|
Dirk Sutro grew up in the San Francisco-Bay Area. At a time when his
peers were listening to Zeppelin and Sabbath, he was baptized into jazz
by a piano-playing friend, and the two eventually formed a junior high
jazz duo with Sutro on drums and a repertoire that included "St. James
Infirmary," "Kansas City," "Muskrat Ramble," "Satin Doll," "Take Five,"
and other familiar jazz tunes. During the '60s and '70s, Sutro earned a
BA in English at Cal Berkeley, and he was lucky enough to catch Miles
Davis, Dexter Gordon, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Bobby Hutcherson, McCoy
Tyner, Anthony Braxton, Oliver Lake, and numerous other jazz legends at
Bay Area clubs including Keystone Korner. Sutro moved to San Diego and
received his masters in Mass Communications from San Diego State. After
working as a news reporter and magazine editor, he became the jazz
critic for the San Diego edition of the Los Angeles Times from 1988 to
1992. He currently serves as guest host of "These Days," a one-hour
public radio talk show that airs on KPBS-FM in San Diego, and he writes
jazz articles, mostly recently a profile of Woody Herman's onetime
bassist, Chubby Jackson (also a San Diego resident). Sutro is also
friends with other jazz greats living in San Diego, including guitarists
Barney Kessel and Mundell Lowe, saxophonists James Moody and Charles
McPherson, and onetime Sarah Vaughan pianist Mike Wofford. Sutro lives
in Leucadia, just up the coast from San Diego, with his daughters Hannah
and Semira. He plays guitar in a blues band, and loves all sorts of
music ranging from jazz to blues to rock, country, Indian, African, and
hip-hop. He is currently working on a biography of a famous figure in
jazz (he doesn't want to give away the idea in case some other jazz
writer is reading this).
|
