Results for "Hard Bop"

Chris Mondak

Born: February 13, 1998

Born in Venezuela, raised in Illinois, and now residing in Nashville, composer and bassist Chris Mondak, just 23 years of age, already has amassed vast experience in jazz. A 2020 graduate of the New England Conservatory, Chris has studied with bass luminaries Cecil McBee, Dave Holland, and Larry Gray, and performed with the likes of Shelly Berg, Melanie Charles, Dave Douglas, Wayne Escoffery, Wycliffe Gordon, Jeff Hamilton, Jesus Molina, Matt Savage, and Marvin Stamm.

Chris has toured extensively in the U.S., playing with the Jazz band of America, jazz vocalist Daniel LeClaire, Chicago rock band Rev Gusto, and his own jazz combos The Chris Mondak Band and West of Staley

Andreas Hertel

Born: 1964

Andreas Hertel is a German jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and piano teacher. Since the early 90ies he has been active on the German jazz scene.
He published 10 CDs with mainly original compositions in solo, trio, and quintet settings and wrote about 200 jazz tunes, some big band arrangements, and theatre music. Two of his CDs received longlist nominations for a German Record Critic's Award ("Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik"): "Blue Bop" (Trio, 2022) and "Keepin' the Spirit" (2015), feat. guest stars Dusko Goykovich (tp/flh), Tony Lakatos (sax), "Lady Bass" Lindy Huppertsberg (b), Jens Biehl (dr). 
His Christmas song "It might be Christmas Every Day" won a "Global Music Award" (Silver Medal) in March 2024. 
His bands also do tribute programs to Toots Thielemans and Bill Evans (feat. Jens Bunge-harm), Miles, Coltrane, the great Jazz Ladies (feat. Anne Czichowsky-voc), Milt Jackson (feat. Matthias Strucken-vib), piano/saxophone/trumpet in jazz, Europe and jazz, a.o. ... 

Michael Orenstein

Born: June 27, 1995

Hailing from Berkeley, CA, Origin Records Jazz Artist Michael Orenstein was surrounded by a vibrant jazz community at a young age. Through programs like the SFJazz All-Stars Combo, the Jazzschool, and Berkeley High Jazz, Orenstein had the chance to play with Terrence Blanchard, Christian McBride, Wycliffe Gordon, in addition to many local greats. In 2015, Orenstein was selected to attend the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative music as a TD Fellow, where he got to perform his compositions with Ingrid Jensen and Zakir Hussain. In 2017, Orenstein graduated from Oberlin with a B.M

Skip Walker

Born: November 21

Skip Walker is a drummer, composer, producer, educator, and Episcopal Priest. He is a graduate of Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music (the world’s foremost institution for the study of Jazz and modern American music) where he studied with renown drummers John Ramsay, Skip Hadden, and Ed Uribe. Skip got his first break at the age seventeen touring Europe as the drummer for the New York based funk group “The Fatback Band,” but after hearing great jazz drummers such as Art Blakey, Max Roach, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones and Tony Williams, Skip slowly began falling in love with Jazz

Queen Esther

Born: June 30

Solo Performer. Vocalist. Topliner. Writer. Musician. Songwriter. Playwright. Librettist. Actor. TED Speaker.

Described as “...the unknown queen of Americana…” (Feedback, Norway), “..a Black Lucinda Williams…” and a “...brutal, original, explosive singer…”  (Vanity Fair, Spain), Queen Esther’s creative output musically is the culmination of several critical Southern elements, not the least of which are years of recording and touring internationally as frontwoman for several projects with her mentor, harmolodic guitar icon James “Blood” Ulmer, including a stint in his seminal band Odyssey.  Raised in Atlanta, GA and embedded in Charleston, SC’s Lowcountry – a region with African traditions and Black folkways that span centuries and constantly inform her work –  Queen Esther uses her Southern roots as a touchstone to explore cultural mores in America, deconstructing well-worn historical narratives while creating a reclamation-driven soundscape.  

Theo Jorgensmann

Born: September 29, 1948

Jörgensmann was born in 1948 in the town of Bottrop in the Western Rhur industrial region of Germany. Theo Jörgensmann is one of the most advanced modern free improvisers on his instrument, combining moody chamber jazz with hints of a modal hard bop sensibility. His work with the 'Bottrop Sextet' reveals that he continues to retain great affection for the town where he grew up. In the middle of the sixties he worked as a laboratory technician in a chemical laboratory. He started to play clarinet at the age of 18, taking private lessons from a music teacher at Folkwang Academy of Music in Essen. His dedication to the clarinet as his only instrument was only briefly interrupted during a 15 month spell doing National Service, when he was asked to play soprano saxophone for the Army dance band. After the phase in the German Army, Jörgensmann worked with handicapped children and studied several of semesters social pedagogics and computer science.  The distinctive tonal quality of Jörgenmann’s playing owes something to his choice of clarinet. Many of his albums, available on hatOLOGY, were recorded using a straight basset clarinet in Bb, made by Harald Hüyng, a pupil of the great Herbert Wurlitzer. This clarinet, although an Oehler System, would have some essential similarities to that played by Stadler when playing the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in the 1780’s. It has extended keywork to enable an additional D and C at the bottom of its range. In 2008, however, Jörgensmann switched from his basset clarinet in Bb to a Low G clarinet, built by another pupil of Herbert Wurlitzer, Wolfgand Dietz. The special sound of his playing arises from the fact that Jörgensmann blows with less pressing of the teeth. As a result, he can play other phrasing and accents, as it is usually possible on the clarinet. It is thus more closely related with the 'hard bop' saxophonists. Jörgensmann made his first appearance at a major event as a member of the 'Contact Trio' with {{Michael Jüllich=56888}} at the 1972 Frankfurt Jazz Festival. During this period he began working with local musicians. He didn't become a professional musician until 1975. In the early 1970's Jörgensmann played in a Jazz Rock group which included the keyboard player {{Hendrik Schaper}} (later a member of {{Klaus Doldinger=6335}} and {{Udo Lindenberg}}) and the drummer {{Udo Dahmen}}. At this time he used electronic effects pedals, such as fuzz, wah-wah and chorus. Probably he was one of the first clarinetists which electronically distorted their instrument. But by 1975 when he formed the clarinet ensemble, 'Clarinet Contrast', he was interested in the pure acoustic sound of his instrument. 'Clarinet Contrast' included {{Bernd Konrad = 8465}}, {{Hans Kumpf}} and {{Michel Pilz = 10309}} as well as one of the musicians Jörgensmann had most admired when he first began playing clarinet, {{Perry Robinson = 10767}}. In 1975 he also founded his first Quartet, which end of the seventies was one of the most successful jazz bands in Germany. In 1977 the 'Theo Jörgensmann Quartet' performed as German representative at the festival of the European Broadcasting Union in Hilversum, Netherlands. Jörgensmann's exclusive focus on the clarinet has led him to form a succession of partnerships with other clarinet players and because of its commitment to the clarinet he was part of the Renaissance in the jazz and improvised music scene. In 1979 the influential European producer and music journalist, {{Joachim-Ernst Berendt}} helped Jörgensmann call together the members of the 'Clarinet Summit'. This was an all-star clarinet group with soloists: {{John Carter = 5578}}, {{Perry Robinson = 10767}}, Theo Jörgensmann, {{Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky = 10259}} and {{Gianluigi Trovesi = 10909}}. John Carter and Theo Jörgensmann met each other at the Moers Jazz Festival in 1979. There they performed solo and as a duo on three days. {{Eckard Koltermann}} is another clarinetist who Jörgensmann has collaborated with on many occasions. As well as working together as the 'German Clarinet Duo' , in the mid 1980's they were both regular members of the clarinet ensemble CL 4, along with {{Lajos Dudas = 17437}}, {{Dieter Kühr}}, {{Eckard Koltermann}} and {{Gerald Doecke}}. By no means are all Jörgensmann's collaborations with clarinet players. As a young musician Jörgensmann also favoured to work in larger ensembles or duos. So he was member in the big bands of {{Andrea Centazzo= 15428}}, {{Willem van Manen}}, {{ Michael Sell - Composer}} , {{Franz Koglmann= 8447}} and the 'Grubenklangorchester' and he also performed as a duo with pianist John Fischer from US, Dutch guitarist {{Jan Kuiper =56915}}, German pianist {{Bernd Köppen = 56479}}, German poet Oskar Ansull, French bass clarinetist {{Denis Colin= 23580}}, German actor Bernt Hahn, German church organist Hans-Günther Wauer, Swiss pianist Daniel Ott, German performer {{Limpe Fuchs}} and Hungarian pianist {{Karoly Binder = 56718}}, with whom he recorded meanwhile 4 duo CDs. Jörgensmann is active as an improvisation theorist. He is convinced that improvised music is the most modern kind of music, since it has created a completely new kind of musician, an integral musician, who is conductor, composer and performer at the same time. „To find the right balance between communication of motion and non- communication is the major part of improvised music; that communication of motion as a part of interaction in music is an opportunity to create a new structure of time, which the listener could perceive as a new kind of musical space; that the idea of jazz does not depend on a specific material and special form; that the essential aspect of jazz is the fact that jazz musicians discovered the fourth dimension of time in music.“ Together with the musicologist and musician Rolf-Dieter Weyer, Jörgensmann wrote a philosophical book about improvisation "Kleine Ethik der Improvisation". As a lecturer Jörgensmann taught improvisation and clarinet at University of Duisburg between 1983 and 1993. At the same time, he hosted a radio program on jazz at West German Broadcasting. And from 1993 until 1997 he was a lecturer for free improvising at Music Therapeutics Institute of Witten/Herdecke University. Several of his recordings on the HatHut / hatOLOGY label are with the Theo Jörgensmann Quartet which consists of Theo Jörgensmann on clarinet, {{m: Christopher Dell = 40167}} on vibes, {{m: Christian Ramond = 31328}} on double bass and {{Klaus Kugel = 2933}} on drums. The quartet performed with {{Lee Konitz = 8463}} at the Muenster Jazz Festival 1999. Another regular partner has been {{Kent Carter = 11814}}, working together on the 'Theo Jörgensmann Workshop Sextet' ({{Charlie Mariano = 9072}}, {{Petras Vysaiauskas}}, Theo Jörgensmann, {{Karl Berger = 4931}}, {{Klaus Kugel = 2933}}, {{Kent Carter = 11814}}), as well as the 'Vysniauskas - Jorgensmann Quintet': ({{Petras Vysniauskas = 15461}}, Theo Jorgensmann, {{Andreas Willers = 14607}}, {{Kent Carter = 11814}}. {{Klaus Kugel = 2933}}) and the {{m: Riviere Composers' Pool = 103445}}.

Glen Manby

Glen Manby is an alto saxophonist, working primarily in straight ahead modern acoustic jazz.

His main influences are Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, and Phil Woods.

In 1997 he was awarded a scholarship to study on the Jazz and Contemporary Music Program at The New School in New York's Greenwich Village.

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In 2013 he gained an M.A. in Jazz at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

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His saxophonist teachers have included Grant Stewart, Dick Oatts, Chico Freeman, George Garzone, George Robert, Mike Karn, Jamie Talbot, Tim Garland, Iain Ballamy, Geoff Simkins, and Osian Roberts.

Hard Bop

By Eric Binder

Label: Ropeadope
Released: 2020
Track listing: Trane Ride; Blues Jawn; Luna; BFTF; To Be Alone; Metallic Sky

Eric Binder: Hard Bop

by Phillip Woolever
September 25, 2020

Eric Binder is a drummer based in the Chicago area gaining recognition as a teacher and technician who combines slick sequencing and academic awareness to create modern masterworks with a classic jazz sound. This abbreviated yet consistently inspiring album affirms Binder as a rising force on the US jazz scene. Authenticity is obviously vital ...

Tim Wolfe, Jr.

Born: January 6, 1985

TIM WOLFE, JR. keeps a busy schedule as a performer, recording artist, and educator based out of Philadelphia. Equally comfortable on double bass and electric bass, and fitting in any musical situation, from jazz to orchestral, theater to rock bands, Tim has played in a variety of settings and styles all along the Eastern seaboard and internationally. He holds a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies from The University of the Arts and a Bachelor’s degree in music from Lebanon Valley College. In addition to keeping a busy performing schedule, he is an Adjunct Professor of Music at Lebanon Valley College