|
Hod O'Brien
Walter Howard "Hod" O'Brien (January 19, 1936 – November 20, 2016) was an American jazz pianist. O'Brien was born in Chicago. He attended the Hotchkiss School and then studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music (1954–1957). He began playing professionally in 1950, and substituted for Randy Weston in 1955. He led his own group in Lenox, Massachusetts during 1956–57, then joined Oscar Pettiford in 1957–58, and J.R. Monterose/Elvin Jones in 1958–59. Between 1960 and 1963, he played with Phil Woods, Freddie Hubbard, Charlie Rouse, and Lee Konitz. In 1964, he enrolled at Columbia University, where he studied mathematics and psychology, achieving his bachelor's degree in 1969; he then took a position in computer programming at New York University during 1969–1974, and studied computer music under Hall Overton and Charles Wuorinen. O'Brien ran the St. James Infirmary jazz club in New York City in 1974–75, and played in the house band alongside B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beaver Harris
William Godvin "Beaver" Harris (April 20, 1936 – December 22, 1991) was an American jazz drummer who worked extensively with Archie Shepp. Early life Harris was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Coming from an athletic family, he played baseball as a teenager for the Kansas City Monarchs (then part of the Negro American League) and was scouted by the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.Pareles, Jon. "Beaver Harris, 55, A Leading Drummer in Jazz Ensembles" '''', January 7, 1992. Career After serving in the |
Stephanie Nakasian
Stephanie Nakasian (born August 29, 1954) is an American jazz vocalist and voice teacher. Biography Early life Born in Washington, D.C., Nakasian grew up in Bronxville, New York. She studied classical piano and violin, sang in choirs, and studied voice. She majored in economics at Northwestern University, where she received her BA and MBA. She subsequently worked as a financial consultant to major banks in New York and Chicago until 1981, when she began working as a musician full-time. Musical career Nakasian first came to international attention when she sang and toured from 1983 to 1984 with Jon Hendricks and Company. She has since toured and recorded as a leader and with pianist Hod O'Brien, her partner since 1980. She has appeared frequently as a guest artist with the Jim Cullum Jazz Band on their internationally syndicated public radio show, '' Riverwalk Jazz'', to portray a variety of jazz singers. More recently, Nakasian portrayed herself on the show with Dick Hyman f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Puma
Joe Puma (August 13, 1927 – May 31, 2000) was an American jazz guitarist. Puma was born in the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ..., New York. His first professional experience came with Joe Roland in 1949–50. He played in the band led by Cy Coleman. He acted as a session musician for many jazz musicians during the 1950s, including Louie Bellson, Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five, Eddie Bert, Herbie Mann, Mat Mathews, Chris Connor, and Paul Quinichette, Lee Konitz, and Dick Hyman; he also recorded extensively as a leader at this time. In the 1960s, he worked with Morgana King, Bobby Hackett, Gary Burton, and Carmen McRae, and between 1972 and 1977 he and Chuck Wayne led an ensemble. He continued to perform and teach into the late 1990s. Honors In 1957 he won the N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Greer
William Alexander "Sonny" Greer (December 13, c. 1895 – March 23, 1982) was an American jazz drummer and vocalist, best known for his work with Duke Ellington. Biography Greer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, United States, and played with Elmer Snowden's band and the Howard Theatre's orchestra in Washington, D.C., before joining Duke Ellington, whom he met in 1919. He was Ellington's first drummer, playing with his quintet, the Washingtonians, and moved with Ellington into the Cotton Club. As a result of his job as a designer with the Leedy Drum Company of Indiana, Greer was able to build up a huge drum kit worth over a then-considerable $3,000, including chimes, a gong, timpani, and vibes. Greer was a heavy drinker, as well as a pool-hall hustler (when he needed to retrieve his drums from the pawnbroker), and in 1950, Ellington responded to his drinking and occasional unreliability by taking a second drummer, Butch Ballard, with them on a tour of Scand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russell Procope
Russell Keith Procope (August 11, 1908 – January 21, 1981) was an American clarinetist and alto saxophonist who was a member of the Duke Ellington orchestra. Before Ellington Procope was born in New York City, United States, and grew up in San Juan Hill, where he attended school with Benny Carter. His first instrument was the violin, but he switched to clarinet and alto saxophone. He began his professional career in 1926 as a member of Billy Freeman's orchestra. He recorded with Jelly Roll Morton at the age of 20, and played with bands led by Benny Carter, Chick Webb (1929–30), Fletcher Henderson (spring of 1931 to 1934), Tiny Bradshaw, Teddy Hill, King Oliver, and Willie Bryant. Fletcher Henderson's band dissolved in 1934. Along with several other ex-Henderson musicians, Procope joined Benny Carter's orchestra. He also worked for a time with the Tiny Bradshaw and Willie Bryant bands before joining Teddy Hill in 1935. During his stay with Teddy Hill's orchestra the tru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marshall Brown (musician)
Marshall Richard Brown (December 21, 1920 – December 13, 1983) was an American jazz valve trombonist and teacher. Career Brown graduated from New York University with a degree in music. He was a band teacher in New York City schools, and one of his school bands performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in the 1950s. With George Wein, he went to Europe to look for musicians for the International Youth Band. In the late 1950s he started the Newport Youth Band. His students included Eddie Gomez, Duško Gojković, George Gruntz, Albert Mangelsdorff, Jimmy Owens, and Gabor Szabo. He worked with Ruby Braff, Bobby Hackett, Lee Konitz, and Pee Wee Russell. Discography As leader * ''The Ruby Braff-Marshall Brown Sextet'' (United Artists, 1960) * ''Live at the Chi Chi Club'' (Avalon, 1970) As sideman * Count Basie, ''Basie's Beat'' (Verve, 1967) * Beaver Harris, ''From Rag Time to No Time'' (360 Records, 1975) * Lee Konitz, '' The Lee Konitz Duets'' (Milestone, 1968) * Lee Konitz, ''Peac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist, educator and playwright who since the 1960s has played a central part in the development of avant-garde jazz. Biography Early life Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano, clarinet and alto saxophone before narrowing his focus to tenor saxophone. He occasionally plays soprano saxophone as well. He studied drama at Goddard College from 1955 to 1959. He played in a Latin jazz band for a short time before joining the band of avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor. Shepp's first recording under his own name, ''Archie Shepp - Bill Dixon Quartet'', was released on Savoy Records in 1962 and featured a composition by Ornette Coleman. Along with alto saxophonist John Tchicai and trumpeter Don Cherry, he formed the New York Contemporary Five. John Coltrane's admiration for Shepp led to recordings for Impulse! Records, the first of which was '' Four for Trane'' in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pepper Adams
Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III (October 8, 1930 – September 10, 1986) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 42 pieces, was the leader on eighteen albums spanning 28 years, and participated in 600 sessions as a sideman. He worked with an array of musicians, and had especially fruitful collaborations with trumpeter Donald Byrd and as a member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. Biography Early life Pepper Adams was born in Highland Park, Michigan, to father Park Adams II, who worked as the manager of a furniture store, and mother Cleo Marie Coyle. Both of his parents were college graduates, with each spending some time at the University of Michigan. Due to the onset of the Great Depression, Adams' parents separated to allow his father to find work without geographic dependence. In the fall of 1931, Adams moved with his mother to his extended family's farm near Columbia City, Indiana, where food and support were more readily available. In 1933 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Cohn
Al Cohn (November 24, 1925 – February 15, 1988) was an American jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer. He came to prominence in the band of clarinetist Woody Herman and was known for his longtime musical partnership with fellow saxophonist Zoot Sims. Biography Alvin Gilbert Cohn was born in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to his work as a jazz tenor saxophonist, Cohn was widely respected as an arranger. His work included the Broadway productions of ''Raisin and ''Sophisticated Ladies'', and his arrangements of his own compositions were recorded by big bands led by Maynard Ferguson, Gerry Mulligan, Terry Gibbs and Bob Brookmeyer. Also, Cohn did arrangements for unreleased Linda Ronstadt recordings from the 1980s. Cohn also appeared on stage with Elvis Presley in June, 1972, as a member of the Joe Malin Orchestra at Madison Square Garden. Al Cohn died of liver cancer in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania in 1988. Cohn's first wife was singer Marilyn Moore. His son, Joe Cohn, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big band, afterward enjoying a long solo career, often in partnership with fellow saxmen Gerry Mulligan and Al Cohn. Biography Sims was born in 1925 in Inglewood, California, United States, to vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. His father was a vaudeville hoofer, and Sims prided himself on remembering many of the steps his father taught him. Growing up in a performing family, he learned to play drums and clarinet at an early age. His brother was the trombonist Ray Sims. Sims began on tenor saxophone at age 13. He initially modelled his playing on the work of Lester Young, Ben Webster, and Don Byas. By his late teens, having dropped out of high school, he was playing in big bands, starting with those of Kenny Baker and Bob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals: ''Chet Baker Sings'' (1954) and '' It Could Happen to You'' (1958). Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as " James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one". His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame. Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and 1980s. Biography Early years Baker was born and raised in a musical household in Yale, Oklahoma on 23 December 1929. His father, Chesney Baker Sr., was a professional guitarist, and his mother, Vera Moser, was a pianist who worked in a perfume factory. His maternal grandmother was Norwegian. Baker said tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Chet Baker")