Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival
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Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival
The Twin Cities Jazz Fest, formerly Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival, is a jazz festival in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Founded in 1999 by Steve Heckler, the festival is centered in the Lowertown neighborhood in downtown St. Paul. The main stage is located in Mears Park with additional stages throughout the city. The festival closes several blocks and has used clubs such as the Bulldog, Hat Trick, St. Paul Hotel, Mancini's, Black Dog, Hygga, Vieux Carre, Union Depot, Amsterdam Bar and Gril and the Citizen Bar and Grill. In partnership with the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education and Walker West Music Academy], over 100 young musicians perform at the festival. In addition, master classes and clinics are held at schools hosted by the festival headliners. All events are free and open to all. Media partners have included KBEM-FM, Jazz 88 radio (broadcasting live locally and streaming live on the internet internationally), WCCO-TV, , ''City Pages'', ''Jazz Police'', ''La Prenza'', ...
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Mears Park
The Lowertown Historic District is a historic district in the Lowertown neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. This 16-block warehouse and wholesaling district comprises 37 contributing properties built 1870s–1920. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 for the significance of its river and rail connections, economic impact, architecture, and urban planning. Or trthis version at National Archives/ref> Lowertown was originally the lower landing on the Mississippi River; the first port of access to the Twin Cities. Several warehouse, railroad, banking, and distribution buildings served the entire Upper Midwest from 1880 to 1920. A significant concentration of these buildings survive, unified by similar architectural styles and construction materials. Many were designed by the city's most prestigious architects, including Cass Gilbert and Clarence H. Johnston Sr. History The Lowertown neighborhood declined after the Depression. The reno ...
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Hiromi Uehara
, known professionally as Hiromi, is a Japanese jazz composer and pianist. She is known for her virtuosic technique, energetic live performances and blend of musical genres such as stride, post-bop, progressive rock, classical and fusion in her compositions. Biography Uehara was born in Hamamatsu, Japan. She started learning piano at the age of six and was introduced to jazz by her piano teacher Noriko Hikida when she was eight. At age 14, she played with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. When she was 17 years old, she met Chick Corea by chance in Tokyo and was invited to play with him at his concert the next day. After being a jingle writer for a few years for Japanese companies such as Nissan, she enrolled to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. There, she was mentored by Ahmad Jamal and had already signed with jazz label Telarc before her graduation. She debuted in 2003 with her album, ''Another Mind'', and has toured and appeared in jazz festivals r ...
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Bernard Purdie
Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purdie Shuffle." He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2013. Purdie recorded ''Soul Drums'' (1968) as a band leader and although he went on to record ''Alexander's Ragtime Band'', the album remained unreleased until ''Soul Drums'' was reissued on CD in 2009 with the ''Alexander's Ragtime Band'' sessions. Other solo albums include ''Purdie Good!'' (1971), '' Soul Is... Pretty Purdie'' (1972) and the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film ''Lialeh'' (1973). In the mid-1990s he was a member of The 3B's, with Bross Townsend and Bob Cunningham. Biography Purdie was born on June 11, 1939 in Elkton, Maryland, US, the eleventh of fifteen children. At an early age he began hitting cans with sticks and learned the elements of dru ...
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Danilo Pérez
Danilo Pérez (born December 29, 1965) is a Panamanian pianist, composer, educator, and a social activist. His music is a blend of Panamanian roots with elements of Latin American folk music, jazz, European impressionism, African, and other musical heritages that promote music as a multi-dimensional bridge between people. He has released eleven albums as a leader, and appeared on many recordings as a side man, which have earned him critical acclaim, numerous accolades, Grammy Awards wins and nominations. He is a recipient of the United States Artists Fellowship, and the 2009 Smithsonian Legacy Award. Biography Born in Panama in 1965, Danilo Pérez started his musical studies at the age of three with his father, Danilo Enrico Pérez Urriola, an elementary and middle school educator and well known Panamanian singer. In 1967 his father wrote a university thesis which stated that the entire curriculum should be taught through music. He used these techniques to teach his son mathemat ...
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Tiger Okoshi
Toru "Tiger" Okoshi (born March 21, 1950) is an American jazz fusion trumpeter born in Ashiya, Japan. After studying at Kwansei Gakuin University, Okoshi moved to the U.S. in 1972. In 1975 he completed studies at the Berklee College of Music. Okoshi collaborated in the 1970s with Gary Burton, and played with the Mike Gibbs Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1974. Following this he toured with Buddy Rich. In the early 1990s, he played in George Russell's Living Time Orchestra and recorded with Bob Moses. In the early 2000s he recorded several songs on the album ''Orpheus Again'' by Bruce Arnold. Discography As leader * ''Times Square'' ( ECM, 1978) * ''Tiger's Baku'' (JVC, 1981) with Vinnie Colaiuta, Gerry Etkins, Steve Forman, Robert Gonzales, Quinous Johnson, Tim Landers, Mike Stern * ''Mudd Cake'' (JVC, 1982) * ''Face to Face'' (JVC, 1989) with Gerry Etkins, Rikiya Higashihara, Takayuki Hijikata, Koh Shimizu * ''That Was Then, This Is Now'' (JVC, 1990) with Gerry Etkins, Rikiya ...
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David "Fathead" Newman
David "Fathead" Newman (February 24, 1933 – January 20, 2009) was an American jazz and rhythm-and-blues saxophonist, who made numerous recordings as a session musician and leader, but is best known for his work as a sideman on seminal 1950s and early 1960s recordings by Ray Charles. The AllMusic Guide to Jazz wrote that "there have not been many saxophonists and flutists more naturally soulful than David 'Fathead' Newman." Newman was a leading exponent of the "Texas Tenor" saxophone style, a big-toned, bluesy approach popularized by jazz tenor players from that state. Early life Newman was born in Corsicana, Texas, United States, on February 24, 1933, but grew up in Dallas, where he studied first the piano and then the saxophone. According to one account, he got his nickname "Fathead" in school when "an outraged music instructor used it as an epithet after catching Mr. Newman playing a Sousa march from memory rather than from reading the sheet music, which rested upside down ...
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Jimmy McGriff
James Harrell McGriff (April 3, 1936 – May 24, 2008) was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist and organ trio bandleader. Biography Early years and influences Born in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Germantown, Pennsylvania, United States, McGriff started playing piano at the age of five and by his teens had also learned to play Vibraphone, vibes, alto sax, drums and upright bass. He played bass in his first group, a piano trio. When he joined the United States Army, McGriff served as a military policeman during the Korean War. He later became a police officer in Philadelphia for two years. Music kept drawing McGriff's attention away from the police force. His childhood friend, organist Jimmy Smith (musician), Jimmy Smith, had begun earning a substantial reputation in jazz for his Blue Note Records, Blue Note albums (the two played together once in 1967) and McGriff became entranced by the organ sound while Richard "Groove" Holmes played at his sister's wedding. ...
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Jack McDuff
Eugene McDuff (September 17, 1926 – January 23, 2001), known professionally as "Brother" Jack McDuff or "Captain" Jack McDuff, was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio. He is also credited with giving guitarist George Benson his first break. Career Born Eugene McDuffy in Champaign, Illinois, McDuff began playing bass, appearing in Joe Farrell's group. Encouraged by Willis Jackson in whose band he also played bass in the late 1950s, McDuff moved to the organ and began to attract the attention of Prestige while still with Jackson's group. McDuff soon became a bandleader, leading groups featuring a young George Benson on guitar, Red Holloway on tenor saxophone and Joe Dukes on drums. McDuff recorded many classic albums on Prestige, including his debut solo ''Brother Jack'' in 1960; ''The Honeydripper'' (1961), with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest and gu ...
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Frank Morgan (musician)
Frank Morgan (December 23, 1933 – December 14, 2007) was a jazz saxophonist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He mainly played alto saxophone but also played soprano saxophone. He was known as a Charlie Parker successor who primarily played bebop and ballads. Biography Early life (1933–1947) Frank Morgan was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1933, but spent most of his childhood living with his grandmother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin while his parents were on tour. Morgan's father Stanley was a guitarist with Harlan Leonard and the Rockets and The Ink Spots, and his mother, Geraldine, was a 14-year-old student when she gave birth to him. Morgan took up his father's instrument at an early age, but lost interest the moment he saw Charlie Parker take his first solo with the Jay McShann band at the Paradise Theater in Detroit, Michigan. Stanley introduced them backstage, where Parker offered Morgan advice about starting out on the alto sax, and they met at a music store th ...
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Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ..., composer, and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque. From 1992 to 1995 he led the Tonight Show Band. Early life Marsalis was born on August 26, 1960, in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, and raised in New Orleans. He is the son of Dolores (née Ferdinand), a jazz singer and substitute teacher, and Ellis Marsalis, Jr., Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr., a pianist and music professor.Stated on ''Finding Your Roots'', PBS, March 25, 2012 His brothers Jason Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, and Delfeayo Marsalis are also ...
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Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952)"Joe Lovano." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 13. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 1994. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, May 5, 2017. is an American jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. He has earned a Grammy Award and several mentions on ''Down Beat'' magazine's critics' and readers' polls. His wife, with whom he records and performs, is singer Judi Silvano. Lovano was a longtime member of drummer Paul Motian‘s trio with guitarist Bill Frisell. Biography Early life Lovano was born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, to Sicilian-American parents; his father was the tenor saxophonist Tony ("Big T") Lovano. His father's family came from Alcara Li Fusi in Sicily, and his mother's family came from Cesarò, also in Sicily. In Cleveland, Lovano's father exposed him to jazz throughout his early life, teaching him the standards, as well as how to lead a gig, pace a set, and be versatile enough to ...
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Howard Levy
Howard Levy (born July 31, 1951) is an American multi-instrumentalist. A keyboardist and virtuoso harmonica player, Levy "has been realistically presented as one of the most important and radical harmonica innovators of the twentieth century." In 1988, Levy was a founding member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, with whom he won a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the song "The Sinister Minister". He also won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition in 2012 for "Life in Eleven", a song written with Béla Fleck for the Flecktones' album ''Rocket Science'' (2011). He has worked with Arab-fusion musician Rabih Abou-Khalil, Latin jazz saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, Donald Fagen, and Paul Simon. Music career Levy was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied piano and pipe organ. For two years, he went to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and participated in the jazz band. He is the Harmon ...
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