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René McLean
René McLean (born December 16, 1946) is a hard bop saxophonist and flutist from New York City. He started playing guitar before receiving an alto saxophone and instruction from his father, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. Biography McLean played in the mid-1970s in a quintet with Woody Shaw and Louis Hayes and toured with Hugh Masekela in 1978. He later studied music at New York College of Music and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. McLean received the Creative Artist Fellowship by the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1986 to reside in Japan to research traditional Japanese music, arts and culture, and to perform and teach. He has recorded extensively and also has thorough experience as a music educator in the United States and South Africa. Born in New York City, René McLean, multi-reed instrumentalist (alto, tenor, soprano saxophones, flutes, ney, shakuhachi), composer, band leader, educator, and producer, began his musical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Sea Jazz Festival
The North Sea Jazz Festival is a festival held annually on the second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. The festival moved to Rotterdam in 2006 after the demolition of the Statenhal in The Hague where it was originally held. As of 3 November 2017, the festival is officially known as the NN North Sea Jazz Festival. Biography The founder of the three-day festival was Paul Acket, a businessman and jazz lover who made a fortune in the 1960s with his pop magazine publishing company. When Acket sold his company in 1975, he was able to start and sponsor the North Sea Jazz Festival. Acket wanted to present American jazz and European avant-garde jazz. In 1976 the first edition of the festival took place. It was an immediate success: six stages, thirty hours of music, and 300 performances drew over 9000 visitors. Acts included Count Basie, James Brown, Miles Davis, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, James Taylor, Benny Goodman, and Sarah Vaughan amon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Harris
Barry Doyle Harris (December 15, 1929 – December 8, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. He was an exponent of the bebop style. Influenced by Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, Harris in turn influenced and mentored bebop musicians including Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, Curtis Fuller, Joe Henderson, Charles McPherson, and Michael Weiss. Early life Harris was born on December 15, 1929, in Detroit, Michigan, to Melvin Harris and Bessie as the fourth of their five children. Harris took piano lessons from his mother at the age of four. His mother, a church pianist, asked him if he was interested in playing church music or jazz, and he chose the latter. In his teens, he performed for dances at his high school, local clubs and ballrooms. Harris' family home became a popular jam session destination for young jazz musicians including Roland Hanna, Sonny Red, Donald Byrd, and Harold McKenny. Many Motown pioneers, including Barry Gordy, we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest university in South Africa and the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest university in Sub-Saharan Africa in continuous operation. UCT is organised in 57 departments across six faculties offering Bachelor's degree, bachelor's (Education in South Africa#Higher education and training system, NQF 7) to Doctorate, doctoral degrees (Education in South Africa#Higher education and training system, NQF 10) solely in the English language. Home to 30,000 students, it encompasses six campuses in the Capetonian suburbs of Rondebosch, Hiddingh, Observatory, Cape Town, Observatory, Mowbray, Cape Town, Mowbray, and the Waterfront. It is the only African member of the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) within the World Economic Forum, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for ''Tales of the Out and the Gone''. Baraka's plays, poetry, and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for African-American culture. Baraka's career spanned nearly 52 years, and his themes range from Black liberation to White racism. His notable poems include "The Music: Reflection on Jazz and Blues", "The Book of Monk", and "New Music, New Poetry", works that draw on topics from the worlds of society, music, and literature. Baraka's poetry and writing have attracted both high praise and condemnation. In the African-American community, some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamza El Din
Hamza El Din (Arabic حمزة علاء الدين) (July 10, 1929 – May 22, 2006) was an Egyptian Nubian composer, oud player, tar player, and vocalist. He was born in southern Egypt and was an internationally known musician of his native region Nubia, situated on both sides of the Egypt–Sudan border. After musical studies in Cairo, he lived and studied in Italy, Japan and the United States. El Din collaborated with a wide variety of musical performers, including Sandy Bull, the Kronos Quartet and the Grateful Dead. Early life Born in the village of Toshka in Southern Egypt, in the governorate of Aswan, El Din was originally trained to be an electrical engineer. Like much of Egyptian Nubia, his home village of Toshka was flooded due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s. After working in Cairo for the Egyptian national railways, he changed direction and began to study music at the Cairo University, and later continued his studies at the Accademia Naziona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, Pastorius recorded albums as a solo artist, band leader, and as a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, including Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell. His bass style was influenced by funk and employed the use of Fretless bass guitar, fretless bass, lyrical solos, bass Chord (music), chords and innovative use of harmonics. As of 2017, he was the only one of seven bassists inducted into the ''DownBeat'' Jazz Hall of Fame to have been known for their work on the electric bass, and he has been lauded as among the best bassists of all time. Pastorius suffered from Addiction, drug addiction and mental health issues and, despite his widespread acclaim, over the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yusef Lateef
Yusef Abdul Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston; October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Community in the United States. Although Lateef's main instruments were the tenor saxophone and flute, he also played oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, and non-western instruments such as the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, xun, arghul and koto. He is known for having been an innovator in the blending of jazz with " Eastern" music. Peter Keepnews, in his ''New York Times'' obituary of Lateef, wrote that the musician "played world music before world music had a name". Lateef's books included two novellas titled ''A Night in the Garden of Love'' and ''Another Avenue'', the short story collections ''Spheres'' and ''Rain Shapes'', and his autobiography, ''The Gentle Giant,'' written in collaboration with Herb Boyd. Along with his record label YAL Records, Lateef owned Fana Music, a music pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Moody (saxophonist)
James Moody (March 26, 1925 – December 9, 2010) was an American jazz saxophone and flute player and very occasional vocalist, playing predominantly in the bebop and hard bop styles. The annual James Moody Jazz Festival is held in Newark, New Jersey. Moody had an unexpected hit with " Moody's Mood for Love", a 1952 song written by Eddie Jefferson, which used as its melody an improvised solo that Moody had played on a 1949 recording of " I'm in the Mood for Love". Moody adopted the song as his own, recording it with Jefferson on his 1956 album '' Moody's Mood for Love'' and performing the song regularly in concert, often singing the vocals himself. Early life James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia, United States, and was raised by his single mother, Ruby Hann Moody Watters. According to one reference, his absent father was a trumpeter in Tiny Bradshaw`s group. He had a brother, Louis Edward Watters. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, he was attracted to the saxophone af ... [...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, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians. 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 inserted musical quotes into his solos, with sources as diverse as "Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday" and well-known melodies from the operas of Richard Wagner, Wagner. Quoting from various musical sources is not unusual in jazz improvisation, 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 he explored hard bop and modal playing d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abbey Lincoln
Anna Marie Wooldridge (August 6, 1930 – August 14, 2010), known professionally as Abbey Lincoln, was an American jazz vocalist and songwriter. She was a civil rights activist beginning in the 1960s. Lincoln made a career out of delivering deeply felt presentations of standards, as well as writing and singing her own material. Early life Lincoln was born on August 6, 1930, in Chicago, but raised in Calvin Center, Cass County, Michigan. She was one of 12 children. Career Music Lincoln was one of many singers influenced by Billie Holiday. Lincoln's 1956 debut album, '' Abbey Lincoln's Affair... A Story of a Girl in Love'', was followed by a series of albums for Riverside Records. In 1960, she sang on Max Roach's landmark civil rights-themed recording '' We Insist!'' (subtitled ''Freedom Now Suite''), "regarded as the earliest full-scale protest record in jazz", as historian Nat Hentoff observed. Lincoln's lyrics were often connected to the civil rights movement in America. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miriam Makeba
Zenzile Miriam Makeba ( , ; 4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including African popular music, Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa. Born in Johannesburg to Swazi people, Swazi and Xhosa people, Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks (South African vocal group), the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut, Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950. Silver soon moved to New York City, where he developed a reputation as a composer and for his bluesy playing. Frequent sideman recordings in the mid-1950s helped further, but it was his work with the Jazz Messengers, co-led by Art Blakey, that brought both his writing and playing most attention. Their ''Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers'' album contained Silver's first hit, "The Preacher (Horace Silver song), The Preacher". After leaving Blakey in 1956, Silver formed his own quintet, with what became the standard small group line-up of tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums. Their public performances and frequent recordings for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
