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Red Richards
Charles Coleridge "Red" Richards (October 19, 1912, New York City – March 12, 1998, Scarsdale, New York) was an American jazz pianist. Biography Richards began playing classical piano at age ten and concentrated on jazz from age sixteen after hearing Fats Waller. His first major professional gig was with Tab Smith at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City from 1945 to 1949. Following this he played with Bob Wilber (1950–51) and Sidney Bechet (1951). He toured Italy and France in 1953 with Mezz Mezzrow's band alongside Buck Clayton and Big Chief Moore, also accompanying Frank Sinatra in Italy. He played with Muggsy Spanier intermittently from 1953 through the end of the decade and with Fletcher Henderson in 1957–58. In 1958, he performed as a solo act in Columbus, Ohio, then played with Wild Bill Davison in 1958–59 and again in 1962. In 1960 he formed Saints & Sinners with Vic Dickenson, playing with this band until 1970. He joined jazz drummer Chuck Slate and his band in 19 ... [...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] |
Victor Gaskin
Roderick Victor Gaskin (November 23, 1934 – July 14, 2012) was an American jazz bassist. Gaskin was born in The Bronx, New York and moved to Los Angeles in 1962. He started playing with Paul Horn and Red Mitchell and went on to become one of many bass players for the Jazz Crusaders. He also recorded with Curtis Amy and Dupree Bolton, before becoming a part of the West Coast jazz scene, accompanying Buddy Collette, Shelly Manne, and Bud Shank. Between 1966 and 1970, he was a member of Cannonball Adderley's groups, and in 1970 recorded with Duke Ellington's octet, quintet, quartet and trio. He started playing with the Billy Taylor Trio in the late 1970s, continuing until 1993, as well as with Johnny Hartman and Hank Jones. Between 1994 and 2001 Victor Gaskin was in Singapore and performed regularly at The Four Seasons Hotel with Boni de Souza & Friends for the iconic Sunday Jazz Brunch. They were pioneers of the Sunday Jazz Brunch scene in Singapore, setting the trend for ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grady Tate
Grady Tate (January 14, 1932 – October 8, 2017) was an American jazz and soul-jazz drummer and baritone vocalist. In addition to his work as sideman, Tate released many albums as leader and lent his voice to songs in the animated '' Schoolhouse Rock!'' series. Biography Tate was born in Hayti, Durham, North Carolina, United States. In 1963 he moved to New York City, where he became the drummer in Quincy Jones's band. Grady Tate's drumming helped to define a particular hard bop, soul jazz and organ trio sound during the mid-1960s and beyond. His slick, layered and intense sound is instantly recognizable for its understated style in which he integrates his trademark subtle nuances with sharp, crisp "on top of the beat" timing (in comparison to playing slightly before, or slightly after the beat). The Grady Tate sound can be heard prominently on many of the classic Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery albums recorded on the Verve label in the 1960s. During the 1970s he was a member ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Taylor
Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 – December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. A jazz activist, Taylor sat on the Honorary Founders Board of The Jazz Foundation of America, an organisation he founded in 1989, with Ann Ruckert, Herb Storfer and Phoebe Jacobs, to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, later including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina. Taylor was a jazz educator, who lectured in colleges, served on panels and travelled worldwide as a jazz ambassador. Critic Leonard Feather once said, "It is almost indisputable that Dr. Billy Taylor is the world's foremost spokesman for jazz." Biography Early life and career Taylor was born in Greenville, North Carolina, Unit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmen Lundy
Carmen Latretta Lundy (born November 1, 1954) is an American jazz singer. She has been performing for three decades, with a focus on original material. She has been positively compared with Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Lundy is also the sister of bassist Curtis Lundy. Lundy's albums "Modern Ancestors" (2021) and "Fade to Black" (2022) were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Biography Lundy was born November 1, 1954, in Miami, Florida, and at the age of six began to study the piano.Azeez, Malik (May 21, 2003) "Vocalist Carmen Lundy Is the Queen of Jazz". ''The Washington Informer''. p. 21. Her mother, Oveida, was the lead singer in a gospel group known as The Apostolic Singers. After Lundy joined her church junior choir, she decided to become a singer when she was 12 years old. While an opera major at the University of Miami, where she received a BA in Music, she sang with a jazz band and decided to sing vocal jazz. She cites Dionn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Berrios
Steve Berrios (February 24, 1945 – July 25, 2013) was an American jazz drummer and percussionist born in New York City. Biography Starting out on trumpet while in public school, he was influenced by his father, a professional drummer, and his neighbors in Upper Manhattan: Tito Puente, Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria. At 16, he began winning talent and trumpet contests, including the famed Apollo Theatre competitions, in which he placed first no less than five times. Switching his focus to drums and percussion, he started touring and recording with Mongo Santamaria at age 19. He learned to play batá sacred drums from Julito Collazo. He played conga, djembe, cowbells, marimba, timpani and glockenspiel in Dizzy Gillespie’s band on a good-will tour of Cuba in the 1980s. In 1981, he became a founding member of the milestone Latin jazz group “Jerry González & the Fort Apache Band”. Berrios recorded more than a dozen albums as a member of the Fort Apache Band, including “T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill O'Connell
Bill O'Connell (born August 22, 1953 in New York City) is a jazz pianist, educator, and bandleader. He is most associated with Latin jazz and hard bop. He studied piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, but has mostly lived in NYC or Long Island. He teaches jazz piano at Mason Gross School for the Arts at the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University, in New Jersey. He worked with Chet Baker and Sonny Rollins early on in his career. From 1982 to 2017 he has often collaborated and toured with Dave Valentin. Discography * 1978 ''Searchig'' (Inner City Records) * 1988 ''Love For Sale'' (Bellaphon, Jazz City) * 1993 ''Lost Voices'' (CTI Records) * 1998 The Jazz Slumber Project Directed By Bill O'Connell - Sleep Warm - A Jazz Lullaby Collection (HokanZee Records) * 2001 ''Black Sand'' (Random Chance) * 2010 ''Rhapsody In Blue'' (Challenge Records) * 2015: ''The Power Of Two'' (Panorama) * 2016: ''Heart Beat'' (Savant) * 2018: ''Jazz Latin'' (Savant) * 2019: ''Wind Off The Hudson ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Hart
Billy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band in the early 1970s, as well with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest, among others. Biography Hart was born in Washington, D.C. He grew up in close proximity of the Spotlite Club, where he first heard the music of Lee Morgan, Ahmad Jamal, and Miles Davis, among others. Early on in his career he performed with Otis Redding and Sam and Dave, then with Buck Hill. Although he studied mechanical engineering at Howard University, he left school early to tour with Shirley Horn, whom Hart credits with accelerating his musical development. He was a sideman with the Montgomery Brothers (1961), Jimmy Smith (1964–1966), and Wes Montgomery (1966–68). Following Montgomery's death in 1968, Hart moved to New York City, where he recorded with McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, and Pharoah Sanders (playing on his famed record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Booker
Walter Booker (December 17, 1933 – November 24, 2006) was an American jazz musician. A native of Prairie View, Texas, Booker was a reliable bass player and an underrated stylist. His playing was marked by voice-like inflections, glissandos and tremolo techniques. Biography Booker moved with his family to Washington, D.C. in the mid-1940s. He played clarinet and alto sax in college with a concert band. In 1959 he began on bass while in the US Army while serving in the same unit as Elvis Presley. He worked with Andrew White in Washington after his discharge, playing in the ''JFK Quintet'' during the early 1960s. In 1964 Booker moved to New York City, being hired by Donald Byrd. After that, he recorded and toured with Ray Bryant, Betty Carter, Chick Corea, Stan Getz, Art Farmer, Milt Jackson, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, before joining the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in 1969, starting an association which lasted until Adderley's death in 1975. He then toured the United S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron (born June 9, 1943) is an American jazz pianist, who has appeared on hundreds of recordings as leader and sideman and is considered one of the most influential mainstream jazz pianists since the bebop era. Biography Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Kenny Barron is the younger brother of tenor saxophonist Bill Barron (1927–1989). One of his first gigs was as pianist with the Dizzy Gillespie quartet. Barron was briefly a member of the Jazztet around 1962, but did not record with them. He graduated in 1978 with a BA in arts from Empire State College (Metropolitan Center, New York City). He co-led the groups Sphere and the Classical Jazz Quartet. Between 1987 and 1991, Barron recorded several albums with Stan Getz, most notably ''Voyage'', ''Bossas & Ballads – The Lost Sessions'', '' Serenity'', ''Anniversary'' and ''People Time'', a two-CD set. He has been nominated nine times for Grammy Awards and for the American Jazz Hall of Fame. He was elected a Fello ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Davis (saxophonist)
Charles Davis (May 20, 1933 – July 15, 2016) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Davis played alto, tenor and baritone saxophone, and performed extensively with Archie Shepp and Sun Ra. Biography Born in Goodman, Mississippi, Davis was raised in Chicago. After being sent to boarding school at St Benedict's in Milwaukee, he graduated from DuSable High School before studying at the Chicago School of Music. Davis also studied privately with John Hauser. During the 1950s, he played with Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Sun Ra and Dinah Washington. Davis also performed and recorded with Kenny Dorham, with whom he associated musically for many years. During the 1960s, he performed and recorded with Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison, Illinois Jacquet, Freddie Hubbard, Johnny Griffin, Steve Lacy and Ahmad Jamal, also working with Blue Mitchell, Erskine Hawkins, John Coltrane and Clifford Jordan. In 1964, Davis topped ''DownBeat'' magazine's International Jazz Critics Poll for bariton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
