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Stafford James
Stafford James (born April 24, 1946) is an American double-bassist and composer.Allmusic/ref> Biography Stafford James was born in Evanston, Illinois. From ages 6 to 11 he was a left handed violinist in the school orchestra. He also possessed drawing skills, and at 13 he started to work in the atelier of Chicago church architect Barry Byrne as a tracer. By age 16 he started designing desert habitation structures in the Prairie School style with the urging of Mr. Byrne. During the Vietnam War era he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force; after his discharge he studied contrabass at the Chicago Conservatory College with Rudolf Fahsbender of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1969 he moved to New York City and studied under Julius Levine at the Mannes College of Music. There, in New York, he met Pharoah Sanders, with whom he played his first jazz concerts in New York. James played with Monty Alexander and Sun Ra at the end of the 1960s as well. Soon after he worked with Alice Coltrane a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double-bassist
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar in structure to the cello, it has four, although occasionally five, strings. The bass is a standard member of the orchestra's string section, along with violins, viola, and cello, ''The Orchestra: A User's Manual'' , Andrew Hugill with the Philharmonia Orchestra as well as the concert band, and is featured in Double bass concerto, concertos, solo, and chamber music in European classical music, Western classical music.Alfred Planyavsky [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melba Moore
Beatrice Melba Hill or Beatrice Melba Smith (sources differ) (born October 29, 1945), known by her stage name Melba Moore, is an American singer and actress. Biography Early life and education Moore was born Beatrice Melba Hill or Beatrice Melba Smith (sources differ) in New York City to Gertrude Melba Smith (1920–1976), who was a singer professionally known as Bonnie Davis and Teddy Hill (1909–1978), a big band leader. Moore grew up in the Harlem section of New York until age 9 when her mother remarried jazz pianist Clement Leroy Moorman and the family relocated to Newark, New Jersey. For high school, Moore attended Newark Arts High School , graduating in 1958. In 1970, she graduated from Montclair State College with a BA in music. Early career Moore began her recording career in 1967, cutting the track "Magic Touch" which was left unreleased until 1986. In later years it became an enormous track on the Northern Soul Scene, eventually leading to Moore performing it live in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Blakey
Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1940s in the big bands of Fletcher Henderson and Billy Eckstine. He then worked with bebop musicians Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. In the mid-1950s, Horace Silver and Blakey formed the Jazz Messengers, a group that the drummer was associated with for the next 35 years. The group was formed as a collective of contemporaries, but over the years the band became known as an incubator for young talent, including Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Johnny Griffin, Curtis Fuller, Chuck Mangione, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Cedar Walton, Woody Shaw, Terence Blanchard, and Wynton Marsalis. ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' calls the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz (born September 26, 1940) is an American jazz saxophonist. He has won two Grammy Awards. Biography Bartz studied at the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, he performed with Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner in Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop. He worked as a sideman with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. In 1968, he was a member of McCoy Tyner's band, Expansions. In mid-1970, he joined Miles Davis' band, performing live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, Isle Of Wight festival in August; and at a series of December dates at The Cellar Door club in Washington, D.C. Portions of these shows were initially released on the 1971 ''Live-Evil (Miles Davis album), Live-Evil'' album, with the entire six performance/four night run eventually released in full on the 2005 ''The Cellar Door Sessions 1970, Cellar Door Sessions'' box set. He later formed the band Ntu Troop, which combined jazz, funk, and soul. Bartz was awarded a Grammy for "B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chico Hamilton
Foreststorn "Chico" Hamilton (September 20, 1921 – November 25, 2013) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He came to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne. Hamilton became a bandleader, first with a quintet featuring the cello as a lead instrument, an unusual choice for a jazz band in the 1950s, and subsequently leading bands that performed cool jazz, post bop, and jazz fusion. Biography Early life and career Foreststorn Hamilton was born in Los Angeles, California, one of three brothers, one of whom was actor Bernie Hamilton. Hamilton started his career in a band with Charles Mingus, Illinois Jacquet, Ernie Royal, Dexter Gordon, Buddy Collette and Jack Kelso before he had finished high school. Engagements with Lionel Hampton, Slim & Slam, T-Bone Walker, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan and Lena Horne esta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Charles Cyrille (born November 10, 1939) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographer Chris Kelsey wrote: "Few free-jazz drummers play with a tenth of Cyrille's grace and authority. His energy is unflagging, his power absolute, tempered only by an ever-present sense of propriety." Life and career Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, into a Haitian family. He began studying science at St. John's University, but was already playing jazz in the evenings and switched his studies to the Juilliard School. His first drum teachers were fellow Brooklyn-based drummers Willie Jones and Lenny McBrowne; through them, Cyrille met Max Roach. Nonetheless, Cyrille became a disciple of Philly Joe Jones. His first professional engagement was as an accompanist of singer Nellie Lutcher, and he had an early recording sess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Hill (jazz Musician)
Andrew Hill (June 30, 1931Mandel, Howard (April 20, 2007) "Andrew Hill: 1931–2007''All About Jazz''. Retrieved April 20, 2007. During his lifetime, Hill's year of birth was always given as 1937. – April 20, 2007) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Jazz critic John Fordham described Hill as a "uniquely gifted composer, pianist and educator" although "his status remained largely inside knowledge in the jazz world for most of his career." Hill recorded for Blue Note Records for nearly a decade, producing a dozen albums. Biography Early life Andrew Hill was born in Chicago, Illinois, to William and Hattie Hill. He had a brother, Robert, who was a singer and classical violin player.Feather, Leonard. Original liner notes to ''Judgment!'' Hill took up the piano at the age of thirteen, and was encouraged by Earl Hines. As a child, he attended the University of Chicago Experimental School. Spellman, A. B. Original liner notes to '' Black Fire.'' He was referred by jazz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Harris
Barry Doyle Harris (December 15, 1929 – December 8, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. He was an exponent of the bebop style. Life and career Harris was born in Detroit, Michigan, on December 15, 1929, to Melvin Harris and Bessie as the fourth of their five children. Harris took piano lessons from his mother at the age of four. His mother, a church pianist, asked him if he was interested in playing church music or jazz. Having picked the latter, he was influenced by Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. In his teens, he learned bebop largely by ear, imitating solos by Powell. He described Powell's style as being the "epitome" of jazz. He performed for dances in clubs and ballrooms. He was based in Detroit through the 1950s and worked with Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt, and Thad Jones, and substituted for Junior Mance in the Gene Ammons band. In 1956, he toured briefly with Max Roach, after Richie Powell, the band's pianist and younger brot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Haig
Alan Warren Haig (July 19, 1922 – November 16, 1982) was an American jazz pianist, best known as one of the pioneers of bebop. Biography Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in nearby Nutley. In 1940, he majored in piano at Oberlin College. He started performing with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in 1945, and performed and recorded under Gillespie from 1945 to 1946, as a member of Eddie Davis and His Beboppers in 1946 (also featuring Fats Navarro), and the Eddie Davis Quintet in 1947, under Parker from 1948 to 1950, and under Stan Getz from 1949 to 1951. The Gillespie quintet, which included Haig, recorded four 78 r.p.m. sides for Guild Records in May 1945 which are regarded as the first recordings to demonstrate all elements of the mature bebop style. He was part of the nonet on the first session of Miles Davis' ''Birth of the Cool''. For much of the 1950s and 1960s, "Haig was all but a forgotten giant", in Brian Case's words; "Jazz pianism, ever more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Ayers
Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940) is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer, vibraphone player, and music producer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk. He is a key figure in the acid jazz movement, and has been dubbed "The Godfather of Neo Soul". He is best known for his compositions "Everybody Loves the Sunshine", "Searchin", and "Running Away". At one time, he was said to have more sampled hits by rappers than any other artist. Biography Early life Ayers was born on September 10, 1940, in Los Angeles. He grew up in a musical family, where his father played trombone and his mother played piano. At the age of five, he was given his first pair of vibraphone mallets by Lionel Hampton. The area of Los Angeles that Ayers grew up in, South Park (later known as South Central) was at the center of the Southern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson (July 1, 1933 – August 12, 2009) was an American free jazz and avant-garde drummer best known for playing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life. Biography Early life Patterson was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family was musical; his mother sang with Jimmie Lunceford. His brother, Muhammad Ali, is also a drummer, who played with Albert Ayler. Ali, his brother, and his father converted to Islam. Starting off as a pianist he eventually took up the drums, via trumpet and trombone. He joined the United States Army and played with military bands during the Korean War. After his military service, he returned home and studied with Philly Joe Jones, then toured with Sonny Rollins. Career Ali moved to New York in 1963 and worked in groups with Bill Dixon and Paul Bley. He was scheduled to be the second drummer alongside Elvin Jones on John Coltrane's free jazz album '' Ascension'', but he dropped out just befor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Travalena
Frederick Albert Travalena III (October 6, 1942 – June 28, 2009) was a U.S. entertainer, specializing in comedy and impressions. Early life Bronx, New York-born and Long Island-raised, Travalena moved to Los Angeles and developed a multifaceted career with his characterizations of visible public figures. Career His television credits began in the 1970s, as a regular performer on ''The ABC Comedy Hour'', where he once did a split screen impression of John Lennon on one side and Paul McCartney on the other, and the Dean Martin Roasts. He had several voice credits on cartoons, as well as appearances on nationally broadcast children's programs. Travelena made many guest appearances on game shows and dramatic programs in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In the mid-1980s he hosted the game show ''Anything for Money'' (1984–85), a game where contestants attempted to guess how much money it would take an ordinary, unsuspecting person to participate in a silly stunt. Among his gue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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