Results for "flute"

Alexander Zonjic

Alexander Zonjic’s musical life is proof that one’s true destiny isn’t always revealed the minute a youngster picks up his first instrument. Growing up in Windsor, Ontario and excited by all the music of the British invasion, he launched his guitar dreams at age nine and was playing lead guitar in an R&B band in high school. The story goes that at age 21, when Zonjic was home on hiatus from a rock tour, a stranger on the street who had seen him play guitar offered him a flute ? most likely stolen ? for 50 dollars. Zonjic got it for nine. “I liked how it looked in the case,” Zonjic recalls

Dave Valentin

Born: April 29, 1952

Renown Latin jazz flutist, Dave Valentin, was born of Puerto Rican parents in 1952 in New York City. His love for music started quite early; playing bongos and congas before he was 10 and even working Latin clubs in New York by 12. His talent and interest took him to the well respected High School of Music and Art in New York City, where he began studying percussion. Valentin changed to flute and complemented his formal education at school with private classes under master flutist Hubert Laws. The early influences on Valentin’s development as a flutist came from Latin artists such as Richard Egues but was tempered by American jazz musicians including James Moody, Frank Wess, Joe Farrell and, of course, his mentor, Hubert Laws. Valentin soon began working as a professional musician in Latin bands, developing an unusual technique that featured blowing in a manner that sounded like percussion

Nestor Torres

Nestor Torres - flute, composer, recording artist, bandleader Born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Latin jazz flutist Nestor Torres took an early interest in music, following the lead of his father, who played the piano and vibes. Torres started playing the drums at age 5 but became interested in the flute which he started studying at age 12 at The Free Music School. Torres later claimed that after hearing the famous American jazz flautist Hubert Laws, “...he changed my Life forever”. Torres went to major in music education at the Inter-American University in nearby San German then moved to New York City with his family when he was 18 years old

Eric Person

Eric Person is setting a new standard in sound. For over twenty years, Eric has been committed to composing, recording and performing contemporary American music. He plays the alto and soprano saxophones and flute and is featured as a leader and sideman on more than 30 recordings. Eric studied at the St. Louis Conservatory of Music and has been active in the New York and international jazz scene for decades. His broad range of experience with Dave Holland, McCoy Tyner, Chico Hamilton, Ronald Shannon Jackson, the World Saxophone Quartet, and John Hicks, have all contributed greatly to his mature alto and soprano sound and his skills as an arranger and composer. After many years of making a name for himself, bassist Dave Holland asked Eric to join his band in the fall of 1993, this was by far Person's most challenging musical experience

Sam Most

Born: December 16, 1930

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Sam Most began his incredible musical journey at the age of 18 with the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Shep Fields, Boyd Raeburn, and Don Redman. His first recording at age 23, a single entitled "Undercurrent Blues", clearly established him as the “first bop flutist.” The very next year he was awarded Downbeat Magazine's "Critic's New Star Award". A true pioneer and innovator, Sam is credited as being the first flutist to “sing” or “hum” through the flute, as evidenced by his recordings during the ‘50s

Nicole Mitchell

Born: February 17, 1967

"One of Chicago's more inspiring jazz visionaries, " (Chicago Tribune), Nicole Mitchell is a creative instrumentalist, composer, bandleader and an educator. With her ensembles, and as a featured flutist, she has been a highlight at art venues and festivals throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. A recent recipient of the 2011 Alpert Award and a former president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Nicole Mitchell explores new sounds and creative techniques as a flutist and as a composer. She has performed with creative luminaries including George Lewis, Miya Masaoka, Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Myra Melford, Orbert Davis, Lori Freedman and Muhal Richard Abrams

Herbie Mann

Born: April 16, 1930

The world according to flutist and composer Herbie Mann was a utopian musical paradise where jazz is made up of of Afro-Cuban, Middle-Eastern, R&B, and nearly every other kind of music. In the 1960s, he discovered Brazil's bossa-nova; in the 1970s, he even found disco rhythms in jazz. Unlike most of his contemporaries in jazz, when Mann began playing flute in 1940s he had no forefathers to learn from, no pioneers of jazz flute to idolize. He was forced to look elsewhere—both inside and outside of jazz—to develop his approach to jazz and the flute. Among numerous musical influences, Mann was particularly drawn to rhythms and melodies from South America and the Caribbean. Herbie Mann was born Herbert Jay Solomon in Brooklyn, New York, on April 16, 1930

Hubert Laws

Born: November 10, 1939

Internationally renowned flutist Hubert Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm-and-blues genres; moving effortlessly from one repertory to another. He has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, with the orchestras of Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland, Amsterdam, Japan, Detroit and with the Stanford String Quartet. He has given annual performances at Carnegie Hall, and has performed sold out performances in the Hollywood Bowl with fellow flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and was a member of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras

Paul Horn

Born: March 17, 1930

Paul Horn began playing the piano at the age of four, the clarinet at ten, and the saxophone at twelve. He studied the clarinet and flute at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, earning a bachelor's degree. He gained a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Moving to Los Angeles he played with Chico Hamilton's Quintet from 1956 to 1958 and recorded his debut album Something Blue in 1960. By now an established West Coast session player he played on the Duke Ellington Orchestra's Suite Thursday and worked with Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett and others. In 1970, he moved with his second wife Tryntje and two sons Marlen and Robin from his first marriage to Victoria, British Columbia on Vancouver Island

Holly Hofmann

Born near Cleveland, Ohio, Holly began playing jazz standards with her father, a jazz guitarist. Her formal education included studying with Maurice Sharp, principal flutist of the Cleveland Orchestra and earning B.M. from Cleveland Institute of Music and M.M. from University of Northern Colorado. She moved from Colorado to San Diego in the late 80s and began playing with pianist Mike Wofford, and bassist Bob Magnusson. She recorded her first CD with them in 1989. It was during this time in the early nineties she booked a four night national jazz program in San Diego’s Horton Grand Hotel. At this time, Holly began touring with pianist Bill Cunliffe. The two toured festivals and chamber venues worldwide, presenting both jazz and classical compositions in brilliantly seamless arrangements. They recorded Just Duet, Vol. 1 and 2 and Live at Birdland in a quartet with legendary bassist Ray Brown and drummer Victor Lewis.