Horace Silver “Senor Blues”
Posted on August 4, 2008
Filed Under 1950's | 3 Comments
Horace Silver was born in Norwalk, Connecticut on September 2, 1928. His father was from Cape Verde and his mother was half Irish and half African. Silver’s mother died when he was nine and his father raised him alone. He was a sickly child who suffered from scoliosis among other childhood ailments. Silver was influenced by the folk music his father played from Cape Verde. His interest in music increased over the years and when he was in high school he started to play saxophone and piano, but his main focus was piano.
Silver was discovered by Stan Getz when his trio backed Getz up in Hartford, Connecticut in 1950. Getz ended up bringing Silver’s trio on the road with him. Getz was also the first musician to record some of Silver’s tunes.
Here is the Horace Silver Quintet performing in 1959. If anyone knows that names of the other musicians in the band, please put them in the comments.
Joe Henderson “Lush Life”
Posted on August 2, 2008
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Joe Henderson was born in Lima, Ohio on April 2, 1937. He was born into a large family with 9 brothers and 5 sisters. One of his older brother’s introduced him to jazz. He had a collection of jazz records that Henderson liked to listen to. Lester Young was one of his first influences. When he was about 9 he learned how to play Lester Young’s solo on D.B. Blues with his brother’s help.
Henderson was influenced by all kinds of music, but he was most strongly drawn to bebop. In his teens he started playing at some dances around town. He learned to play the flute and bass to broaden his musical opportunities, but tenor saxophone was still his main instrument. He attended Wayne State University. Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris and Donald Byrd were among his classmates. In 1960 he joined the army. He served in the army for two years.
Here’s Joe Henderson performing with Herbie Hancock in 1993.
McCoy Tyner “Island Birdie”
Posted on August 1, 2008
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McCoy Tyner was born in Philadelphia on December 11, 1938. He started playing the piano when he was 13. His mother encouraged his interest in music and after taking piano lessons for 2 years, music became his primary interest. He loved jazz and was influenced by Bud Powell. At first his family couldn’t afford a piano so he went to the neighbors house to practice.
Tyner met John Coltrane when he was 17. Coltrane was in Philly on break from playing with Miles Davis. Coltrane liked Tyner’s playing and arranged a few local gigs with Tyner in his rhythm section. Later Tyner would play on some of Coltrane’s most famous albums.
Here is a performance from the 1980’s. I don’t know exactly what year.
Max Roach “The Freedom Now Suite”
Posted on July 31, 2008
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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 subbed for Sonny Greer in the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
This performance is from We Insist-The Freedom Now Suite which Roach composed for the 100th anniversary of Abraham Linclon’s Emancipation Proclamation. The lyrics were written by Oscar Brown Jr.
Clifford Brown “Lady Be Good”
Posted on July 30, 2008
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Clifford Brown was born in Wilmington, Delaware on October 30, 1930. He started playing the trumpet when he was 13. He also studied some piano. He played in the high school band. In his late teens, Brown started doing gigs in Philadelphia where he caught the attention of fellow trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Fats Navarro.
Brown received a music scholarship to the University of Delaware. Once he arrived on campus, he discovered that the university didn’t actually have a music program. He spent his freshman year at the college majoring in mathematics before transferring to Maryland State College. There they had a good music program and he played with the jazz band and worked on honing his composition skills.
One night in 1950, Brown was involved in a serious car accident on his way home from a gig. He spent almost a year in the hospital recovering. After that year, it took some encouragement from Dizzy Gillespie for him to start gigging again.
Brown’s recording debut was with Chris Powell and Tadd Dameron in 1952. He toured Europe with Lionel Hampton in 1953. When he came back from Europe, he started playing with Max Roach. In 1954, he was named New Star of the Year by Down Beat magazine.
In 1956, Clifford Brown, Richie Powell and Nancy Powell, Richie’s wife, were driving from Philadelphia to Chicago to meet Max Roach for a gig. It was rainy night and Nancy was driving. Nancy lost control of the car. The crash killed all three passengers. Clifford Brown was 25.
Benny Golson wrote “I Remember Clifford” as a tribute to Clifford Brown.
When speaking of Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins said, “Clifford was a profound influence on my personal life. He showed me that it was possible to live a good, clean life and still be a good jazz musician.”
I had to write a complete biography about him because I could only find one performance by Clifford Brown on the internet. This is from the Soupy Sales Show. It was recorded the year he died.
Charlie Parker “Celebrity”
Posted on July 29, 2008
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Charlie Parker was born to Charles Sr. and Addie Parker on August 29, 1920. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. Parker had no formal training in music and started playing the saxophone at 11. He didn’t have his own saxophone so he used rented school instruments. He played baritone with the school band until he was 15 when he was able to switch to alto. Eventually he dropped out of school to start his music career.
Keith Jarrett “Mandala”
Posted on July 28, 2008
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Keith Jarrett was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania on May 8, 1945. He started playing the piano when he was 3 and performed in his first concert when he was 6. The concert ended with two of his compositions. Jarrett studied classical music, but was very interested in jazz. In his late teens he turned down an offer to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris to go to New York to play jazz. In New York, Jarrett was hired by Art Blakey to play with The Jazz Messengers.
Here he is performing Mandala
Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker “Hot House”
Posted on July 26, 2008
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John Birks Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina in 1917. His father was a band leader who encouraged his children to learn to play musical instruments. Gillespie could play the piano by age 4 and taught himself to play the trombone. He switched to playing trumpet when he was 12.
Gillespie got his first pro gig in 1935 with the the Frank Fairfax orchestra. He got the nickname Dizzy because he liked to clown around on stage.
Here he is performing with Charlie Parker in 1952.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers “Night in Tunisia”
Posted on July 25, 2008
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Before I start this post, I wanted to say that I realized last night that I’d already put up a performance of “Donna Lee” this week. Sorry about that. Maybe I should change the name of the blog to “Stop and Hear Donna Lee”.
Art Blakey was born in 1919 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Raised by a very religious foster family, he started out playing the piano in church. Art Blakey started playing drums when the owner of a nightclub where he was gigging ordered him off the piano and onto the drums. Legend has it that this order was made at gunpoint, but I don’t know how true that is.
Here is a 1959 performance by Blakey and The Jazz Messengers in Paris in 1959.
Jaco Pstorius “Donna Lee”
Posted on July 24, 2008
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John Francis Pastorius III was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania on December 1, 1951. His family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he took up the drums. From an early age he love sports and that’s how he got his nickname. It was originally Jocko but he later changed it to Jaco. After breaking his wrist playing football, he was no longer satisfied with the sound he got drumming and he switched to the electric bass.
Here’s a performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival.
