Results for "Detroit"

Dennis Rowland

Born: February 3, 1948

Dennis Rowland is beloved by jazz devotees and theatergoers around the globe.

The Detroit native and Phoenix, Arizona resident was the voice of the world-renowned Count Basie Orchestra between 1977 and 1984, where he shared the stage with Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams and Tony Bennett. He is also featured on the Basie Band’s Grammy award-winning record "On the Road".

An electrifying live performer, Rowland's musical tours in recent years have taken him to Germany, Russia, England, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, the Czech Republic and Croatia. Stateside, he has performed at major jazz festivals, with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and at metropolitan Phoenix-area jazz clubs and performing arts venues.

Frank Rosolino

Born: August 20, 1926

Frank Rosolino will be remembered and respected throughout the contemporary jazz world for his mastery of the trombone, his uncanny ability to fit and work successfully with a wide range of musical ideas, and perhaps last but not entirely forgotten, his wit and capacity for comic entertainment. There has seldom been a time when any single aspect of this amazingly complex individual was submerged for any great length of time. He was always the superb performer, upfront individually as a musician or commercially as an entertainer. Frank Rosolino was born in Detroit on August 20, 1926 and began taking trombone lessons in the eighth grade or about the time he was 14 years of age

Donald Byrd

Born: December 9, 1932

Trumpeter Donald Byrd was born in Detroit in 1932, his studies at Wayne State University (1954) were interrupted by military service, during which he played in an Air Force band. He then attended the Manhattan School of Music (MA in music education). At the same time he was the favorite studio trumpeter of the bop label Presitge (1956-58), though he also recorded frequently for Riverside and Blue Note.

He gave performances with George Wallington (1955), Art Blakey (1956), and along with Gigi Gryce was a member of the Jazz Lab Quintet (1957). He also performed with Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and others, before settling into a partnership with Pepper Adams (1958-61). After studying composition in Europe (1963-63) Byrd began a career in black music education, teaching at Rutgers, the Hampton Institute, Howard University, and (after receiving a law degree, 1976) North Carolina Central University; in 1982 he was awarded a doctorate by Columbia Teachers College.

Marcus Belgrave

Born: June 12, 1936

Marcus Belgrave is Detroit’s internationally recognized jazz trumpet great. He came to prominence in the late 50’s, touring and recording with the late great Ray Charles’ Orchestra, at the height of Ray’s hit-making era. Marcus is heard as a trumpet soloist on some of Ray’s most famous “hits”... both albums and singles. He always pays tribute to Ray, who mentored him from the young age of 19. He is the only living member of Ray Charles’ small band horn section. He was also mentored by the Great Clifford Brown. Clifford’s early influence on the young Belgrave can still be heard in his tone

Dorothy Ashby

Born: August 6, 1932

Born Dorothy Jeanne Thompson, she grew up around music in Detroit where her father, guitarist Wiley Thompson, often brought home fellow jazz musicians. Even as a young girl, Dorothy would provide support and background to their music by playing the piano. She attended Cass Technical High School where fellow students included such future musical talents and jazz greats as Donald Byrd, Gerald Wilson, and Kenny Burrell.

While in high school she played a number of instruments (including the saxophone and string bass) before coming upon the harp. She attended Wayne State University in Detroit where she studied piano and music education. After she graduated, she began playing the piano in the jazz scene in Detroit, though by 1952 she had made the harp her main instrument. At first her fellow jazz musicians were resistant to the idea of adding the harp, which they perceived as an instrument of classical music and also somewhat ethereal in sound, into jazz performances. So Ashby overcame their initial resistance and built up support for the harp as a jazz instrument by organizing free shows and playing at dances and weddings with her trio. She recorded with Richard Davis, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess and others in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During the 1960s, she also had her own radio show in Detroit. Ashby's trio, including her husband John Ashby on drums, regularly toured the country, recording albums for several different record labels. She played with Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman, among others.

Geri Allen

Born: June 12, 1957

Pianist, composer, Guggenheim Fellow, and educator Geri Allen died on Tuesday, June 27, 2017 from complications of cancer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She had recently celebrated her 60th birthday. Hailed as one of the most accomplished pianists and educators of her time, Allen's most recent position was as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She was especially proud of performing with renowned pianist McCoy Tyner for the last two years, and was also part of two recent groundbreaking trios: ACS (Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Esperanza Spalding) and the MAC Power Trio with David Murray and Carrington — their debut recording Perfection was released on Motéma Music in 2016 to critical acclaim. "The jazz community will never be the same with the loss of one of our geniuses, Geri Allen

Pepper Adams

Born: October 8, 1930

Pepper Adams was one of hard bop's most significant baritone saxophonists. His dark, hearty tone on the horn and driving rhythmic sense provided the antithesis to the lighter, floating (and consequently more popular) styles of Gerry Mulligan.

His family moved to Rochester, New York when he was young and in that city he began his musical efforts. That said his family's later move to Detroit, Michigan, a suburb of which was his birthplace, would be more important to his career. This occurred when he was sixteen and in Detroit he met several musicians who would later be important to his career, one example being Donald Byrd. He also became interested in Wardell Gray's approach to the baritone saxophone and indicates he and Harry Carney were his baritone influences. He also spent time in a United States Army band and briefly had a tour of duty in Korea.

Roland Hanna

Born: February 10, 1932

Sir Roland Hanna was one of the major figures in jazz. His diverse experience as a musician (pianist and cellist), composer, arranger, teacher, diplomat, and humanitarian made him a dynamic driving force in the development of the art form. Born in Detroit in 1932, Hanna's first musical influence was the gospel and rythm and blues heard in his preacher father's church. This was coupled with formal training in classical piano from an early age. His musical evolution continued beyond graduation from Cass Technical High School and through a two year assignment in the United States Army Band. After the army, he studied at the Eastman School and then Julliard

Charleston Jazz Festival 2020

by Martin McFie
January 28, 2020

Various Venues Charleston Jazz Festival Charleston, SC January 23-26, 2020 Jazz Festivals are like people, six years old is still in infancy, but everything has to start somewhere. Historically, the city which gave birth to the Charleston dance craze and was the inspiration for Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, deserves The Charleston ...

2019: The Year in Jazz

by Ken Franckling
January 2, 2020

The year 2019 was robust in many ways. International Jazz Day brought its biggest stage to Australia. An important but long-shuttered jazz mecca was revived in a coast-to-coast move. ECM Records celebrated a golden year. The music and its makers figured prominently on the big screen. The National Endowment for the Arts welcomed four new NEA ...