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Mingus Dynasty (band)
Mingus Dynasty was an American jazz ensemble formed in 1979, just after the death of Charles Mingus, which featured many musicians Mingus recorded or played with. The group was named after the 1959 album ''Mingus Dynasty''. In 1988, the group expanded to a big band format, and the Mingus Big Band has held weekly residency in New York City since 1991. Currently there are three Mingus repertory groups, Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Big Band and the Mingus Orchestra. They all tour extensively worldwide and rotate Monday nights at the Jazz Standard in New York. Among the group's alumni are Jimmy Owens, Randy Brecker, Richard Williams, Jon Faddis, Jimmy Knepper, John Handy, Craig Handy, Joe Farrell, Ricky Ford, George Adams, David Murray, Clifford Jordan, Nick Brignola, Don Pullen, Roland Hanna, Jaki Byard, Mike Richmond, Dannie Richmond, Billy Hart, Kenny Washington, Charlie Haden, Aladar Pege, Reggie Johnson, Reggie Workman, and Richard Davis. Discography * ''Chair in the Sky ... [...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, improvisationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifford Jordan
Clifford Laconia Jordan (September 2, 1931 – March 27, 1993) was an American jazz tenor saxophone player. While in Chicago, he performed with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and some rhythm and blues groups. He moved to New York City in 1957, after which he recorded three albums for Blue Note. He recorded with Horace Silver, J.J. Johnson, and Kenny Dorham, among others. He was part of the Charles Mingus Sextet, with Eric Dolphy, during its 1964 European tour. Jordan toured Africa with Randy Weston, and performed in Paris while living in Belgium. In later years, he led his own groups, performed with Cedar Walton's quartet Eastern Rebellion, and led a big band. Jordan was married to Shirley Jordan, a designer and former owner of Clothing Manufacturing Corporation in New York. He later married Sandy Jordan (née Williams), a graphic artist and Honorary Founders Board member of the Jazz Foundation of America. Death Jordan died of lung cancer at the age of 61 in New York City. Disc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Davis (double Bassist)
Richard Davis (born April 15, 1930) is an American jazz bassist. Among his best-known contributions to the albums of others are Eric Dolphy's ''Out to Lunch!'', Andrew Hill's '' Point of Departure'', and Van Morrison's ''Astral Weeks'', of which critic Greil Marcus wrote (in ''The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll''), "Richard Davis provided the greatest bass ever heard on a rock album." Music career Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, Davis began his musical career with his brothers, singing bass in his family's vocal trio. He studied double bass in high school with his music theory teacher and band director, Walter Dyett. He was a member of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras (then known as the Youth Orchestra of Greater Chicago) and played in the orchestra's first performance at Chicago's Orchestra Hall on November 14, 1947. After high school, he studied double bass with Rudolf Fahsbender of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra while attending VanderCook Colleg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reggie Workman
Reginald "Reggie" Workman (born June 26, 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey. Career Early in his career, Workman worked in jazz groups led by Gigi Gryce, Donald Byrd, Duke Jordan and Booker Little. In 1961, Workman joined the John Coltrane Quartet, replacing Steve Davis (bassist), Steve Davis. He was present for the saxophonist's ''Live at the Village Vanguard'' sessions, and also recorded with a second bassist (Art Davis) on the 1961 album, ''Olé Coltrane''. Workman left Coltrane's group at the end of the year, following a European tour. In 1962, Workman joined Art Blakey's The Jazz Messengers, Jazz Messengers (replacing long-time Blakey bassist Jymie Merritt), and worked alongside Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, and Cedar Walton for most of his time in the Jazz Messengers. Workman left Blakey's group in 1964. Workman also played with James Moody (saxo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reggie Johnson (musician)
Reginald Volney Johnson (December 13, 1940 – September 11, 2020) was an American jazz double-bassist. Johnson was born in Owensboro, Kentucky. After playing trombone with school orchestras and army bands, he switched to double bass, and started working with musicians such as Bill Barron and recording with Archie Shepp in the mid–1960s, before joining Art Blakey's band for a month-long residency at the Five Spot Café in December 1965, and then going on to The Lighthouse nightclub in Hermosa Beach, California, where they recorded the live album, ''Buttercorn Lady'', at the beginning of 1966, with a line-up, comprising Blakey, Frank Mitchell, Chuck Mangione, Keith Jarrett, and Johnson. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking Ornette Coleman Quartet. Haden revolutionized the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz. German musicologist Joachim-Ernst Berendt wrote that Haden's "ability to create serendipitous harmonies by improvising melodic responses to Coleman's free-form solos (rather than sticking to predetermined harmonies) was both radical and mesmerizing. His virtuosity lies (…) in an incredible ability to make the double bass 'sound out'. Haden cultivated the instrument's gravity as no one else in jazz. He is a master of simplicity which is one of the most difficult things to achieve." Haden played a vital role in this revolutionary new approach, evolving a way of playing that sometimes complemented the soloist and sometimes moved independently. In thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenny Washington (musician)
Kenny Washington (born May 29, 1958) is an American jazz drummer born in Staten Island, New York. His brother is bassist Reggie Washington. He grew up in the Stapleton Houses and attended P.S. 14. He studied at The High School of Music & Art, graduating in 1976. He has worked with Ronnie Mathews, Lee Konitz, Betty Carter, Johnny Griffin, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, George Cables, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Ahmad Jamal, Sonny Stitt, James Spaulding, Phil Woods, Bill Charlap, Bobby Watson, Curtis Lundy, and Tommy Flanagan. Washington serves on the faculty of SUNY Purchase and The Juilliard School. Discography As sideman With Ruby Braff *''Cape Codfather'' (Arbors, 2000) *''In the Wee, Small Hours in London and New York'' (Arbors, 2000) *''Music for the Still of the Night'' (Arbors, 2001) With Joshua Breakstone *''Self-Portrait in Swing'' (Contemporary, 1989) *''9 by 3'' (Contemporary, 1991) *'' Walk Don't Run'' (King, 1992) *''This Just In'' (Double-Time, 1999) With ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Hart
Billy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band in the early 1970s, as well with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest, among others. Biography Hart was born in Washington, D.C. He grew up in close proximity of the Spotlite Club, where he first heard the music of Lee Morgan, Ahmad Jamal, and Miles Davis, among others. Early on in his career he performed with Otis Redding and Sam and Dave, then with Buck Hill. Although he studied mechanical engineering at Howard University, he left school early to tour with Shirley Horn, whom Hart credits with accelerating his musical development. He was a sideman with the Montgomery Brothers (1961), Jimmy Smith (1964–1966), and Wes Montgomery (1966–68). Following Montgomery's death in 1968, Hart moved to New York City, where he recorded with McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, and Pharoah Sanders (playing on his famed record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dannie Richmond
Charles Daniel Richmond (December 15, 1931 – March 16, 1988) was an American jazz drummer who is best known for his work with Charles Mingus. He also worked with Joe Cocker, Elton John and Mark-Almond. Biography Richmond was born Charles Daniel Richmond on December 15, 1931, in New York City and grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. He started playing tenor saxophone at the age of thirteen, and went on to play R&B with the Paul Williams band in 1955. His career took off when he took up the drums, in his early twenties, through the formation of what was to be a 21-year association with Charles Mingus. Mingus biographer Brian Priestley writes that "Dannie became Mingus's equivalent to Harry Carney in the Ellington band, an indispensable ingredient of 'the Mingus sound' and a close friend as well". That association continued after Mingus' death when Richmond became the first musical director of the group Mingus Dynasty in 1980. He died of a heart attack in Harlem on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Richmond (musician)
Mike Richmond (born February 26, 1948 in Philadelphia) is an American jazz bassist. Richmond started on guitar then picked up bass in his early teens. He attended Temple University (1965–1970), studying with Edward Arian from the Philadelphia Orchestra. After lessons with Jimmy Garrison in the early 1970s he began performing with Chico Hamilton and Arnie Lawrence, also working with Stan Getz, Jack DeJohnette, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz, Hubert Laws, Franco Ambrosetti, Dannie Richmond, Gil Evans, Art Farmer, Woody Herman, and George Gruntz. Starting in 1980, Richmond devoted time to learning the sitar, traveling to Madras, India and performing live with Ravi Shankar. He led Mingus Dynasty (band), Mingus Dynasty (replacing Mingus) from 1980–1985, and began teaching at New York University in 1988 (Teacher of the Year, 1991 & 1994). Richmond won a Grammy Award for ''Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux''. His book ''Modern Walking Bass Technique'' is used international ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jaki Byard
John Arthur "Jaki" Byard (; June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. Mainly a pianist, he also played tenor and alto saxophones, among several other instruments. He was known for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz. Byard played with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and was a member of bands led by bassist Charles Mingus for several years, including on several studio and concert recordings. The first of his recordings as a leader was in 1960, but, despite being praised by critics, his albums and performances did not gain him much wider attention. In his 60-year career, Byard recorded at least 35 albums as leader, and more than 50 as a sideman. Byard's influence on the music comes from his combining of musical styles during performance, and his parallel career in teaching. From 1969 Byard was heavily involved in jazz education: he began teachi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
