jazz LEGEND

JOHN LESLIE  "WES"  MONTGOMERY was born on this day 3/6/1923. He was one of  the greatest jazz guitarists of all time.

jazz birthdays for OCTOBER

10/10/1917 - THELONIOUS SPHERE MONK - JAZZ PIANIST AND COMPOSER

10/20/1890 - JELLY ROLL MORTON - RAGTIME AND EARLY JAZZ PIANIST, BANDLEADER AND COMPOSER

10/21/1917 - DIZZY GILLESPIE - JAZZ TRUMPETER, BANDLEADER, COMPOSER, AND OCCASIONAL SINGER.

To learn more about these jazz legends GOOGLE their names.

BIRTH of a LIVING JAZZ LEGEND

9/16/1921 - JON HENDRICKS is a jazz singer and lyricist who was born on this day in Newark, Ohio.

Singing since the age of seven, HENDRICKS is considered by many to be one of the greatest jazz singers of all times.

In 1957, along with Dave Lambert and Anne Ross, they formed a singing group, HENDRICKS, LAMBERT and ROSS, which became a legendary vocal trio, who at one time was dubbed as the number one vocal group in the world.

HENDRICKS wrote lyrics to melodies and instrumental solos, helping to form a genre of jazz singing called "vocalese." This style was invented by EDDIE JEFFERSON who, along with HENDRICKS was one of the pioneers of this style.

His career has spanned over several decades and countless singers have cited him as a major influence in their development.

JON HENDRICKS, at the age of 94 is indeed a LIVING JAZZ LEGEND.

For the details of his storied career and to sample his discography GOOGLE his name

BIRTH of a JAZZ LEGEND

9/15/1928 - CANNONBALL ADDERLEY was an alto saxophonist. He was one of the best improvisers to play the instrument after CHARLIE PARKER died. His style, in fact, was partly derived from Parker's.

When Adderley played with the MILES DAVIS group, tenor saxophonist JOHN COLTRANE was one of the members.  The fact that ADDERLEY could keep up with COLTRANE and sometimes surpass him is a measure of his improvisational prowess.

Cannonball had an inventive mind combined with the high-level instrumental proficiency of both PARKER and COLTRANE.

ADDERLEY died in 1975





For more info and a discography GOOGLE his name

birth of a LIVING JAZZ LEGEND

9/7/1930 - SONNY ROLLINS,  legendary jazz tenor saxophonist, was born in New York City on this day in 1930.

ROLLINS took up the alto saxophone in high school and played in a neighborhood band that included the likes of JACKIE MC LEAN and WALTER BISHOP .

By 1947  he switched to the tenor sax, and in 1948 started recording with various musicians. To this date his career continues. Although ROLLINS, over the past six decades, has been known to stay busy, playing with others as well as groups of his own, he has also been known to take the occasional withdrawal from the working arena for self-contemplation. 

ROLLINS'S full bodied saxophone sound was formed by BIRD, PREZ  and others, but has evolved into one of the most personal sounds in jazz. 

When you hear SONNY ROLLINS, you know it's SONNY ROLLINS!

To  read the highlights of his career and listen to the sounds of his music GOOGLE his name 

JAZZ LEGEND - BIRTHDAY IN JULY

(EDWARD) LEE MORGAN was born on July 10, 1938 in PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA. On his 13th birthday, he was given his first trumpet by his sister Ernestine.

He began recording for Blue Note Records in 1956, where he recorded more than 25 Albums. In 1963 he recorded "THE SIDEWINDER."  This record became Lee Morgan's greatest commercial success, and is a jazz classic.

GOOGLE his name to read a bio and discography of his music

A JAZZ LEGEND IS BORN

ERNEST HOGAN was born in 1865 in the Shake Rag District of Bowling Green, Kentucky. He was the first Black entertainer to produce and star in a Broadway show (The Oyster Man in 1907), and helped to create the musical genre of RAGTIME.  In 1895  he published several songs in this new genre, one of which included "All Coons Look Alike To Me."

The success of this last song created many derogatory imitations, known as "coon songs," because of their use  of racist and stereotypical images of Black people. Before his death. Hogan stated that he "regretted" using the racial slur in his song.



To read his bio and success story GOOGLE his name.

JAZZ LEGENDS - BIRTHDAYS IN MAY

5/14/1897 - SIDNEY BECHET







5/26/1926 - MILES DAVIS

FOR A COMPREHENSIVE BIO OF THESE JAZZ LEGENDS AND A DISCOGRAPHY, GOOGLE THEIR NAMES AND CHECK OUT ALL THE ENTRIES.

JAZZ LEGENDS - BIRTHDAYS IN APRIL

4/22/1922 - CHARLES MINGUS

4/29/1899 - DUKE ELLINGTON

FOR A COMPREHENSIVE BIO OF THESE JAZZ LEGENDS AND A DISCOGRAPHY: GOOGLE THEIR NAMES AND INDULGE IN ALL THE ENTRIES.

BIRTH OF A JAZZ LEGEND

BILLIE HOLIDAY was born on April 7, 1915           100TH ANNIVERSARY 

Ms Holiday was also known as "LADY DAY,"  to millions of her fans. In 1956, her autobiography, "LADY SINGS THE BLUES," was published.

FOR MORE INFO GOOGLE HER NAME

APRIL IS JAZZ APPRECIATION MONTH

APRIL IS...

JAZZ APPRECIATION  MONTH

                

BIRTH OF ANOTHER KING

NAT KING COLE was born on March 17, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1956, he became the first Black person to host a nationwide network television program, The Nat Cole Show.

Although Cole started his career as a jazz pianist, he became a legendary pop and jazz singer, using his soft baritone voice to swoon everybody, man or woman. His greatest hits include "Mona Lisa," "Rambling Rose,"  and "The Christmas Song." 

Nat King Cole is  the father of Natlie Cole, born in 1950, who went on to a successful career as a singer herself.

Nat King Cole died of cancer in 1965. 

To read the bio of his groundbreaking career Google-search his name.

A LIVING JAZZ LEGEND

CHARLES LLOYD  is a jazz musician of extraordinary talent and longevity. He was born on March 15, 1938, in Memphis, Tennessee. Although Lloyd is primarily a tenor sax player, he can also play alto sax and flute.

Lloyd joined the Cannonball Adderly Sextet in 1964 and played with them for two years. During that time he recorded as a leader with CBS Records and has credited Julian (Cannonball) Adderly with his development as  a leader. He left in 1965 to form his own group, The Charles Lloyd  Quartet.

In 1966, The Charles Lloyd Quartet recorded an album called "Forest Flower: Charles Lloyd At Monterey."  This album became one of the first jazz recordings to sell a million copies, and was also one of the first jazz albums to become a cross-over success.

Lloyd continues to be active on the jazz scene, performing, as well as recording. He is a living jazz legend.

To read his bio and discover his jazz roots Google-search his name

 

***PERSONAL NOTE:   As a teenager discovering jazz in the late 60s, one of the first albums I purchased for my collection was Charles Lloyd's "Florest Flower" Charles Lloyd At Monterey."  At that time, I had never heard of Charles Lloyd, nor was I familiar with his sound. I bought the album because I was attracted to the cover, which featured Lloyd playing his tenor sax, sporting a huge afro, and wearing really cool sunglasses. After all these decades, that purchase has become one of the greatest I have ever made. As a result I have grown to love Charles Lloyd and his music. 

 

A LIVING JAZZ LEGEND

ORNETTE COLEMAN was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas.  March 9, 1930, is the date of his birth.  

Coleman, who is a saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer, was largely self-taught. He started out with the alto sax around 14 years of age, and that instrument has remained his main choice of musical expression.

Coleman has been credited with being the major innovator of free jazz. In the early 60s, Coleman and his sidekick, trumpeter Don Cherry, who both attended the School of Jazz, in Lenox, Massachusetts together, were subsequently signed to record with Atlantic records. One of their recordings was entitled, FREE JAZZ:  a collective improvisation.

FREE JAZZ  was 37 minutes of spontaneous improvisations by various musicians. To date, it remains the longest recorded continuous jazz performance by a group.  This recording is unique in that while one musician plays his solo, the other musicians are free to join in as they please.  The result is  a series of exceptional musical passages that make up the "collective" improvisations of the album's title. Free Jazz at once became a new music genre, and Coleman was thrust to the forefront as it's progenitor. 

More than any other musician, Coleman influenced others, including Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, to play in a free style.

In 1969, Coleman was inducted into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame.

In 2005 , Coleman recorded a live album in Germany, entitled, Sound Grammar. This was his first album of new material in 10 years. He released the album in 2006.

In 2007,  Coleman was awarded the Pulitzer prize in music, for Sound Grammar. He also received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in jazz.

His legacy in the annals of jazz music continues. He is a giant in the field.   At the age of 85, ORNETTE COLEMAN  is a living JAZZ LEGEND.

To read the incredible details of his life and career Google-search his name.

To sample his discography, log on to wkcr.org where they are streaming the Ornette Coleman  Birthday Broadcast for 24 hours today.

JAZZ EVENT - NEW YORK CITY

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Clark Terry	Clark Terry: 1920-2015 WBGO mourns the loss of Clark Terry, who passed away on Saturday, February 21 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, surrounded by his family, students and friends. He was known internationally for his signature musicianship and deep gratitude for his fans and supporters. For nearly half a century, Clark's greatest passion was helping to make young musicians' dreams come true. He was a tremendous source of inspiration, of love, of respect, of decency, and of human rights. He was one of the first recruits of the United States Navy when black musicians were given the Rating of Musician in 1942. From being one of the few musicians who played as a featured soloist in both the Count Basie and the Duke Ellington Orchestras, to being the first black staff musician at NBC, Clark had multiple bands including big bands, youth bands and other ensembles. He was one of the most recorded jazz musicians in history, appearing on more than 900 albums. Clark's devotion towards mentoring young musicians influenced the lives of worldwide master talents such as Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis and Dianne Reeves amongst countless others. He inspired everyone by example. As he was quoted in the documentary about his life and love for mentoring students, Keep On Keeping On, "Your mind is a powerful asset. Use it for positive thoughts and you'll learn what I've learned. I call it getting on the plateau of positivity." Services for Clark Terry will be led by Reverend Calvin Butts this Saturday, February 28th at 10am at Abyssinian Baptist Church, located at 132 W 138th St, New York, NY.

A JAZZ LEGEND

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     Max Roach was born in Newland, North Carolina on either January 10, 1924 or January 8, 1925. The former date is listed on his birth certificate, the latter date is what his family believe was his true birth date. He was a jazz drummer, percussionist, composer, and music innovator.

     

     Roach grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, in a musical home, as his mother was a gospel singer. So naturally he was introduced to music at an early age, and by the time he was 10 years old he was playing drums in a variety of gospel bands.

     In the 1940s, as a teenager, Roach began to expand his musical horizons. In addition to working at Monroe's Uptown House in Harlem with Charlie Parker, he did a stint with the Duke Ellington Orchestra while they were in town at the Paramount Theater. 

     He had his first recording session in 1943 with Coleman Hawkins, and in 1944 played with Benny Carter's orchestra. From 1947-49 he played with Charlie Parker's landmark quintet.

     Influenced and inspired by fellow jazz drummer, Kenny Clarke, ten years his senior, Max developed his own style and became the premier drummer in the bop movement.

     In the fifties he was a regular at the Lighthouse in California before forming his own group with trumpeter Clifford Brown in 1954. That quintet set standards of excellence in the mid-fifties, at the height of the "hard bop" period. But then tragedy struck. Brown and pianist Richie Powell  were killed in a car accident and it took Max some time to reorganize another band.

     

     In the sixties, Roach fell from favor by introducing some campaigning for civil rights and racial equality into his musical compositions.

     During the 1970s, Roach continued to lead his own combos, as well as, forming an orchestra, "M'Boom," with a group of percussion instrumentalists whose members both composed and performed with the unit. He also appeared as a solo performer, and as a teacher when he became Professor of Music at the University of Massachusetts.

     Throughout the remainder of his career Max Roach continued to find new forms of musical expression. Always the innovator, he performed in entire solo concerts, recorded duet sessions in free improvisation with various avant-garde artists, like Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor, and wrote music for plays, performed with dancers like the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, and even performed in a hip-hop concert, but he always kept in contact with his musical roots. Tall, lean, erect and distinguished-looking well into his seventies, Roach played the drums with elegance and class.

     All jazz drummers owe a debt to Max Roach for his persistence, high standards for drumming, virtuosity, and creativity, and his forward-thinking approach to jazz and it's future.

        Max Roach died in August 2007.

For a more comprehensive view of his bio Google-search his name

A LIVING JAZZ LEGEND

CLARK TERRY was born on December 14, 1920, in St. Louis. Missouri.

 He is a living jazz legend, and one of the most recorded musicians in jazz history, having played in over 900 sessions. Terry is a bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, an educator, and NEA Jazz Masters inductee. His career has spanned more than 70 years.

During that time he has played with the likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Quincy Jones,  Charlie Barnet, and others. The great trumpeter Louis Armstrong was his mentor. Terry in turn, was the mentor of the legendary Miles Dewey Davis. Dizzy Gillespie, who played with Davis, once described Terry as the "greatest jazz trumpet player on earth."  

Terry received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. At the age of 94 he is still going strong.

To read the ongoing bio of Clark Terry, Google-search his name.

ANOTHER JAZZ LEGEND

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DIZZY GILLESPIE was born on this day in 1917, in Cheraw, South Carolina. He was a trumpet player, band leader and composer, and sometimes he even used his voice  as an instrument. Yeah, Dizzy was a singer too.

Dizzy, whose real name was John Birks Gillespie, learned to play several instruments from his musician father, James. He played the piano at the age of 4, took a liking to the trombone in his mid-teens, then he taught himself to play the trumpet. He received a scholarship to Laurinberg Institute in North Carolina where he studied harmony and theory for  two years.

Dizzy worked with local bands in Philadelphia in 1935,before getting his first professional job with the Frank Fairfax Orchestra. In 1937, at the young age of 20, he played in England and France with Teddy Hill, and soon made his first recording.

During his early years he also played with the likes of Cab Calloway, Roy Elderidge, Earl Hines, and Billy Eckstine.  At this time Dizzy began writing big band music for band leaders like Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. He also started  experimenting with a more sophisticated approach to harmony and soon moved away from his early influences.

In 1945, Diz co-led a quintet with the legendary Charlie "Bird" Parker, and ushered in a new force in jazz, bebop, which became known as the first modern jazz style.

Always the innovator, Diz also was involved in the Afro-Cuban Movement, bringing those musical elements to a whole new audience of jazz, pop and dance listeners all over the globe.

A personality, as well as a master musician, Diz has received many honors in recognition of his contribution to the world of music.

                                                               

To read more of his remarkable story, Google his name

A JAZZ LEGEND

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JELLY ROLL MORTON was born on this day in 1890, in New Orleans, Louisiana, that is according to his baptismal certificate. Morton claimed that he was actually born on September 20, 1885.  Other documents list various days and dates, so it's not really clear. 

What is clear, however, is that he was a jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. He is  most notable as jazz's first arranger.

Morton began his musical studies on the guitar at the age of 7, and 3 years later he took up the piano. While still in his teens, he was reputedly a working "professor" in the bordellos of New Orleans' Storyville district; there was always a demand for  "professors" at the piano in their many sporting-houses. Morton was one of the best.

He started with the Ragtime style, and developed it by bringing to it all that his huge musical memory stored. He played rhythms so subtle that critics who didn't understand his style, said he had no sense of timing.

Morton believed that the piano when played solo, should be able to emulate a whole band , and his solo compositions with his Morton's Red Hot Peppers band shows his belief being put incredibly, into practice.   

Morton produced a markedly individual piano sound, and composed jazz of a type that has never been bettered. He understood the music, he understood the instruments, and he wrote for the musicians he chose to play with him.

A series of recordings done with his band between 1926-30 firmly established him as a exemplary jazz composer, arranger, and leader.

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To read a full bio Goggle his name

A JAZZ LEGEND

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Thelonious Monk was born on this day in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1917.  He was a jazz pianist and composer. Monk studied piano privately from an early age, played the organ in church, and traveled with a woman evangelist and faith healer before he was 17.

Monk had an unorthodox approach to the piano, playing it sometimes like it was a drum, attacking and pounding the keys . His style of improvisation was unique, too, filled with abrupt silences, hesitations and off-beat melodic twists.

 Monk recorded his first sessions as a leader in 1947 with Blue Note Records, where he showcased his talents as a composer of original melodies for improvisations.

Monk has listed the legendary composer and arranger Duke Ellington as one of his major influences in  playing the piano. He is the second most recorded jazz composer of all time behind who else, Duke Ellington.

Monk is considered one of the giants in American music. He is the father of jazz drummer, T.S. Monk.

To read a comprehensive bio of Monk's life, Google his name and read all the related entries