Results for "Philadelphia"

Charlie Ventura

Born: December 2, 1916

Tenor man Charlie Ventura was was a prominent fixture on the jazz scene during his era. Born Charles Venturo he was one of thirteen children from a musical family who went on to become a jazz legend, and was named "Number One Tenor Saxophonist" by Down Beat Magazine in 1945. In the summer of 1942, Charlie got a call at his day job at the Philadelphia Navy yard to join Gene Krupa's band. Unwilling to relinquish the security of a paycheck, he turned them down. Then came the second phone call and before long, Charlie was on the road with the band becoming a featured soloist, along with trumpet star, Roy Eldridge and singer Anita O'Day

Papo Vazquez

Born: February 24, 1958

Trombonist, composer and arranger Papo Vázquez is celebrating 40 years into a career spanning the jazz, Latin, Afro-Caribbean and classical music and recording worlds. Recent honors include an invitation by “The Presidents Own” US Marine Band to lead and direct the band on its first Afro Caribbean Jazz performance in the long history of this band, in Washington, DC. In May 2013, was commissioned by Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Symphony Space to compose new music for “Nueva Musica” concert series, in New York. In 2011, was presented with a Latino Masters Award by the Pregones Theater under The National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Presenting program. In 2010, was commissioned by Mr

Gerald Veasley

Active since: July 28, 1955

Born in Philadelphia, Gerald Veasley has a varied and impressive resume' that includes recording and/or stints with Joe Zawinul of Weather Report, his longtime friend and mentor, the late Grover Washington Jr., McCoy Tyner, The Dixie Hummingbirds, Odean Pope, Special EFX, Joe McBride, Teddy Pendergrass, Phil Perry, Chieli Minucci, Dianne Reeves, George Howard, Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire, Kenny Blake, Pamela Williams, Eric Marienthal, Onaje Alan Gumbs, Omar Hakim, and many more. He has shared stages and tours with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Gerald was recently named "Best Electric Bassist" in Jazziz magazine's annual readers' poll and Philadelphia Magazine named him Best Jazz Band

McCoy Tyner

Born: December 11, 1938

It is not an overstatement to say that modern jazz has been shaped by the music of McCoy Tyner. His blues-based piano style, replete with sophisticated chords and an explosively percussive left hand has transcended conventional styles to become one of the most identifiable sounds in improvised music. His harmonic contributions and dramatic rhythmic devices form the vocabulary of a majority of jazz pianists. Born in 1938 in Philadelphia, he became a part of the fertile jazz and R&B scene of the early ‘50s. His parents imbued him with a love for music from an early age. His mother encouraged him to explore his musical interests through formal training. At 17 he began a career-changing relationship with Miles Davis’ sideman saxophonist John Coltrane

Nick Travis

Born: November 16, 1925

Nick Travis was an American jazz trumpeter. He was from the Olney section of Philadelphia Travis started playing professionally at age 15, playing in the early 1940s with Johnny McGhee, Vido Musso (1942), Mitch Ayres, and Woody Herman (1942–44). In 1944 he joined the military; after his service he played with Ray McKinley (1946–50, intermittent), Benny Goodman (1948–49), Gene Krupa, Ina Ray Hutton, Tommy Dorsey, Tex Beneke, Herman once more (1950–51), Jerry Gray, Bob Chester, Elliot Lawrence, and Jimmy Dorsey (1952–53). From 1953-56 he was a soloist in the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra

Sumi Tonooka

Born: 1956

Sumi Tonooka (pronounced To-NO-ka) has been called a “fierce and fascinating composer and pianist” (Jazz Times), “provocative and compelling” (New York Times), and “continually inventive, original, surprising, and a total delight,” (Cuadranos de Jazz, Madrid). During a career spanning more than 30 years that has taken her from bases in Philadelphia & Boston, to New York & Seattle, Tonooka has been developing a body of work that surprises and delights audiences - quietly piling up accolades from jazz writers and fellow musicians. In 2013, the American Composers Orchestra and The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, in cooperation with EarShot, the National Orchestra Composition Discover Network, presented Tonooka's first work for symphony ochestra as part of the second Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI) Readings

Bobby Timmons

Born: December 19, 1935

Bobby Timmons came out of Philadelphia at age 19, with a funky gospel tinged piano style, flavored with blues and hard bop. He would, in a recording career that would only span a short time frame, contribute to some of the best recordings on the legendary Blue Note sessions of the ’50s, and be a member of two of the premier bands of that time, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and the Cannonball Adderley Quintet.

Robert Henry Timmons was born in Philadelphia in 1935, raised by his grandfather who was a minister in a church. The young Timmons began formal piano lessons at age six, and was the organist at his grandfathers’ church. This early formative period would certainly be a factor in his piano approach. He was be able to innovate and improvise on his gospel foundations and brought them into jazz.

Frank Tiberi

Born: December 4, 1928

Frank Tiberi, a reed section all-star since 1969 and leader since 1987. Frank Tiberi studied clarinet at age 8; started playing professionally at 13; toured with Bob Chester, Benny Goodman, Urbie Green, played with Dizzy Gillespie, self taught on flute, (somewhere in between studied bassoon with the renowned Sol Schoenbach of the Philadelphia Orchestra) played as a doubler in many Broadway musical shows before settling into the illustrious "Four Brothers" sound (three tenors and baritone) reed section of the Woody Herman Band in 1969 where, he became a featured soloist, section leader, arranger, music director and ultimately leader of the Herman Band in 1987

Mike Richmond

Born: February 26, 1948

Mike Richmond has expressed his love of music on a global level. In addition to accompanying such stellar jazz musicians as Miles Davis and Stan Getz and folk/blues singer/songwriter Richie Havens, the Philadelphia-born bass player has performed in concert with Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and the South Indian Orchestra and has served as chief bass instructor for the National German Jazz Orchestra. Initially a guitar player, Richmond was inspired by a Bill Haley and the Comets show that he attended with his parents in the mid-'50s. He switched to the bass before joining his junior high orchestra. Richmond's understanding of world music developed at an early age

Eric Reed

Born: June 21, 1970

When you think of hard-driving swing, daring expression,sophistication and elegance in artistry, formidable techniqueand a thunderous sound, there are only a very small handfulof contemporary pianists you think of and one of them ismost assuredly ERIC REED. But don’t think of him as a justa pianist; Eric is one of his generation’s most advancedthinkers in music.

Born in the musically rich city of Philadelphia, PA. Eric grewup playing in his father’s storefront Baptist church, startingat the age of five: “My father was a minister but he alsoused to sing with a Gospel group in Philly called the BayState Singers. He is my earliest musical influence. I alsowas hit heavily by the sound of Christian and secular musicof the 1970s (most notably Edwin & Walter Hawkins,Andrae Crouch and James Cleveland). “ Soon after, youngReed was bitten by the Jazz bug after hearing recordings byArt Blakey, Ramsey Lewis and Dave Brubeck.