do Brasil de todos os tempos.



CDS Recomendado:
"Brasileiro Saxofone" – Acari Records – Saxofonista, arranjador e líder da Banda Mantiqueira, Nailor ‘Proveta’ Azevedo lançou este belo CD onde interpreta temas diversos que comprovam a versatilidade do instrumento, de choros a peças jazzísticas. Entre eles Quem é Você (Pixinguinha), Ternura (K-Ximbinho), Inclemência (Guerra-Peixe), Stanats (Moacir Santos), Implorando (Anacleto de Medeiros) e Choro de Uma Valsa (Proveta).


Na lista de músicos convidados estão o pianista Cristóvão Bastos, o violonista Maurício Carrilho, o flautista Toninho Carrasqueira, o baixista Sizão Machado, a cavaquinista Luciana Rabello e o Quarteto Maogani de Violões.


Banda Mantiqueira - CD "Terra Amantiqueira"
Formada em 1991, por iniciativa do clarinetista, saxofonista, compositor e arranjador – Nailor Azevedo, o Proveta – e integrada por outros músicos que sempre estiveram muito próximos a ele e que também ansiavam por uma linguagem que expressasse a brasilidade na forma de interpretar nossa música.

Do universo dos compositores de música popular brasileira, selecionou peças de alguns dos mais notáveis – Pixinguinha, Tom Jobim, Jacob do Bandolim, Cartola, Nelson Cavaquinho, Ernesto Nazareth, João Bosco, Guinga, Luiz Gonzaga, Dorival Caymmi, Joyce, Léa Freire, entre outros. Juntou a esse repertório composições suas e de Edson Alves e, brilhantemente, arranjou-as para a formação de big-band. Embora conte com excelentes solistas, valorizou mais o conjunto do que a individualidade.

A banda já tocou no Festival de Jazz de San Francisco, Califórnia e na Northwestern University, em Evanston, Illinois, e fez por merecer elogiosas críticas publicadas no The Los Angeles Times e no Chicago Tribune.Como convidada do Maestro Yeruhan Scharovsky, apresentou-se, em junho de 2003, em concerto com a Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, no Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro.

Gravou 3 CDs: Aldeia (1996) e Bixiga (2000) ambos pelo selo Pau Brasil e com a OSESP o concerto apresentado na Sala São Paulo, em dezembro de 2000.


Proveta toca os clássicos.



Referencia - Núcleo Contemporâneo

FRANCESCO CAFISO

Italian jazz musician who plays alto saxophone Francesco Cafiso was born on May 24, 1989 in Vittoria, Sicily. He began playing at age nine and premiered in 2001. In 2005, at age sixteen, he won Italy's version of the Golden Django.


Cafiso is one of the most precocious talents in the history of jazz. When he was barely nine years old Francesco took his first steps, working with internationally famous musicians.


First of all, veteran jazz critic Ira Gitler was blown away by the young man's incredible set with veteran pianist Franco D'Andrea at the 2002 Pescara Jazz Festival, most of which was issued on the Philology CD Standing Ovation and was described in detail by Gitler in an article written for the Jazz Journalist Association newsletter. Meeting Wynton Marsalis at a laterfestival was a decisive moment for Francesco’s career. Amazed by Francesco’s qualities, Marsalis took him along with his septet on his 2003 European tour, where Francesco performed in prestigious theatres in the largest cities in Europe.


From that moment on, Francesco went through a series of important experiences both in Italy and abroad. He attended the 2004 International Association of Jazz Education in New York City, amazing audiences in his nightly jazz sessions with veterans James Williams (piano), Ray Drummond (bass) and Ben Riley (drums). Phil Woods, who obviously knows the difference between musicianship and press hype, commented to one writer in jest, “I'd like to break his arm!”


He won various important prizes: the Massimo Urbani National Award to Urbisaglia, the EuroJazz Award to Lecco, the International Jazz Festivals Organization Award to New York, the World Saxophone Competition to London, the Django d’Or to Rome and many others.
In order to improve his English, but most of all, in order to experience new musical styles and genres, Francesco went to New Orleans where he played with Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Thadeus Richard, Bob Franch, Maurice Brown and many others important local musicians while taking special lessons from Alvin Batiste.


In 2005 the Swing Journal, the authoritative Japanese jazz music magazine, confers him the New Stars Award, prize reserved to the emergent foreign talents. Immediately later, the affirmation in the Top Jazz, referendum of the Italian Music Jazz magazine, that recognizes him as the best new talent of the year.


Francesco performed with a number of great musicians: Hank Jones, Cedar Walton, Mulgrew Miller, Ronnie Matthews, Jimmy Cobb, Ben Riley, Ray Drummond, Reggie Johnson, Doug Sides Lewis Nash, James Williams, Joe Lovano, George Mraz, Joe Locke, Enrico Rava, Gianni Basso, Dado Moroni, Franco D’Andrea and many other Italian and American musicians.
In February 2006 Francesco has achieved the Diploma in Transverse Flute at the Musical Institute V. Bellini in Catania with the Elena Favaron guide and he studies piano jazz.


On 19 January 2009 he played in Washington DC during the festivities in honor of President Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. day.



Francesco Cafiso toca "She Loves Me'




Reference - AAJ


SIMONE GUIDUCCI


O guitarrista e compositor italiano de música jazz Simone Guiducci, nasceu no 24 de maio de 1962, em Turim.


Colaborou nos anos noventa com vários músicos de peso, entre eles, Mauro Negri e Paolo Fresu e, a partir do fim da mesma década, realizou com seu projeto de jazz acústico Gramelot, quatro lançamentos pela gravadora World Felmay na companhia de Ralph Alessi, Don Byron, Erik Friedlander e Chris Speed.


Em 1993, motivado por Enrico Rava, partiu para o seu primeiro trabalho como lider no CD "New Flamenco Sketches" com a participação de um quinteto que contou com o talento do próprio Rava no trompete, o clarinetista Mauro Negri, o baterista Riccardo Biancoli e do contrabaixista Furio di Castri.


O CD "Chorale" foi incluido numa lista de melhores CDs do ano pelo blog americano "All About Jazz", em 2002.


Simone Guiducci ao vivo na Bibiena.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_biRTPx_nk


Il chitarrista e compositore italiano di musica jazz Simone Guiducci, nato nel Maio 24, 1962 a Torino.

Mantovano di Castiglione delle Stiviere, anche se nato a Torino, dopo aver collaborato all'inizio degli anni novanta con Mauro Negri, Gianni Coscia,Enrico Rava e Paolo Fresu, a partire dalla fine degli anni novanta ha realizzato con il suo progetto di jazz acustico Gramelot quattro uscite discografiche per l'etichetta World Felmay, collaborando con Ralph Alessi, Don Byron, Erik Friedlander, Chris Speed.


Nel 1993 entra in contatto con Enrico Rava, il quale lo incoraggia a realizzare il suo primo lavoro da leader, dal titolo "New Flamenco Sketches", di un quintetto composto dallo stesso Rava alla tromba, dal clarinettista Mauro Negri, dal batterista Riccardo Biancoli e dal contrabbassista Furio Di Castri.



Il disco Chorale, del 2002, è stato inserito fra i migliori dischi dell'anno dal portale statunitense All About Jazz.





Jazz guitarist and composer Simone Guiducci, was born on May 24, 1962 in Turin, Italy. Guiducci has been hailed as one of the most talented musicians on the Italian jazz scene since the early '90s, going on to make several internationally acclaimed recordings as leader.


Four releases by Simone Guiducci Gramelot produced by Felmay: the debut album "Cantador" (2000), Chorale" (with Ralph Alessi, Chris Speed, Erik Friedlander) "Dancin' Roots" (2004), featuring Ralph Alessi and Don Byron as guests, and the new release "Storie di Fiume" (October 2006)


With a focus on a creative dialogue between folklore themes and jazz improvisation, Guiducci has forged strong ties with the recording and concert worlds, working with Enrico Rava, Gianni Coscia, Paolo Fresu, Gianluigi Trovesi and other leading international artists including Ralph Alessi, Chris Speed, Erik Friedlander, Don Byron and Andy Milne.


Simone Guiducci has performed at major festivals in Italy. In 2005 and 2006 Simone toured the world playing in Buenos Aires and Cordoba (Argentina), Ankara (Turkey), Lima (Peru), Stochkolm (Sweden), Helsinky (Finland), Amsterdam (Holland),Quito and Guayaquil (Ecuador), Caracas (Venezuela), Mexico City (Mexico), Dublin (Ireland), Guatemala City and Antigua (Guatemala), Lyon and Nantes (France) and more.


As one well known critic puts it, Gramelot's folk-jazz is “fluid and free, rippling between jazz, classical and popular music, between regional and global, between the ancient and modern world. It is a language of jazz improvisation interwoven with popular melodies, spoken with an ease and grace. It is many 'languages', spoken as musical expressions or idioms, which come together in a world where the imagination shapes them into new and old forms that are always intriguing”.
Guiducci has received acclaim both from Italian critics, who voted him second in Top Jazz's classification of emerging talents in Italy, and from abroad, with reviews in leading specialist magazines including Jazzman (France), All About Jazz (USA), Cadense (USA), Jazzmagazine (France) and Jazzlive (Austria).
CD "Chorale" came in at number six in the 2002 best jazz record top ten, voted by the panel of critics judging in the Topjazz classification of the specialist monthly magazine Musica Jazz. The recording was also “Pick of the Week “ on the prestigious US portal All About Jazz.com (February 2003) and hit no. 2 (July 2003) in the JazzCharts of the KSZU radio station (Stanford University).

Recommended CDs

2000 - Cantador, Felmay (come Gramelot Ensemble)
2001 - Django's Jungle, Splasch

2002 - Chorale, Felmay (come Gramelot Ensemble)

2003 - Slang, Abeat

2004 - Dancin' Roots, Felmay (come Gramelot Ensemble)

2006 - Storie di Fiume, Felmay (come Gramelot Ensemble)



Tradução - Humberto Amorim


Referencia - AAJ

Friday, June 18, 2010

SILVIO CALDAS, O SERESTEIRO DO BRASIL


O compositor e cantor brasileiro Sílvio Antônio Narciso de Figueiredo Caldas, famoso no mundo artistico como Silvio Caldas, nasceu no 23 de maio de 1908 no Rio de Janeiro. Carioca do bairro de São Cristóvão, teve contato com a música desde a infância, pois o pai era dono de uma loja de instrumentos musicais e atuava amadoramente como compositor de valsas, foxes, sambas e schottischs.



Aos 5 anos o pequeno Silvio já se apresentava em teatros como cantor. Também era destaque do bloco de carnaval de que sua família participava. Aos 16 anos foi para São Paulo trabalhar como mecânico de automóveis. Três anos depois voltou ao Rio, e por meio de contatos foi levado para a Rádio Mayrink Veiga pelo cantor Antônio Santos, o Milonguita. A primeira gravação foi em 1930, e desde o início notabilizou-se interpretando sambas. Silvio Caldas se transformaria, ao lado de Orlando Silva, Francisco Alves e Carlos Galhardo, um dos cantores de maior sucesso da chamada época de ouro da MPB. Foi levado por Ary Barroso para o Teatro Recreio, onde lançou seu primeiro sucesso, "Faceira" do proprio Ary.



A partir de 1934, por meio da parceria com Orestes Barbosa, demonstra seu talento para a seresta, gênero que o promoveria por todo o Brasil. Em 1937 lançou dois de seus grandes sucessos, "Chão de Estrelas" (c/ O. Barbosa) e "Meu Limão Meu Limoeiro" (tema popular com arranjo de José Carlos Burle), em dueto com Gidinho. No ano seguinte foi eleito Cidadão Samba ao cantar a música "Pastorinhas", de Noel Rosa e João de Barro. Outras canções que viraram sucesso na voz de Silvio Caldas foram "Minha Palhoça" (J. Cascata), "Um Caboclo Abandonado" (B. Lacerda/ H. Martins), "Arranha-céu" (c/ O. Barbosa), "Da Cor do Pecado" (Bororó), "Mulher" (C. Mesquita/ S. Cabral), "Serenata" (outra parceria com Orestes), "Chuva Miúda" (com Frazão), "Foi Ela" (Ary Barroso), "Até Amanhã" (Noel Rosa), "Jangada" (Hervê Cordovil/ Vicente Leporace), "A Jardineira" (Benedito Lacerda/ Humberto Porto), "Faceira" (Ary Barroso).



No final da década de 60 Silvio Caldas se afastou da vida pública, recolheu-se a um sítio em Atibaia (SP) e diminuiu seu ritmo de apresentações, o que lhe valeu o apelido de "cantor das despedidas", de tantas vezes que anunciou seu retiro artístico. Em 1995 participou do CD "Songbook Ary Barroso", cantando "Quando Eu Penso na Bahia" em dueto com Aurora Miranda
Seu primeiro sucesso foi o samba de Ari Barroso intitulado Faceira (1931). Desde então, consagrou-se como um dos maiores cantores brasileiros. Chão de estrelas (1937, em parceria com Orestes Barbosa, foi um de seus maiores êxitos.


Dono de timbre inconfundível, que lhe valeu a fama de grande seresteiro, é conhecido também por alcunhas carinhosas, como Caboclinho querido, A voz morena da cidade ou Titio.



Silvio Caldas faleceu em Fevereiro de 1998.

Silvio canta "Chão de Estrelas"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvSsOpA7jm4


Nota do Blogger - Esta postagem, além de representar minha homenagem ao grande cantor, também é uma reverência à memória de meu pai Humberto Amorim, fã incondicional de Silvio Caldas. Foi através dele que conheci ainda na minha infancia, a musica dos grandes cantores da Época de Ouro do radio brasileiro. Meu irmão mais novo, Silvio Roberto Amorim, carrega no nome a prova inconteste da admiração de meu pai por Silvio Caldas.
Referencia - Wikipédia

ARTIE SHAW , THE "DIFFICULT" BANDLEADER

O compositor, clarinetista de jazz e bandleader Arnold Jacob Arshawsky, conhecido como Artie Shaw, nasceu no 23 de maio de 1910 em Nova York e tornou-se muito famoso mundialmente por clássicos como "Stardust", "Begin the Beguine" e "Oh, Lady Be Good", entre tantos outros.


Em 1940, Shaw participou do filme Second Corus, estrelado por Fred Astaire e Paulette Goddard, no papel dele mesmo, e recebeu duas indicações ao Oscar pela Melhor Trilha Sonora e Melhor Canção (Love of My Life).


Sua autobiografia "The Trouble With Cinderella: An Outline of Identity" foi publicada em 1952 e, mais tarde, republicada em 1992 e em 2001.



Artie Shaw faleceu em dezembro de 2004.

Artie Shaw e sua big band levam "Begin the Beguine" de Cole Porter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNcPnEc99UE

American jazz clarinetist, composer and bandleader Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, better known as Artie Shaw, was born on May 30, 1910 in New York City. He is also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings.


Shaw grew up in New Haven,Connecticut, where, according to his autobiography his natural introversion was deepened by local antisemitism. Shaw began learning the saxophone when he was 13 years old, and by the age of 16, he switched to the clarinet and left home to tour with a band. Returning to New York, he became a session musician through the early 1930s.



From 1925 until 1936, Shaw performed with many bands and orchestras, including those of Johnny Caverello and Austin Wylie. In 1929 and 1930 he played with Irving Aaronson's Commanders, where he was exposed to symphonic music, which he would later incorporate in his arrangements.


Shaw first gained critical acclaim with his "Interlude in B-flat" at a swing concert at the Imperial Theater in New York in 1935. During the swing era, Shaw's big band was popular with hits like "Begin the Beguine" (1938), "Stardust" (with a trumpet solo by "Billy Butterfield), "Back Bay Shuffle", "Moonglow", "Rosalie" and "Frenesi." He was an innovator in the big band idiom, using unusual instrumentation; "Interlude in B-flat", where he was backed with only a rhythm section and a string quartet, was one of the earliest examples of what would be later dubbed third stream.


In addition to hiring drummer Buddy Rich, he signed Billie Holiday as his band's vocalist in 1938, becoming the first white bandleader to hire a full-time black female singer to tour the segregated Southern US. However, after recording "Any Old Time" she left the band due to hostility from audiences in the South, as well as from music company executives who wanted a more "mainstream" singer.


His band became enormously successful, and his playing was eventually recognized as equal to that of Benny Goodman. Longtime Duke Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard cited Shaw as his favorite clarinet player. In response to Goodman's nickname, the "King of Swing", Shaw's fans dubbed him the "King of the Clarinet." Shaw, however, felt the titles were reversed. "Benny Goodman played clarinet. I played music," he said.



The long series of musical groups Shaw formed included such talents as vocalists Billie Holiday, Helen Forrest and, Mel Tormé; drummers Buddy Rich and Dave Tough, guitarists Barney Kessel, Jimmy Raney, and Tal Farlow and trombonist-arranger Ray Conniff, among countless others.


He composed the morose "Nightmare", with its Hassidic nuances, for his personal theme, rather than more approachable songs. In a televised interview of the 1970s, Shaw derided the often "asinine" songs that bands were compelled to play night after night. In 1994, he told Frank Prial (The New York Times), "I thought that because I was Artie Shaw I could do what I wanted, but all they wanted was 'Begin the Beguine.' "



In 1991, Artie Shaw's band library and manuscript collection was donated to the University of Arizona. In 2004, he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

A self-proclaimed "very difficult man," Shaw was married eight times: Jane Cairns (1932–33); Margaret Allen (1934–37); actress Lana Turner (1940); Betty Kern (1942–43), the daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern; actress Ava Gardner (1945–46); Forever Amber author Kathleen Winsor (1946–48); actress Doris Doeling (1952–56); and actress Evelyn Keyes (1957–85).



Artie Shaw passed away in December, 2004


Reference - Wikipedia

SUN RA


Prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher Herman Poole Blount, best know for the legal name Le Sony'r Ra, was born on May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama. Sun Ra was also know for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances.


Of all the jazz musicians, Sun Ra was probably the most controversial," critic Scott Yanow said, due to Sun Ra's eclectic music and unorthodox lifestyle. Claiming that he was of the "Angel Race" and not from Earth, but from Saturn, Sun Ra developed a complex persona of "cosmic" philosophies and lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of afrofuturism as he preached awareness and peace above all.



He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the ancient Egyptian god of the sun), and used several other names throughout his career, including Le Sonra and Sonny Lee. Sun Ra denied any connection with his birth name, saying "That's an imaginary person, never existed … Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym."


From the mid-1950s to his death, Sun Ra led "The Arkestra" (a deliberate re-spelling of "orchestra"), an ensemble with an ever-changing lineup and name (it was also called "The Solar Myth Arkestra", "His Cosmo Discipline Arkestra", the "Blue Universe Arkestra", "The Jet Set Omniverse Arkestra", and many other permutations; Sun Ra asserted that the ever-changing name of his ensemble reflected the ever-changing nature of his music.)



His mainstream success was limited, but Sun Ra was a prolific recording artist and frequent live performer, Sun Ra's music ranged from keyboard solos to big bands of over 30 musicians; his music touched on virtually the entire history of jazz, from ragtime to music swing, from bebop to free jazz; he was also a pioneer of electronic music,space music and free improvisation, and was one of the first musicians, regardless of genre, to make extensive use of electronik keyboards.

Sun Ra passed away on May,1993.

Sun Ra's music





Reference - Wikipedia

Sunday, June 13, 2010

FATS WALLER, HE MADE THE PIANO SING

O pianista de jazz, organista, compositor e comediante Thomas Wright Waller, mais conhecido como Fats Waller, nasceu no 21 de Maio de 1904, no Harlem, em Nova York, filho do pastor Edward Martin Waller da Igreja Batista.


Waller foi um dos mais populares artistas de sua época, com sucesso comercial e de crítica, em seu país e na Europa. Foi também fértil compositor, com várias composições ainda tocadas para modernas audiências, como "Honeysuckle Rose", "Ain't Misbehavin'" e "Squeeze Me". Gravou pela primeira vez com 18 anos de idade.



Começou estudando piano clássico e órgão na igreja. Jovem ainda teve lições regulares com um conhecido pianista do Harlem, James P. Johnson, que o ensinou jazz. Também foi influenciado por Willie "The Lion" Smith, músico que tocava um tipo de música chamada stride.


Fats faleceu em dezembro de 1943 em Kansas City.

Fats sola lindamente e canta uma de suas famosas composições "I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZZRAU3DeOo

Jazz pianist,organist, composer and comedic entertainer Thomas Wright Waller, best known as Fats Waller, was born on May 21,1904 in New Yor City. He was the youngest of four children born to Adaline Locket Waller, wife of the Reverend Edward Martin Waller from the Harlem Baptist Church.


Fats Waller started playing the piano when he was six and graduated to the organ of his father's church four years later. At the age of fourteen he was playing the organ at Harlem's Lincoln Theater and within twelve months he had composed his first rag. Waller's first piano solos (Muscle Shoals Blues and Birmingham Blues) were recorded in October 1922 when he was just 18 years old.


He was a skilled pianist, and master of stride piano, having been the prize pupil and later friend and colleague of the greatest of the stride pianists, James P. Johnson. Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success in his homeland and in Europe.


He was also a prolific songwriter, and many songs he wrote or co-wrote are still popular, such as "Honeysuckle Rose", "Ain't Misbehaving" and "Squeeze Me". Fellow pianist and composer Oscar Levant dubbed Waller " the black Horowitz".


Waller composed many novelty swing tunes in the 1920s and 30s, and sold them for relatively small sums. When the compositions became hits, other songwriters claimed them as their own. Many standards are alternatively and sometimes controversially attributed to Waller.
The anonymous sleeve notes on the 1960 RCA (UK) album 'Handfull of Keys' state that Waller copyrighted over 400 new tunes, many of which co-written with his closest collaborator Andy Razaf.


After Waller's death in 1943, Razaf described his partner as 'the soul of melody....a man who made the piano sing...both big in body and in mind...known for his generosity...a bubbling bundle of joy'.


Gene Sedric, a clarinettist who played with Waller on some of his 1930's recordings, is quoted in these same sleeve notes recalling Waller's recording technique with considerable admiration. 'Fats was the most relaxed man I ever saw in a studio', he said, 'and so he made everybody else relaxed. After a balance had been taken, we'd just need one take to make a side, unless it was a kind of difficult number.


His playing once put him at risk of injury. Waller was kidnapped in Chicago leaving a performance in 1926. Four men bundled him into a car and took him to the Hawthorne Inn, owned by gangster Al Capone. Fats was ordered inside the building, and found a party in full swing. Gun to his back, he was pushed towards a piano, and told to play. A terrified Waller realized he was the "surprise guest" at Al Capone's birthday party, and took comfort that the gangsters didn't intend to kill him. According to rumor, Waller played for three days. When he left the Hawthorne Inn, he was very drunk, extremely tired, and had earned thousands of dollars in cash from Capone and other party-goers as tips.




Fats Waller passed away December,1943 in Kansas City.



Reference - Wikipédia



SYLVIA BENNETT

The Italian born and American raised, smooth jazz and pop vocalist Sylvia Bennett, was born on May 21, 1956 . About her, jazz master Lionel Hampton once declared : "Man, the lady can sing! Her magic gets to the ears and the hearts of the audience.” In fact, Sylvia is a singer's singer, having sung on TV, in community theater, club dates, conventions and even the inauguration of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Walkingt in the footsteps of her idols as Barbra Streisand, Ella Fitzgerald, Barry Manilow and Bette Midler, Sylvia has oipened for artists diverse as Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, jackie Mason,Dizzy Gillespie,Barry Gibb and David Brenner.

Her big break came in the 1980’s, when legendary vibraphonist (and National Arts Award Winner) Lionel Hampton took Sylvia under his wing and made her the first female singer to record with him in thirty years. She recounts, “Lionel validated me as a performer and inspired me to be the best singer I can be. He made me realize that the audience was the most important thing and that all I needed to do was to sing from the heart and be honest.” Sylvia worked with Hampton for ten years, touring and recording two albums together. The first, Sentimental Journey, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1987. The second project, There Will Never Be Another You, was a CD/DVD tribute to “Hamp” from Sylvia, and she furthered the honor to her mentor with the show, “The Lady and the Legend,” premiering in Miami in 2007.


Cole Porter once asked, “What Is This Thing Called Love,” and it’s a question that many of our greatest artists have grappled with ever since” creating some of America’s most enduring and timeless music in the process. Now, it’s Sylvia Bennett’s turn. On her new album, "Songs From The Heart" featuring the Three Tenors - Boots Randolph, Ed Calle and Kirk Whalum, the smooth jazz and pop vocalist sings of the vicissitudes of love with a warmth, clarity and spirit that is enveloping and tender, showcasing the depth of her skill, talent and experience.

"Songs From The Heart" featuring the Three Tenors emerged in the wake of Sylvia’s tribute to Hampton, when her producer, two-time Grammy nominee and two-time ASCAP Award winner, Hal Batt, suggested that she record timeless love songs and standards, backed by a small band to convey the desired intimacy. Sylvia was enamored of the idea immediately. “I’m a hopeless romantic,” she says unhesitatingly, “I think that love is what life is all about” wanting it, having it, losing it and having it again.” The songs, classics from the great American songbook, were chosen for how they related to the experience of love, making it a concept album, akin in spirit to Frank Sinatra’s great concept albums of the mid-1950’s.


Sylvia is immensely proud of "Songs From The Heart" because she knows she touched on something. Sylvia concludes, “We live in such a technological world today that I think we forget about touching people. I think we all need a hug, we need to be embraced” we’re living in a troubled world. There’s nothing better than romance and being with someone who can shelter you from those storms.”

Sylvia sings and tells on her CD "Songs from the Heart"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO6av0US58I

Reference - AAJ

VICTOR LEWIS

Internationally acclaimed drummer and composer Victor Lewis was born on May 20, 1950 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Richard Lewis, who played saxophone and mother, Camille, a pianist-vocalist were both classically trained musicians who performed with many of the "territory bands" that toured the midwest in the forties.


Victor grew up hearing jazz along with popular and European classical music at home, and would go to the local theater with his father to hear the big bands when they passed through Omaha. The first people he remembers seeing were Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Woody Herman. He started studying music when he was ten and a half years old. He began on the cello because he was too small for the acoustic bass, but switched to the drums a year and a half later after watching the local drum corps marching on the Fourth of July and other holidays.


He also studied classical piano which is when he learned how to read music.Lewis began playing drums professionally on the local scene at the age of 15. Because few of the older drummers in Omaha could read music, the young percussionist was called up for a variety of commercial jobs, including jingles, the Bob Hope Show, even the circus.



At first Victor's style reflected his attraction to the big band drummers he had seen with his father and heard on records, but after hearing a record of Miles Davis' Quintet with Tony Williams things changed. He began exploring Williams' sound and the styles of other great small group drummers like Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, Max Roach and Philly Joe Jones. Soon afterwards he started his own small group to play around town.



His first job with a nationally known jazz musician was accompanying Hank Crawford in Omaha.On Victor's first gig in Manhattan, a night at Boomer's with bassist Buster Williams' group, he met trumpeter Woody Shaw. Lewis joined the trumpeter's band and a few months later, he made his recording debut on Shaw's classic, The Moontrane. The drummer also began making his mark on the burgeoning fusion and pop jazz scenes, providing the beat on records by Joe Farrell, Earl Klugh, Hubert Laws, Carla Bley and David Sanborn. It was on Sanborn's lps that Victor's compositional skills were first exposed to the public. They recorded Victor's "Seventh Avenue" and "Sophisticated Squaw" (a/k/a "Agaya") on their first outing together and Sanborn would call on Lewis' writing talents again in the future when he recorded "The Legend of the Cheops."



In 1980, Victor left Shaw's group to join another tenor giant, Stan Getz, beginning an association that would last up until the saxophonist's death in 1991. Lewis made many recordings with Getz including videos of the group's performances at the Paul Masson Vineyards and the Robert Mondavi Vineyards. It was Getz who first recorded his composition, "I Wanted To Say."



By the end of the eighties, Lewis was one of jazz's busiest freelancers. He toured and recorded with a wide array of the music's most respected leaders. The long list of artists including Kenny Barron, Art Farmer, J.J. Johnson, Mike Stern, John Stubblefield, Grover Washington Jr., The Manhattan Jazz Quintet, Bobby Hutcherson and Bobby Watson attest to his talent and versatility.When not driving a group with Bobby from the drum chair, Victor has been the main-stay in the Kenny Barron Quintet since its inception.



Among the many tunes he has contributed to this band, his much heralded "Big Girls" can be heard on the pianist's Quickstep disc on Enja, "Hey, It's Me You're Talkin' To" on the Polygram release Other Places.When he's home in New York, Victor can most often be found in the city's recording studios. In addition to the many jazz dates he's recorded with people like Gary Bartz, Eddie Henderson, Johnny Griffin, Janis Siegel, Larry Willis, John Hicks and Abbey Lincoln, he has recorded a jazz method record with educator-saxophonist Fred Lipsius.



An educated drummer, Lewis tries to pass on his knowledge, giving private instruction to students, participating as a freelance instructor with The New School University Jazz School-Mannes Music School Jazz Program in New York City and appearing in drum clinics around the world as often as his schedule allows it. He has participated in a symposium in Modern Drummer magazine and there have been several feature articles about him in publications such as Downbeat, The Wire, Jazz Times as well as Modern Drummer.In 2003 Victor joined the faculty of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ where he teaches drummers and coaches jazz combos.Victor has recorded albums under his own name as well, featuring his own compositions and unique style of drumming.



The first, Family Portrait, on AudioQuest includes performances by John Stubblefield, Edward Simon, Cecil McBee, Don Alias, Jumma Santos and a six-voice chorus led by Pamela Watson. Even Victor gets an opportunity to participate on some of the vocal selections and on one track plays a little piano. The album features suite-like compositions dedicated to his whole family - "Family Portrait," his parents on "A Mis Padres," children "Bella y Cosima" and "Lil' Sis."



Victor's working quintet - featuring Seamus Blake (whom Victor discovered while teaching at Gunther Schuller's jazz camp in Sandpoint, Idaho), Terell Stafford, Stephen Scott and Ed Howard - has recorded the second band offering on Enja Records entitled Eeeyyess!. The record showcases six of Victor's original tunes including the title tune "Eeeyyess" & "Here's To . . . You Babe" with lyrics written & sung by Lewis. Know It Today, Know It Tomorrow on Red Records, the first quintet album's contributors include Eddie Henderson, Edward Simon, Christian McBride and introduced tenor player Seamus Blake. Six more of Victor's compositions can be heard on this project including "Hey, It's Me You're Talkin' To" and "The Loss of a Moment."The fourth release as a leader is Three Way Conversations on Red Records and features different trio combinations of Victor on drums and Ed Howard on bass with either Seamus Blake on tenor, or Steve Wilson on alto or Terell Stafford on trumpet.



Here again is a sampling of the compositional talents of the multi-talented drummer-composer-arranger with ten new original tunes."Lewis is a master of shading and color, and the kind of timekeeper that could teach a clock new ways to tick" says jazz writer Bill Kohlhasse. As his ever increasing talent becomes more and more obvious to the general public, it is clear that Victor Lewis is an important artist on the horizon.

Victor Lewis' drum solo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTQqogpvXiw

Reference - Mason Gross - School of the Arts

KYLE EASTWOOD


American jazz musician and stand-up bass player, Kyle Eastwood, was born on May 19, 1968 in Los Angeles, California and grew up in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. He is the elder brother of actress and fashion designer Alison Eastwood. Eastwood is the son of actor-director Clint Eastwood and model Maggie Johnson. He has one daughter, Graylen (b. 1994), with ex-wife Laura Gomez.


He studied film at the University of Southern California for two years before embarking on a music career. After becoming a session player in the early '90s and leading his own quartet, he released his first solo album, "From There to Here", in 1998. His most recent album, "Metropolitain," was released on June 2009 by Rendezvous.


Eastwood plays acoustic and electric as well as double bass. He is the son of filmmaker and actor Clint Eastwood.


Eastwood comes from a musical family, as explained in an October 27, 2006, from The Independent:

When I told my father, film actor/director Clint Eastwood, I wanted to be a musician he was happy about it. Music has always been important to my family. My parents gave me my taste in music and my love of jazz from an early age. My father plays piano, my mother used to play, and my mother's mother was a music teacher at Northwestern University in Illinois.

It comes as little surprise, then, that music was a prominent fixture in the Eastwood home. According to his biography with Hopper Management, Eastwood grew up listening to records by jazz legends such as Miles Davis,Dave Brubec, Thelonious Monk, and the Stan Kenton Big Band with his parents, both jazz lovers. Eastwood attended the Monterrey Jazz Festival numerous times with his parents, as well. "One advantage of having a famous father was I got to go backstage", Eastwood explained in an interview conducted by stepmother Dina Ruiz Eastwood. "I met a lot of artists, greats like Dizy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan. Looking back on that, I can see how much the musicians I met there influenced my career."


Eastwood began playing electric bass in high school, learning R&B, Motown, and reggae tunes by ear. After studying with French bassist Bunny Brunel, he began playing gigs around the New York and Los Angeles areas, eventually forming the Kyle Eastwood Quartet, who contributed to 1996's Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall, a concert saluting Clint Eastwood and his love of jazz.



Clint Eastwood has always been supportive of, and interested in, Kyle's work, as Eastwood told The Independent: "As far as my father is concerned, as long as I was serious about my music career, he was supportive of me."
Two years later, in 1998, Sony released his first CD, "From There to Here", a collection of both jazz standards and original compositions. After signing with the UK's Candid Records in 2004,


Eastwood moved to Dave Koz's's label, Rendezvous, which has released his last two albums: 2005's Paris Blue, and 2006's Now.


In addition to his solo albums, Eastwood has also contributed music to eight of his father's films: The Rookie (1990), Mystic River (2002), Million Dollar baby (2004), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Changeling (2008), Gran Torino (2008), and Invictus (2009).


He was nominated with partner Michael Stevens for a 2006 Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Original Score (Letters from Iwo Jima).

Kyle does "Paris Blue"


Reference - Wikipedia

SYLVIA BROOKS

Recording artist Sylvia Brooks was born on May 18, in Miami, Florida, no stranger to Jazz, Brooks grew up in a musical family. Her father, a well-known jazz pianist, arranged, composed and played for such luminaries as Peggy Lee, Stan Getz, Dizzie Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn and Harry James. Her mother sang at the Eden Roc and Fountain Bleu, and the Playboy Club Circuit opening for Jimmy Durante, Rodney Dangerfield and others. She went on to become artistic director of a major opera company, and produced many seasons of opera.

At a young age, Brooks was invited to study classical theatre at the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco, which led to her invitation to join the Company, followed by a growing career of performances with numerous companies. Her experience as a serious actor can be found in her singing, bringing new insights into every song. “This music speaks to me,” she says. “It is timeless, yet it is so fresh and new there is always something to discover in it. The great singers of the past didn't just sing -- they took you on a journey. They embodied each song with passion and brought their lives to the music. Sadly, it has become a lost art form; I want to bring it back to life.”


As one critic said, “It's as if Brooks has lived this music; she and her musicians share an understanding of just what it is saying. I felt that I was actually hearing many of these songs for the first time. They take you on a journey, and bring something innovative and alive to the stage. Sylvia Brooks is definitely here; and that is a great thing.


Ms. Brooks released her her first and self produce CD "Dangerous Liaisons" last year.

Sylvia talks about her music and sings it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ndi_TZnGU

Reference - AAJ

BETTY CARTER, BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE


American jazz singer Lillie Mae Jones, best known as Betty Carter, was born on May 16, in Flint,Michigan and grew up in Detroit, where her father led a church choir. She studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory. She won a talent contest and became a regular on the local club circuit, singing and playing piano. When she was 16 she sang with Charlie Parker and she later performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles and Miles Davis.


She became renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style. Her devotion to the jazz idiom was such that her fellow vocalist Carmen McRae once claimed that "there's really only one jazz singer - only one: Betty Carter."



Carter honed her scat singing ability while on tour with Lionel Hampton in the late 1940s. Hampton's wife Gladys gave her the nickname "Betty Bebop", a nickname she reportedly detested.


In the 1950s Carter made recordings with King Pleasure and the Ray Bryant Trio. Her first solo LP, "Out There with Betty Carter", was released on the Peacock label in 1958. Carter's career was eclipsed somewhat through the 1960s and 1970s, though a series of duets with Ray Charles in 1961, including the R&B-chart-topping "Baby, It's Cold Outside," brought her a measure of popular recognition. In 1963 she toured in "Japan with Sonny Rollins. She recorded for various labels during this period, including ABC-Paramount,Atco and United Artists, but was rarely satisfied with the resulting product.


In 1970, a record company A&R man tried to run off with a set of her master recordings; the incident led her to establish her own record label, Bet-Car. Some of her most famous recordings were originally issued on Bet-Car, including the double album The Audience withbetty Carter (1980). In 1980 she was the subject of a documentary film by Michelle Parkerson, But Then, She's Betty Carter.

In the last decade of her life, Carter finally began to receive wider acclaim and recognition. In 1987 she signed with Verve Records, who reissued most of her Bet-Car albums on CD for the first time and made them available to wider audiences. In 1988 she won a Grammy for her album Look What I Got! and sang in a guest appearance on The Cosby Show (episode "How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?"). In 1994 she performed at the White House and was a headliner at Verve's 50th anniversary celebration in Carnegie Hall. In 1997 she was awarded a National Medal of Arets by Presidente Bill Clinton. Carter remained active in jazz until her death.



Like Art Blakey and Charles Mingus, Betty Carter recruited members of the younger generation of performers to bring her creations to life. She insisted that she "learned a lot from these young players, because they're raw and they come up with things that I would never think about doing." Her collaborators became a veritable musical school - what the New York Times called "jazz's best university: Betty Carter U."


In 1993 Carter helped launch the Jazz Ahead program for young musicians at the Kennedy Center. She also devoted much of her time and energy in her last few decades touring colleges and grade-schools across the country.


Betty passed away on September 1998, aged 69.


Betty does "All or Nothing at All"



Reference - Wikipedia

WOODY HERMAN, THE HERD LEADER


American jazz clarinetist,alto and sopranno saxophonist, singer and big band leader Woodrow Charles Herman , better known as Woody Herman, was born on May 16,1913 in Milwaukee,Wisconsin. As a child he worked as a singer in vaudeville, then became a professional saxophone player at age 15.



When Isham Jones's band, of which Herman had been a member, broke up in 1936, he formed his own band, the Woody Herman Orchestra, with some of his band mates. This band became known for its orchestrations of the blues and were sometimes billed as "The Band That Plays The Blues".


Chief among the more than 50 hits recorded by this band were "Woodchoppers' Ball," "Blue Flame," and "Blues in the Night."Reeds player Woody Herman (1913), who had formed his orchestra in 1936 and had already hit the charts with bluesy numbers composed by Joe Bishop, such as Woodchoppers' Ball (april 1939) and Blue Flame (march 1941), as well as with Harold Arlen's Blues in the Night (september 1941), arranged in a traditional manner a` la Duke Ellington or Count Basie, first showed his interest in the new trends when he hired Dizzy Gillespie, who composed Down Under (july 1942) for him.



In the following years Herman assembled an impressive set of talents, such as bassist Chubby Jackson (1942), drummer Dave Tough (1944), guitarist Billy Bauer (1944), trombonist Bill Harris (1944), pianist Ralph Burns (1944), trumpeter Neal Hefti (1944), vibraphonist Kenneth "Red Norvo" Norville (1945), trumpeter Sonny Berman (1945), trumpeter Shorty Rogers (1945) and formed the first Herd.



Burns and Hefti (and later Rogers) were also skilled composers and arrangers, who provided excellent material to top the energetic rhythm section. Hits such as Herman's own novelty Goosey Gander (march 1945), Burns' Bijou Rhumba A La Jazz (august 1945) Harris' Your Father's Mustache (september 1945) Herman's ebullient Apple Honey (february 1945), Louis Jordan's funny Caldonia (february 1945), Herman's Blowin' Up A Storm (november 1945) Burns' sprightly Northwest Passage (march 1945), Hefti's Good Earth (august 1945), Hefti's Wild Root (november 1945), made them the most popular band that was trying to assimilate the new language of bebop.



Herman's "second herd" of 1947 was characterized by the reed section, the so called "four brothers" whose style pioneered "cool jazz" before the term was invented: three tenor saxophones (enfant prodige Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn) and a baritone saxophone (Serge Chaloff). The reed section became dominant over the brass and the rhythm section, a fact that lent the Second Herd its "modern" quality. Burns was the real genius of the orchestra, as the ambitious multi-part suites Lady McGowan's Dream (september 1946) and especially the catchy four-movement Summer Sequence (september 1946) proved. The third part of the latter, Early Autumn, was the ballad that turned Getz into a star. But this herd had fewer hits: Jimmy Giuffre's Four Brothers (december 1947), Al Cohn's The Goof and I (december 1947), Burns' Keen And Peachy (december 1947).


He continued to perform into the 1980s, chiefly to pay back taxes caused by a band manager in the 1960s. When he became ill and was forced to give up the band, the Internal Revenue Service seized his assets, including his home. While still ill, he picked the leader of the reed section, Frank Tiberi, as his successor.


Woody Herman passed away in October,1987.


Woody Herman and his Big Band doing "After You've Gone"



Reference - Woody's Biography