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Don Weller (musician)
Donald Arthur Albert Weller (19 December 1940 – 30 May 2020) was an English jazz musician, tenor saxophonist, and composer. Career Don Weller began learning clarinet at the age of 14, and was classically educated on it for four or five years, and played the solo part in Mozart's Clarinet Concerto at Croydon Town Hall aged 15. He began playing in Dixieland bands around the Croydon area, but later switched to tenor saxophone and played in Kathy Stobart's rehearsal band. During the 1970s, his jazz-rock group Major Surgery played a regular weekly gig at a Croydon pub, the Dog & Bull. The band played Weller's compositions on the album released as "The First Cut". This was followed by a quartet with drummer Bryan Spring. At the same time, he worked regularly with pianist Stan Tracey, and also with Harry Beckett and in a quintet with Art Themen. Renowned for his versatility, he has played with artists such as Alan Price, Tina May and Charlie Hearnshaw. Weller played saxophone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thornton Heath
Thornton Heath is a district of Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is around north of the town of Croydon, and south of Charing Cross. Prior to the creation of Greater London in 1965, Thornton Heath was in the County Borough of Croydon. History Until the arrival of the railway in 1862, Thornton Heath was focused on an area in the parish of Croydon St John the Baptist, south west of the Whitehorse manor house (now a school), at the locality on the main London–Sussex road known as Thornton Heath Pond. Between the manor house and pond was an isolated farmhouse. Eventually it became the site for the railway station and the main expansion hub. In the 50-year period from 1861 to 1911, Thornton Heath saw a complete transformation from isolated rural outpost to integrated metropolitan suburb. In its infancy, a new railway station in the eastern farmlands enabled the immediate area to evolve around a central point. In the late 19th century, the west ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, research, technology, educa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Themen
Arthur Edward George Themen (born 26 November 1939) is a British jazz saxophonist and formerly orthopaedic surgeon. Critic John Fordham has described him as "an appealing presence on the British jazz circuit for over 40 years.... Originally a Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins disciple ... Themen has proved himself remarkably attentive to the saxophone styles of subsequent generations."John Fordham"Art Themen — Pillar Rooms, Cheltenham" (review) ''The Guardian'', 25 October 2001. Life and career Themen was born in Manchester, England, where he was involved with the traditional jazz scene in the late 1950s as a self-taught musician,Art Themen biography AllMusic. having started playing clarinet as a schoolboy at |
Harry Beckett
Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett (30 May 1935 – 22 July 2010) was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player of Barbadian origin. Biography Born in Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados, Harry Beckett learned to play music in a Salvation Army band. A resident in the UK from 1954, he had an international reputation. He played with Charles Mingus in the 1962 film '' All Night Long''. In the 1960s, he worked and recorded within the band of bass player and composer Graham Collier, retaining the connection over a 16-year period. Beginning in 1970, Beckett led groups of his own, recording for Philips, RCA and Ogun Records among other labels. Beckett was a key figure of important groups in the British free jazz/improvised music scene, including Ian Carr's Nucleus, the Brotherhood of Breath and The Dedication Orchestra, London Jazz Composers Orchestra, London Improvisers Orchestra, John Surman's Octet, Django Bates, Ronnie Scott's Quintet, Kathy Stobart, Charlie Watts, Stan Tracey's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Tracey
Stanley William Tracey (30 December 1926 – 6 December 2013) was a British jazz pianist and composer, whose most important influences were Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Tracey's best known recording is the 1965 album ''Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas's "Under Milk Wood"'', which is based on the BBC radio drama ''Under Milk Wood'', by Dylan Thomas. Early career The Second World War meant that Tracey had a disrupted formal education, and he became a professional musician at the age of sixteen as a member of an ENSA touring group playing the accordion, his first instrument. He joined Ralph Reader's Gang Shows at the age of nineteen, while in the RAF and formed a brief acquaintance with the comedian Tony Hancock. Later, in the early 1950s, he worked in groups on the transatlantic liners '' Queen Mary'' and ''Caronia'' and toured the UK in 1951 with Cab Calloway. By the mid-1950s, he had also taken up the vibraphone, but later ceased playing it. At this time he worked wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bryan Spring
Bryan Spring (born 24 August 1945) is a British jazz drummer. He is sometimes credited as Brian Spring. He was born in London, England. Spring was self-taught, beginning at the age of six, though he later studied with Philly Joe Jones. He led and co-led his own trios and quartets from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s with Don Weller and also Art Themen. Later, into the 2000s, he collaborated with Mark Edwards and Andy Cleyndert. Spring has been a member of groups such as Bill Le Sage's Bebop Preservation Society, Alan Skidmore's Quartet, Klaus Doldinger's Passport, and various line-ups led by Stan Tracey. |
Dog & Bull
The Dog & Bull is a public house in Croydon, England. It is a Grade II Listed, 18th-century building with a 19th-century frontage in Surrey Street, on the site of a previous 12th- or 13th-century inn called The Bell. The Dog & Bull was number 24 with an associated yard which was once used as an animal pound when the street was known as Butcher's Row. The pub is now a tied house and part of Young's brewery chain. In the 1990s, the adjacent grocery at number 25 was merged into the pub and the yard was converted into a beer garden. The pub has hosted a variety of events including a formal inquest in the 19th century, regular live jazz music by Don Weller in the 20th century and a religious blessing of its beer in the 21st century. History The pub's name refers to the blood sport of bull-baiting, and the Dog and Bull is "understood to be the oldest pub in Croydon". The current Dog and Bull was built in the 18th century and is Grade II Listed. There was previously a pub called ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathy Stobart
Florence Kathleen "Kathy" Stobart (1 April 1925 – 6 July 2014) was an English jazz saxophonist primarily known for playing the tenor sax. She was a well-respected figure in the history of jazz in Britain and became an inspiration, through her tutoring of music, to a whole new generation of younger female musicians. Early life Stobart was born in South Shields, County Durham (now Tyne and Wear), England. She was the third child of Matthew and Jessie Stobart, her mother was a pianist and her father was a police officer. She first learned piano as a child. After picking up the saxophone, she first played in Don Rico's all-female band at the age of 14, then locally in Newcastle. Career In 1942, aged 17, she moved to London, playing with Denis Rose, Ted Heath and Jimmy Skidmore. Later that decade she played with Art Pepper and Peanuts Hucko. She played with Canadian pianist Art Thompson (1918-2003) whom she joined in 1943, and was married to him from 1943-1951. He led the b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Rollins
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including " St. Thomas", " Oleo", " Doxy", "Pent-Up House", and " Airegin", have become jazz standards. Rollins has been called "the greatest living improviser" and the "Saxophone Colossus". Early life Rollins was born in New York City to parents from the United States Virgin Islands. The youngest of three siblings, he grew up in central Harlem and on Sugar Hill, receiving his first alto saxophone at the age of seven or eight. He attended Edward W. Stitt Junior High School and graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem. Rollins started as a pianist, changed to alto saxophone, and finally switched to tenor in 1946. During his high school years, he played in a band with other fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn". Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as "mooing" and "rubbery belches." Hawkins cited as influences Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson, although he was the first to tailor his method of improvisation to the saxophone rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet. Hawkins' virtuosic, arpeggiated approach to improvisation, with his characteristic rich, emotional, and vibrato-laden tonal style, was the main influence on a generation of tenor players that included Chu Berry, Charli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Webster
Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909 – September 20, 1973) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Career Early life and career A native of Kansas City, Missouri, he studied violin, learned how to play blues on the piano from Pete Johnson, and received saxophone lessons from Budd Johnson. He played with Lester Young in the Young Family Band. He recorded with Blanche Calloway and became a member of the Bennie Moten Orchestra with Count Basie, Hot Lips Page, and Walter Page. For the rest of the 1930s, he played in bands led by Willie Bryant, Benny Carter, Cab Calloway, Fletcher Henderson, Andy Kirk, and Teddy Wilson. With Ellington Webster was a soloist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1940, appearing on "Cotton Tail". He considered Johnny Hodges, an alto saxophonist in the Ellington orchestra, a major influence on his playing. Gunther Schuller wrote in 1989 that Hodges influence pushed him away from his original inspiration, Coleman Hawkins. Web ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and actor. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians, which included other greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell. Gordon's height was , so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" and "Sophisticated Giant". His studio and performance career spanned more than 40 years. Gordon's sound was commonly characterized as being "large" and spacious and he had a tendency to play behind the beat. He was known for inserting musical quotes into his solos, with sources as diverse as "Happy Birthday" and well known melodies from the operas of Wagner. This is not unusual in jazz improvization, but Gordon did it frequently enough to make it a hallmark of his style. One of his major influences was Lester Young. Gordon, in turn, was an early influence on John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. Rollins and Coltrane then influenced Gordon's playing as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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