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Alexander Hawkins
Alexander Hawkins (born 3 May 1981) is a British jazz pianist and composer. Three of the main groups he has led or co-led are the Alexander Hawkins Ensemble; the Convergence Quartet (with Taylor Ho Bynum, Harris Eisenstadt, and Dominic Lash); and the Hammond organ-based Decoy (with John Edwards and Steve Noble). Early life Hawkins was born in Oxford on 3 May 1981.Sharpe, John (15 January 2013"Alexander Hawkins: Retaining the Sense of Discovery" All About Jazz. His father played piano and clarinet and introduced Hawkins to jazz through early Duke Ellington recordings. Hawkins at first played classical music, principally on organ. He was educated at Radley College. He decided to concentrate on piano practice when he was 18. He started playing jazz in his mid-teens and played gigs in pubs with friends. Hawkins lived in Cambridge for three years as a law undergraduate and for another three while studying for a PhD in criminology. There were few opportunities to play jazz there, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every style of Architecture of England, English architecture since late History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon. Oxford's industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing, science, and information technologies. Founded in the 8th century, it was granted city status in 1542. The city is located at the confluence of the rivers Thames (locally known as the Isis) and River Cherwell, Cherwell. It had a population of in . It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. History The history of Oxford in England dates back to its original settlement in the History of Anglo-Saxon England, Saxon period. The name � ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Moholo
Louis Tebogo Moholo (10 March 1940 – 13 June 2025) was a South African jazz drummer. He was a member of several notable bands, including The Blue Notes, the Brotherhood of Breath and Assagai. Biography Born in Cape Town, Moholo formed The Blue Notes with Chris McGregor, Johnny Dyani, Nikele Moyake, Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana, and emigrated to Europe with them in 1964, eventually settling in London, where he formed part of a South African exile community that made an important contribution to British jazz. In 1966, he toured Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he performed at the Theatron with Steve Lacy, Johnny Dyani and Enrico Rava and recorded the album ''The Forest and the Zoo'' with the same musicians. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Breath, a big band comprising several South African exiles and leading musicians of the British free jazz scene in the 1970s and was the founder of Viva la Black and The Dedication Orchestra. His first album under his own name, '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leroy Jenkins (jazz Musician)
Leroy Jenkins (March 11, 1932 – February 24, 2007) was an American composer and violinist/violist. Early life Jenkins was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. As a youth, he lived with his sister, his mother, two aunts, his grandmother, and, on occasions, a boarder, in a three-bedroom apartment. Jenkins was immersed in music from an early age, and recalled listening to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and singers such as Billy Eckstine and Louis Jordan. When Jenkins was around eight years old, one of his aunts brought home a boyfriend who played the violin. After hearing him play a difficult Hungarian dance, Jenkins begged his mother for a violin, and was given a red, half-size Montgomery Ward violin that cost twenty-five dollars. He began taking lessons, and was soon heard at St. Luke's Baptist Church, where he was frequently accompanied on piano by Ruth Jones, later known as Dinah Washington. Jenkins eventually joined the church choir and orchestra, and performed on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, and was a key early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He received great acclaim for his 1969 double- LP record '' For Alto'', the first full-length album of solo saxophone music. A prolific composer with a vast body of cross-genre work, the MacArthur Fellow and NEA Jazz Master has released hundreds of recordings and compositions. During six years signed to Arista Records, the diversity of his output encompassed work with many members of the AACM, including duets with co-founder and first president Muhal Richard Abrams; collaborations with electronic musician Richard Teitelbaum; a saxophone quartet with Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett; compositions for four orchestras ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Blythe
Arthur Murray Blythe (July 5, 1940 – March 27, 2017) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer. He was described by critic Chris Kelsey as displaying "one of the most easily recognizable alto sax sounds in jazz, big and round, with a fast, wide vibrato and an aggressive, precise manner of phrasing" and furthermore as straddling the avant garde and traditionalist jazz, often with bands featuring unusual instrumentation. Biography Born in Los Angeles, Blythe lived in San Diego, returning to Los Angeles when he was 19 years old. He took up the alto saxophone at the age of nine, playing R&B until his mid-teens when he discovered jazz. In the mid-1960s, Blythe was part of the Underground Musicians and Artists Association (UGMAA), founded by Horace Tapscott, on whose 1969 '' The Giant Is Awakened'' he made his recording debut. After moving to New York in the mid-1970s, Blythe worked as a security guard before being offered a place as sideman for Chico Hamilton (1975– ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marilyn Crispell
Marilyn Crispell (born March 30, 1947) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Scott Yanow described her as "a powerful player... who has her own way of using space... She is near the top of her field." Jon Pareles of ''The New York Times'' wrote: "Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano... She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz." In addition to her own extensive work as a soloist or bandleader, Crispell is known as a longtime member of saxophonist Anthony Braxton's quartet in the 1980s and '90s. Biography Crispell was born in Philadelphia and, at the age of ten, moved to Baltimore, where she attended Western High School. She studied classical piano at the Peabody Conservatory beginning at age seven, and also began improvising at an early age, thanks to a teacher who required all her students to improvise regardless of their skill level. She later attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex improvisation often involving tone clusters and intricate polyrhythms. His technique has been compared to percussion. Referring to the number of keys on a standard piano, Val Wilmer used the phrase "eighty-eight tuned drums" to describe Taylor's style. He has been referred to as " Art Tatum with contemporary-classical leanings". Early life and education Cecil Percival Taylor was born on March 25, 1929, in Long Island City, Queens, and raised in Corona, Queens. Ratliff, Ben (May 3, 2012)"Lessons From the Dean of the School of Improv" ''The New York Times''. Retrieved December 9, 2017: "I recently spoke with the 83-year-old improvising pianist Cecil Taylor for about five hours over two days. One day was at his three-story home in For ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elmo Hope
St. Elmo Sylvester Hope (June 27, 1923 – May 19, 1967) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, chiefly in the bebop and hard bop genres. He grew up playing and listening to jazz and classical music with Bud Powell, and both were close friends of another influential pianist, Thelonious Monk. Hope survived being shot by police as a youth to become a New York-based musician who recorded with several emerging stars in the early to mid-1950s, including trumpeter Clifford Brown, and saxophonists John Coltrane, Lou Donaldson, Jackie McLean, and Sonny Rollins. A long-term heroin user, Hope had his license to perform in New York's clubs withdrawn after a drug conviction, so he moved to Los Angeles in 1957. He was not happy during his four years on the West Coast, but had some successful collaborations there, including with saxophonist Harold Land. More recordings as leader ensued following Hope's return to New York, but they did little to gain him more public or critical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was an American jazz pianist and composer. A pioneer in the development of bebop and its associated contributions to jazz theory,Grove Powell's application of complex phrasing to the piano influenced both his contemporaries and later pianists including Walter Davis Jr., Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Barry Harris. Born in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance to a musical family, Powell, during the 1930s, developed an attacking, right-handed approach to the piano, which marked a break from the left-handed approach of stride and ragtime that had been prevalent. Upon joining trumpeter Cootie Williams's band in 1943, he received attention from the broader musical community for his fluency and advanced technique. In 1945, he suffered a severe beating by police, followed by several years of intermittent institutionalizations. However, his recordings and live performances with Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, and Max Roach during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight (song), 'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser (composition), Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear (composition), Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. Monk's compositions and improvisations feature consonance and dissonance, dissonances and angular melodic twists, often using flat ninths, flat fifths, unexpected chromatic notes together, low bass notes and stride, and fast whole tone scale, whole tone runs, combining a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. Monk's distinct look included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He also had an idiosyncratic habit dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teddy Wilson
Theodore Shaw Wilson (November 24, 1912 – July 31, 1986) was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive Swing music, swing pianist", Wilson's piano style was gentle, elegant, and virtuosic. His style was highly influenced by Earl Hines and Art Tatum. His work was featured on the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. With Goodman, he was one of the first black musicians to perform prominently alongside white musicians. In addition to his extensive work as a sideman, Wilson also led his own groups and recording sessions from the late 1920s to the 1980s. Life and career Early life Wilson was born in Austin, Texas. Under his parents as school teachers, his early music education began at the age 6 with piano. Then, he studied violin, oboe, and clarinet at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. From 1929 to the early 1930s Wilson moved to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fats Waller
Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and singer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz piano. A widely popular star in the jazz and swing eras, he toured internationally, achieving critical and commercial success in the United States and Europe. His best-known compositions, " Ain't Misbehavin'" and " Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999, respectively. Waller copyrighted over 400 songs, many of them co-written with his closest collaborator, Andy Razaf. Razaf described his partner as "the soul of melody... a man who made the piano sing... both big in body and in mind... known for his generosity... a bubbling bundle of joy". It is likely that he composed many more popular songs than he has been credited with. When in financial difficulties, he had a habit of selling songs to other writers and performers who clai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
