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Uoniverse (album)
__NOTOC__ ''Uoniverse'' is an album by jazz bassist Ugonna Okegwo released in 2002. The album is Okegwo's first release as a leader. The album consists of five original compositions by Okegwo and five new arrangements of jazz classics, including Thelonious Monk's "Let's Call This". ''Jazzreview.com'' gave the album a rating of 4 stars and called Okegwo one of the leading bassists of his generation. All About Jazz highly recommended the album, calling it "truly diverse" and the band's rhythm "impeccable". Track listing Personnel Credits adapted from AllMusic. *Ugonna Okegwo – arranger, composer, producer, primary artist, audio production, double bass *Xavier Davis – piano *Donald Edwards – drums *Sam Newsome – guest artist, sax (soprano) *Ray Evans – composer *Jay Livingston – composer *Thelonious Monk – composer *Ray Noble – composer *Jaco Pastorius – composer *Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ugonna Okegwo
Ugonna Okegwo (born March 15, 1962) is a German-Nigerian jazz bassist and composer based in New York City. Biography Born in London, Okegwo is the son of Christel Katharina Lulf and Madueke Benedict Okegwo. In 1963 the family moved to Münster, Germany, where Okegwo grew up. As a youngster he enjoyed working with his hands and played the electric bass. At age 21, he took a class in violin-making and started playing the upright bass. In 1986 Okegwo moved to Berlin and studied with bassist Jay Oliver and pianist Walter Norris. He then joined trombonist Lou Blackburn's group for a tour in Europe and played with Joe Newman, Oliver Jackson and Major Holley. In 1989 Okegwo moved to New York City and worked with saxophonists Big Nick Nicholas, Junior Cook and James Spaulding. He worked with vocalist Jon Hendricks on a regular basis. He earned a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Long Island University, graduating summa cum laude in 1994. In the early 1990s Okegwo formed a trio wi ... [...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] |
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", " Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. Monk's compositions and improvisations feature dissonances and angular melodic twists and are consistent with his unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. Monk's distinct look included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He also had an idiosyncratic habit during performances: while other musicians continued playing, Monk would stop, stand up, and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. Monk is one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All About Jazz
''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near You'', about local concerts and events. The Jazz Journalists Association voted ''All About Jazz'' Best Website Covering Jazz for thirteen consecutive years between 2003 and 2015, when the category was retired. In 2015, Ricci said the site received a peak of 1.3 million readers per month in 2007. Another source said that the site has over 500,000 readers around the world. Ricci was born in Philadelphia. He heard classical and jazz from his father's music collection. He played trumpet and went to his first jazz concert when he was eight. With a background in computer programming, he combined his interest in jazz and the internet by creating the ''All About Jazz'' website in 1995. The website publishes reviews, interviews, and articles pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cherokee (Ray Noble Song)
"Cherokee" (also known as "Cherokee (Indian Love Song)") is a jazz standard written by the British composer and band leader Ray Noble and published in 1938. It is the first of five movements in Noble's "Indian Suite" (Cherokee, Comanche War Dance, Iroquois, Seminole, and Sioux Sue). Structure The composition has a 64-bar AABA construction. The A-section harmony is straightforward by the standards of 1930s songs, but the B-section is more sophisticated. This is because "it cadences (via ii-7–V7–I progressions) into the keys of B Major, A Major and G Major before moving toward the B tonic." Recordings "Cherokee" has been recorded over the years by many jazz musicians and singers. Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra's 1939 version reached No. 15 on the pop charts; he later re-recorded it in Hi Fi stereo for Everest Records in 1958. It was later recorded by Charlie Parker, the Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan (1955), Dakota Staton (1958), Art Tatum and Keely Smit ... [...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] |
Xavier Davis
Xavier Davis (born 1971 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, producer, and music educator who leads the Xavier Davis Trio. In addition to performing with the Christian McBride Big Band and other groups as a side man. In 2014 he was appointed Associate Professor of Jazz Piano at Michigan State University. He previously taught at the Juilliard Jazz program at the Juilliard School for six years. He performed on two Grammy-winning albums ''The Good Feeling'', and '' Bringin' It'' with the Christian McBride Big Band. Davis was the Musical Director for the Boys Choir of Harlem for the 1999-2000 season. He appeared on the television series Cosby as a pianist. Biography While performing with his college ensemble at the 1994 International Association of Jazz Educators convention in Boston, vocalist Betty Carter caught his performance and took him to New York to work with her trio. Davis recognizes former Juilliard Jazz faculty chair and drummer Carl A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Newsome
Sam Newsome (born April 28, 1965) is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator. His music combines straight-ahead jazz, world music (drawing influences from North Africa and East Asia) and experimental jazz, which uses extended techniques. Newsome is an associate professor of music and the coordinator of the music program at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus. Biography Early life Newsome was born in Salisbury, Maryland and began playing the alto saxophone at age nine. His family moved to Hampton, Virginia years later while he was in elementary school. At age 13, Newsome switched to the tenor saxophone when he joined his junior high school jazz ensemble. While in high school, he played in a garage band called Fantasy One with classmate bassist James Genus. Saxophonist Steve Wilson, who was a former member of the group, taught Newsome jazz theory after school while in high school. Education He studied Jazz Composition & Arranging at the Berklee College of Mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Evans
Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter. He was a partner in a composing and song-writing duo with Jay Livingston, known for the songs they composed for films. Evans wrote the lyrics and Livingston wrote the music.Ray Evans papers, 1921-2012 Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania. Biography Evans was born to a ish family in , to Philip and Frances Lipsitz Evans. He was valedictorian of ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay Livingston
Jay Livingston (born Jacob Harold Levison, March 28, 1915 – October 17, 2001) was an American composer best known as half of a song-writing duo with Ray Evans that specialized in songs composed for films. Livingston wrote music and Evans the lyrics. Early life and career Livingston was born in McDonald, Pennsylvania to Jewish parents. He had an older sister, Vera, and a younger brother, Alan W. Livingston, who became an executive with Capitol Records, and later with NBC television. Livingston studied piano with Harry Archer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he organized a dance band and met Evans, a fellow student in the band. Their professional collaboration began in 1937. Livingston and Evans won the Academy Award for Best Original Song three times, in 1948 for the song "Buttons and Bows", written for the movie '' The Paleface''; in 1950 for the song "Mona Lisa", written for the movie '' Captain Carey, U.S.A.''; and in 1956 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Noble
Raymond Stanley Noble (17 December 1903 – 2 April 1978) was an English jazz and big band musician, who was a bandleader, composer and arranger, as well as a radio host, television and film comedian and actor; he also performed in the United States. Noble wrote both lyrics and music for many popular songs during the British dance band era, known as the "Golden Age of British music", notably for his longtime friend and associate Al Bowlly, including "Love Is the Sweetest Thing", "Cherokee", "The Touch of Your Lips", "I Hadn't Anyone Till You", and his signature tune, "The Very Thought of You". Noble played a radio comedian opposite American ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's stage act of Mortimer Snerd and Charlie McCarthy, and American comedy duo Burns and Allen, later transferring these roles from radio to TV and popular films. Early life and career Noble was born at 1 Montpelier Terrace in the Montpelier area of Brighton, England. A blue plaque on the house commemorates him. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987) was an American jazz bass guitar, bassist, composer and producer. He recorded albums as a solo artist and band leader and was a member of Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with other artists, most notably Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell. His bass playing employed funk, lyrical solos, bass Chord (music), chords, and innovative harmonics. As of 2017 he was the only electric bassist of seven bassists inducted into the ''DownBeat'' Jazz Hall of Fame, and he has been lauded as among the best electric bassists of all time. Pastorius suffered from Addiction, drug addiction and mental health issues and, despite his widespread acclaim, over the latter part of his life he had problems holding down jobs due to his unreliability. In frequent financial difficulties, he was often homeless in the mid-1980s. He died in 1987 as a result of injuries sustained in a beating outside a South Flor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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