Marvin “Smitty” Smith
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Marvin “Smitty” Smith
Marvin "Smitty" Smith (born June 24, 1961) is an American jazz drummer and composer. Marvin Smith was born in Waukegan, Illinois, where his father, Marvin Sr., was a drummer. "Smitty" was exposed to music at a young age, receiving formal musical training at the age of three. After graduating from Waukegan East High School, Smith attended Berklee, graduating in 1981. Smith has recorded 200 albums with various artists, as well as two solo albums. He has toured with, among others, Sting, Dave Holland, Sonny Rollins, Willie Nelson and Steve Coleman. He is a former member of The New York Jazz Quartet, and was the drummer for the ''Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' band, led by Kevin Eubanks, from January 30, 1995 until the show's end on May 29, 2009. Smith was also the drummer for the '' Jay Leno Show'' band in 2009-10. Discography As leader *''Keeper of the Drums'' (Concord Jazz, 1987) *''The Road Less Traveled'' (Concord Jazz, 1989) As sideman With Michel Camilo (''One More Once'' ...
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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 ...
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Hamiet Bluiett
Hamiet Bluiett (; September 16, 1940 – October 4, 2018) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. His primary instrument was the baritone saxophone, and he was considered one of the finest players of this instrument. A member of the World Saxophone Quartet, he also played (and recorded with) the bass saxophone, E-flat alto clarinet, E-flat contra-alto clarinet, and wooden flute. Biography Bluiett was born just north of East St. Louis in Brooklyn, Illinois (also known as Lovejoy), a predominantly African-American village that had been founded as a free black refuge community in the 1830s, and which later became America's first majority-black town. As a child, he studied piano, trumpet, and clarinet, but was attracted most strongly to the baritone saxophone from the age of ten. He began his musical career by playing the clarinet for barrelhouse dances in Brooklyn, Illinois, before joining the Navy band in 1961. He attended Southern Illinois University Carbondal ...
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Cipher Syntax
''Cipher Syntax'' is an album by Strata Institute, an M-Base group led by saxophonists Greg Osby and Steve Coleman, recorded in 1988 and released on the JMT label.Strata Institute sessionography
accessed December 12, 2014


Reception

The AllMusic review by Michael G. Nastos states, "An acquired taste, but still excellent".Nastos, M. G.
Allmusic Review
accessed December 12, 2014


Track listing

''All compositions by Steve Coleman except as indicated'' # "Slang" - 9:18 # "Bed Stuy" - 7:08 # "Turn of Events" (Greg Osby) - 3:23 # "Decrepidus" (Osby) ...
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Greg Osby
Greg Osby (born August 3, 1960) is an American saxophonist and composer. Biography Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, then at the Berklee College of Music. He moved to New York City in 1982, where he played with Jaki Byard, Jim Hall, Muhal Richard Abrams, Andrew Hill, Jack DeJohnette, Dizzy Gillespie, and Herbie Hancock. In 1985, he joined DeJohnette's group Special Edition. With Geri Allen, Steve Coleman, Gary Thomas, and Cassandra Wilson, he was a founding member of the M-Base Collective. Osby began recording albums under his own name for JMT Records in the mid-1980s, then signed with Blue Note in 1989. In 2007, he formed his own label, Inner Circle Music. He gave exposure to young pianist Jason Moran, who appeared on most of Osby's 1990s albums, including ''Further Ado'', ''Zero'', ''Banned in New York'' and ''Symbols of Light'', a double quartet featuring the addition of a string quartet to the band. He has also played with Phil Lesh and Fr ...
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On The Edge Of Tomorrow
''On the Edge of Tomorrow'' is the second album by saxophonist Steve Coleman recorded in 1986 and released on the JMT Records, JMT label.Steve Coleman sessionography
accessed September 23, 2014


Reception

The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow states, "Steve Coleman's second recording as a leader introduces his M-Base music in its prime. Essentially creative and avant-garde funk, the performances feature dense but coherent ensembles and crowded grooves... Not for everyone's taste, this frequently exciting set hints at a future that has not yet come".Yanow, S.
Allmusic Review
accessed September 23, 2014


Trac ...
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JMT Records
JMT Records (an acronym of Jazz Music Today) was a German record label founded by Stefan Winter. It was based in Munich, Germany, specialized in contemporary jazz, and operated from 1985 until 1995. History JMT released debut albums by Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, Cassandra Wilson, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Robin Eubanks and also released early albums by Gary Thomas helping to define the M-Base concept. The label also produced early recordings of musicians associated with the New York downtown scene including Mark Feldman, Mark Dresser, Hank Roberts, Tim Berne, Uri Caine and Joey Baron. Other jazz musicians who recorded for JMT included Bob Stewart, Anthony Cox, and Craig Harris. European musicians such as Django Bates, Marc Ducret and Peter Herborn were also part of the label's portfolio. One of the most successful releases on JMT was John McLaughlin's '' Live at the Royal Festival Hall'' with Trilok Gurtu and Kai Eckhardt which reached number 3 in the '' Billboard'' Top Contemp ...
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Motherland Pulse
''Motherland Pulse'' is the debut album by saxophonist Steve Coleman recorded in 1985 and released on JMT Records.Steve Coleman sessionography
accessed September 23, 2014


Reception

In his review for , Scott Yanow wrote, "The funky yet creative music has less crowded ensembles than Coleman's upcoming records would, and serves as a fine showcase for the talented and strikingly original altoist who contributed six of the eight numbers".Yanow, S.

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M-Base
The term "M-Base" is used in several ways. In the 1980s, a loose collective of young African American musicians including Steve Coleman, Graham Haynes, Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen, Robin Eubanks, and Greg Osby emerged in Brooklyn with a new sound and specific ideas about creative expression. Using a term coined by Steve Coleman, they called these ideas "M-Base-concept" (short for "macro-basic array of structured extemporization") and critics have used this term to categorize this scene's music as a jazz style. But Coleman stressed "M-Base" doesn't denote a musical style but a way of thinking about creating music. As famous musicians did in the past, he also refuses the word "jazz" as a label for his music and the music tradition represented by musicians like John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, etc. However, the musicians of the M-Base movement, which also included dancers and poets, strived for common creative musical languages, so their early recordings show many simila ...
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Knitting Factory Records
Knitting Factory Records is an independent American music label that is notable for promoting a variety of artists, including the music of deceased Nigerian political activist Fela Kuti. The label promotes a variety of music artists including Ages and Ages, Ash Black Bufflo, Cuong Vu, Graham Haynes, Femi Kuti, Gary Lucas, Lumerians, Thomas Chapin, Patrolled By Radar, Joe Morris, Rachid Taha, Seun Kuti, and Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers. The label was begun in 1998 as a spinoff of the music venues called Knitting Factory and signed artist Thomas Chapin as the first artist, according to the ''New York Times''. Since then, it has promoted a variety of independent artists and groups such as Hasidic New Wave, which featured Jewish musicians combining with Senegalese Muslim musicians in 2002. In 2008, while working as the Night Manager for The Knitting Factory venue at their Leonard St. location in Manhattan, Tim Putnam was approached by Knitting Factory Entertainment CEO Mor ...
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Don Byron
Donald Byron (born November 8, 1958) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays clarinet but has also played bass clarinet and saxophone in a variety of genres that includes free jazz and klezmer. Biography His mother was a pianist. His father worked as a mailman and played bass in calypso bands. Byron listened to Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis while growing up, but he was exposed to other styles through trips to the ballet and symphony orchestra. When he was a child, he had asthma, and a doctor recommended playing an instrument to improve his breathing. This was why he started playing clarinet. He grew up in the South Bronx among many Jewish neighbors who sparked an interest in klezmer. Other influences include Joe Henderson, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Hamilton, and Tony Scott. In his teens he took clarinet lessons from Joe Allard. George Russell was one of his teachers at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. At the school he was a member of Klezme ...
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Harlem Blues (Donald Byrd Album)
''Harlem Blues'' is an album by trumpeter Donald Byrd featuring performances recorded in 1987 and released on the Landmark label the following year.Jazzlists: Landmark 1500 series discography
accessed February 4, 2019


Reception

On AllMusic, Scott Yanow observed: "This Landmark release was trumpeter Donald Byrd's first jazz album in over 15 years after a long (and commercially if not artistically successful) detour into poppish R&B/funk. In the 1980s Byrd had neglected his trumpet playing in order to direct The Blackbyrds and teach. The period away from his instrument shows in spots on this well-intentioned set ... Ironica ...
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Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop musicians who successfully explored funk and soul while remaining a jazz artist. As a bandleader, Byrd was an influence on the early career of Herbie Hancock. Biography Early life and career Byrd was born in 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. His family came from the African-American middle-class. His father, Elijah Thomas Byrd, was a Methodist minister who greatly valued education and oversaw his son's schooling. His mother, Cornelia Taylor, introduced Byrd to jazz music and it was her brother who gave Byrd his first trumpet. He attended Cass Technical High School. He performed with Lionel Hampton before finishing high school. During this period, his first professional recording session was in 1949 at Fortune Records in Detroit with the Robert ...
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