|
Pony's Express
''Pony's Express'' is the debut album by saxophonist Pony Poindexter which was released on the Epic label in 1962.Fitzgerald, M.Pony Poindexter Leader Entryaccessed July 2, 2015 Reception Ken Dryden of Allmusic stated: "It's a shame that Pony Poindexter didn't get many more opportunities to record as a leader, as this release demonstrates his considerable promise". Track listing # "Catin' Latin" (Pony Poindexter) - 4:15 # "Salt Peanuts" (Kenny Clarke, Dizzy Gillespie) - 3:39 # "Skylark" (Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer) - 3:44 # "Struttin' With Some Barbecue" (Lil Hardin Armstrong, Don Raye) - 5:32 # "Blue" (Gildo Mahones) - 5:31 # ""B" Frequency" (Teo Macero) - 1:43 # " Mickey Mouse March" (Jimmie Dodd) - 3:06 # " Basin Street Blues" (Spencer Williams) - 3:44 # "Pony's Express" (Poindexter) - 2:20 # "Lanyop" (Poindexter) - 9:40 # "Artistry in Rhythm" (Stan Kenton) - 2:15 Personnel *Pony Poindexter - alto saxophone, soprano saxophone * Eric Dolphy (tracks 6 & 10), Gene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pony Poindexter
Norwood "Pony" Poindexter (February 8, 1926, New Orleans, Louisiana – April 14, 1988, Oakland, California) was an American jazz saxophonist. Poindexter began on clarinet and switched to playing alto and tenor sax. In 1940 he studied under Sidney Desvigne, and following World War II attended the newly founded Candell Conservatory of Music in Oakland, California. From 1947 to 1950 he played with Billy Eckstine. In 1950 he played in a quartet with Vernon Alley. From 1951 to 1952, he was with Lionel Hampton and in 1952 he played with Stan Kenton. Neal Hefti wrote the tune "Little Pony", named after Poindexter, for the Count Basie Orchestra. Through the end of the 1950s Poindexter played extensively both as a leader and as a sideman, recording with Charlie Parker, Nat King Cole, T-Bone Walker, and Jimmy Witherspoon. In the early 1960s he began playing the soprano sax as well. He recorded with Eric Dolphy and Dexter Gordon on a session for Epic Records around 1962. From 196 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mickey Mouse March
"(The) Mickey Mouse March" is the opening theme for ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' television show, which aired in the United States from October 1955 to 1959, on the ABC television network. (The first two lines are: ''Who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me? M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!'') The song is reprised with the slower "it's time to say goodbye" verse, at the end of each episode. In the show's opening, the song is partially performed by the characters Dumbo and Jiminy Cricket. It also ended with Donald Duck attempting to hit a gong with the "Mickey Mouse Club" title on it, but would end with comic results, such as him getting hit by lightning, or the gong turning out to be a pie, or Donald just hitting a triangle instead. The song was written by the ''Mickey Mouse Club'' host Jimmie Dodd and was published by Hal Leonard Corporation, July 1, 1955. Dodd, who was a guitarist and musician hired by Walt Disney as a songwriter, wrote other songs used over the course of th ... [...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. Dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Heath
James Edward Heath (October 25, 1926 – January 19, 2020), nicknamed Little Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader. He was the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath. Biography Heath was born in Philadelphia on October 25, 1926. Allmusic biography/ref> His father, an auto mechanic, played the clarinet, performing on the weekends. His mother sang in a church choir. The family frequently played recordings of big band jazz groups around the house. Heath's sister was a pianist, while his brothers were bassist Percy Heath (older) and drummer Albert Heath (his youngest sibling). During World War II, Heath was rejected for the draft for being below the minimum weight. Heath originally played alto saxophone. He earned the nickname "Little Bird" after his work for Howard McGhee and Dizzy Gillespie in the late 1940s, during which his playing displayed influences from Charlie Parker (Parker's nickname was "Bird"). He then switch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and actor. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians, which included other greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell. Gordon's height was , so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" and "Sophisticated Giant". His studio and performance career spanned more than 40 years. Gordon's sound was commonly characterized as being "large" and spacious and he had a tendency to play behind the beat. He was known for inserting musical quotes into his solos, with sources as diverse as " Happy Birthday" and well known melodies from the operas of Wagner. This is not unusual in jazz improvization, but Gordon did it frequently enough to make it a hallmark of his style. One of his major influences was Lester Young. Gordon, in turn, was an early influence on John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. Rollins and Coltrane then influenced Gordon's playing as he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods (November 2, 1931 – September 29, 2015) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer. Biography Woods was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. After inheriting a saxophone at age 12, he began taking lessons at a local music shop. His heroes on the alto saxophone included Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges. He studied music with Lennie Tristano at the Manhattan School of Music and at the Juilliard School. His friend, Joe Lopes, coached him on clarinet as there was no saxophone major at Juilliard at the time and received a bachelor’s degree in 1952. Although he did not copy Charlie Parker, Woods was known as the New Bird, a nickname also given to other alto saxophone players such as Sonny Stitt and Cannonball Adderley. In the 1950s, Woods began to lead his own bands. Quincy Jones invited him to accompany Dizzy Gillespie on a world tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department. A few years later he toured Europe with Jones, and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Red
Sylvester Kyner Jr. (December 17, 1932 – March 20, 1981), known as Sonny Red, was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer associated with the hard bop idiom among other styles. Sonny Red played with Art Blakey, Curtis Fuller, Paul Quinichette, Donald Byrd, Grant Green, Blue Mitchell, Wynton Kelly, Billy Higgins, and Cedar Walton. Biography In the late 1940s, when he was still in his teens, Sonny Red began to play professionally in Detroit with Barry Harris. He continued to play with Barry Harris until 1952. He went on to play with Art Blakey in 1954, and in 1957 recorded with Curtis Fuller on three albums. Sonny Red first came on the greater jazz scene in the late 1950s with Art Pepper in the album ''Two Altos''. He made two albums as a leader in 1961; both were released by Jazzland Recordings, a subsidiary of Riverside Records. He continued to record in the 1960s, including four albums with Donald Byrd in 1967. By the 1970s, however, Sonny Red was falling in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Quill
Daniel Eugene Quill (December 15, 1927 – December 8, 1988) was an American jazz alto saxophonist who played often with Phil Woods in the duet Phil and Quill. Quill also worked as a sideman for Buddy DeFranco, Quincy Jones, Gene Krupa, Gerry Mulligan, and Claude Thornhill. In 1988, Quill died at the age of 60 in his hometown of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Discography As leader * ''Gene Quill 'The Tiger': Portrait of a Great Alto Player'' (Fresh Sound, 1955) * ''3 Bones and a Quill'' (Vogue, 1959) * ''Jazzville Vol. 1'' (Dawn, 1956) With Phil Woods * ''Pairing Off'' (Prestige, 1956) * ''Phil and Quill'' (RCA Victor, 1957) * ''Phil and Quill with Prestige'' (Prestige, 1957) * ''Phil Talks with Quill'' (Epic, 1959) * ''Bird Feathers'' (Prestige, 1957) * '' Four Altos'' with Sahib Shihab and Hal Stein (Prestige, 1958) As sideman With Manny Albam * ''Play Music from West Side Story'' (Coral, 1957) * ''Steve's Songs'' (Dot, 1958) * ''Jazz Horizons: Jazz New York'' (Coral, 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flautist. On a few occasions, he also played the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the same era. His use of the bass clarinet helped to establish the instrument within jazz. Dolphy extended the vocabulary and boundaries of the alto saxophone, and was among the earliest significant jazz flute soloists. His improvisational style was characterized by the use of wide intervals, in addition to employing an array of extended techniques to emulate the sounds of human voices and animals. He used melodic lines that were "angular, zigzagging from interval to interval, taking hairpin turns at unexpected junctures, making dramatic leaps from the lower to the upper register." Although Dolphy's work is sometimes classified as free jazz, his compositions and solos were often rooted in conventional (if highly abstract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soprano Saxophone
The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass saxophone and tubax. Soprano saxophones are the smallest and thus highest-pitched saxophone in common use. The instrument A transposing instrument pitched in the key of B, modern soprano saxophones with a high F key have a range from concert A3 to E6 (written low B to high F) and are therefore pitched one octave above the tenor saxophone. There is also a soprano saxophone pitched in C, which is uncommon; most examples were produced in America in the 1920s. The soprano has all the keys of other saxophone models (with the exception of the low A on some baritones and altos). Soprano saxophones were originally keyed from low B to high E, but a low B mechanism was patented in 1887 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alto Saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor but larger than the B soprano. It is the most common saxophone and is used in popular music, concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, military bands, marching bands, pep bands, and jazz (such as big bands, jazz combos, swing music). The alto saxophone had a prominent role in the development of jazz. Influential jazz musicians who made significant contributions include Don Redman, Jimmy Dorsey, Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Lee Konitz, Jackie McLean, Phil Woods, Art Pepper, Paul Desmond, and Cannonball Adderley. Although the role of the alto saxophone in classical music has been limited, influential performers include Marcel Mule, Sigurd Raschèr, Jean-Marie Londeix, Eugene Rousseau, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Kenton had several pop hits from the early 1940s into the 1960s, his music was always forward-looking. Kenton was also a pioneer in the field of jazz education, creating the Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in 1959 at Indiana University.Sparke, Michael. ''Stan Kenton: This is an Orchestra.'' UNT Press (2010). . Early life Stan Kenton was born on December 15, 1911, in Wichita, Kansas; he had two sisters (Beulah and Erma Mae) born three and eight years after him. His parents, Floyd and Stella Kenton, moved the family to Colorado, and in 1924, to the Greater Los Angeles Area, settling in suburban Bell, California. Kenton attended Bell High School; his high-school yearbook picture has the prophetic notation "Old Man Jazz". Kenton started learning piano ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
