Positioned squarely in the mainstream, at home in the worlds of jazz and pop standards as well as the blues, comfortable with small groups and big bands, Ernestine Anderson regularly received a lot of airplay on traditional jazz radio stations. She fit those demographics well with her tasteful, slightly gritty, moderately swinging contralto; she rarely probed too deeply into emotional quagmires (and thus didn’t disturb the dispositions of those who use the radio as background) but always gave listeners an honest musical account.

Hot Cargo!Anderson’s career actually got rolling in the embryonic R&B field at first; as a teenager, she sang with Russell Jacquet’s band in 1943, and she moved on to the Johnny Otis band from 1947 to 1949, making her first recording with Shifty Henry’s orchestra in 1947 for the Black & White label. In the ’50s, however, she converted over to the jazz side, working with Lionel Hampton in 1952-1953 and recording with a band featuring Jacquet, Milt Jackson, and Quincy Jones in 1953, and with Gigi Gryce in 1955. Upon hearing the latter record, Rolf Ericson booked Anderson on a three-month Scandinavian tour; while in Sweden, she made a recording called Hot Cargo that, ironically, established her reputation in America. Once back in the U.S., she signed with Mercury and made a number of albums for that label until the early ’60s.

Live from Concord to LondonShe moved to England in 1965 and remained largely invisible on the American radar until 1975, when Ray Brown heard her sing at the Turnwater Festival in Canada. Brown became her manager, and got her to appear at the 1976 Concord Jazz Festival, which led to a Concord contract that immediately bore fruit with the albums Live from Concord to London and Hello Like Before. These and other comeback albums made her a top-flight jazz attraction in the U.S. again — this time for the long haul — and in the ’80s, she was recording with the Hank Jones Trio, George Shearing, Benny Carter, the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and her own quartet. By 1992, she had attracted major-label attention once again, signing with Quincy Jones’ Qwest outfit. For Koch, Anderson issued Isn’t It Romantic in 1998. The live album I Love Being Here with You appeared in 2002, while 2003’s Love Makes the Changes found her signed to Highnote. The label released her album A Song for You in 2009. Anderson remained with the label for 2011’s Nightlife, a live album that featured the singer in a number of small-group settings, with a guest appearance by labelmate Houston Person. Anderson passed away from natural causes on March 10, 2016 at the age of 87.

Biography written by Richard S. Ginell & published at allmusic.com

Photo credits:

• Photo on homepage: chicagotribune.com
• Photo #1 above: thetimes.co.uk
• Photo #2 above: knkx.org

Art Tatum was among the most extraordinary of all jazz musicians, a pianist with wondrous technique who could not only play ridiculously rapid lines with both hands, but was harmonically 30 years ahead of his time. Able to play stride, swing, and boogie-woogie with speed and complexity that could only previously be imagined, Tatum’s quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh and sometimes futuristic ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries.  All pianists have to deal with Tatum’s innovations in order to be taken seriously.

Born nearly blind, Tatum gained some formal piano training at the Toledo School of Music but was largely self-taught. Although influenced a bit by Fats Waller and the semi-classical pianists of the 1920s, there is really no explanation for where Tatum gained his inspiration and ideas from. He first played professionally in Toledo in the mid-’20s and had a radio show during 1929-1930. In 1932, Tatum traveled with singer Adelaide Hall to New York and made his recording debut accompanying her as one of two pianists. But for those who had never heard him in person, it was his solos of 1933, including “Tiger Rag,” that announced the arrival of a truly major talent.

In the 1930s, Tatum spent periods working in Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and England. Although he led a popular trio with guitarist Tiny Grimes (later Everett Barksdale) and bassist Slam Stewart in the mid-’40s, Tatum spent most of his life as a solo pianist who could always scare the competition. Some observers criticized him for having too much technique and for using too many notes, but those minor reservations pale when compared to Tatum’s reworkings of such tunes as “Yesterdays,” “Begin the Beguine,” and even “Humoresque.” Although he was not a composer, Tatum’s rearrangements of standards made even warhorses sound like new compositions.

Tatum, who recorded for Decca throughout the 1930s and Capitol in the late ’40s, starred at the Esquire Metropolitan Opera House concert of 1944 and appeared briefly in his only film in 1947, The Fabulous Dorseys. He recorded extensively for Norman Granz near the end of his life in the 1950s, both solo and with all-star groups. All of the music has been reissued by Pablo on a six-CD box set. His premature death from uremia has not resulted in any loss of fame, for Art Tatum’s recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists.

Originally published at allmusic.com

John Coltrane departed this mortal plane more than fifty years ago; today he remains among us, more alive than ever. His sound continues to grab the ears of an ever-widening circle of fans. His legend is stone solid: planted firmly in our culture as that of any 20th century musical giant. His saxophone sound—brooding, searching, dark—is still one of the most recognizable in modern jazz. His influence stretches over styles and genres, and transcends cultural boundaries. The modern ideal of music serving a deeply spiritual, connective purpose? A defining facet of John Coltrane.

To Coltrane, a musician was a message-giver; making music was an endeavor tied to a larger, greater good. “I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music,” Coltrane wrote in 1964 in a letter to his listeners, telling of a prayer to God. In 1966, less than a year before his death, he stated:

“I know that there are bad forces, forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world. I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.”

Coltrane achieved his goal as a hard-working jazz player coming out of a proud, rooted musical tradition, paying his dues as a sideman, learning the ropes as a leader, working with primarily wordless music to convey his message. He released twenty-five albums as a leader during his lifetime, some attaining five-star, classic status: Blue Train, Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, his Grammy-nominated, “humble offering” to God, A Love Supreme. One after another, from 1957 to ’67, his music defined a comet-like path of rapid growth and dizzying rate of change. That Coltrane accomplished all he did in a mere ten years accounts at least partly for the saint-like devotion he often receives.

Jazz journalist Nat Hentoff, who interviewed and championed Coltrane, praised him more soberly. “By the time A Love Supreme hit, Trane struck such a spiritual chord in so many listeners that people started to think of him as being beyond human. I think that’s unfair. He was just a human being like you and me — but he was willing to practice more, to do all the things that somebody has to do to excel. The real value in what John Coltrane did was that what he accomplished, he did as a human.”

Certain aspects of Coltrane’s humble beginnings point to what he would become. Being born in 1926 in small-town North Carolina—specifically Hamlet, and later High Point—helps explain his predilection for the blues. His affinity for a distinct, gospel feel—meditative, prayer-like songs and the preacher-like tone in his saxophone—can be partially credited to being raised in a religious family. His father preached, and his grandfather was a community leader and minister. In 1938 both passed away suddenly, then Coltrane’s grandmother and an aunt—all within months of each other. Coltrane himself was barely twelve. The family was devastated, emotionally and economically. Having just taken up the clarinet, music became a lifeline of sorts for Coltrane.

Timing had much to do with building Coltrane’s musical foundation as well. Being born in ‘26 meant that by his teenage years he was hearing the popular songs and sophisticated arrangements at the height of the big band era. As he approached adulthood in the mid ‘40s, the bebop of alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie grabbed the ears of his generation. Johnny Hodges, the longtime alto saxophonist in Duke Ellington’s famed orchestra; and Dexter Gordon, the tenor-sax playing, first-generation bebopper, were two of Coltrane’s earliest heroes.

Bebop was a new exciting language that snapped and popped with a fresh, rhythmic freedom, and expanded the harmonic bandwidth of the music—requiring an under-the-hood familiarity with the mechanics of music. Coltrane, already an autodidact, was hooked, intellectually and emotionally.

Coltrane moved to Philadelphia in 1943, following other family members, and immediately threw himself into the local music scene, meeting other young, bebop-focused players, like saxophonists Jimmy Heath and Benny Golson. A stint in the Navy in the closing days of World War II gave him the chance to use the G.I. Bill to take music classes after his discharge, and dedicate himself to music as a profession.

Philadelphia featured one of the most developed and vibrant African American communities in the post-WWII years. The black parts of town were filled with bars, clubs, and theaters, all requiring live music of all styles. Despite his dedication to bebop, Coltrane became a journeyman musician on the circuit, blowing alto saxophone and playing whatever the gig required.

Coltrane’s apprenticeship took place from 1946 to 1955. He was a horn-for-hire, blowing the blues out front of small groups, backing various jazz and R&B singers, adding to the punch and blend of the sax section in a number of big bands. He worked his way up the ranks, from local groups (Jimmy Heath’s big band for one; Bill Carney’s Hi-Tones, a small R&B outfit, for another) to national ensembles in the early ‘50s—like big bands led by saxophonists Johnny Hodges, and Earl Bostic, and Dizzy Gillespie, the latter demanding he switch from alto to tenor saxophone. Coltrane followed orders, and his development continued.

It was during this endless succession of gigs and travel when Coltrane first tried narcotics; by 1951, like too many of his peers, he acquired a heroin habit that would stay with him for six years.

Coltrane was playing in organist Jimmy Smith’s group at the end of summer 1955 when a call came from New York City to audition for trumpeter Miles Davis’s band. Despite Coltrane’s initial uncertainty—“I am quite ashamed of those early records I made with Miles. Why he picked me, I don’t know”, he later said—Miles liked what he heard. “After we started playing together for a while, I knew that this guy was a bad motherfucker,” Davis wrote in his autobiography. “[He] was just the voice I needed on tenor to set off my voice.”

The four years Coltrane spent in Davis’s group—from 1955 through ’59—catapulted the unknown saxophonist from local obscurity to national renown. Under the spotlight that came with playing alongside Davis, Coltrane evolved from what many heard as faltering insecurity to bold, chance-taking confidence. True to Miles’s words, the intensity and density of Coltrane’s saxophone was an effective foil to Davis’s subdued melancholy on trumpet. They had been born the same year and grown to be so different in temperament. Yet they were, at the core, equal in their obsession with the inner workings of music theory, and in their need for musical challenge and surprise.

Davis provided Coltrane an open-ended, instruction-less freedom to explore and find his own voice; Coltrane referred to him as “Teacher”. Save for nine months in 1957 when the trumpeter unceremoniously fired him due to his heroin use impeding his appearance and performance—after which Coltrane kicked his habit cold turkey—their relationship remains one of the most fruitful and significant in jazz history.

1957, in fact, was the year Coltrane truly became Coltrane. During that twelve-month period, his compulsion to practice incessantly led to the first phase of his signature style: slaloming through changes, playing and replaying scalar patterns, an outpouring of harmonic stacking the critic Ira Gitler famously dubbed “sheets of sound.” Once clean and back on the scene as a freelancer, Coltrane’s workaholic nature propelled him into the studio—as sideman on many tracks, recording his debut as a leader (Coltrane on Prestige), and the first album to reveal his gifts as a composer (Blue Train on Blue Note).

No event in ’57 proved more enduringly significant to Coltrane than his summer-long collaboration with the pianist/composer Thelonious Monk, of which Coltrane said:

“I learned from him in every way – through the senses, theoretically, technically.”

Monk’s tutelage—more direct and patient than Miles—helped him grasp music riddled with strange melodic leaps and rhythmic breaks, and appealed with its own logic. When Coltrane returned to Miles’s group at the end of that year, the trumpeter was on his own way to developing a new vocabulary.

The timing could not have been better. Miles’s shift from traditional, chord-based song forms to more open-ended, modal structures provided a needed freshness that helped improvisers avoid the same old bebop clichés. This “modal jazz” was the foundational idea to what is still Miles’s most famous album, 1959’s Kind of Blue. For Coltrane, it was like pouring high-octane into a turbo-charged engine. Liberated from the meticulous pathways in Monk’s music, he dove with gusto into the harmonic freedoms that modal jazz offered, absorbing and later developing the same ideas further in his own groundbreaking groups of the 1960s.

“Miles’s music gave me plenty of freedom,” he said. “It’s a beautiful approach…I found it easy to apply harmonic ideas that I had.”

In his last year with Atlantic, Coltrane added the soprano saxophone to his repertoire and the pianist McCoy Tyner to his band. The confluence of the two led him to record the waltz-time Broadway show tune “My Favorite Things” (from the musical The Sound Of Music) as a raga-flavored, modal piece; the unlikely reimagining became a radio hit and his biggest commercial success.

By the end of 1959, Coltrane was 33. While Miles tried to keep him in his group, it was clear he was itching to go his own way. He began gigging with his own bands, and continued writing material. He had a booking agent and a lawyer, both recommended by Miles, the latter who helped him start his own music publishing company (Jowcol Music) and jump from his Prestige to a more lucrative contract with the midsize Atlantic Records, a label known as much for its R&B successes as for releasing jazz records.</p> <p>1959 to ’61 mark Coltrane’s Atlantic period, during which he recorded one of his most important albums—<em>Giant Steps</em>—featuring timeless tunes like “Naima”, “Cousin Mary”, and the title track; collectively they served as a masterful farewell to the labyrinthine chord changes of the bebop world. He began to focus more on the highly emotional, melody-driven influence of the avant-garde jazz of the time, inspired greatly by the music of Ornette Coleman—the Texas-born saxophonist who had turned the jazz world on its ear upon arriving in New York City in 1959.</p> <p>Coltrane often visited and in fact received instruction from Coleman; “He was interested in non-chordal playing and I had cut my teeth on that stuff,”

By the end of 1961, Coltrane was able to push higher, signing with Impulse Records—the jazz imprint within the major label ABC-Paramount Records. It was with Impulse—from ’61 through his death in July ‘67—that Coltrane would reach his highest career crest, and reveal the full range of his projects: first with his quintet that featured saxophonist/flutist Eric Dolphy, then his so-called “Classic Quartet” (with Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones and bassist Jimmy Garrison), various big band efforts (Africa/Brass, Ascension), and finally the quintet that included Garrison, his wife, pianist Alice Coltrane, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and drummer Rashied Ali.

Coltrane’s Impulse recordings, from 1961 through most of ’64, show him with one foot in the more traditional jazz world, playing standards (Ballads) and collaborating with the likes of the legendary Duke Ellington and vocalist Johnny Hartman, while the other foot rested in more avant-garde territory. His release schedule balanced fiery, live recordings (Live! at the Village Vanguard, Live at Birdland, some tracks on Impressions) with studio recordings sharing a softer, more meditative side to his composing (other tracks on Impressions, Coltrane, Crescent). By the early ‘60s, Coltrane was a nightclub and festival headliner, a force in terms of record sales and box office receipts, and a major influence on many of his peers—his albums by then were required listening for jazz, R&B, and rock players alike.

Coltrane recorded A Love Supreme at the end of ’64, calling it his “attempt to say ‘THANK YOU GOD’ through our work”—a musical offering in gratitude for his spiritual re-awakening in ’57, the year he rid himself of his drug habit. It was a four-part suite, the first of a series of larger works that held to a higher intent and focus. It was carefully composed and planned in September ’64, just after the birth of his first son John Jr. with his new wife, the Detroit-born, bebop-enthused Alice Coltrane—née McLeod.

Their relationship would prove to be one of the most prodigious and prolific husband-wife pairings of the jazz world. John’s musical and spiritual influence on Alice would redirect her life and career. After his death, she carried his music and universalist message forward in her own way, fusing modern jazz, Indian ragas, and Vedic devotional songs on eighteen very special albums, and eventually put her career aside to establish and lead an ashram of spiritual followers in southern California.

A Love Supreme was atypical for a jazz recording in many ways. It included Coltrane’s voice, chanting the album’s title. The album cover featured a letter to the listener and a poem, both penned by Coltrane and both espousing a universalist spirituality, and addressing his role as a musician. When released in early ’65, it quickly became Coltrane’s best-known album, a kind of musical self-portrait that earned him two Grammy nominations, induction into Downbeat magazine’s Hall of Fame, and a newer generation of fans—many of who were likewise looking to alternative spiritual paths. A few weeks before Coltrane composed A Love Supreme, jazz writer Leonard Feather noted that his “most devoted followers are young listeners” and asked how they could fully appreciate music that “demands technical knowledge and intense attention.”

“As long as there is some feeling of communication, it isn’t necessary that it be understood,” Coltrane replied. “After all, I used to love music myself long before I could even identify a G minor seventh chord…eventually the listeners move right along with the musicians.”

Coltrane’s put this truism to the test through 1965 as his musical explorations— inviting other players into his band, writing music that grew increasingly discordant, dense, and multi-rhythmic—tested the patience of both his audience and members of his Classic Quartet. Before the year was out, both Tyner and Jones departed: Alice took over the piano seat, the young Rashied Ali was added on drums, and Pharoah Sanders on second saxophone.

From 1966 until his death in ’67, Coltrane was seen as the point of the spear by a new generation of jazz avant-gardists—a generation more politically charged and socially conscious than those before, and whose music reflected the growing political outrage of the time. Coltrane himself remained a humanist, more in tune with the non-violent philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., than the confrontational attitude of Malcolm X or the Black Panthers. Yet his music was an indelible part of the soundtrack of that turbulent era, and the recordings he made between ’65 and ’67 remain the most controversial of his entire career.

Through the last months of his life, Coltrane continued to push ahead with sessions that swung between tracks that could be grating and intense, and sonic tapestries deeply introspective and calm. The musical seeds that sprouted during the A Love Supreme sessions predicted where Coltrane would go with his music. His measured key-hopping on “Acknowledgement” presaged a passionate atonality. His chanting was heard again on the album Om. His love of poetry resurfaced on Kulu Se Mama. His hymn-like titles became an unbroken theme—“Dear Lord”, “Welcome”, “The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”—their meditative sonority reflecting that of A Love Supreme.

In the last year of his life, as Coltrane’s reputation and notoriety reached its highest level, those close to him were aware something was wrong. He was often in pain, suffering from liver cancer, as it was later learned. Yet Coltrane did not let up. He continued to perform and record, only weeks before his passing on July 17, 1967. The impact on the music scene was seismic; he left behind a stunned community of musicians, as well as his wife Alice, a daughter Michelle and three sons—John Jr., Ravi, and Oran—and a catalogue of recordings from which music continues to be issued and reissued.

Coltrane died in mid-search, musically driven till the end. As he told Nat Hentoff in late ’66:

“There is never any end…there are always new sounds to imagine, new feelings to get at. And always there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we’ve discovered in its pure state. So that we can see more and more clearly what we are . . . we have to keep on cleaning the mirror.”

Many have sought the same purification and, through their creative process, achieved it. Yet few have searched as deeply, provoked as consistently, succeeded as profoundly as Coltrane. Even fewer have ended as they began: still challenging themselves and their audience.

Still Coltrane rises, in stature and significance. His compositions and recordings are now permanent parts of the canon of great American music, recognized by the Library of Congress, with many inducted into The Grammy Hall of Fame; all are now required study for young musicians hoping to unlock the secrets of the jazz tradition. In today’s mainstream media, Coltrane is often name-checked on television shows and referenced in major Hollywood films like “Malcolm X”, “Mo Better Blues”, “Jerry McGuire”, “Mr. Holland’s Opus”, and many others. There’s even a street named in his honor at Universal Studios Hollywood, close to the Universal Music archives where many of his original reel-to-reel masters are shelved.

Posthumous honors persist: in 1995, the United States Postal Service placed Coltrane on a commemorative postage stamp. In ’97, he was bestowed the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In ’01, the National Endowment for the Arts chose “My Favorite Things” for its list of 360 Songs Of The Century. In ’07, Coltrane was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, as a Special Citation for a lifetime of innovative and influential work.

All distinctions aside, it’s clear that Coltrane’s importance today rests in his enduring role as a paragon of artistic sacrifice and spiritual vision, an original voice who sits atop the pantheon of African American cultural heroes. The inspiration his legacy continues to instill remains as strong as it is necessary—evidence of the unifying power of music: an argument to cherish our collective heritage; a dictate to listen to and learn from each other.

In 2009, a new President was elected and in the private residence of the White House he hung a candid portrait of Coltrane snapped by the photographer Jim Marshall, showing the saxophonist in a particularly pensive moment backstage in 1966. A few weeks later, the Coltrane family received a photo of the President contemplating the image, with the inscription:

“…from a huge fan of your father’s, Barack Obama.”

— By Ashley Kahn & originally published at johncoltrane.com

Photo credit:

1. Homepage – concord.com
2. Photo #1 above – biography.com
3. Photo #2 & 4 above – johncoltrane.com
4. Photo #3 above – avantmusicnews.com
5. Photo #5 above – nytimes.com
6. Photo #6 above –  gq-magazine.co.uk

Bassist, composer, educator and actor John Brown is a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and currently resides in Durham, NC. He is a graduate of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He currently serves as Director of the Jazz Program and Associate Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University, and has served on the faculties of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University and Guilford College (NC).

When he was very young, John took piano lessons from Frances Hunter (a close family friend), and began studying the bass when he was just 9 years old with his beloved teacher, Susan Ellington. He has been performing ever since. John began performing with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra (NC) at age 13, and he was playing Principal Bass with that orchestra and performing with the Florence Symphony (SC) while still in high school. As a student in Fayetteville, John had several mentors (including Paul Scott, Walter McPherson, Richard H. L. Jones, Hennigan “Buddy” Kearns, Betsy Heath, Felix Sawyer, Jay Bolder, Alan Pierce, Janice James, Joy Cogswell, Alan Porter, Craig Brown, John Cubbage, the late Malachi Sharpe, Tom Gavin, Harlan Duenow and Ernest Plummer) who helped guide his interests and keep him focused on studying music.

As a student at UNC-Greensboro, he studied bass with Jack Budrow, performed with the Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Roanoke (VA) Symphony Orchestras, and while still an undergraduate, he began performing regularly with the North Carolina Symphony. In college, John also developed a great love for jazz, and began pursuing performance opportunities in both jazz and classical music. In college, he teamed with fellow student Thomas Taylor to form the jazz quartet, “In the Black,” and the group enjoy a successful career performing in the region.

John has since performed in the United States and abroad with artists like Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Elvin Jones, Nnenna Freelon, Diahann Carroll, Rosemary Clooney, Nell Carter, Lou Donaldson, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton, Frank Foster, Larry Coryell, Cedar Walton, Fred Wesley and Mark Whitfield to name a few. John also has a Grammy nomination for his performance and co-writing on Nnenna Freelon’s 1996 Concord release, Shaking Free. His extensive experience includes performances at notable venues like Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Blue Note, Blues Alley, and the Hollywood Bowl and at major jazz festivals like the Playboy Jazz Festival, the JVC Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Free Jazz Festival (Brazil) and Jazz e Vienne (France).

Equally gifted in other areas of performance, John has performed for major theater productions including the Japan tour of Blues in the Night with Roz Ryan, Freda Payne and musical director Rahn Coleman, shows at the National Black Theater Festival, the Broadway Series South and off-Broadway performances in New York. John made his acting debut in 1991 when he co-starred in the role of Jimmy Powers (re-written for John as a bassist) in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill at the Broach Theatre and performed in the same show (as the onstage performing bassist) with Jackee Harry, also at the National Black Theater Festival. John has also appeared in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Stompin’ at the Savoy, Radioland Murders, Hellraiser III, and he recently earned his credentials for membership in the prestigious Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) for his role in the upcoming feature film, Bolden. Among John’s television recording credits is the soundtrack for Moon Over Miami on ABC (performed and recorded with Delfeayo Marsalis) and music for One Tree Hill.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, John performs actively as a leader and as a sideman. His groups give feature performances across the country and regularly participate in education programs like the cARTwheels program sponsored by the North Carolina Arts Council. John’s first commercially released recording, Terms of Art – A Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers garnered national attention and reached #8 on the nation’s JazzWeek Chart. During the last year of 2007, John joined the ranks of those to have TWO releases appear in the Top 40 of the JazzWeek Chart when Terms of Art appeared at #17 and Merry Christmas, Baby appeared at #39.

John still performs as a substitute with the North Carolina Symphony and the Charlotte Symphony. He is the founding director of the Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble, And now heads the JAZZFORCE, which is an auditioned group made up of the top performing high school students in a 75-mile surrounding radius of the Triangle area of North Carolina. John now also the founder of the Performing Arts Coalition – a non-profit organization formed to support that supports education and performance arts. John has served on the Boards of the American Federation of Musicians, the North Carolina Jazz Foundation and the North Carolina Jazz Network, and currently serves on the board of the Duke Cancer Patient Support Program. Additionally, John works with his business partner Tim Hudson representing artists through the Hudson Brown Agency. John is a YAMAHA Certified String Educator and he officially endorses Acoustic Image Amplifiers, AMT Microphones and Warwick basses, amplifiers and loudspeakers.

Originally published at jbjazz.com

Photo credits:

1. Homepage, photo #1 & 3 above – jbjazz.com
2. Photo #2 above – today.duke.edu
3. Photo #4 above – indyweek.com

The finest musicians to spring from the world of jazz have clearly had an advantage when it comes to branching into other genres of music. Their mastery of composition, arranging and sight reading coupled with their flair for improvisation and spontaneous creation make them possibly the most seasoned and adaptable musicians in the art. Grammy Award winner Christian McBride, chameleonic virtuoso of the acoustic and electric bass, stands tall at the top of this clique. Beginning in 1989—the beginning of an amazing career in which he still has wider-reaching goals to attain – the Philadelphian has thus far been first-call-requested to accompany literally hundreds of fine artists, ranging in an impressive array from McCoy Tyner and Sting to Kathleen Battle and Diana Krall. However, it is his own recordings—albums that encompass a diverse canon of original compositions and imaginatively arranged covers—that reveal the totality of his musicianship. He currently leads one of the hottest bands in music—the propulsive Christian McBride Band (saxophonist Ron Blake, keyboardist Geoffrey Keezer and drummer Terreon Gully).

The most awe-inspiring thing about Christian McBride is that his prowess as a player is only half of what makes him such a respected, in-demand and mind-bogglingly busy individual. The portrait is completed by a mere mid-thirty-something man who carved out time to speak at former President Clinton’s town hall meeting on “Racism in the Performing Arts.” He holds Artistic Director posts at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass summer program and the Dave Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. McBride participated in a Stanford University panel on “Black Performing Arts in Mainstream America.” He’s hosted insightful one-on-one “jazz chats” in Cyberspace on Sonicnet.com. He also scribed the foreword for pianist Jonny King’s book, What Jazz Is (Walker & Co., New York).

2005 witnessed his adding two more prestigious appointments to his resume. In January, he was named co-director of The Jazz Museum in Harlem. While assisting Leonard Garment and Loren Schoenberg in obtaining government grants and the participation of top flight historians/musicians, Christian will be focusing on a longtime concern: exposing jazz to young people.

“To a degree, jazz is non-existent in most major urban communities, which deeply saddens me,” McBride states. “Kids don’t understand who our jazz greats were. My contribution towards rectifying this will be getting them to check out free events at the museum by inviting jazz and non-jazz musicians, athletes and speakers that they can relate to.”

While working for the museum in Harlem, McBride will be racking up frequent flyer miles as Creative Chair for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, giving him a degree of influence over commercial and educational programs at the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Hall. The position is being passed on to him by singer Dianne Reeves who held it for the last three years.

Naturally, there will be more collaborations and sideman gigs, which he scrutinizes extra carefully now due to his schedule. Most importantly, he will continue to lead the Christian McBride Band which, together with special guests, has recorded this live album for ropeadope. This album, ever revolutionary as only McBride would have it, was compiled from two nights—two shows apiece—recorded at the Manhattan/East Village hot spot, Tonic. A kinetic concert spirit was captured with both college students and hip hoppers in the crowd, resulting in a perfect atmosphere for experimentation. The first set each night featured just the band, but for the second sets, specials guests blessed the stage; DJ Logic, Scratch (The Roots), guitarists Charlie Hunter and Eric Krasno (Soulive), pianist Jason Moran, trumpeter Rashawn Ross and violinist Jenny Scheinman (Bill Frisell).

Addressing how he manages to effectively keep his hands in so many exciting though daunting projects, Christian states, “I’ve always believed in the art of working with people. I feel you can always compensate for whatever skills you don’t have just learning how to get along with—and communicate with – people. Herbie Hancock is a master of that…and Quincy Jones is the ultimate master. The first time I met him, he hugged me then said, ‘I saw Ray Brown a couple of nights ago and told him we would be working together.’ I didn’t know he knew who I was—the contractor called me for the gig! Q studies people and figures out what to do with them like a great basketball coach.”

Christian McBride was born on May 31, 1972 in Philadelphia. Electric bass was Christian’s first instrument, which he began playing at age 9, followed by acoustic bass two years later. His first mentors on the instrument were his father, Lee Smith (a renowned bassist in Philly) and his great uncle, Howard Cooper (a disciple of the jazz avant-garde). While intensely studying classical music, Christian’s love for jazz also blossomed. Upon his 1989 graduation from Philadelphia’s fertile High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (C.A.P.A.), Christian was awarded a partial scholarship to attend the world-renowned Juilliard School in New York City to study with the legendary bassist, Homer Mensch. That summer, before making the move to the Big Apple, the already in-demand bassist got his first taste of touring going to Europe with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, and traveling the U.S. with the classical jazz fusion group, Free Flight.

McBride never had a chance to settle into his Juilliard studies. Within the first two weeks of the semester, he joined saxophonist Bobby Watson’s band, Horizon. He also started working around New York at clubs such as Bradley’s and the Village Gate with John Hicks, Kenny Barron, Larry Willis and Gary Bartz. After one year at Juilliard, McBride made a critical decision to leave school to tour with trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s first band, electing “experience with as many musicians as possible” as the best teacher. In August of 1990, he landed a coveted position in trumpeter Freddie Hubbard’s band until January of 1993.

In 1991, legendary bassist Ray Brown invited the young wunderkind to join him and John Clayton in the trio SuperBass. After being hailed “Hot Jazz Artist” of 1992 by Rolling Stone, Christian continued to prove it as a member of guitarist Pat Metheny’s “Special Quartet,” which included drum master Billy Higgins and saxophonist Joshua Redman. While recording and touring with Redman the following year, McBride signed to Verve Records in the summer of 1994, recording his first CD as a leader, Gettin’ to It. He also graced the big screen playing bass in director Robert Altman’s 1940’s period piece, Kansas City (1996).

Christian recorded three more career-shaping albums at Verve: Number Two Express (1996), the soul-jazz fusion project A Family Affair (1998 —featuring Christian’s first two songs as a lyricist), and the critically acclaimed SCI-FI (2000), marking the inaugural execution of Christian’s concept of music being boundless by genre. The following year, he continued to expand his audience with two endeavors. He dipped into hip hop with a side project dubbed The Philadelphia Experiment, a “jam band”-inspired CD that reunited Christian with his high school friend, drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson (leader of The Roots) and featured keyboardist Uri Caine and guitarist Pat Martino.

Later that year, pop star Sting invited Christian to become a key figure in his 2001 All This Time CD, DVD and tour. Then in 2002, Christian supported George Duke by becoming a member of his band and recording on his landmark album Face the Music: the legendary keyboardist’s first album on his own recording label, BPM. “Christian is a monster on that bass,” Duke states with pride. “It isn’t often these days to find a young musician so dedicated to his craft. Christian is my kind of musician, one that is open to new ideas, good at playing different styles, reads music prolifically and is dedicated to furthering the growth of music not only as a musician, but as a young representative of his profession. There isn’t anyone better. And besides that, he’s a great cat!”

In 2003, Christian released one album on Warner Bros. Records titled Vertical Vision, a blazing recording that introduced the current incarnation of the Christian McBride Band. Over the years, McBride has been featured on hundreds of albums, touring and/or recording with artists such as David Sanborn, Chick Corea, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, George Benson, and the late greats Joe Henderson, Betty Carter and Milt Jackson. He also undertook his first pop Musical Directorship at the helm of a Christmas show featuring gospel royalty BeBe Winans and pop star Carly Simon. The event marked stage-shy Simon’ first New York concert appearance in a decade and she expressly insisted that only McBride could be her MD.

Finally, as a composer, Christian has achieved several high watermarks. Among them is a commission from Jazz at Lincoln Center to compose “Bluesin’ in Alphabet City,” performed by Wynton Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. And in 1998, the Portland (ME) Arts Society and the National Endowment for the Arts awarded McBride with a commission to write “The Movement, Revisited,” Christian’s dramatic musical portrait of the civil rights struggle of the 1960’s written and arranged for quartet and a 30-piece gospel choir.

There have been very few artists who truly embody the genuine, heart-felt passion for music in all areas as has Christian McBride. By boldly continuing to leave his mark in areas of musical performance, composition, education and advocacy, he is destined to be a force in music for decades to come.

Originally published at musicians.allaboutjazz.com

Photo credits:

1. Home – downbeat.com
2. Above #1 – ridgefieldplayhouse.org
3. Above #2 – londonjazznews.com
4. Above #3 – observer.com
5. Above #4 – downbeat.com

Raised in Philadelphia, this is where the foundation of his musical roots in Jazz, Blues and other musical art forms were born. To hear Joey DeFrancesco today, his music embodies the traditional art form infused with a distinctly modern approach, just part of what makes his music unmistakably his own.

Joey DeFrancesco’s emergence in the 1980s marked the onset of a musical renaissance. Organ jazz had all but gone into hibernation from the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s until DeFrancesco reignited the flame with his vintage Hammond organ and Leslie speaker cabinet. The son of “Papa” John DeFrancesco, an organist himself, the younger DeFrancesco remembers playing as early as four years old. Soon after, his father began bringing him to gigs in Philadelphia, sitting in with legendary players like Hank Mobley and Philly Joe Jones, who quickly recognized his talent and enthusiasm. With a natural gift for music, DeFrancesco also swiftly picked up on the trumpet after a touring stint with Miles Davis as one of the two youngest players ever recruited for any of Davis’ ensembles.

DeFrancesco has recorded and/or toured with his own groups as well as numerous renowned artists that include Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Diana Krall, Nancy Wilson, George Benson, James Moody, John Scofield, Bobby Hutcherson, Jimmy Cobb, John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell, David Sanborn and many more. The four-time Grammy® Award-nominee, with more than 30 recordings as a leader under his belt, has received countless Jazz Journalist Association awards and other accolades worldwide, including being inducted into the inaugural Hammond Organ Hall of Fame in 2014, the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame in 2016 as well as topping the Critics Polls in DownBeat Magazine eleven times over the past fifteen years and the Readers Polls every year since 2005. DeFrancesco also hosts a weekly program on SiriusXM Radio’s Real Jazz channel titled “Organized.”

2019 sees the Master Organist celebrate the 30th Anniversary of his debut album and the release of the adventurous recording In The Key Of The Universe, available March 1 on Mack Avenue Records.

Originally published at joeydefrancesco.com/about

Photo credits:

1. Home – laphil.com
2. Photo #1 above – playbill.com
3. Photo #2 above – artsmania.ca

Sarah Vaughn [ 4:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Possessor of one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century, Sarah Vaughan ranked with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday in the very top echelon of female jazz singers. She often gave the impression that with her wide range, perfectly controlled vibrato, and wide expressive abilities, she could do anything she wanted with her voice. Although not all of her many recordings are essential (give Vaughan a weak song and she might strangle it to death), Sarah Vaughan’s legacy as a performer and a recording artist will be very difficult to match in the future.

Vaughan sang in church as a child and had extensive piano lessons from 1931-39; she developed into a capable keyboardist. After she won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater, she was hired for the Earl Hines big band as a singer and second vocalist. Unfortunately, the musicians’ recording strike kept her off record during this period (1943-44). When lifelong friend Billy Eckstine broke away to form his own orchestra, Vaughan joined him, making her recording debut. She loved being with Eckstine’s orchestra, where she became influenced by a couple of his sidemen, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, both of whom had also been with Hines during her stint. Vaughan was one of the first singers to fully incorporate bop phrasing in her singing, and to have the vocal chops to pull it off on the level of a Parker and Gillespie.

Other than a few months with John Kirby from 1945-46, Sarah Vaughan spent the remainder of her career as a solo star. Although she looked a bit awkward in 1945 (her first husband George Treadwell would greatly assist her with her appearance), there was no denying her incredible voice. She made several early sessions for Continental: a December 31, 1944 date highlighted by her vocal version of “A Night in Tunisia,” which was called “Interlude,” and a May 25, 1945 session for that label that had Gillespie and Parker as sidemen. However, it was her 1946-48 selections for Musicraft (which included “If You Could See Me Now,” “Tenderly” and “It’s Magic”) that found her rapidly gaining maturity and adding bop-oriented phrasing to popular songs. Signed to Columbia where she recorded during 1949-53, “Sassy” continued to build on her popularity. Although some of those sessions were quite commercial, eight classic selections cut with Jimmy Jones’ band during May 18-19, 1950 (an octet including Miles Davis) showed that she could sing jazz with the best.

Sarah VaughanDuring the 1950s, Vaughan recorded middle-of-the-road pop material with orchestras for Mercury, and jazz dates (including Sarah Vaughan, a memorable collaboration with Clifford Brown) for the label’s subsidiary, EmArcy. Later record label associations included Roulette (1960-64), back with Mercury (1963-67), and after a surprising four years off records, Mainstream (1971-74). Through the years, Vaughan’s voice deepened a bit, but never lost its power, flexibility or range. She was a masterful scat singer and was able to out-swing nearly everyone (except for Ella). Vaughan was with Norman Granz’s Pablo label from 1977-82, and only during her last few years did her recording career falter a bit, with only two forgettable efforts after 1982. However, up until near the end, Vaughan remained a world traveler, singing and partying into all hours of the night with her miraculous voice staying in prime form. The majority of her recordings are currently available, including complete sets of the Mercury/Emarcy years, and Sarah Vaughan is as famous today as she was during her most active years.

Originally published at AllMusic.com

Photo credits:

1. Home – abc.net.au
2. Photo #1 above – iheart.com
3. Photo #2 above – biography.com

She was one of the most extraordinary artists of the twentieth century, an icon of American music. She was the consummate musical storyteller, a griot as she would come to learn, who used her remarkable talent to create a legacy of liberation, empowerment, passion, and love through a magnificent body of works. She earned the moniker ‘High Priestess of Soul’ for she could weave a spell so seductive and hypnotic that the listener lost track of time and space as they became absorbed in the moment. She was who the world would come to know as Nina Simone.

When Nina Simone died on April 21, 2003, she left a timeless treasure trove of musical magic spanning over four decades from her first hit, the 1959 Top 10 classic “I Loves You Porgy,” to “A Single Woman,” the title cut from her one and only 1993 Elektra album. While thirty-three years separate those recordings, the element of honest emotion is the glue that binds the two together – it is that approach to every piece of work that became Nina’s uncompromising musical trademark.

By the end of her life, Nina was enjoying an unprecedented degree of recognition. Her music was enjoyed by the masses due to the CD revolution, discovery on the Internet, and exposure through movies and television. Nina had sold over one million CDs in the last decade of her life, making her a global catalog best-seller.

No one website can fully explore the many nuances and flavors that made up the more than 40 original albums in the Nina Simone library. This site contains most of Nina’s finest works and press mentions. However, we might not have had the chance to witness the breathtaking range of material Nina could cover if she hadn’t taken the path she did.

Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21st, 1933,

Nina’s prodigious talent as a musician was evident early on when she started playing piano by ear at the age of three. Her mother, a Methodist minister, and her father, a handyman and preacher himself, couldn’t ignore young Eunice’s God-given gift of music.

Raised in the church on the straight and narrow, her parents taught her right from wrong, to carry herself with dignity, and to work hard. She played piano – but didn’t sing – in her mother’s church, displaying remarkable talent early in her life.

Able to play virtually anything by ear, she was soon studying classical music with an Englishwoman named Muriel Mazzanovich, who had moved to the small southern town. It was from these humble roots that Eunice developed a lifelong love of Johann Sebastian Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert.

After graduating valedictorian of her high school class, the community raised money for a scholarship for Eunice to study at Julliard in New York City before applying to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Her family had already moved to the City Of Brotherly Love, but Eunice’s hopes for a career as a pioneering African American classical pianist were dashed when the school denied her admission.

To the end, she herself would claim that racism was the reason she did not attend. While her original dream was unfulfilled, Eunice ended up with an incredible worldwide career as Nina Simone – almost by default.

Originally published at www.ninasimone.com

Photo credits:

1. Home – mentalfloss.com
2. Above #1 – theedgesusu.co.uk
3. Above #2 – thesource.com
4. Above #3 – en.wikipedia.org

Grady Tate was renowned as a session drummer extraordinaire, an expert in the use of the rim shot for syncopating purposes; prized for his driving, pushing, or subtle coaxing of the beat. Yet he also displayed a warm, flexible, rhythmically agile baritone voice, which, in a reversal of the usual commercial situation, was less well-known than his drumming. He began singing at age four, impressing local Durham, North Carolina church and school audiences, but quit temporarily when his voice broke at age 12. Self-taught as a drummer at first, he picked up the fundamentals of jazz drumming during his hitch in the Air Force (1951-1955), and arranger Bill Berry made some vocal charts for him there. Upon his discharge, he returned to Durham to study psychology, literature, and theater at North Carolina College, before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1959 to teach high school and take up a musical career with Wild Bill Davis.

The CatA move to New York City in 1963 led to a gig with the Quincy Jones big band, and soon he caught on as a recording session drummer. His most famous records as an accompanist were made under the aegis of producer Creed Taylor, for whom he became the house drummer of choice. Tate played on many of Jimmy Smith’s and Wes Montgomery’s most popular recordings, including 1964’s The Cat and 1965’s Bumpin’. He can also be heard on albums by such luminaries as Nat Adderley, Stan Getz, Tony Bennett, Kenny Burrell, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Roland Kirk, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, J.J. Johnson, and Kai Winding, among countless other artists.

Windmills of My MindArranger Gary McFarland thought enough of Tate’s singing voice to record a number of vocal albums for his short-lived Skye label, beginning with 1968’s Windmills of My Mind. Yet despite further vocal sessions for Buddah, Janus, Impulse!, and a host of Japanese labels, Tate’s profile as a singer was never as high as it could have been. During this period, he also stayed active appearing on albums with a bevy of jazz and soul artists including Ron Carter, Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Gato Barbieri, and others. Tate’s voice can also be heard on several songs in the beloved Schoolhouse Rock! animated educational series.

Twin Peaks [Original Television Soundtrack]Despite the absence of his own solo albums, the ’80s proved a fruitful time for the drummer, who returned to teaching and joined the faculty of Howard University. He also remained a highly sought-after session player, appearing with jazz artists like Jimmy Smith, Helen Merrill, and Teresa Brewer, as well as pop superstars like Simon & Garfunkel. His distinctive, undulating drum patterns were also used to good effect on composer Angelo Badalamenti’s soundtrack to director David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.

TNTHe returned to his solo recording work with 1991’s excellent, vocal-only album for Milestone, TNT, where drummer Dennis Mackrel used many patterns that he learned from Tate. Body and Soul followed a year later, and he resurfaced with Feeling Free in 1999. Several more well-regarded albums followed, including 2003’s All Love with pianist Kenny Barron and 2006’s From the Heart: Songs Sung Live at the Blue Note. Tate’s drumming was once again featured on the soundtrack to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return. Tate died on October 8, 2017 at his home in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He was 85 years old.

Originally published at allmusic.com

Photo credits:

1. Home page – northcarolinamusichalloffame.org
2. Photo #1 above – nytimes.com
3. Photo #2 above – stuartnicholson.uk
4. Photo #3 above – qobuz.com