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Communications Network (album)
''Communications Network'' is a live album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Clifford Thornton. The two-part composition titled "Communications Network" was recorded on January 22, 1972, at ABC Stage City in New York City, and features Thornton on electric piano and cornet, along with Lakshinarayana Shankar on violin, Sirone on bass, and Jerome Cooper on percussion. The remaining piece, "Festivals And Funerals," based on Jayne Cortez's poem of the same name, was recorded on April 17, 1972, at the Festival of African American Music at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and features Thornton on cornet, Cortez as reciter, Nathan Davis on soprano saxophone, Jay Hoggard on vibraphone, Andy González on bass, Jerry González and Vincent George on congas and percussion, and Nicky Marrero on timbales and percussion. The album was released by Third World Records later in 1972. Reception AllMusic awarded the album 3 stars. Reviewer Michael G. Nastos called it "potent." ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifford Thornton
Clifford Edward Thornton III (September 6, 1936 – November 25, 1989) was an American jazz trumpeter, trombonist, activist, and educator. He played free jazz and avant-garde jazz in the 1960s and '70s. Career Clifford was born in Philadelphia. The year of his birth has been reported as early as 1934 or as late as 1939. He briefly attended Morgan State University and Temple University. Jazz pianist Jimmy Golden was his uncle, while his cousin, drummer J. C. Moses, had a jazz career that was cut short by failing health. Clifford began piano lessons when he was seven-years-old. Several biographers report that Clifford studied with trumpeter Donald Byrd during 1957, after Byrd had left Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and also that he worked with 17-year-old tuba player Ray Draper and Webster Young. Following a late 1950s stint in the U.S. Army bands Thornton moved to New York City. Clifford's political and musical motivations are epitomized by his statement: "For a lot of brothers l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during this period believed that the bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz that had been played before them was too limiting. They became preoccupied with creating something new and exploring new directions. The term "free jazz" has often been combined with or substituted for the term "avant-garde jazz". Europeans tend to favor the term "free improvisation". Others have used "modern jazz", "creative music", and "art music". The ambiguity of free jazz presents problems of definition. Although it is usually played by small groups or individuals, free jazz big bands have existed. Although musicians and critics claim it is innovative and forward-looking, it draws on early styles of jazz and has been described as an attempt to return to primitive, often re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Panther And The Lash
''The Panther and the Lash'' is an album by American free jazz trumpeter and trombonist Clifford Thornton, which was recorded live in 1970 in Paris, originally released on the French America label and reissued on CD in 2004 by Universal France. Background Thornton leads a quartet with two local musicians from the French free jazz scene—pianist François Tusques and bassist Beb Guérin—and the expatriate American drummer Noel McGhie. The title of the album references the American poet Langston Hughes's final book. The leader own's composition "Huey Is Free" celebrates the release of the founder of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton.''The Panther and the Lash'' original liner notes by Valerie Wilmer Reception In his review for AllMusic, Dan Warburton states "Thornton is in absolutely breathtaking form throughout this live set." The '' Exclaim!'' review by Nate Dorward says that the album "offers a near-perfect balance of the best characteristics of classic free jazz: i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gardens Of Harlem
''The Gardens of Harlem'' is an album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Clifford Thornton. It was recorded at the Blue Rock Studio in New York City in April 1974, and was released in 1975 by JCOA Records. On the album, Thornton is joined by members of the Jazz Composer's Orchestra, supplemented by seven musicians playing African percussion instruments. The music was conducted by Jack Jeffers. Reception In an article for ''London Jazz News'', Jon Turney stated: "Clifford Thornton... led the final release credited to the co-operative Jazz Composers' Orchestra, and it's a great one. The multiple African percussion that features prominently in the early pieces here energises the music wonderfully. And as the notes made clear, that collection of sounds arises because the whole work explores West African music and how it has travelled 'from West to North Africa, the Caribbean, the South Eastern United States, to Harlem'. He evoked that history by selecting vocal melodies from the ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sirone (musician)
Norris Jones, better known as Sirone (September 28, 1940 Sirone biography AllMusic – October 21, 2009) was an American jazz bassist and composer. Biography Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Sirone worked in Atlanta late in the 1950s and early in the 1960s with "The Group" alongside George Adams; he also recorded with R&B musicians such as Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson. In 1966, in response to a call from Marion Brown, he moved to New York City, where he co-founded the "Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team" with Dave Burrell. He also worked with Brown, Gato Barbieri, Pharoah Sanders, Noah Howard, Sonny Sharrock, Sunny Murray, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, and Sun Ra, as well as with John Coltrane when he was near the end of his career. He co-founded the Revolutionary Ensemble with Leroy Jenkins and Frank Clayton in 1971; Jerome Cooper later replaced Clayton in the ensemble, which was active for much of the decade. In the 1970s and early 1980s Sirone recorded with Clifford Thornton, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerome Cooper
Jerome Douglas Cooper (December 14, 1946 – May 6, 2015) was an American free jazz musician. In addition to trap drums, Cooper played balafon, chirimia and various electronic instruments, and referred to himself as a "multi-dimensional drummer," meaning that his playing involved "layers of sounds and rhythms". AllMusic reviewer Ron Wynn called him "A sparkling drummer and percussionist... An excellent accompanist". Another Allmusic reviewer stated that "in the truest sense this drummer is a magician, adept at transformation and the creation of sacred space". Career Cooper studied with Oliver Coleman and Walter Dyett in the late 1950s and early 1960s, then studied at the American Conservatory of Music and Loop College. In 1968, he worked with Oscar Brown, Jr. and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre in the U.S. but moved to Europe before the end of the decade, where he played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Steve Lacy, Lou Bennett (with whom he visited Gambia and Senegal), the Art Ensemble ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jayne Cortez
Jayne Cortez (May 10, 1934 – December 28, 2012) was an African-American poet, activist, small press publisher and spoken-word performance artist whose voice is celebrated for its political, surrealistic and dynamic innovations in lyricism and visceral sound. Her writing is part of the canon of the Black Arts Movement. She was married to jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman (1954–64), and their son is jazz drummer Denardo Coleman. In 1975 Cortez married painter, sculptor, and printmaker Melvin Edwards, and they lived in Dakar, Senegal, and New York City. Biography Jayne Cortez was born Sallie Jayne Richardson on the Army base at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, on May 10, 1934. Her father was a career soldier who served in both world wars; her mother was a secretary. She is the second-born of three children with an older sister and a younger brother. At the age of seven, she moved to Los Angeles, where she grew up in the Watts district. Busby, Margaret"Jayne Cortez obituary: Poet whose in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the college was the first institution of higher education to be named after John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. It is now a secular institution. The college accepted female applicants from 1872 to 1909, but did not become fully co-educational until 1970. Before full co-education, Wesleyan alumni and other supporters of women's education established Connecticut College for women in 1912. Wesleyan, along with Amherst College, Amherst and Williams College, Williams colleges, is part of "The Little Three", also traditionally referred to as the Little Ivies. Its teams compete athletically as a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, NESCAC. Wesleyan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nathan Davis (saxophonist)
Nathan Tate Davis (February 15, 1937 – April 8, 2018) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played the tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute. He is known for his work with Eric Dolphy, Kenny Clarke, Ray Charles, Slide Hampton and Art Blakey. Career Davis traveled extensively around Europe after World War II and moved to Paris in 1962. He held a Ph.D in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University and was a professor of music and director of jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh from 1969, an academic program that he helped initiate. He was also founder and director of the University of Pittsburgh Annual Jazz Seminar and Concert, the first academic jazz event of its kind in the United States. He also helped to found the university's William Robinson Recording Studio as well as establish the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame located in the school's William Pitt Union and the University of Pittsburgh-Sonny Rollins International Jazz Archi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay Hoggard
Jay Hoggard (born September 24, 1954) is an American jazz vibraphonist. Biography Jay Hoggard was raised in a religious family. He was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. His mother taught him how to play piano at a young age. At the age of 15, he started to play the vibraphone. Hoggard played piano and saxophone before turning to vibraphone. He worked with Anthony Davis and Leo Smith in the early 1970s in New England. After moving to New York City in 1977, he worked again with Davis and with Chico Freeman, Sam Rivers, Cecil Taylor, James Newton, and Kenny Burrell. He has worked with vibraphonists such as Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Tito Puente and Bobby Hutcherson. Hoggard has played in venues in Africa, South America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. In the United States, he has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Lincoln Center in New York City, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. He has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy González (musician)
Andy González (born on January 1, 1951, in Manhattan New York) was a jazz double bassist of Puerto Rican descent recognized as was one of the innovators of Latin Jazz."González was a versatile player, as well as an arranger, composer, music historian and producer of other musicians’ records. He embraced African, Cuban and Puerto Rican styles, various strains of jazz and other influences, often merging them into something fresh."Raised in the Bronx, he played violin in grammar school and later picked up the bass after taking lessons with jazz bassist Steve Swallow from 5th to 8th grade, thereafter he attended the High School of Music & Art. "Swallow turned Gonzalez on to Pablo Casals and Scott Lafaro, wrote out the second movement of the Bach Cello Suite in D minor, and helped Gonzalez prepare for his audition at Music and Art." "Andy González came to the public's attention playing for future NEA Jazz Master Ray Barretto's band, while he was still a student at Music & Art Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry González
Jerry González (June 5, 1949 – October 1, 2018) was an American bandleader, trumpeter The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B ... and percussionist of Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican descent. Geraldo, his father, was a singer in a band and worked for Las Villas, a chain of stores selling Latin American products. Jerry, who liked the trumpet and studied it carefully, but also the congas was a member of Cal Tjader Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. an American Jazz musician, known as the most successful non-Latino of Latin Jazz. Together Jerry Gonzalez with his brother, bassist Andy González (musician), Andy González, played an important role in the development of Latin Jazz during the late 20th century. During the 1970s, both played alongside Eddie Palmieri and in Manny Oquendo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
