Mulatu Asatké

Mulatu Playlist sur Deezer

Mulatu Astatke (ou Astatqé) est un musicien et arrangeur éthiopien, né en 1943 à Jimma en Éthiopie. Il est connu comme étant le père de l’Éthio-jazz.

Percussioniste de formation, Mulatu Astatke joue notamment du vibraphone et des congas. Après de courtes études scientifiques à Birmingham en Angleterre, il intégre à la fin des années 1950 le Trinity College of Music de Londres pour étudier la clarinette et la composition, puis part à New York, et Boston, où il a été le premier étudiant africain au Collège de musique de Berklee. Il en a ramené des influences jazz et musique latine pour les mélanger à la musique traditionnelle éthiopienne. Dans les années 1970, il joue avec de nombreux artistes de jazz américain dont Duke Ellington. En Éthiopie, il produit des chansons pour d’autres artistes, notamment Mahmoud Ahmed.

Après le succès de la collection Éthiopiques éditée par Buda Musique à partir de 1999, et celui du film Broken Flowers de Jim Jarmusch en2005, dont il signe une partie de la musique, il entame une importante seconde carrière internationale. Mulatu Astatke enseigne également auMassachusetts Institute of Technology de Cambridge près de Boston dans le Massachusetts .

Depuis quelques années Mulatu Astatke se produit régulièrement avec deux groupes : l’américain Either/Orchestra et l’européen The Heliocentrics.

Le MySpace de Malatu

Recado Bossa Nova – Hank Mobley

Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Lee Morgan (trumpet), Harold Mabern Jr (piano), Larry Ridley (bass), Billy Higgins (drums).

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. June 18, 1965.

(from: "Dippin" Blue Note 4209)

Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan appeared to be inseparable. They first teamed up, in November 1956, for the spirited young trumpeter’s Savoy label debut. Morgan was 18, a veteran of Dizzy Gillespie’s Big Band and a firebrand performer. Mobley, seven years his senior, distinguished himself blowing in a highly personalized manner that frequently ran counter to the Hard Bop stampede of the time. Nonetheless, Mobley’s stance never excluded him form the best games in town, being sufficiently adaptable to score frontline employment with top draw bands of Art Blakey, Max Roach, Horace Silver and Miles Davis. Three weeks after the Savoy set, Morgan repaid Mobley in kind, sharing trumpet duties with the ubiquitous Donald Byrd on a Blue Note date, ‘Sextet’ (1540).

And, that’s the way their comradeship continued. In all, Morgan guested on seven of Hank Mobleys Blue Note outings, whilst the tenorist is to be hear on three Lee-led efforts for Alfred Lion. A founder Jazz Messenger, Mobley returned to HQ, in the spring of 59, to briefly partner Morgan for the period between Benny Golson’s departure and Wayne Shorter’s arrival. And, is on the two volums of At The Jazz Corner Of The Word’ (4015/16) direct from Birdland’s bandstand, that foreveer remains testament to their Blakey-driven process.

Recado bossa nova, hank mobley, jazz messenger, art blakey, lee morgan

Kenny Burrell Biographie

Né à Detroit (Michigan), dans une famille de musiciens, Kenny Burrell apprend à jouer de la guitare sur l’instrument d’un de ses trois frères. Dès la fin des années quarante, le jeune autodidacte, qui écoute les disques de Charlie Christian et de Django Reinhardt, se produit dans les clubs locaux avec des vedettes de passage, avant de rejoindre l’orchestre de Dizzy Gillespie en 1951, puis de former son propre groupe. Parallèlement à ces activités, il se met à étudier la guitare classique et, en 1955, remplace Herb Ellis au sein du trio d’Oscar Peterson.

Excellent technicien et pur styliste dont l’art est fortement ancré dans le blues, Kenny Burrell, lorsqu’il s’installe à New York l’année suivante, est aussitôt sollicité pour de nombreuses séances d’enregistrements, notamment aux côtés du trompettiste Kenny Dorham, de l’organiste Jimmy Smith, des saxophonistes John Coltrane et Coleman Hawkins, ou du clarinettiste Benny Goodman, entre autres.

Sa connaissance de toutes les formes et de tous les styles de guitare l’autorise à participer à de nombreux spectacles new-yorkais ; il se produit ainsi à plusieurs reprises en trio au Village Vanguard (célèbre club de jazz de la ville), ainsi que dans la plupart des grands festivals mondiaux, où il revient régulièrement. Il est également professeur d’histoire du jazz à l’université de Los Angeles.

Des collaborations prestigieuses au service d’une guitare polymorphe

En dehors des albums sous son propre nom publiés par le label Blue Note (voir jazz, labels de), se détachent de son importante discographie ses collaborations avec Jimmy Smith — Back at the Chicken Shack (1960) et Midnight Special (1960) — et avec l’arrangeur Gil Evans — Guitar Forms (1965) —, sa participation au quintette de Bill Evans— Quintessence (1976) — et un hommage à Duke Ellington — Ellington Is For Ever (1975 pour le premier volume, 1977 pour le second).

Prodige de la mise en place rythmique, Kenny Burrell se distingue également par la finesse et la précision avec lesquelles il exécute de somptueuses lignes mélodiques, par la relative sagesse de ses improvisations d’où surgissent parfois d’intenses fulgurances et par un son plein et chaleureux. Il est incontestablement l’un des meilleurs guitaristes de cette génération formée à l’école du hard bop. (Extrait MSN Encarta)

Discographie (Rollingstone)

Charles Mingus – Bio

One of the most important figures in twentieth century American music, Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Born on a military base in Nogales, Arizona in 1922 and raised in Watts, California, his earliest musical influences came from the church– choir and group singing– and from “hearing Duke Ellington over the radio when [he] was eight years old.” He studied double bass and composition in a formal way (five years with H. Rheinshagen, principal bassist of the New York Philharmonic, and compositional techniques with the legendary Lloyd Reese) while absorbing vernacular music from the great jazz masters, first-hand. His early professional experience, in the 40’s, found him touring with bands like Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton.

Eventually he settled in New York where he played and recorded with the leading musicians of the 1950’s– Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington himself. One of the few bassists to do so, Mingus quickly developed as a leader of musicians. He was also an accomplished pianist who could have made a career playing that instrument. By the mid-50’s he had formed his own publishing and recording companies to protect and document his growing repertoire of original music. He also founded the “Jazz Workshop,” a group which enabled young composers to have their new works performed in concert and on recordings.

Mingus soon found himself at the forefront of the avant-garde. His recordings bear witness to the extraordinarily creative body of work that followed. They include: Pithecanthropus Erectus, The Clown, Tijuana Moods, Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Ah Um, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Cumbia and Jazz Fusion, Let My Children Hear Music. He recorded over a hundred albums and wrote over three hundred scores.
Although he wrote his first concert piece, “Half-Mast Inhibition,” when he was seventeen years old, it was not recorded until twenty years later by a 22-piece orchestra with Gunther Schuller conducting. It was the presentation of “Revelations” which combined jazz and classical idioms, at the 1955 Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts, that established him as one of the foremost jazz composers of his day.

In 1971 Mingus was awarded the Slee Chair of Music and spent a semester teaching composition at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In the same year his autobiography, Beneath the Underdog, was published by Knopf. In 1972 it appeared in a Bantam paperback and was reissued after his death, in 1980, by Viking/Penguin and again by Pantheon Books, in 1991. In 1972 he also re-signed with Columbia Records. His music was performed frequently by ballet companies, and Alvin Ailey choreographed an hour program called “The Mingus Dances” during a 1972 collaboration with the Robert Joffrey Ballet Company.

He toured extensively throughout Europe, Japan, Canada, South America and the United States until the end of 1977 when he was diagnosed as having a rare nerve disease, Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis. He was confined to a wheelchair, and although he was no longer able to write music on paper or compose at the piano, his last works were sung into a tape recorder.

From the 1960’s until his death in 1979 at age 56, Mingus remained in the forefront of American music. When asked to comment on his accomplishments, Mingus said that his abilities as a bassist were the result of hard work but that his talent for composition came from God.

Mingus received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Smithsonian Institute, and the Guggenheim Foundation (two grants). He also received an honorary degree from Brandeis and an award from Yale University. At a memorial following Mingus’ death, Steve Schlesinger of the Guggenheim Foundation commented that Mingus was one of the few artists who received two grants and added: “I look forward to the day when we can transcend labels like jazz and acknowledge Charles Mingus as the major American composer that he is.” The New Yorker wrote: “For sheer melodic and rhythmic and structural originality, his compositions may equal anything written in western music in the twentieth century.”

He died in Mexico on January 5, 1979, and his ashes were scattered in the Ganges River in India. Both New York City and Washington, D.C. honored him posthumously with a “Charles Mingus Day.”

After his death, the National Endowment for the Arts provided grants for a Mingus foundation called “Let My Children Hear Music” which catalogued all of Mingus’ works. The microfilms of these works were then given to the Music Division of the New York Public Library where they are currently available for study and scholarship – a first for jazz. Repertory bands called the Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Orchestra and the Mingus Big Band continue to perform his music. Biographies of Charles Mingus include Mingus by Brian Priestley; Mingus/Mingus by Janet Coleman and Al Young and Myself When I Am Real, by Gene Santoro.

Mingus’ masterwork, “Epitaph,” a composition which is more than 4000 measures long and which requires two hours to perform, was discovered during the cataloguing process. With the help of a grant from the Ford Foundation, the score and instrumental parts were copied, and the piece itself was premiered by a 30-piece orchestra, conducted by Gunther Schuller, in a concert produced by Sue Mingus at Alice Tully Hall on June 3, 1989, ten years after Mingus’ death.

The New Yorker wrote that “Epitaph” represents the first advance in jazz composition since Duke Ellington’s “Black, Brown, and Beige,” which was written in 1943. The New York Times said it ranked with the “most memorable jazz events of the decade.” Convinced that it would never be performed in his lifetime, Mingus called his work “Epitaph,” declaring that he wrote it “for my tombstone.”

The Library of Congress was presented with the Charles Mingus Collection in 1993, including autographed manuscripts, photographs, literary manuscripts, correspondence, and tape recordings of interviews, broadcasts, recording sessions, and Mingus composing at the piano.

Reprinted from More than a Fake Book © 1991 Jazz Workshop, Inc.

Wikipedia entry

Jacques de Lignières – Bio

A propos de Jacques de Lignières
JdL Quartet se produit dans plusieurs clubs parisiens (le Petit Journal Montparnasse, le Franc Pinot, Autour de Midi …) et dans quelques festivals (Jazz à St Piat, May Jazz, Jazz au Confluent…) avec Claudine François au piano, actuellement Olivier Léger, Stéphane Benveniste à la contrebasse, puis Xavier Barloy, actuellement Hervé Czak , Bertrand Perrin à la batterie, actuellement Serge Lamboley, et toujours JdL ! Mais également avec des guest stars : Bobby Few, Frédéric Delestré…

JdL Quartet en concert à Conflans…
…Le sax alto se vit dans le jazz à l’ombre de l’oiseau Parker, dont la pyrotechnie aérienne est devenue la référence absolue et incontournable des altistes. Or, il existe au moins une autre voie, celle tracée par le moins connu Art Pepper, musicien californien dont la vie tourmentée se reflète dans un timbre fragile, voire écorché mais dynamique, qui le rapprocherait d’une forme expressioniste. C’est plutôt dans cette direction que se pencherait Jacques de Lignières, un musicien dont le style, de prime abord détendu à la limite de la nonchalance, révèle vite un goût pour les tensions, et une envie de la note et de la phrase qui en dit plus sur la vie intérieure… On y entend pousser jusqu’à la plainte, celle qui puise dans le langage du blues. Sa composition Temps incertain est exemplaire de cette dualité. Sur un rythme à la légèreté façon habañera se déploie un thème sur fond de canevas harmonique aux changements déstabilisants comme le suggère le titre.
La référence à Pepper, on la retrouve explicitement dans la reprise d’un lancinant blues en 5 temps, Las Cuevas de Mario (Pepper’s Caves). Déjouant la difficulté du métrique, la solide assise rythmique fournie par Hervé Czak à la contrebasse permet au pianiste Olivier Léger de développer son jeu puissant au son perlé dans de belles envolées.
JdL est un arpenteur de la culture musicale, bien au-delà des confins des grands standards : il n’hésite pas à s’inspirer, par exemple, d’un Prélude de Chopin pour en extraire une “jazz waltz”: Lost Prelude, chargée d’émotion ; ou encore à nous convier à partager un bon couscous modal et « caravanesque » à souhait dans l’ambiance d’un bon petit resto nord africain : l’écriture d’Hotel de la Gare vient d’un temps où JdL s’y produisait souvent à Paris… On y met le cap plein sud, darbouka à l’appui, pour un voyage où Serge Lamboley peut donner libre court à son imagination et sa maitrîse des polyrhythmies.
Enfin, JdL est un musicien généreux et ouvert, comme en témoigne l’énergie qu’il consacre depuis deux ans maintenant à l’initiative Jazz au Confluent, une association de bénévoles qui organise tous les ans une quinzaine de concerts de qualité à entrée libre.
Alan Fell

Vous avez dit “Hard Bop”?

 

Le hard bop prend source dans un mouvement de reconnaissance par les noirs américains de leurs origines, appelé Black is beautiful (« Le Noir est beau ») : un retour aux sources de la musique, à l’Afrique et, en même temps, une réaction agressive (musicalement parlant) au cool jazz (d’où le terme « hard ») surtout dominé par les blancs. L’auteur américain David Rosenthal nota aussi que le hard bop était un développement naturel pendant une époque où des musiciens d’envergure (Tadd Dameron, par exemple) travaillaient et dans le jazz et dans le rhythm and blues.

Même si la plupart des acteurs de ce courant ont fait leur apprentissage dans le style bebop (d’où le terme « bop »), ce genre musical incorpore les influences du rhythm and blues, du blues et du gospel, notamment dans les jeux du piano et du saxophone.

Les morceaux de hard bop ont généralement un tempo plus lent que le bebop, et si le hard bop en reprend les innovations harmoniques, la part du rythme y est nettement plus marquée, sans doute en raison de la contribution majeure des batteurs Max Roach et Art Blakey. On y découvre d’ailleurs pour la première fois des batteurs compositeurs.

Le hard bop est généralement pratiqué par un quintet composé d’une section rythmique (pianiste, batteur et bassiste) et de deux “soufflants” — communément un saxophoniste ténor et un trompettiste — qui interprètent ensemble un thème entourant une série de solos improvisés tour à tour par chacun des musiciens sur l’harmonie du morceau.

 

Évolution

Une première apparition des caractéristiques du hard bop se reconnaît dans le quintette fondé en 1954 par le batteur Max Roach et le trompettiste Clifford Brown, rejoints en 1955 par le saxophoniste ténor Sonny Rollins. Toutefois, on considère que le premier représentant de ce style fut le groupe des Jazz Messengers créé par le batteur Art Blakey et le pianiste Horace Silver en 1955. Ce dernier formera en 1956 son propre quintette.

En 1955 également, le trompettiste Miles Davis embaucha le saxophoniste John Coltrane (Sonny Rollins ayant décliné l’invitation) dans son quintet, au côté de Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (basse) et Philly Joe Jones (batterie). À cette époque, Coltrane était encore un musicien inconnu.

En 1957, c’est au tour de Sonny Rollins de créer son ensemble — dans lequel on retrouvait Silver, Monk, Chambers — et d’inaugurer l’apparition du trombone dans le hard bop avec Jay Jay Johnson.

Blue Note et Prestige sont les principaux labels qui produisirent des groupes de hard bop et, pendant cette période, le graphisme des pochettes d’albums évolua fortement.

Le soul jazz se développa à partir du hard bop. Le saxophoniste alto Jackie McLean réussit une fusion du hard bop et du jazz modal pendant les années 60 et celles qui suivirent.

 

Quelques Hard Bopers…

 Pepper Adams • Cannonball Adderley • Nat Adderley • Gene Ammons  • Dave Bailey • Donald Bailey • Ray Barretto • Kenny Barron • George Benson • Art Blakey • Joanne Brackeen • Nick Brignola • Tina Brooks • Clifford Brown • Ray Brown • Ray Bryant • Rusty Bryant • Kenny Burrell • Frank Butler • Don Byas • Donald Byrd • Conte Candoli • Paul Chambers • Ray Charles • Sonny Clark • Kenny Clarke • Jimmy Cleveland • Jimmy Cobb • Ornette Coleman • John Coltrane • Junior Cook • Bob Cooper • Curtis Counce •  Sonny Criss • Miles Davis • Walter Davis, Jr. • Lou Donaldson • Kenny Dorham • Kenny Drew • Teddy Edwards • Booker Ervin • Art Farmer • Tommy Flanagan • Ricky Ford • Frank Foster • Curtis Fuller • John Gilmore • Benny Golson • Dexter Gordon • Wardell Gray • Benny Green • Grant Green • Johnny Griffin • Gigi Gryce • Herbie Hancock • Roy Hargrove • Barry Harris • Eddie Harris • Louis Hayes • Jimmy Heath • Joe Henderson • Billy Higgins • Elmo Hope • Freddy Hubbard • Bobby Hutcherson • Milt Jackson • The Jazz Crusaders • The Jazz Lab • The Jazztet •  J.J. Johnson • Elvin Jones • Hank Jones • Philly Joe Jones • Clifford Jordan • Duke Jordan • Wynton Kelly • Harold Land • Jake Langley • Victor Lewis • Lighthouse All-Stars • Erica Lindsay • Melba Liston Les McCann • Jackie McLean • Charles Mingus • Blue Mitchell • Hank Mobley • T.S. Monk • Thelonious Monk • J.R. Monterose • Wes Montgomery • Ralph Moore • Lee Morgan • David “Fathead” Newman • Horace Parlan • Duke Pearson • Houston Person • Bud Powell • Ike Quebec • Freddie Redd • Dizzy Reece • Jerome Richardson • Max Roach • Sonny Rollins • Frank Rosolino • Charlie Rouse • Tom Scott • Woody Shaw • Travis Shook • Wayne Shorter • Horace Silver • Jimmy Smith • Lonnie Smith • Marvin “Smitty” Smith • Mike Smith • Sonny Stitt • Art Taylor • Clark Terry • The Three Sounds • Bobby Timmons • Stanley Turrentine • Tommy Turrentine • Cedar Walton • Doug Watkins • Mark Whitfield • Richard Williams • Larry Young.

Spyro Gyra – Morning Dance

Spyro Gyra est un groupe américain de jazz-rock fusion formé au début des années 1970 dans la ville de Buffalo, dans l’état de New York. Il a connu de nombreuses versions différentes, les seuls membres actuels issus de la formation d’origine étant le saxophoniste alto Jay Beckenstein et le pianiste/claviériste Tom Schuman. Ils sont actuellement épaulés par le guitariste Julio Fernandez, le bassiste Scott Ambush et le

 batteur/percussionniste Bonny Bonaparte. Avec plus de 25 albums au compteur et 10 millions de copies vendues, ils forment l’un des groupes de jazz fusion les plus vendeurs aux États-Unis. Leur musique combinant jazz et éléments de funk, R&B ou pop (avec quelques influences caribéennes notables), ils sont de ce fait considérés comme l’un des groupes ayant forgé le son du smooth jazz, ce qui leur vaudra parfois les critiques de puristes qui leur reprocheront leur approche trop mélodique et donc leur manque d’improvisation, cas classique de tous les artistes ou groupes appartenant à ce genre. Toutefois, ils sont reconnus comme des musiciens de talent, notamment pour leurs prestations live et accumulent les récompenses aux Grammy Awards, aussi bien dans les catégories Jazz fusion, Pop instrumentale que R&B instrumental.

Joe Henderson – Bio

Joe Henderson

 

Joe Henderson

Tenor Saxophone
April 24, 1937 — June 30, 2001

“Joe Henderson is always in the middle of a great solo.”

–Richard Cook & Brian Morton

Joe Henderson was born in Lima, Ohio, on April 24, 1937. Lima is fifty miles south of Toledo, Ohio, sixty miles north of Dayton, Ohio, sixty miles east of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and about a hundred and twenty miles from Detroit–which is probably the reason why Joe went to Detroit to live and study.

He finished high school in Lima, and gives credit to a home town drummer, John Jarette, who advised him to listen to Charlie Parker, among others. Getz was the one who got through to him first because of his sound, taste and simplicity; however, later, Charlie Parker became his great inspiration.

There were a couple of piano players around Lima who gave him a working knowledge of the piano, namely Richard Patterson and Don Hurless. They were older fellows who went to school with his older brothers and sisters. Incidentally, there were fifteen brothers and sisters, and there being no night baseball or T.V., this might have possibly accounted for such a large family.

Joe’s first saxophone teacher, Herbert Murphy, was responsible for his embryonic understanding of the instrument. Joe was still in high school, and he did quite a bit of writing for the school concert band and also for various “rock” groups that came through Lima.

“My older brother James T. encouraged me to go to college to cultivate the talent he thought I had. I went to Kentucky State College for one year, then to Wayne University in Detroit where I met Yusef Lateef, High Lawson, Donald Byrd and all the other motor city musicians.”

In Detroit, Joe studied with Larry Teal at the Teal School of Music, learning theory, harmony and the finer points of saxophone playing. He also studied flute and string bass at Wayne University. During the latter part of 1959, he formed his own group. Prior to his army induction, he was commissioned by “UNAC,” an organization similar to NAACP or the Urban League, to do a suite called “Swing and Strings” which showcased some originals arranged by him, played by an orchestra comprised of ten members from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra combined with the local dance band of Jimmy Wilkins, the brother of Ernie Wilkins.

1960 found Joe Henderson in the United States Army Band at Fort Benning, GA. He had competed in the army talent show and won first place with a 4 piece combo, which qualified him for the all army entertainment contest. Later he was chosen at Fort Belvoir, Virgina, to tour with a show around the world to entertain troops. This tour led him to Okinawa, Korea, Japan, Panama, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, England and other countries. While in Paris, he sat in with Kenny Clarke and Kenny Drew.

In the late summer of 1962, a bearded young 25 year old tenor saxophonist, slight of build, with might in his fingers, rolled into New York town in a sleek black Mercedes-Benz. He was just discharged from the United States Army in Maryland where he had concluded a two year hitch. The first stop was at a party at a friend’s place (saxophonist Junior Cook) where I was introduced to this bearded, goateed astronaut of the tenor sax. Later I suggested that we go down to see Dexter Gordon who was headlining the Birdland Monday night “Jazz Jamboree.” Boarding the “A” train, we were at 52nd Street and Broadway some twenty five minutes later. Once inside Birdland, Henderson was introduced to one of the “swingingest swingers” in jazzdom’s history, Dexter Gordon. “Long Tall Dexter” asked the young man if he’d like to play some.

Minutes afterward, the musical astronaut was on the launching pad, and the count down was in progress with a three man crew (rhythm section) behind him. There was a thunderous (Art Blakey type) roar from the battery man, and the saxophonist was off and soaring his (lyrical) way to new heights on a Charlie Parker blues line. At the end of the chorus (and I do mean 15 to 20), there was a warm and exhilarating applause for Joe, and as for Dex, sitting on the side, he looked “gassed.”

Here’s hoping that the young gentleman from Lima, Ohio, can cash in on all of his wonderful talents–his arranging, composing and tenor “saxophoning” extraordinary. Here’s hoping that his skies remain blue and his horizon clear, and that he receives his due, and that all who hear him will support the boy from “Soulsville.”

–KENNY DORHAM, from the liner notes,
Page One, Blue Note.

---

A selected discography of Joe Henderson albums.

• Page One, 1963, Blue Note.
• Our Thing, 1963, Blue Note.
• In ‘n Out, 1964, Blue Note.
• Inner Urge, 1964, Blue Note.
• Mode For Joe, 1966, Blue Note.
• Relaxin’ at Camarillo, 1979, Contemporary.
• Lush Life, 1991, Verve.

from: http://hardbop.tripod.com/henderson.html

Charlie Rouse – Bio

 

Charlie Rouse (April 6, 1924 - November 30, 1988) was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and flautist. 

Charlie Rouse was in Thelonious Monk’s Quartet for over a decade (1959-1970) and, although somewhat taken for granted, was an important ingredient in Monk’s music. Rouse was always a modern player and he worked with Billy Eckstine’s orchestra (1944) and the first Dizzy Gillespie ig band (1945), making his recording debut with Tadd Dameron in 1947. Rouse popped up in a lot of important groups including Duke Ellington’s Orchestra (1949-1950), Count Basie’s octet (1950), on sessions with Clifford Brown in 1953, and with Oscar Pettiford’s sextet (1955). He co-led the Jazz Modes with Julius Watkins (1956-1959), and then joined Monk for a decade of extensive touring and recordings. In the 1970s he recorded a few albums as a leader, and in 1979 he became a member of Sphere. Charlie Rouse’s unique sound began to finally get some recognition during the 1980s. He participated on Carmen McRae’s classic Carmen Sings Monk album and his last recording was at a Monk tribute concert.

~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

Bobby Few biographie

 

Bobby Few

Bobby Few was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in a family of musicians: his father always listened to jazz, his mother played violin and his uncle the trumpet.

 

He came from a very religious family (his grand father was a Baptist minister) which, without a shadow of a doubt, nourished his music spiritually.

Bobby Few was only 7 when he studied piano and later musical theory and composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He had two private teachers of splendid reputation.

At 16, he started playing in jazz clubs in Cleveland, his hometown.

One evening, he met Ella Fitzgerald who was so touched by his tender age that she encouraged him to pursue his path.

 

Soon after, Bobby Few created his own trio and played throughout the USA.

 

In the early 60’s, urged by Albert Ayler, Bobby Few went to New York. There, he made a first record with Booker Ervin “The In Between” (BLUE NOTE) then a second one with Albert Ayler intitled “Music Is The Healing Force of the Universe” (IMPULSE), both recently reedited.

He also played with Brook Benton, a rhythm and blues singer, with whom he toured the world. Later, Bobby Few became Benton’s musical director. Moreover, he played in the 60’s at the Playboy club where they had a marvellous experience.

Then, concert after concert, Bobby Few worked with many prestigious artists such as Archie Shepp, Kenny Clarke, Frank Wright, Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Sunny Murray, Roland Kirk, Nat Adderley, Frank Foster, David Murray, Bill Dixon, Albert Ayler or Steve Lacy with whom he toured the world from 1980 until 1992.

During his rich and fruitful career, Bobby Few also took part in more than 70 recordings: the latest untitled “Kindred Spirits”, produced by Box Holder Records (New York), will be released in April 2005.

Bobby Few has lived in Paris since 1969, a town where he found his artistic and intellectual equilibrium. Since 1993, he has directed his own trio and quintet.

His musical influences are deeply rooted in jazz with musicians such as Erroll Garner, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner or Cecil Taylor… However classical music has also played an influential role. Few says: “Classical music is one of the avenues leading to jazz because it gives a direction in the harmonic progressions of jazz.”

Thus, Bobby Few’s music is therefore the fruit of his numerous musical experiences. He is motivated by eclecticism, new sounds and new musical colours. He has succeeded in making us understand that music is universal. Thanks to his music, he sends us a message of peace, altruism and spirituality: he unites all peoples, whatever their colour, culture or origin.

Jazzed in Cleveland – Pianist Bobby Few

Jazzed in Cleveland - Pianist Bobby Few

Story filed January 28, 2004

He was one of Cleveland’s leading jazz pianists in the 1950s and ‘60s, and later, Bobby Few became one of the most respected and busiest pianists in Europe. After moving to Paris in the late 1960s, Few has performed on more than 50 jazz albums.

via Jazzed in Cleveland – Part 82 – Pianist Bobby Few.

Did you said Soul Jazz?

Soul jazz was a development of hard bop which incorporated strong influences from blues, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often the organ trio which featured the Hammond organ. Important soul jazz organists included Bill Doggett, Charles Earland, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Les McCann, ”Brother” Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Lonnie Smith, Big John Patton, Don Patterson, Shirley Scott, Hank Marr, Reuben Wilson, Jimmy Smith and Johnny Hammond Smith.

Tenor saxophone and guitar were also important in soul jazz; soul jazz tenors include Gene Ammons, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Eddie Harris, Houston Person, and Stanley Turrentine; guitarists include Grant Green and George Benson. Other important contributors were Alto saxophonists Lou Donaldson and Hank Crawford, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and drummer Idris Muhammed (ne Leo Morris). Unlike hard bop, soul jazz generally emphasized repetitive grooves, melodies, and melodic hooks.

Soul jazz was developed in the late 1950s, reaching public awareness with the release of The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco, and was perhaps most popular in the mid-to-late 1960s, though many soul jazz performers, and elements of the music, remain popular. Although the term “soul jazz” contains the word “soul,” soul jazz is only a distant cousin to soul music, in that soul developed from gospel and R&B rather than from jazz.

Some well-known soul jazz recordings are Lee Morgan’s The Sidewinder (1963), Herbie Hancock’s Cantaloupe Island (1964) (which was popularized further when sampled by US3 on Cantaloop), Horace Silver’s Song for My Father (1964) (which was musically alluded to by Steely Dan with Rikki Don’t Lose That Number), Ramsey Lewis’sThe In Crowd (1965), and Cannonball Adderley’s Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (1966) (also popularized further when covered as a top 40 pop song by The Buckinghams).

The Soul Jazz vernacular was a major contributer to the evolution of Jazz-Funk in the 1970s.

 

Soul jazz   Origins: hard bop, rhythm and blues, blues, gospel Cultural origins: 1950s Typical instruments:  Hammond organ, piano, saxophone, guitar,  double bass, electric bass, drums Mainstream popularity: 1950s to 1970s Subgenres: Jazz-funk List of Soul Jazz musiciens Cannonball Adderley – sax Nat Adderley - cornet Gene Ammons - sax Curtis Amy - sax Roy Ayers - vibraphone Joe Beck - guitar George Benson - guitar, vocals Lou Blackburn - trombone Billy Butler (guitarist) Earl Bostic - sax George Braith - sax Zachary Breaux - guitar Bobby Broom - guitar Norman Brown (guitarist) - guitar Ray Bryant - piano Rusty Bryant Kenny Burrell - guitar Billy Butler (guitarist) - guitar Arnett Cobb - sax Sonny Cox - sax Hank Crawford - sax The Crusaders King Curtis Eddie Davis (saxophonist) - sax Joey DeFrancesco - organ, trumpet Monica Dillon Bill Doggett Lou Donaldson - sax Cornell Dupree Charles Earland İlhan Erşahin - sax Wilton Felder Ronnie Foster George Freeman Funk, Inc. Maynard Ferguson - trumpet Grant Green - guitar Jabari Grover – Vocals Herbie Hancock Eddie Harris Gene Harris Bill Heid Wayne Henderson (musician) Red Holloway - saxophone Ron Holloway - tenor saxophone Richard Holmes (organist) - organ Stix Hooper Freddie Hubbard - trumpet Bobbi Humphrey - flute Fred Jackson (saxophonist) - sax Willis Jackson (saxophonist) - sax The J.B.’s Henry Johnson (guitarist) Plas Johnson Wayne Johnson - guitar Ivan “Boogaloo Joe” Jones - guitar Ronny Jordan - guitar Rahsaan Roland Kirk Earl Klugh - guitar Charles Kynard Ramsey Lewis - piano Bobby Lyle - piano Johnny Lytle Harold Mabern - piano Junior Mance - piano Herbie Mann - sax, flute Hank Marr - organ Pat Martino - guitar Hugh Masekela - trumpet Les McCann - piano Big Jay McNeely sax Wes Montgomery - guitar Dick Morrissey - tenor/soprano sax Ronald Muldrow - guitar Jack McDuff - organ Jimmy McGriff - organ Lee Morgan - trumpet Idris Muhammad - drums Ronald Muldrow - guitar Oliver Nelson - sax David Newman (jazz musician) - sax Johnny O’Neal Maceo Parker - sax John Patton (musician) - organ Duke Pearson - piano Houston Person - sax Sonny Phillips Trudy Pitts Jimmy Ponder Seldon Powell - sax, flute Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers Bernard Purdie Ike Quebec - sax Chuck Rainey Joshua Redman - sax Freddie Roach (organist) - organ Joe Sample - piano Marlon Saunders - vocals Rhoda Scott - organ Shirley Scott - organ Horace Silver - piano Nina Simone - vocals Dr. Lonnie Smith - organ Jimmy Smith (musician) - organ Johnny “Hammond” Smith - organ Melvin Sparks - guitar Leon Spencer - organ B.B. Reed - sax Grady Tate - drums Billy Taylor - piano The Three Souls The Three Sounds Bobby Timmons - piano Stanley Turrentine - sax James Ulmer Harold Vick - sax, flute Jr. Walker & the All Stars Winston Walls Grover Washington, Jr. - sax Mark Whitfield - guitar Don Wilkerson Baby Face Willette - organ Jack Wilson (jazz pianist) - piano Reuben Wilson John Wright – piano Larry Young (jazz) - organ Joe Zawinul - keyboards

Oscar Pettiford Bio

 

• Born: September 30, 1922, Okmulgee, OK
  

  Oscar Pettiford

   

   

• Died: September 08, 1960, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Active: ’40s, ’50s
• Instrument: Bass, Cello
• Representative Albums: “Deep Passion,” “Vienna Blues: The Complete Sessions,” “The New Oscar Pettiford Sextet”
• Representative Songs: “Bohemia After Dark,” “Little Niles,” “Laverne Walk”

Biography

Oscar Pettiford was (along with Charles Mingus) the top bassist of the 1945-1960 period, and the successor to the late Jimmy Blanton. In addition, he was the first major jazz soloist on the cello.

 

A bop pioneer, it would have been very interesting to hear what Pettiford would have done during the avant-garde ’60s if he had not died unexpectedly in 1960. After starting on piano, Pettiford switched to bass when he was 14 and played in a family band.

 

He played with Charlie Barnet’s band in 1942 as one of two bassists (the other was Chubby Jackson) and then hit the big time in 1943, participating on Coleman Hawkins’ famous “The Man I Love” session; he also recorded with Earl Hines and Ben Webster during this period. Pettiford co-led an early bop group with Dizzy Gillespie in 1944, and in 1945 went with Coleman Hawkins to the West Coast, appearing on one song in the film The Crimson Canary with Hawkins and Howard McGhee. Pettiford was part of Duke Ellington’s orchestra during much of 1945-1948 (fulfilling his role as the next step beyond Jimmy Blanton), and worked with Woody Hermanin 1949.

 

Throughout the 1950s, he mostly worked as a leader (on bass and occasional cello), although he appeared on many records both as a sideman and a leader, including with Thelonious Monk in 1955-1956. After going to Europe in 1958, he settled in Copenhagen where he worked with local musicians, plus Stan Getz, Bud Powell, and Kenny Clarke. Among Pettiford’s better-known compositions are “Tricotism,” “Laverne Walk,” “Bohemia After Dark,” and “Swingin’ Till the Girls Come Home.” ~ Scott Yanow.

Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) Banyana Children of Africa – Ishmael

Abdullah Ibrahim (born 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa), formerly known as Adolph Johannes Brand, and as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cape Town, ranging from traditional African songs to the gospel of the AME Church and ragas, to more modern jazz and other Western styles. Within jazz, his music particularly reflects the influence of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington.

He first received piano lessons at the age of seven, was an avid consumer of jazz records brought by American sailors, and was playing jazz professionally by 1949. In 1959 and 1960, he played alongside Kippie Moeketsi with The Jazz Epistles in Sophiatown before joining the European tour of the musical King Kong.

Children of Africa  

 

 

Banyana - Children of Africa

• Label: Enja Records
• Catalog#: enja 2070
• Format: Vinyl, LP
• Country: US
• Released: 1976
• Style: Free Jazz, Soul-Jazz

Credits: 

• Bass - Cecil McBee 
• Drums - Roy Brooks 
• Piano, Saxophone [Soprano], Vocal - Dollar Brand 
• Producer - Horst Weber , Matthias Winckelmann

 

Tracklisting:

• Banyana – The Children of Africa (1:59)
• Asr (8:14)
• Ishmael (12:14)
• The Honey-Bird (6:19)
• The Dream (6:40)
• Yukio-Khalifa (10:20)

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks « Dizzy » Gillespie, né à Cheraw en Caroline du Sud le 21 octobre 1917, mort le 6 janvier 1993, était un trompettiste, compositeur et chef d’orchestre de jazz américain.

Avec Miles Davis et Louis Armstrong, il est l’un des trois plus importants trompettistes de l’histoire du jazz, ayant participé à la création du style Bebop et contribué à introduire les rythmes latino-américains dans le jazz.

Dizzy Gillespie

 

Dizzy Gillespie se distinguait en particulier par sa trompette au pavillon incliné vers le haut,il bouchait sa trompette d’un bouchon. Ses joues gonflées à bloc comme celles d’un crapaud, ainsi que sa joie de vivre et son humour ravageur qui sont pour beaucoup dans sa popularité auprès du public. En tant que musicien, il avait une technique époustouflante et une vitesse de jeu impressionnante.

Il joue avec Charlie Parker dans des clubs de jazz tels que Minton’s Playhouse et Monroe’s Uptown House ( le berceau du bebop ). Ses compositions (“Groovin’ High”, “Woody n’ You”, “Anthropology”, “Salt Peanuts”, and “A Night in Tunisia”) sonnent radicalement différemment du Swing de l’époque. Un de leurs premiers concerts (au New York’s Town Hall le 22 juin 1945) est seulement sorti en 2005. Gillespie enseigne le nouveau style à de jeunes musiciens de la 52e rue, parmi eux … Miles Davis et Max Roach.

Le groupe se sépare, après un séjour au Billy Berg Club à Los Angeles où le bebop reçoit un accueil mitigé.

Contrairement à Parker, qui aime jouer dans des petites formations et occasionnellement en tant que soliste dans des big bands, Dizzy Gillespie préfère diriger un big band; il tente l’expérience pour la première fois en 1945, mais le succès n’est pas trop au rendez-vous.

Après ses travaux avec Charlie Parker, Gillespie mène d’autres petites formations avec des musiciens tels que Milt Jackson, John Coltrane, Lalo Schifrin. Il apparaît également fréquemment en tant que soliste au Jazz at the Philharmonic sous la direction de Norman Granz.

Le 11 mars 1952, Gillespie quitte les États-Unis pour la France. Il est invité par Charles Delaunay pour jouer au Salon du Jazz. [1] Gillespie qui n’a pas d’autre engagement à Paris en profite pour créer son troisième big band. Grâce à ses succès, il peut enregistrer dans les lieux les plus prisés de Paris (comme au Théâtre des Champs-Élysées). En 1953, il revient aux États-Unis après une série de concerts et d’enregistrements.

Eddie Harris – Bio

Eddie Harris (b. Chicago, 1934 – 1996) was best known for playing tenor saxophone, though he was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His most well-known composition was “Freedom Jazz Dance”, recorded and popularized by Miles Davis in the 1960s.

After college he was drafted into the United States Army. While serving in Europe he was accepted into the 7th Army Band, which also included Don Ellis, Leo Wright, and Cedar Walton.

After getting out of the army he worked in New York City before returning to Chicago, where he signed a contract with Vee Jay Records. His first album for Vee Jay, Exodus to Jazz included his own jazz arrangement of Ernest Gold’s theme from the movie Exodus. A shortened version of this track, which featured his masterful playing in the upper register of the tenor saxophone, was heavily played on radio and became the first jazz record ever to be certified gold.
Many jazz critics, however, regarded commercial success as a sign that a jazz artist had sold out, and Harris soon stopped playing “Exodus” in concert. He moved to Columbia Records in 1964 and to Atlantic Records in 1965. At Atlantic in 1965 he released The In Sound, a bop album which won back many of his detractors.

Over the next few years he began to perform on electric piano and the electric Varitone saxophone, and to perform a mixture of jazz and funk which sold well in both the jazz and rhythm and blues markets. In 1967 his album The Electrifying Eddie Harris reached second place on the R & B charts.
In 1969 he performed with Les McCann’s group at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Although they had been unable to rehearse, their session was so impressive that a recording of it was released as Swiss Movement, which became one of the best-selling jazz albums ever, also reaching second place on the R & B charts.
Harris also came up with the idea of the reed trumpet, playing one for the first time at The Newport Jazz Festival of 1970 to mostly negative critical feedback. From 1970 to 1975 he experimented with new instruments of his own invention (the reed trumpet was a trumpet with a saxophone mouthpiece, the saxobone was a saxophone with a trombone mouthpiece, and the guitorgan was a combination of guitar and organ), with singing the blues, with jazz-rock (he recorded an album with Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck, Albert Lee, Ric Grech, Zoot Money, and other rockers), and with comic R & B numbers such as “That is Why You’re Overweight.”

In 1975, however, he alienated much of his audience with his album The Reason Why I’m Talkin’ Shit, which consisted mainly of stand-up comedy, and public interest in his subsequent albums declined sharply. He continued to record into the 1990s, but his experimentation ended and he mainly recorded hard bop.

Discography

• Exodus to Jazz, 1961 VEE JAY Records
• Swiss Movement; 1969 (CD 1996); with Les McCann
• Come on Down, 1970 Atlantic Recordings
• Instant Death,1971
• In the UK.“ / Is It In; 1973 (CD 1999); with Albert Lee, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Chris Squire, Alan White, Tony Kaye, Rufus Reid, Ronald Muldrow
• I Need Some Money; 1975; with Ronald Muldrow
• Bad Luck Is All I Have, 1975 Atlantic Recordings
• That is why you’re overweight, 1976 Atlantic Recordings
• How can you live like that; 1977
• I’m Tired of Driving; 1978
• The Real Electrifying, 1982 Mutt & JeffRecording Corp.
• People Get Funny, 1987 Timeless Records
• Live in Berlin, 1989 Timeless Records
• Live at the Moonwalker, 1990 Moonwalker Label (Suisa)
• Listen Here; 1993
• The Battle of the Tenors; 1994, with Wendell Harrison
• The Last Concert; CD 1997; with WDR Big Band

Eddie Harris – Bio

Eddie Harris was born on October 20th, 1934 in Chicago, Illinois. He began his career as a singer in various Baptist churches around Chicago, and started appearing at these churches from the age of five.

Eddie started playing the piano and began playing very well by ear. He was mainly playing just church songs at the time. A few years later, Eddie’s cousin began teaching him how to read musical notation. Eddie Harris went to John Farren Elementary School and to Burke Elementary. He went to Du Sable High School and Hyde Park High School. He continued his education at Illinois University Navy Pier, Roosevelt University and the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied classical saxophone. Eddie first started playing the vibraphone while attending Du Sable High School, under the guidance of the formidable Capt. Walter Dyette, the music teacher who was mentor to many future jazz greats. “Chafing under the strict discipline of Capt. Dyette,” (writes Lloyd Sachs) Eddie transferred to Hyde Park High School. Eddie turned down an athletic scholarship to study music at Roosevelt College, where he met jazz promoter Joe Segal, who hired him to sit in with such immortals as Charlie Parker and Lester Young. Eddie was drafted into the Army, at which time they put him into electronics. He later joined an Airborne unit and soon became disgusted with seeing many of the soldiers being injured, so he auditioned for, and made, the talent-laden 7th Army Jazz Band, which performed and toured extensively. After leaving the Army, Eddie lived in New York, where he worked all the time, from pit bands to jazz bands, to small combos and playing piano in the late afternoon at a dance studio.

Due to an illness in the family, Eddie returned to Chicago in 1960. He married Sarah Elizabeth Turner, and they had two daughters, Lolita Maria and Yvonne Marie. Eddie was signed as a pianist by Vee-Jay Records, but he got to play tenor on his own arrangement of the theme from the movie “Exodus.” The album was called Exodus to Jazz , and the single cut Exodus was released as a 45 RPM. It was the first jazz record to score a “Gold Record” certification, and made the Billboard Top 40 as a pop single. The record sold more than 2 million copies — unheard of from a jazz artiste at that time. “Wounded by accusations of selling out, Eddie didn’t perform ‘Exodus’ for years,” writes Lloyd Sachs.

After two years, Eddie left Vee-Jay Records and began recording for Columbia. In 1965 he released an album called The In Sound which included the song Freedom Jazz Dance, which has been recorded by many other artistes including Miles Davis. In 1967, his album The Electrifying Eddie Harris featured the song Listen Here which also became a hit. In June 1969, Eddie recorded an album at the Montreux Jazz Festival with Les McCann’s group, which included Leroy Vinnegar on bass. It was called Swiss Movement , went to #29 on the Billboard pop album chart, and included the song Compared To What.  

Eddie’s December 1969 album Free Speech is “considered by many jazz aficionados as one of the first, if not THE first, jazz fusion album,” writes Stephen K. Peeples. “He further demonstrated his willingness to stretch the boundaries of jazz” (writes Peter Watrous) when he recorded Eddie Harris in the U.K. which included rock musicians Stevie Winwood and Jeff Beck. From 1969 to 1971, Eddie also wrote the music for “The Bill Cosby Show.” He also invented several unique hybrid instruments, such as the “saxobone,” which was essentially a tenor fitted with a trombone mouthpiece.

He also frequently sang and worked comedy routines into his performances. Eddie even released a comedy album called Why Does This Always Happen To Me? and another one called The Reason Why I’m Talking Shit . Good luck trying to find a copy! Eddie was a tireless performer, composer and innovator.

He published numerous books of interest to jazz students and musicians, including The Eddie Harris Fake Book; Jazz Licks; Skips; Fusionary Jazz Duets and several others. He recorded albums on numerous labels large and small, including MCA, Virgin, Blue Note, Atlantic, Flying Heart, Moonwalker, Enja, Steeplechase, RCA and more. He continued to practice daily and placed great value on it. He held musicians to a rigorous standard, and continued performing until he was disabled by disease. In his obit in the Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich writes: “Though medical treatments in the last year left him thin and weak, Harris played a weeklong engagement in May (1996) at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. Short on wind and barely able to stand, he nevertheless summoned the strength to produce an extremely moving performance. What he had lost in technical facility he counterbalanced with the urgency and melodic appeal of his work.” Eddie Harris died on November 5th, 1996 at USC/University Hospital in Los Angeles, California. He was 62

Jim Hall

James Stanley Hall, né à Buffalo dans l’état de New York le 4 Décembre 1930, est un guitariste de jazz américain.
Après des études à l’Institut de musique de Cleveland, Jim Hall va à Los Angeles où il commence à se faire connaître à la fin des années 50. Il y étudie la guitare classique avec Vincente Gómez.
Il joue avec Chico Hamilton Quintet, (1955-1956), Jimmy Giuffre Trio (1956-1959), Ella Fitzgerald (1960-1961), Ben Webster, Hampton Hawes, Bob Brookmeyer, John Lewis, Zoot Sims, Paul Desmond, Lee Konitz et Bill Evans.
En 1960 Jim Hall s’installe à New York pour travailler avec divers musiciens dont Sonny Rollins et Art Farmer. Ses concerts et ses enregistrements avec Bill Evans, Paul Desmond Ron Carter sont legendaires. Jim Hall – Écoutez gratuitement sur Last.fm

More on Pat Martino

His web site deserves an visit, spend all the time you need to go through the nature of Guitar, which includes theory, transcriptions, and learning technics. Pat’s Web site

Pat Martino

When the anesthesia wore off, Pat Martino looked up hazily at his parents and his doctors. and tried to piece together any memory of his life.
One of the greatest guitarists in jazz. Martino had suffered a severe brain aneurysm and underwent surgery after being told that his condition could be terminal. After his operations he could remember almost nothing. He barely recognized his parents. and had no memory of his guitar or his career. He remembers feeling as if he had been “dropped cold, empty, neutral, cleansed…naked.”

In the following months. Martino made a remarkable recovery. Through intensive study of his own historic recordings, and with the help of computer technology, Pat managed to reverse his memory loss and return to form on his instrument. His past recordings eventually became “an old friend, a spiritual experience which remained beautiful and honest.” This recovery fits in perfectly with Pat’s illustrious personal history. Since playing his first notes while still in his pre-teenage years, Martino has been recognized as one of the most exciting and virtuosic guitarists in jazz. With a distinctive, fat sound and gut-wrenching performances, he represents the best not just in jazz, but in music. He embodies thoughtful energy and soul.
Born Pat Azzara in Philadelphia in 1944, ha was first exposed to jazz through his father, Carmen “Mickey” Azzara, who sang in local clubs and briefly studied guitar with Eddie Lang. He took Pat to all the city’s hot-spots to hear and meet Wes Montgomery and other musical giants. “I have always admired my father and have wanted to impress him. As a result, it forced me to get serious with my creative powers.”
He began playing guitar when he was twelve years old. and left school in tenth grade to devote himself to music. During Visits to his music teacher Dennis Sandole, Pat often ran into another gifted student, John Coltrane, who would treat the youngster to hot chocolate as they talked about music.
Besides first-hand encounters with `Trane and Montgomery, whose album Grooveyard had “an enormous influence” on Martino, he also cites Johnny Smith, a Stan Getz associate, as an early inspiration. “He seemed to me, as a child. to understand everything about music,” Pat recalls.
Martino became actively involved with the , early rock scene in Philadelphia, alongside stars like Bobby Rydell, Chubby Checker and Bobby Darin. His first road gig was with jazz organist Charles Earland, a high school friend. His reputation soon spread among other jazz players, and he was recruited by bandleader Lloyd Price to play hits such as Stagger Lee on-stage with musicians like Slide Hampton and Red Holloway.
Martino moved to Harlem to immerse himself in the “soul jazz” played by Earland and others. Previously, he had “heard all of the white man’s jazz. I never heard that other part of the culture,” he remembers. The organ trio concept had a profound influence on Martino’s rhythmic and harmonic approach. and he remained in the idiom as a sideman, gigging with Jack McDuff and Don Patterson. An icon before his eighteenth birthday, Pat was signed as a leader for Prestige Records when he was twenty. His seminal albums from this period include classics like Strings!, Desperado, El Hombre and Baiyina (The Clear Evidence), one of jazz’s first successful ventures into psychedelia.

In 1976, Martino began experiencing the excruciating headaches which were eventually diagnosed as symptoms of his aneurysms. After his surgery and recovery, he resumed his career when he appeared in1987 in New York, a gig that was released on a CD with an appropriate name, The Return. He then took another hiatus when both of his parents became ill, and he didn’t record again until 1994, when he recorded Interchange and then The Maker.

Today, Martino lives in Philadelphia again and continues to grow as a musician. As the New York Times recently noted, “Mr. Martino, at fifty, is back and he is plotting new musical directions, adding more layers to his myth.” His experiments with guitar synthesizers, begun during his rehabilitation, are taking him in the direction of orchestral arrangements and they promise groundbreaking possibilities. Musicians flock to his door for lessons, and he offers not only the benefits of his musical knowledge, but also the philosophical insights of a man who has faced and overcome enormous obstacles. “The guitar is of no great importance to me,” he muses. “The people it brings to me are what matter. They are what I’m extremely grateful for, because they are alive. The guitar is just an apparatus.”

Biography courtesy of DL Media
A Brief Resume

Pat began playing professionally in 1961. He has performed with a wide variety of artists including Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Richard Groove Holmes, John Handy, Bobby Hutcherson, Chick Corea, Jack McDuff, Don Patterson, Stanley Clark, Eric Kloss, Trudy Pitts, Willis Jackson, Lloyd Price, Woody Herman, Chuck Israels, Charles Earland, Barry Miles and Joe Pesci. Since 1967, Pat has been touring as a leader.

He has been a Recording Artist for Vanguard, Prestige, Warner Brothers, Muse, Columbia, King, Paddlewheel, Evidence, Sony, 32 Jazz, High Note, Milestone, Polydor, Concord, Fantasy, House of Blues, Mythos, Mainstream, Cobblestone, Atlantic and, most currently, Blue Note Records.

Pat has given Guitar and Music Therapy Seminars, Clinics and Master Classes throughout the world, at locations including North Texas State University, G.I.T., Berklee College (Boston and Perugia, Italy), Duquesne University, Teatro Rasi (Ravenna, Italy), LeCentre Culturel (D’Athis Mons, France), University of Washington School of Music, Skidmore College, Musicians Institute, National Guitar Workshop, New York University, Pennsylvania University, Stanford University, The University of Missouri, Roosevelt University (Chicago), Patti Summers Jazz Club (Seattle), Music Tech College (St. Paul), The New School (New York City), Southern Illinois University, The Conservatory of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Cork Festival (Cork, Ireland), Washington University (St. Louis, MO), Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, Musictech College (St. Paul, MN), Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at NYU (New York, NY), Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts (Hartford, CT), and the University of Maryland.

Pat is currently on the adjunct faculty at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA.

Since the mid 1990s, Pat has received the following awards:
1995 Mellon Jazz Festival / Dedicated in Honor
1996 Philadelphia Alliance “Walk of Fame Award”
1997 National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences “Songs from the Heart Award”
2002 Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, “Live at Yoshi’s”, and Best Jazz Instrumental Solo on ‘All Blues’
2002 National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences “2nd Annual Heroes Award”
2003 Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, “Think Tank”, and best Jazz Instrumental Solo on ‘Africa’.
2004 Guitar Player of the Year, Downbeat Magazine’s 2004 Reader’s Poll

Last Update :: 29 January 2005

Biographie de Django Reinhardt

Jean « Django » Reinhardt (Liberchies, le 23 janvier 1910 – Samois-sur-Seine, le 16 mai 1953) est un guitariste de jazz manouche, issu d’une famille tzigane. Il reste aujourd’hui encore l’un des guitaristes les plus respectés et influents de l’histoire du jazz.

Une jeunesse en roulotte :

Django Reinhardt naît le 23 janvier 1910 dans une roulotte stationnant à Liberchies, en Belgique, où il est déclaré « fils de Jean-Baptiste Reinhardt et de Laurence Reinhardt ». Ce lieu de naissance n’a pas grande signification, car l’enfant fait partie d’une famille de Tziganes nomades habitués à traverser l’Europe de part en part. Il passe donc sa jeunesse à voyager (en France, Italie ou Algérie), avant que sa famille se fixe finalement à Paris, d’abord sur les Fortif’, La Zone mal famée jouxtant la Porte de Choisy, puis à la Porte d’Italie.

La rencontre avec le banjo de son oncle à l’âge de 10 ans est décisive. Fasciné par l’instrument, le jeune Django n’a dès lors de cesse de s’écorcher les doigts sur ses cordes oxydées. Il fait son apprentissage en observant avec attention les musiciens de passage au campement, et acquiert bientôt une dextérité hors du commun. Il se mettra ensuite, avec le même bonheur, au violon et finalement à la guitare.

À l’âge de 13 ans, il court déjà le cachet dans les bars et bals de Paris, ainsi que dans les demeures des gens aisés, tout en continuant de jouer surtout pour son propre plaisir. La réputation du jeune virtuose se répand chez les amateurs de musique et en 1928, le producteur Jean Vaissade permet à Django d’enregistrer son premier disque. L’adolescent ne sachant ni lire ni écrire, même pas son propre nom, les étiquettes portent la mention « Jiango Renard, banjoiste ».

Un destin capricieux :

La même année, le chef d’orchestre Jack Hylton (Jack Hylton & His Orchestra), impressionné par la virtuosité de Django, lui propose de l’engager dans sa formation de musique populaire, qui doit partir se produire à Londres. Mais le destin contredit ce projet: juste avant le départ du groupe, le 2 novembre 1928, un incendie se déclare dans la roulotte où le musicien vit en compagnie de sa première femme, Bella Baumgartner. Les fleurs en celluloïde — matière très inflammable — que celle-ci vend s’enflamment au contact d’une bougie renversée, détruisant la caravane et blessant assez gravement ses deux occupants. Django surtout est sérieusement atteint à la jambe droite et à la main gauche. Celle-ci cicatrisant très difficilement, il reste près de 18 mois à l’hôpital, où les médecins prédisent qu’il ne pourra plus jamais rejouer de musique. On doit finalement brûler sa main au nitrate d’argent pour provoquer la cicatrisation. Django a perdu l’usage de deux doigts, mais s’obstine néanmoins, et après 6 mois de travail sans relâche il développe une technique nouvelle sur la guitare que son frère Jospeh, alias « Nin-Nin », lui a apportée en guise d’outil de rééducation.

Au printemps 1930, alors que Django est toujours soigné à l’hôpital Saint-Louis, une commission de contrôle militaire vient juger sur place de son état de santé : le musicien, âgé de 20 ans et devant donc accomplir son service militaire, n’a répondu depuis 2 ans à aucune convocation. Mais ses blessures lui permettent d’être rapidement exempté.

Le Hot Club de France – Gloire dans un monde en guerre :

À sa sortie d’hôpital en 1930, Django Reinhardt a développé une toute nouvelle technique guitaristique, d’autant plus exceptionnelle qu’elle n’emploie que deux doigts de la main gauche, plus le pouce. Il découvre qu’entre-temps, la guitare a gagné sa place au sein des orchestres de jazz, cette nouvelle musique venue des États-Unis. Les premiers contacts de Django avec la musique de Duke Ellington, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang ou Louis Armstrong sont un grand choc, et le jeune guitariste décide de consacrer son existence à la pratique du jazz.

En 1931, il rencontre le violoniste Stéphane Grappelli, avec qui il fonde Le Quintette du Hot Club de France. Le groupe comprend également le frère de Django, Joseph, alias « Nin-Nin », ainsi que Roger Chaput à la guitare et Louis Vola à la contrebasse. Les cinq musiciens inventent une musique innovante, entre jazz et musique tzigane, qui remporte un grand succès. Les années suivantes, ils enregistrent de nombreux disques et jouent dans toute l’Europe aux côtés des plus grands musiciens de l’époque, tels que Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter ou Rex Stewart. Ces derniers tentent à plusieurs reprises de prendre en défaut la technique instrumentale et les connaissances musicales de Django dans des défis musicaux, tels qu’il s’en pratiquait fréquemment à l’époque, mais le guitariste gagne leur respect en se révélant, malgré son incapacité à lire la musique et son apprentissage quasiment autodidacte, d’une maîtrise à toute épreuve.

Au contact des musiciens américains, Django se familiarise avec une nouvelle musique dont l’influence s’étend dans le milieu du jazz : le be-bop. Il sera sans conteste l’un des premiers musiciens européens à avoir apprécié et compris la musique inventée par des jazzmen tels que Charlie Parker ou Dizzy Gillespie. Il intègre à ses compositions de nombreuses trouvailles du mouvement, tout en restant toujours fidèle à ses propres conceptions musicales.

Lorsque la Seconde Guerre mondiale éclate en 1939, le quintette est en tournée en Angleterre. Tandis que Stéphane Grappelli choisit d’y rester, Django retourne en France, à Toulon, où il est mobilisable dans la Flotte mais est à nouveau réformé à cause de ses brûlures. Il passe la guerre en Zone Libre, voyageant sans cesse de Cannes à Toulon, et parvenant ainsi à survivre au génocide des Tziganes, systématiquement envoyés en camps de concentration par les Nazis. Il épouse même en 1943 Sophie Ziegler, sa seconde femme, dont il aura l’année suivante un fils, Babik Reinhardt, qui deviendra à son tour un grand guitariste. À la libération, il retrouve Grappelli avec lequel il improvise sur une Marseillaise qui restera célèbre.

La déception américaine :

Après la guerre, le Hot Club de France reprend enregistrements et tournées. En 1946, une tournée aux États-Unis donne enfin à Django l’occasion de jouer dans le groupe de Duke Ellington. Les deux musiciens s’étaient rencontrés en 1939 et désiraient depuis lors jouer ensemble, mais cette association n’est pas celle dont Django avait rêvé. Ne parlant pas anglais, habitué à la liberté de sa vie nomade, Django peine à s’habituer à la discipline très stricte des Big Bands. Ces difficultés, alliées au fait qu’Ellington n’avait pas réellement intégré le guitariste à ses arrangements, le faisant toujours intervenir en fin de représentation, faisait de Django une sorte d’attraction et non le concertiste qu’il espérait être durant cette tournée.

Cependant son passage fit toujours sensation. La tournée a emmené le groupe à travers tous les États-Unis (même au Canada) et la présence de Django était évidemment exceptionnelle pour les amateurs : c’était après-tout la seule vedette de jazz (avec Grappelli) non-américaine.

En arrivant à New York, Django chercha à rencontrer Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, sans résultat, ces derniers étant alors chacun en tournée.

Il gardera de cet épisode une certaine amertume, et s’éloigne peu à peu de la guitare, se consacrant de plus en plus à ses autres passions, la peinture, la pêche et le billard. Cela ne l’empêche pas de récréer à plusieurs occasions sur disque le prestigieux Quintette avec Stéphane Grappelli. Les résultats sont fantastiques de maîtrise et de singularité.

Le renouveau be-bop :

En 1951, il achète une maison et s’installe à Samois-sur-Seine en Seine-et-Marne, près de Fontainebleau. À ce moment commence pour lui un véritable renouveau : l’inspiration revient, son jeu est plus inspiré que jamais et il joue régulièrement avec un orchestre composé des meilleurs be-boppers français : Roger Guérin, Hubert Fol, Raymond Fol, Pierre Michelot, Bernard Peiffer, Jean-Louis Viale… Il est toujours à l’avant-garde du jazz.

En 1953, Norman Granz fait part à Django de son désir de l’engager pour les légendaires tournées du Jazz at the Philharmonic. Le producteur français Eddie Barclay lui fait enregistrer 8 titres, en guise de « carte de visite » pour les amateurs américains. Ces 8 morceaux exceptionnels marqueront irrémédiablement les amateurs de jazz et surtout les guitaristes du monde entier, qui s’inspireront des décennies durant du jeu d’un Django très en avance sur son époque.

Django enregistre son dernier disque le 8 avril 1953, avec Martial Solal au piano (c’est un de ses premiers enregistrements), Pierre Michelot à la contrebasse, Fats Sadi Lallemant au vibraphone et Pierre Lemarchand à la batterie. Son interprétation vibrante de Nuages fera dire à certains que le guitariste s’attendait à disparaître d’ici peu. Il mourra un mois plus tard d’une hémorragie cérébrale. Django Reinhardt repose depuis à Samois sur Seine .

Mémoire et influence :

Considéré avec Charlie Christian et Wes Montgomery comme l’un des meilleurs guitaristes de jazz qui aient jamais existé, Django Reinhardt est aujourd’hui encore une influence majeure pour la plupart des guitaristes à l’instar d’Andrés Segovia ou de Jimi Hendrix dans des styles bien différents. Son style profondément original, entre jazz et musique tzigane, s’est depuis lors développé en un genre musical à part entière, le jazz manouche. Ce style est devenu un véritable folklore pour la communauté Manouche depuis la mort de Django et est aujourd’hui joué partout dans le monde.

Dans le monde des Tziganes, Django Reinhardt est considéré comme un symbole. Comme l’a écrit François Billard : « Django est le héros d’un peuple, celui du peuple Tzigane ». Pour ces gens souvent opprimés, qui ont du faire face à un terrible génocide rarement reconnu et sont aujourd’hui encore victimes de discriminations dans presque tous les pays où ils vivent, Django reste l’ambassadeur d’une culture tzigane bien vivante, entre tradition et modernité.

Parmi les compositions les plus célèbres de Reinhardt, on retient souvent Minor Swing, Nuages, Rhythme Futur, LectureAnouman, Djangology ou encore Douce ambiance.

Ses admirateurs retiendront aussi sa personnalité unique, son insouciance, ses coups de folie et ses coups de génie. Comme l’a déclaré son contrebassiste Louis Vola : « Le génie n’a pas à se justifier : il est ! »

from Last.fm

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan (SRV), né à Dallas, Texas, USA le 3 octobre 1954.

Si son premier album, « Texas Flood », parait en 1983, il commence sa carrière bien avant en tournant avec son frère, lui aussi guitariste, dans de nombreux clubs texans. Son amour pour le blues et sa dextérité lui valent, après la sortie de son premier album, des critiques excellentes. Il est vrai que son jeu de guitare est unique, digne successeur de Jimi Hendrix dont il repris d’ailleurs fort brillamment le morceau « Little Wing ». La vidéo « Live at the Mocambo » illustre bien toute la maitrise de SRV. Il faut voir aussi le « Live from Austin Texas » enregistré entre 83 et 88.

Comme de nombreuses autres rock-star, il a dû faire face à la drogue et l’alcool. Après un dur combat, il était arrivé à s’extirper de ses dépendances. Il décède le 27 aout 1990 dans un accident d’hélicoptère après un concert en compagnie de gloires du blues à Alpine Valley (était présent ce soir là Eric Clapton).

Il faut rendre hommage aussi a ses musiciens: l’ancien bassiste de Johnny Winter,Tommy Shannon et le batteur Chris Layton Thomas sans lesquels il n’aurait pas eu une section rythmique avec un tel son, si caractéristique .

from  Last.fm

Joe Pass – Bio

Biographie

Joe Pass (Joseph Antony Jacobi Passalaqua) est né le 13 janvier 1929 à Brunswick dans le New jersey (USA). Il est décédé le 23 mai 1994 à Los Angeles, Californie (USA). Il était l’aîné d’une famille de quatre enfants. Il passa sa jeunesse dans le quartier italien de Johnstown (Pennsylvanie). Son père, Mariano Passalaqua, était sidérurgiste. Joe commença à jouer de la guitare à l’âge de 9 ans et prit ses premières leçons avec des amis de son père. Son père l’encouragea vivement quand il vit que Joe passait l’essentiel de son temps libre à travailler l’instrument. A l’âge de 14 ans il jouait déjà pour des mariages et des fêtes de quartier. Le be bop le fascina et à l’âge de 20 ans il se rendit à New York où il put écouter les meilleurs musiciens du moment. Malheureusement, c’est à cette époque qu’il tomba dans l’engrenage de la drogue. Pendant plus de 10 ans, jusqu’au début des années 60, il resta sous l’emprise des drogues. Il fut arrêté plusieurs fois avant d’être admis à Synanon, un centre de désintoxication. Alors qu’il séjournait à Synanon, il enregistra avec un groupe composé de musiciens résidant dans ce centre. Le disque s’intitula « Sounds of Synanon » et quand les critiques de jazz l’entendirent, ils s’extasièrent pour le jeu de guitare de Joe. Son séjour dans ce centre dura 3 ans et à l’issue il repris de pied ferme sa carrière musicale. A sa sortie de Synanon il joua dans la région de Los Angeles avec les meilleurs musiciens et fût engagé comme guitariste de studio. Il participa pendant plus de cinq ans à des séances d’enregistrement jusqu’au jour où Norman Granz (le producteur international de concerts jazz) le persuada de le rejoindre et de signer pour son label Pablo. C’est à cette époque qu’il débuta sa carrière internationale.

Pour le label Pablo, Joe enregistra des albums solo (« For Django », « Virtuoso ») et joua avec différentes formations. On le retrouve notamment au côté de Oscar Peterson, Niels Henning Osted Pedersen, Zoot Sims, Ella Fitzgerald. Son style de guitare est inimitable. Joe a souvent était surnommé le « Art Tatum de de la guitare ». Il est vrai que son jeu de guitare en solo s’apparente certainement à celui du célèbre pianiste.

more at  Last.fm

Jamey Aebersold

Jamey Aebersold (born July 21, 1939) is an American jazz saxophonist and music educator. His “Play-A-Long” series of instructional book and CD collections, the first of which was released in 1967, are an internationally renowned resource for jazz education. As of 2007 more than 120 of these collections have been published by Aebersold, who currently teaches musical improvisation at the University of Louisville. He is also an adept pianist, bassist, and banjoist. He also holds membership in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the oldest and largest music fraternity in the world. [edit] Play-A-Long Series Most of the volumes in Aebersold’s “Play-A-Long” series feature a selection of 10-12 jazz standards, though some focus on scales, standardized chord progressions (like the blues), or original compositions by Aebersold’s collaborators. The books contain charts for the tunes in question, transposed as necessary for instruments in C, B-flat, E-flat, and bass clef. The recordings normally feature a professional rhythm section (typically piano, bass, and drums, occasionally including guitar) performing an improvised accompaniment (or “comping”) to each song. Melody instruments like saxophone and trumpet are omitted, enabling a jazz student to practice playing the song’s melody, and improvising over the song’s chord changes, with accompaniment. (Related examples of this format include the “Music Minus One” series and the popular pastime of karaoke.) The piano and bass tracks are typically panned to opposite channels, so that a pianist or bassist can easily omit the recorded piano or bass part by muting the appropriate channel.