Feb 24, 2023
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Dance Class
Jazziversaries October 9 #1
Abdullah Ibrahim (piano) 1934 :: Many happy jazziversary returns to Abdullah Ibrahim! Abdullah Ibrahim (Arabic: عبدالله إبراهيم; born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934), formerly known 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. Ibrahim is considered the leading figure in the sub-genre Cape jazz. Within jazz, his music particularly reflects the influence of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. With his wife, the jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, he is father to the New York underground rapper Jean Grae, as well as to a son, Tsakwe.
In 1959 and 1960, Ibrahim played alongside Kippie Moeketsi and Hugh Masekela with The Jazz Epistles in Sophiatown; in 1960, the group recorded the first jazz LP by Black South African musicians. Ibrahim then joined the European tour of the musical King Kong.
Ibrahim moved to Europe in 1962. In February 1963, his wife-to-be, Sathima Bea Benjamin (they married in 1965), convinced Duke Ellington, who was in Zürich on a European tour, to come to hear Ibrahim perform as “The Dollar Brand Trio” in St Gallen’s “Africana Club”. After the show, Ellington helped set up a recording session with Reprise Records: Duke Ellington presents The Dollar Brand Trio. A second recording of the trio (also with Ellington and Billy Strayhorn on piano) performing with Sathima as vocalist was recorded, but remained unreleased until 1996 (A Morning in Paris, under Benjamin’s name). The Dollar Brand Trio (with Johnny Gertze on bass and Makaya Ntshoko on drums) subsequently played at many European festivals, as well as on radio and television.
Ibrahim briefly returned to South Africa in the mid-1970s after his conversion to Islam (and the resultant change of name from Dollar Brand to Abdullah Ibrahim); however, he soon returned to New York in 1976, as he found the political conditions too oppressive. While in South Africa, however, he made a series of recordings with noted Cape Town players (including Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen). These recordings gave impetus to a new sound, Cape Jazz. These included “Mannenberg” (renamed “Capetown Fringe” in its US release), one of South Africa’s popular musical compositions; “Black Lightning”; “African Herbs”; and “Soweto Is Where It Is At” – sounds that mirrored and spoke of the defiance in the streets and townships of South Africa. “Mannenberg” came to be considered “the unofficial national anthem” of South Africa, and the theme tune of the anti-apartheid movement. Saxophonist and flautist Carlos Ward was Ibrahim’s sideman in duets during the early 1980s.
Ibrahim has written the soundtracks for a number of films, including Chocolat (1988), and 1990’s No Fear, No Die. Since the ending of apartheid, he has lived in Cape Town, and now divides his time between his global concert circuit, New York, and South Africa.
He also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, where he and others recalled the days of apartheid.
Ibrahim has worked as a solo performer, typically in unbroken concerts that echo the unstoppable impetus of the old marabi performers, classical impressionists and snatches of his musical idols - Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Fats Waller. He also performs frequently with trios and quartets and larger orchestral units. Since his return to South Africa in the early 1990s, he has been feted with symphony orchestra performances, one of which was in honour of Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as President. He also founded the “M7” academy for South African musicians in Cape Town, and was the initiator of the Cape Town Jazz Orchestra, an 18-piece big band launched in September 2006. Ibrahim continues to perform internationally, mainly in Europe, and with occasional shows in North America.
Dave Samuels (vibraphone) 1948 :: jazziversary greetings to Dave Samuels. Dave Samuels is an American vibraphone player.
For over a decade, Samuels has been performing and recording with his group The Caribbean Jazz Project whose most recent CD ‘Afro Bop Alliance’ serves notice that the CJP is the most thoroughly inventive Latin Jazz ensembles of this or any era. The album received a Latin Grammy and was also nominated for a Grammy. Previous cd’s ‘Her and Now – Live in Concert’ and ‘Birds of a Feather’ were nominated for “Best Latin Jazz Recording,”. Their recording ‘The Gathering’ won the Grammy in 2003 for ‘Best Latin Jazz Recording’. Some of his other recording projects include ‘Remembrances’, a percussion recording that features a commissioned marimba concerto for chamber orchestra and soloist composed by Jeff Beal, and ‘Tjaderized - A Tribute to Cal Tjader’ (Verve) that features contributions from some of Cal’s former bandmates Chick Corea, Eddie Palmieri, Clare Fischer, Ray Barretto, Michael Wolff and Karl Perazzo as well as performances by Dave Valentin and David Sanchez. Another one of Samuels project's Double Image—the vibe-marimba duo consisting of Dave Samuels & David Friedman—celebrates thirty years of performing together. It was 1974 when these two masters of mallet percussion first created the unique combination of vibraphone and marimba. What emerged was a totally new sound and approach that has set a new standard for mallet percussionists everywhere. Their recordings have received critical acclaim and their performances have been described as “spellbinding”. Double Image performs music which spans many styles - from jazz standards and original compositions to through-composed pieces and spontaneous improvisations. Samuels’ longtime association with Spyro Gyra lasted from 1977 to 1994 and includes 20 recordings. During that time, the Grammy-nominated group was named #1 Contemporary Jazz Artist and Contemporary Jazz Group of the ´80s by Billboard magazine . In addition to his playing, Samuels is a respected educator and author and some of his new works can be found at MalletWorks.com and JazzBooks.com. Samuels has been voted “Best Vibes Player” in both Jazziz and Modern Drummer magazines and received numerous Grammy nominations.
Chucho Valdes (piano) 1941 :: feliz cumpleaños Chucho Valdés. Chucho Valdes is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. In 1972 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba’s best-known Latin jazz bands. Together with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Valdés is revered as one of Cuba’s greatest jazz pianists. His father is the famed Cuban pianist and former director of Havana’s famous “Tropicana” night-club band Bebo Valdés. He has won five Grammy Award and three Latin Grammy Awards.
Chucho has won four Grammy awards: in 1978 for the album Live at Newport by Irakere; in 1998 for his contribution to the CD Havana by his band Crisol (formed in 1997), with two songs - “Mr. Bruce” and “Mambo para Roy” - written by Chucho; in 2003 for his album Live at the Village Vanguard; and in 2011 for his album Chucho’s Steps.
On 16 October 2006, Chucho Valdés was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
In 2008 Sony released an album of Chucho playing with his father Bebo Valdés.
Chucho’s son, Chuchito, is also a jazz pianist.
Bebo Valdes (piano) 1918-2013 :: Valdés was born in Quivicán, and started his career as a pianist in the night clubs of Havana during the 1940s. From 1948 to 1957 he worked as pianist and arranger for the vedette Rita Montaner, who was the lead act in the Tropicana cabaret.
His orchestra, Sabor de Cuba, and that of Armando Valdés, alternated at the Tropicana, backing singers such as Benny More and Pío Leyva. Valdés played a role in the development of the mambo during the 1950s, and developed a new rhythm to compete with Perez Prado's mambo, called the batanga. Valdés was also an important figure in Cuban jazz and taking part in the Panart Cuban jazz sessions (one was commissioned by American producer Norman Granz).
In the late 1950s he recorded with Nat ‘King’ Cole. In 1960, with his singer Rolando La Serie, Bebo defected from Cuba to Mexico. He then lived briefly in the United States before touring Europe, and eventually settled in Stockholm, where he lived until 2007. In Sweden he was instrumental in spreading the techniques of Cuban music and latin jazz.
Valdés’ career got a late career boost in 1994 when he teamed up with saxophone player Paquito D’Rivera to release a CD called Bebo Rides Again.
During his career, Valdés won seven Grammy Awards: two for El Arte del Sabor (2002), one for Lágrimas Negras, and two for Bebo de Cuba in 2006 (in the categories “Best Traditional Tropical Album” and “Best Latin Jazz Album”).
Dave Samuels—“Bemsha Swing”
The Dave Samuels Trio, featuring Mark Walker on drums and Oscar Stagnaro on bass, performing a tune jointly composed by Thelonious Monk and drummer Denzil Best. Recorded at the 2009 Berklee Percussion Festival. Posted by Gustavo Agatiello
Jazziversaries October 9th
Abdullah Ibrahim (piano) - 1934 :: Birthday wishes to Abdullah Ibrahim formerly known as Dollar Brand, Abdullah 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. Ibrahim is considered the leading figure in the sub-genre Cape jazz. Within jazz, his music particularly reflects the influence of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. With his wife, the jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, he is father to the New York underground rapper Jean Grae, as well as to a son, Tsakwe.
He moved to Europe in 1962. In February 1963, Ibrahim's wife-to-be Sathima Bea Benjamin (they married in 1965)convinced Duke Ellington, who was in Zürich on a European tour, to come to hear Ibrahim perform as "The Dollar Brand Trio" in Zürich's "Africana Club". After the show, Ellington helped set up a recording session with Reprise Records: Duke Ellington presents The Dollar Brand Trio.A second recording of the trio (also with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn on piano) performing with Sathima as vocalist was recorded, but remained unreleased until 1996 (A Morning in Paris under Benjamin's name). The Dollar Brand Trio (with Johnny Gertze on bass and Makaya Ntshoko on drums) subsequently played at many European festivals, as well as on radio and television.
He briefly returned to South Africa in the mid-1970s after his conversion to Islam (and the resultant change of name from Dollar Brand to Abdullah Ibrahim); however, he soon returned to New York in 1976, as he found the political conditions too oppressive. While in South Africa, however, he made a series of recordings with noted Cape Town players (including Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen). These seminal recordings gave impetus to a new sound, Cape Jazz. These included the masterpiece, "Mannenberg" (renamed "Capetown Fringe" in its US release), one of South Africa's popular musical compositions, "Black Lightning", "African Herbs" and "Soweto Is Where It Is At", sounds that mirrored and spoke of the defiance in the streets and townships of South Africa. "Mannenberg" came to be considered "the unofficial national anthem" of South Africa, and the theme tune of the anti-apartheid movement.
Bebo Valdes (piano) - 1918 :: Many happy returns to Pianist Bebo Valdes. He was a central figure in the golden age of Cuban music, led two famous big bands, and was one of the 'house' arrangers for the Tropicana Club.[1]
Valdés started his career as a pianist in the night clubs of Havana during the 1940s. From 1948 to 1957 he worked as pianist and arranger for the vedette Rita Montaner, who was the lead act in the Tropicana cabaret. His orchestra Sabor de Cuba, and that of Armando Valdés, alternated at the Tropicana backing singers such as Benny More and Pío Leyva. Valdés played a role in the development of the mambo during the 1950s, and developed a new rhythm to compete with Perez Prado's mambo, called the batanga. Valdés was also an important figure in Cuban jazz and taking part in the Panart Cuban jazz sessions (one was commissioned by American producer Norman Granz). In the late 1950s he recorded with Nat 'King' Cole.
In 1960, with his singer Rolando La Serie, Bebo left Cuba for Mexico. He then lived briefly in the United States before touring Europe, and eventually settled in Stockholm, where he lived until 2007. In Sweden he was instrumental in spreading the techniques of Cuban music and latin jazz.
Chucho Valdes (piano) - 1941 :: Many happy returns to pianist Chucho Valdes, son of Bebo. In 1972 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands. Together with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Valdés is revered as one of Cuba's greatest jazz pianists. His father is the famed Cuban pianist and former director of Havana's famous "Tropicana" night club band Bebo Valdés.
Chucho has won four Grammy awards: in 1978 for the album Live at Newport by Irakere; in 1998 for his contribution to the CD Havana by his band Crisol (formed in 1997), with two songs Mr. Bruce and Mambo para Roy written by Chucho; in 2003 for his album Live at the Village Vanguard; and in 2011 for his album Chucho's Steps.
On 16 October 2006, Chucho Valdés was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
In 2008 Sony released an album of Chucho playing with his father Bebo Valdés.
Chucho's son, Chuchito, is also a jazz pianist.
Dave Samuels (vibraphone) - 1948 :: birthday wishes to vibesman Dave Samuels. Dave has worked with various jazz and fusion artists, such as Spyro Gyra. Currently, he plays in an ensemble called The Caribbean Jazz Project, a Grammy-winning jazz-Latin music group. He is also an alumnus of New Trier High School. He also played with Eddie Palmieri with a tribute to Cal Tjader with the album called 'Tjaderized'.
Kenny Garrett (sax, alto) - 1960 :: Very happy birthday to saxophonist Kenny Garrett. Kenny gained fame in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of the Miles Davis's band. He has since pursued a critically acclaimed solo career. Most recently he joined a supergroup of jazz musicians, the Five Peace Band.
In 1984, he recorded his first album as a bandleader, Introducing Kenny Garrett, on the CrissCross label. He then recorded two albums with Atlantic Records: Prisoner of Love and African Exchange Student. Garrett signed to the Warner Bros. Records label, and beginning with Black Hope, in 1992, he has continued to record with them. Among his notable recordings on Warner Bros. are Pursuance: The Music of John Coltrane, recorded in 1996, and Songbook, his first album made up entirely of his own compositions, recorded in 1997 and nominated for a Grammy Award.
During his career, Garrett has performed and recorded with many jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Brian Blade, Marcus Miller, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Ron Carter, Elvin Jones, and Mulgrew Miller. Garrett's music sometimes exhibits Asian influence, an aspect which is especially prevalent in his 2006 recording, Beyond the Wall.
Lee Wiley (vocal) - 1915 - 1975 :: was a jazz singer popular in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
While still in her early teens, she left home to pursue a singing career with the Leo Reisman band. Her career was temporarily interrupted by a fall while horseback riding. Wiley suffered temporary blindness, but recovered, and at the age of 19 was back with Reisman again, with whom she recorded three songs: "Take It From Me," "Time On My Hands," and her own composition, "Got The South In My Soul." She sang with Paul Whiteman and later, the Casa Loma Orchestra. A collaboration with composer Victor Young resulted in several songs for which Wiley wrote the lyrics, including "Got The South in My Soul" and "Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere," the latter an R&B hit in the 1950s.
In 1939, Wiley recorded eight Gershwin songs on 78s with a small group for Liberty Music Shops. The set sold well and was followed by 78s dedicated to the music of Cole Porter (1940) and Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart (1940 and 1954), Harold Arlen (1943), and 10" LPs dedicated to the music of Vincent Youmans and Irving Berlin (1951). The players on these recordings included Bunny Berigan, Bud Freeman, Max Kaminsky, Fats Waller, Billy Butterfield, Bobby Hackett, Eddie Condon, Stan Freeman, Cy Walter, and the bandleader Jess Stacy, to whom Wiley was married for a number of years. These influential albums launched the concept of a "songbook" (often featuring lesser-known songs), which was later widely imitated by other singers.
Wiley's career made a resurgence in 1950 with the much admired ten-inch album Night in Manhattan. In 1954, she opened the very first Newport Jazz Festival accompanied by Bobby Hackett. Later in the decade she recorded two of her finest albums, West of the Moon (1956) and A Touch of the Blues (1957). In the 1960s, Wiley retired, although she acted in a 1963 television film, Something About Lee Wiley, which told her life story. The film stimulated interest in the singer. Her last public appearance was a concert in Carnegie Hall in 1972 as part of the New York Jazz Festival, where she was enthusiastically received
Yusef Lateef (reeds) - 1920 :: Happy born day to Yusef Lateef! Yusef is a Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.
Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he also plays oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, and also uses a number of world music instruments, notably the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, Xun, arghul, sarewa, and koto. He is known for his innovative blending of jazz with "Eastern" music.
Lateef began recording as a leader in 1957 for Savoy Records, a non-exclusive association which continued until 1959; the earliest of Lateef's album's for the Prestige subsidiary New Jazz overlap with them. Musicians such as Wilbur Harden and Hugh Lawson were among his collaborators during this period.
By 1961, with the recording of Into Something and Eastern Sounds, Lateef's dominant presence within a group context had emerged. His 'Eastern' influences are clearly audible in all of these recordings, with spots for instruments like the rahab, shanai, arghul, koto and a collection of Chinese wooden flutes and bells along with his tenor and flute. Even his use of the western oboe sounds exotic in this context; it is not a standard jazz instrument. Along with trumpeter Don Cherry, Lateef can lay claim to being among the first exponents of the world music as subgenres of jazz. Lateef also made numerous contributions to other people's albums including his time as a member of saxophonist Cannonball Adderley's Quintet during 1962-64.
In the late 1960s he began to incorporate contemporary soul and gospel phrasing into his music, still with a strong blues underlay, on albums such as Detroit and Hush'n'Thunder.
Lateef has expressed a dislike of the terms "jazz" and "jazz musician" as musical generalizations. As is so often the case with such generalizations, the use of these terms do understate the breadth of his sound. For example, in the 1980s, Lateef experimented with new age and spiritual elements. His 1987 album Yusef Lateef's Little Symphony won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album. His core influences, however, are clearly rooted in jazz, and in his own words: "My music is jazz."
In 1992, Lateef founded YAL Records, his own label for which he records today. In 1993, Lateef was commissioned by the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne to compose The African American Epic Suite, a four part work for orchestra and quartet based on themes of slavery and disfranchisement in the United States. The piece has since been performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
I think that today is the first time that we have had a farther and son with the same birthday playing the same instrument- the Valdes dynasty and it continues, and so heres padre et hijo playing together...
Well, Jazzlings, if you share today with these cats then make it as extra special for yourself as you can and remember to fill the coming year full of all that you wish for yourself!
As ever thanks go to AAJ & JBC for the guidance
Respect to the YouTube Massive for the uploads
Hugs, cuddles and shoulder bumps to the followers - thanks for the support people
and thanks to You for passin' thru'
Stomp and Buck Dance
Go Placidly,
Geo
Dave Samuels - New Math / MCA 1988