Results for "Woodwind"

Gunter Hampel

Born: August 31, 1937

Louis Armstrong came streaming from the radio of a US army truck (1945) in the backyard of Gunter Hampel's home in Germany, and young Gunter, already immersed in European classical music, became intrigued with this new sound. A variety of instruments began to occupy his hands including clarinet, vibes, saxophone, accordion and flute. Soon he was composing. He toured Europe with many groups, including his own, and worked with Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, Steve McCall, Marion Brown, Lester Bowie, and his wife Jeanne Lee, to name just a few. In 1969, he moved to New York, where Gunter founded his own recording label -- BIRTH RECORDS
Photo Credit: Hans Kumpf

Mats Gustafsson

Born: October 29, 1964

Mats Gustafsson was born 1964 in Umeå, is a Swedish saxophone player and a stalwart on the Scandinavian free jazz scene. He first came to the attention of lovers of improvised music as part of a duo with Christian Munthe in 1986 and the band Gush. He has later played widely with musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Paul Lovens, Barry Guy and Derek Bailey. Since the early 1990s, Mats Gustafsson has been a regular visitor to the U.S., forming a particular affinity with Chicago musicians such as Hamid Drake, Michael Zerang and Ken Vandermark and recording for the city’s OkkaDisk label.

In addition to projects with musicians, Mats Gustafsson has worked extensively with artists from the worlds of dance, theatre, poetry and painting.

Vinny Golia

Born: March 1, 1946

As a composer Vinny Golia fuses the rich heritage of Jazz, contemporary classical and world music into his own unique compositions. Also a bandleader, Golia has presented his music to concert audiences in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the United States in ensembles varying dramatically in size and instrumentation. Mr. Golia has won numerous awards as a composer, including grants from The National Endowment of the Arts, The Lila Wallace Commissioning Program, The California Arts Council, Meet the Composer,Clausen Foundation of the Arts, Funds for U.S. Artists and the American Composers Forum. In 1982 he created the on-going 50 piece Vinny Golia Large Ensemble to perform his compositions for chamber orchestra and jazz ensembles.

Gary Foster

Born: May 25, 1936

An excellent, cool-toned straight-ahead altoist influenced by Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh, Gary Foster's years in the studios have often been underrated despite his talents. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1961 and soon settled in the Los Angeles area, where he has been active ever since in the studios, as a woodwind teacher, and in big bands, including those of Clare Fischer (since 1965), Louie Bellson, Toshiko Akiyoshi (in the 1970s), and the Marty Paich Dek-tette. Foster also played often with Warne Marsh, Laurindo Almeida, and Jimmy Rowles; recorded with Cal Tjader, Poncho Sanchez, and Mel Tormé; and led sessions of his own for Revelation (four records during 1968-1985) and Concord.

Larry Elgart

Born: March 20, 1922

Lawrence Joseph Elgart (March 20, 1922 – August 29, 2017) was an American jazz bandleader. With his brother Les, he recorded "Bandstand Boogie", the theme to the long-running dance show American Bandstand. Elgart was born in 1922 in New London, Connecticut, four years younger than his brother, Les. Their mother was a concert pianist; their father played piano as well, though not professionally. Both brothers began playing in jazz ensembles in their teens, and while young Larry played with jazz musicians such as Charlie Spivak, Woody Herman, Red Norvo, Freddie Slack and Tommy Dorsey. In the mid-1940s, Les and Larry started up their own ensemble, hiring Nelson Riddle, Bill Finegan and Ralph Flanagan to arrange tunes for them

Marty Ehrlich

Born: May 31, 1955

Marty Ehrlich is one of the most celebrated artists of his generation, critically acclaimed as both composer and player. Equally fluent on clarinet, saxophone, and flutes, Ehrlich has been hailed as “one of the most formidable multi-instrumentalists since Eric Dolphy…the jazz dream musician” (The Village Voice). The New York Times calls him “one of the premier melodicists of his generation,” and The Nation “one of his time’s most original thinkers (with) a rare and wonderful talent, a now yearning, now biting attack and a stunningly voice-like expressiveness.” Jazz Zeitung states: “If there is a believable poetic sensibility in jazz, you will find it with Marty Ehrlich.” The Jazz Journalist Association honored him as Wind Player of the Year in 2001 and as Clarinetist of the year in 2003

Arne Domnerus

Born: December 20, 1924

Sven Arne Domnerus was a Swedish jazz alto saxophonist and clarinetist, popularly nicknamed Dompan. He was best known for his recordings with visiting American players such as jazz artists such as James Moody, Art Farmer and Clifford Brown. Domnerus also played with Charlie Parker when he made his tour in Sweden 1950. Domnerus worked with the Swedish Radio Big Band from 1956 to 1978, and wrote for television and films during the period. He also recorded extensively with Bengt Hallberg. Together with fellow Swedes Bengt-Arne Wallin, Rolf Ericson and Ake Persson (the latter two both former members of Duke Ellington's Orchestra), he participated at the Jazz Workshops, organized for the Ruhrfest in Recklinghausen by Hans Gertberg from the Hamburg radio station.

Eric Dolphy

Born: June 20, 1928

Eric Allan Dolphy was a jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet.

Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto players to rise to prominence in the 1960s. He was also the first important bass clarinet soloist in jazz, and among the earliest significant flute soloists; he is arguably the greatest jazz improviser on either instrument. On early recordings, he occasionally played traditional B-flat soprano clarinet. His improvisational style was characterized by a near volcanic flow of ideas, utilizing wide intervals based largely on the 12-tone scale, in addition to using an array of animal- like effects which almost made his instruments speak. Although Dolphy's work is sometimes classified as free jazz, his compositions and solos had a logic uncharacteristic of many other free jazz musicians of the day; even as such, he was definitively avant-garde. In the years after his death his music was more aptly described as being "too out to be in and too in to be out."

Peter Brötzmann

Born: March 6, 1941

Born Remscheid, Germany on 6 March 1941; soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophones, a-clarinet, e-flat clarinet; bass clarinet, tarogato. Peter Brötzmann's early interest was in painting and he attended the art academy in Wuppertal. Being very dissatisfied with the gallery/exhibition situation in art he found greater satisfaction playing with semi-professional musicians, though continued to paint (as well as retaining a level of control over his own records, particularly in record sleeve/CD booklet design). In late 2005 he had a major retrospective exhibition jointly with Han Bennink - two separate buildings separated by an inter-connecting glass corridor - in Brötzmann's home town of Remscheid.

Anthony Braxton

Born: June 4, 1945

To his list of achievements and awards, Anthony Braxton may now add the 1994 MacArthur Fellowship: the so-called "genius" grant of (in his case) $300,000, awarded to individuals nominated for outstanding and original contributions to their field. The timing of this crowning achievement couldn't be better for Braxton's most recent professional goals: he is the founding Artistic Director of the newly incorporated Tri-Centric Foundation, Inc., a New York-based not-for-profit corporation including an ensemble of some 38 musicians, four to eight vocalists, and computer-graphic video artists assembled to perform his compositions. The ensemble's debut at New York's The Kitchen sold out the last and most of the first two of three nights, through the press excitement it generated; the reviews—in Down Beat and the Chicago Tribune (John Corbett), the Village Voice (Kevin Whitehead), and the New York Times (Jon Pareles)—ranged from positive to ecstatic. Most importantly, the musical success of the event inspired Braxton to pursue the "three-day and -night" program concept for this ensemble, including lectures/informances, and splinter chamber performances, around the world. The second New York event, indeed, expanded on the concept: The Knitting Factory presented six nights of Anthony Braxton and his music, in all the variety of its vision