Don Cherry and Sonny Rollins
Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on November 18, 1936. Cherry’s family moved to Los Angeles when he was quite young, and he was raised there. He started playing the trumpet in his early teens. In his late teens, he started playing professionally.
In the 1950’s he met Ornette Coleman in a record [...]
Wes Montgomery “Nica’s Dream”
Wes Montgomery was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on March 6, 1925. His family was musical. His brothers were jazz musicians. Monk Montgomery played bass and Buddy Montgomery played piano and vibraphone.
Montgomery stated teaching himself to play the guitar when he was almost 20 years old. He didn’t have a pick so he used his [...]
Max Roach “The Freedom Now Suite”
Max Roach was born on January 10, 1924 in the Township of Newland Pasquotank County, North Carolina. His family moved to Brooklyn New York when he was 4. His mother sang gospel music and by 10 years old Roach was playing the drums with gospel bands. He was influenced by gospel music. At 16, he [...]
Thelonious Monk “‘Round Midnight”
Thelonious Monk was born in North Carolina on October 10, 1917. His family moved to New York in 1922. Early on, Monk received no formal training on the piano. He started out playing by ear, but was later taught lessons and studied at Juliard. When he was 17 he toured the US was an evangelist. [...]
Miles Davis “‘I Fall in Love Too Easily”
Miles Davis was born on May 26, 1926. He grew up in a well-to-do family in East St. Louis. His father was a dentist. The family lived on a ranch and they had horses. (How lucky is that! All I ever wanted as a little girl was a pony.)
He started playing trumpet when he [...]
Coleman Hawkins “Stoned”
Born in 1904, Coleman Hawkins started out playing the piano and cello. He started playing tenor saxophone at 9 and was playing at school dances when he was 12. That means he was doing gigs in 1916. That’s a long time ago. (Leave it to me to be blown away by the obvious.)
Coleman Hawkins is [...]
Sonny Rollins “Four”
Sonny Rollins was born in Harlem in 1930. Growing up in Harlem, had the fortune of living in the epacenter of black American culture at the time. He was influenced by many musician early on and has said that even as a child he loved to practice the saxophone.
Sonny Rollins has taken several sabbaticals from [...]
John Coltrane “Alabama”
When I was little this was one of my top rollerskating songs. I loved everything on the Live At Birdland album.
This performance was recorded in 1963. Enjoy!
