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Solid!
''Solid!'' is an album by Eric Alexander, with John Hicks, George Mraz, and Idris Muhammad. Background "Anticipating Prestige's 50th anniversary in 1999, producer Todd Barkan combed the files to find out which were the label's most successful records and then, with Hicks, chose nine songs – not all of which are in the Prestige catalog, by the way – for this generation-spanning hard bop quartet to purvey."Ginell, Richard S"Eric Alexander – Solid!" AllMusic. Retrieved August 21, 2017. Recording and music The album was recorded at Clinton Recording Studios in New York City on April 25 and May 1, 1998.''Eric Alexander: Solid!'' (CD liner notes). Milestone Records. The four main musicians are tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, pianist John Hicks, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Idris Muhammad. Trumpeter Jim Rotondi plays on "Little Melonae" and "Straight Street"; vibraphonist Joe Locke substitutes for Alexander on "Fire Waltz". "Light Blue" is played by Hicks alone. Release a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Alexander (jazz Saxophonist)
Eric Alexander (born August 4, 1968) is an American jazz saxophonist. Early life and education Alexander was born in Illinois. He began as a classical musician, studying alto saxophone at Indiana University with Eugene Rousseau in 1986. He soon switched to jazz and the tenor saxophone, however, and transferred to William Paterson University, where he studied with Harold Mabern, Rufus Reid, Joe Lovano, Gary Smulyan, Norman Simmons, Steve Turre and others. Career Alexander finished second at the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. He was soon signed by a record label. Alexander has worked with many jazz musicians, including Chicago pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Idris Muhammad, and guitarist Pat Martino. He is part of Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet with Peter Bernstein, and Joe Farnsworth. He has recorded and toured extensively with the sextet, One for All. Discography As leader As sideman With Steve Davis * ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hicks (jazz Pianist)
John Josephus Hicks Jr. (December 21, 1941 – May 10, 2006) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He was leader of more than 30 recordings and played as a sideman on more than 300."Artist of the Month: John Hicks" . wicn.org. Retrieved November 20, 2016. After early experiences backing blues musicians, Hicks moved to New York in 1963. He was part of Art Blakey's band for two years, accompanied vocalist Betty Carter from 1965 to 1967, before joining Woody Herman's big band, where he stayed until 1970. Following these associations, Hicks expanded into free jazz, freer bands, including those of trumpeters Charles Tolliver and Lester Bowie. He rejoined Carter in 1975; the five-year stay brought him more attention and helped to launch his recording career as a leader. He continued to play and record extensively in the Uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Mraz
George Mraz (born Jiří Mráz; 9 September 1944 – 16 September 2021) was a Czech-born American jazz bassist and alto saxophonist. He was a member of Oscar Peterson's group, and worked with Pepper Adams, Stan Getz, Michel Petrucciani, Stephane Grappelli, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Raney, Chet Baker, Joe Henderson, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, and Richie Beirach, among others. During the 1970s, he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet and The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and in the 1980s a member of Quest. He also appeared with Joe Lovano, Hank Jones and Paul Motian on Lovano's records '' I'm All For You'' and '' Joyous Encounter''. Discography As leader/co-leader * 1977: ''Alone Together'' with Masaru Imada ( Three Blind Mice) * 1992: ''Catching Up'' * 1995: ''Jazz'' with Richie Beirach, Billy Hart, Larry Willis, Rich Perry * 1995: ''My Foolish Heart'' with Richie Beirach, Billy Hart * 1997: ''Bottom Lines'' with Cyrus Chestnut, Al Foster, Rich Perry * 1999 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idris Muhammad
Idris Muhammad ( ar, إدريس محمد; born Leo Morris; November 13, 1939 – July 29, 2014) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He had an extensive career performing jazz, funk, R&B, and soul music and recorded with musicians such as Ahmad Jamal, Lou Donaldson, Pharoah Sanders, Bob James, and Tete Montoliu. Biography Born Leo Morris in New Orleans, Idris Muhammad grew up in the city's 13th Ward in a home next door to a dry cleaner’s shop. He later would claim the sound of the shop’s steam presser influenced his hi-hat technique. Growing up, he spent time with fellow New Orleanians The Neville Brothers. Also interested in other instruments, he showed early talent as a percussionist, playing in a Mardi Gras parade at age 9. Muhammad asked Paul Barbarin to teach him to read music but Barbarin, who thought he was already so talented, declined. At the age of 14, Muhammad began his professional career by performing with The Hawketts on their iconic recording “M ... [...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] |
Milestone Records
Milestone Records is an American jazz record company and label founded in 1966 by Orrin Keepnews and Dick Katz in New York City. The company was bought by Fantasy Records in 1972. Since then, it has produced LP reissues (including items from Keepnew's earlier Riverside label) as well as new recordings. Sonny Rollins and McCoy Tyner are among the musicians who recorded for the label. Milestone has reissued many historic jazz recording sessions, including the Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings sides made for Gennett Records in the 1920s. The label also issued blues albums, most of them produced by Pete Welding. They include Driftin' Slim & His Blues Band's ''Somebody Hoo-Doo'd The Hoo-Doo Man,'' in addition to LPs by Mississippi Fred McDowell and Big Joe Williams. Another company called Milestone Records was active in the late 1950s, releasing music by acts such as The Jodimars and The Blue Jays. This label was owned by rockabilly musician Werly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Todd Barkan
Todd Barkan (born August 13, 1946) is an American jazz impresario and producer. Biography Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Barkan grew up in Columbus, Ohio and attended Oberlin College. He ran a club in San Francisco called Keystone Korner from 1972 to 1983, which became, in the words of journalist Bob Margolis, "legendary for its adventurous bookings and its bohemian ambience". A fan of jazz from a young age, Barkan ran the club despite its inability to break even, and financial troubles resulted in its closure in 1983. Barkan then relocated to New York City, where he became the manager of the Boys Club of Harlem; around 1990 he returned to the Bay Area to manage the club Yoshi's in Oakland. He quit Yoshi's in 1993 and worked as a record producer for the rest of the decade, with labels such as Fantasy, Milestone, HighNote, Columbia, Sunnyside, and Concord, as well as many Japanese labels. In 2000, Barkan was hired to take Joel Dorn's place as head of the jazz label 32 Records. In 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prestige Records
Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them on subsidiary labels. In 1971, the company was sold to Fantasy, which was later absorbed by Concord. History The Prestige office was located at 446 West 50th Street, New York City. Its catalogue included Gene Ammons, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Wardell Gray, Thelonious Monk, and Sonny Rollins. Audio engineer Rudy Van Gelder was the recording engineer of many Prestige albums in the 1950s and early-to-mid-1960s. Prestige created new labels in 1960: Swingville, Moodsville, covering jazz, Bluesville featuring blues revival artists, Lively Arts featuring spoken word recordings and Prestige International, Prestige Folklore, Irish and Near East with folk and world music. By the later 1950s, We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hard Bop
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in saxophone and piano playing. David H. Rosenthal contends in his book ''Hard Bop'' that the genre is, to a large degree, the natural creation of a generation of African-American musicians who grew up at a time when bop and rhythm and blues were the dominant forms of black American music. Prominent hard bop musicians included Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Thelonious Monk and Lee Morgan. Musical style Hard bop is sometimes referred to as "funky hard bop". The "funky" label refers to the rollicking, rhythmic feeling associated with the style. The descriptor is also used to describe soul jazz, which is commonly a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Rotondi
James Robert Rotondi (born 28 August 1962) is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, educator, and conductor. The youngest of five siblings, Rotondi was born in Butte, Montana. He played in New York City for twenty years before moving to Austria. He has taught at the University for Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria. He has released over ten albums as a leader for Sharp Nine, Criss Cross, Posi-Tone, and Smoke Sessions Records. He has played on over eighty albums as a sideman. He has performed and recorded with Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, Lou Donaldson, Curtis Fuller, Benny Sharoni, Eric Alexander, and George Coleman. Rotondi has led a quintet, which features vibraphonist Joe Locke, and an electric band with David Hazeltine called Full House, which uses electronic sound on his trumpet and a variety of other electronic instruments. He is also a member of the group One for All. In 1984, while attending North Texas State ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Locke (musician)
Joseph Paul Locke (born March 18, 1959) is an American jazz vibraphonist. Life and career A native of Palo Alto, California, Locke grew up in Rochester, New York. His father taught music. When Locke was eight years old he began learning drums and piano, then started on vibraphone five years later. After playing in rock bands, he became attracted to jazz in his teen years and attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. In 1981, he moved to New York City and worked as a sideman for Kenny Barron, Freddy Cole, Marvin Smith, and Eddie Henderson. For influences, he has cited Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson. His first solo album, ''Present Tense'', was released by Steeplechase in 1990. He started the band Mutual Appreciation Society in 1999 with David Hazeltine, Essiet Essiet, and Billy Drummond and has recorded frequently with pianist Geoff Keezer. His album ''Four Walls of Freedom'' was based on the writings of Thomas Merton. In 2016, he was inducted into the Music Hall o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
