Results for "Various"

Lucky Peterson

Born: December 13, 1964

Lucky Peterson is the most dangerous triple threat working in the blues. A searing lead guitarist, fantastic organist, and first-rate vocalist, Lucky played his first gig at age three. By the time he was five, he had already recorded his first single, produced by none other than the legendary Willie Dixon. As a child prodigy, Lucky was somewhat of a novelty act. Now he is a true blues veteran. Over the last three decades, Lucky has played to audiences all over the world, dazzling both fans and critics with his multi-instrumental talents (he plays keyboards, guitar, bass, drums and trumpet), his soulful vocal style and his youthful approach to the blues

Gus Giordano

Born: 1923

Gus Giordano wrote the highly acclaimed Anthology of American Jazz Dance , the first book of its kind. Giordano organized the first Jazz Dance World Congress in August 1990. This event, co-sponsored by Northwestern University, assembled jazz dance greats such as Luigi, Matt Mattox, and Giordano and numerous jazz dance companies for a week of master classes and performances. Now an annual event, the Congress has been held at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., at Northwestern University and University at Buffalo, in Phoenix, Chicago, Japan, Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, and in August of 2005 returned to Chicago. Gus Giordano was the recipient of the 1984 Dance Educators of America Award for his “outstanding contribution to the world of jazz dance.” Additional honors include the 1988 Mayor’s Award for the Arts (Evanston, Illinois), the 1989 Governor’s Award for the Arts for exemplary individual artistic achievement, the 1991 Dance Teacher Now “Circle Award” for lifetime contributions to dance education, the 1993 Ruth Page Lifetime Service to the Field Award (presented to Gus and his late wife Peg); and in 1996 from the University of Missouri the “Distinguished Alumni Award” and the “William Francis English Scholar-in-Residence Award.” In 1985, Governor James Thompson declared April 25 “Gus Giordano Day” in appreciation of “his immense contribution to the cultural environment of the State of Illinois.” In 1995 he received the “Honorable Artist Award” from Chukyo University in Nagoya, Japan. In 1997 Gus served as National Spokesperson for National Dance Week

Leroy Foster

Born: February 1, 1923

Bluesman Baby Face Leroy Foster was born on 12 February 1923, in Algoma, Mississippi. He was one of the pioneers of the post-World War II southern blues resurgence in Chicago, arriving in the city in 1945.Between 1948 and 1952. Baby Face Leroy Foster waxed a handful of terrific sides under his own name for a number fledgling Chicago labels aided by some of the windy city’s best blues musicians. In addition his vocals, drumming, and guitar playing can be found backing some of the greatest Chicago blues records of the era. His death in 1958, at the age of 38, robbed the blues world of a singular, memorable talent and likely did much to hasten his unwarranted obscurity. Foster was first cousin to Little Johnny Jones and Little Willie Foster and came up to Chicago in 1945 in the company of Jones and Little Walter

Toumani Diabate

Born: August 10, 1965

Toumani Diabate is acknowledged to be the foremost kora player in the world. The kora is a 21-string harp-lute instrument that has been played in Africa for centuries. It was the signature of the medieval Mandingo Empire, which populated West Africa from the 13th to the 16th centuries.

Diabate has brought the kora to pop music, African orchestras, flamenco, jazz, and the blues. But his latest album, “The Mande Variations,” features the instrument solo.

Toumani Diabate comes from a long line of kora-playing griots.

Peter Apfelbaum

Born: August 21, 1960

Born in Berkeley, California in 1960, Peter Apfelbaum started playing drums at the age of three, taking up piano and saxophone in elementary school and forming his first band at age 11. A product of the Berkeley Schools' pioneering Jazz Project, Apfelbaum began performing professionally while in his early teens and was a member of the award-winning Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Phil Hardymon. In 1977 - his senior year at Berkeley High - he formed the 17-piece Hieroglyphics Ensemble as a vehicle for composing and exploring non-traditional musical forms. The Ensemble was initially largely comprised of fellow BHS classmates, some of whom would later move to New York and achieve recognition in their own right

David Amram

Born: November 17, 1930

A pioneer player of jazz French horn, David Amram is also a virtuoso on piano, numerous flutes and whistles, percussion, and dozens of folkloric instruments from 25 countries, as well as an inventive, funny improvisational lyricist. He has collaborated with Leonard Bernstein, who chose him as The New York Philharmonic's first composer-in-residence in 1966, Langston Hughes, Dizzy Gillespie, Dustin Hoffman, Willie Nelson, Thelonious Monk, Odetta, Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton, E. G. Marshall, and Tito Puente. Amram's most recent work "Giants of the Night" is a flute concerto dedicated to the memory Charlie Parker, Jack Kerouac and Dizzy Gillespie, three American artists Amram knew and worked with. It was commissioned and premiered by Sir James Galway.

Nuevo Tango Ensamble

Born: May 10, 1999

GIANNI IORIO – bandoneón PASQUALE STAFANO – piano PIERLUIGI BALDUCCI – bass The NUEVO TANGO ENSAMBLE was born in 1999 starting from a deep admiration for music from Argentina. The trio has established its own identity well recognizable, into which the lesson of classical music, tango nuevo, an Italian melodic sensibility and a conception of authentic jazz performance. The music of the great composer Astor Piazzolla, who had grandparents from Puglia as the three musicians, was therefore assimilated and converted into a new synthesis between the classical music, tango nuevo and jazz that the three musicians have always loved, between the discipline of written and structured music the recognizable Italian character of their melodies and improvisation that makes their every concert a unique event

Geoffrey Armes

Born: May 19, 1957

Geoffrey has honed a musical approach that walks a knife-edge between the singer-songwriter and ambient club or world fusion approach to music making. Improvising is an important process in Geoffrey's intuitive composing style. The UK born multi-instrumentalist (guitars, keys, percussion), composer and singer- songwriter has built a career for himself in New York City on the back of six CD releases, a steady stream of work with Theatre and Modern Dance Companies, and a reputation as a stellar solo performer. Early influences included Gordon Lightfoot, Celtic harpist Allan Stivell, Ravi Shankar, and Umm Kulthum

Kelvin Roy

Kelvin grew up in Flint, Michigan. His father was from New Zealand and relocated to the United States after travelling there as a Fulbright scholar. Kelvin had copious lessons on piano and trombone, plus some voice training from an early age. He attended Flint Central High School, playing in many school bands and he was active in drama as well. He also taught himself how to play other brass instruments like baritone and bass trumpet. The latter—also called a marching valve trombone—became his main instrument. Since his father was an arts critic, he was able to see many first class acts as a child. Later, he went on the road with a couple popular funk and jazz bands playing clubs after attending Michigan State University. Then he moved to South Lousiana and had some amazing musical experiences, sometimes literally out in the swamps

Chase Foster

Born: August 31, 1990