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As they prep for the annual Jazz Family Christmas show, the band talks Christmas tunes and jazz influence in classic favorites. The podcast is taking a break for the holidays and will return next year!
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Pianist/composer McCoy Tyner (born December 11, 1938) was the youngest member of the earth-shattering John Coltrane Quartet and went on to be a major innovator on his instrument, influencing a whole generation of pianists with his rhythmic and harmonically dense approach to the instrument. He has been recognized with an NEA jazz master award and five Grammy awards. His music is as important in many ways as Coltrane’s, and his musical vocabulary has touched virtually every musician that’s come after him.
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Composer/arranger/pianist Billy Strayhorn (born November 29, 1915) was a true genius in his own right, though often referred to as Duke Ellington’s alter ego, he was so much more than that. A gay man in in an era when that was even more of an onus than it is now, Ellington made it possible for Strayhorn to create and thrive in spite of societal constraints, clearly he recognized Strayhorn’s unique genius, and the two had a symbiotic relationship for most of Strayhorn’s too brief life. His compositions are all a reflection of his personal approach to harmony and melodic development, his early composition Lush Life, for example: written while still a teenager in Pittsburgh, in both words and music showcase a sophistication that staggers the imagination.
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Pianist/composer Dave Brubeck and Alto Saxophonist Paul Desmond are enshrined in jazz history as the most prominent voices of the popular Dave Brubeck quartet. This group cast an outsized shadow over the jazz scene of the 1950’s and 1960’s, Desmond’s composition "Take Five" is one of the most beloved jazz compositions of all time and was the biggest hit the quartet ever had. Brubeck incorporated diverse musical influences, including that of French composer Darius Milhaud to fashion a style that incorporated odd rhythmic meters and polytonality into a fusion that predated the “third stream” movement. Desmond is perhaps the most influential voice on his instrument since Charlie Parker, he was famously quoted as saying his lyrical, pure sound on the instrument was a result of his wanting to sound like a “dry martini". His series of recordings with guitarist Jim Hall are masterpieces of melodic inventiveness, a testament to his spare, beautiful voice as both composer and performer.
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Saxophonist/composer Phil Woods (born Nov 2, 1931), is by many musicians considered the major exponent of the alto saxophone for the past sixty years. His big, commanding sound, strong sense of swing, and command of harmony are second to none. His playing is totally distinctive and immediately recognizable. He may be best known to the average listener as the saxophone soloist on the Billy Joel hit, Just the Way You Are, but he can be heard on recordings with Steely Dan and other pop acts, but his real musical personality is as a pure bebopper, indeed, he kept a pure jazz group working under his leadership for the last 25 years of his life, with the same bassist (Steve Gilmore) and drummer (Bill Goodwin) the entire time.
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Saxophonist/composer Jimmy Heath (born Oct 25, 1926) came from a musical family in the fertile music scene of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his brothers Percy, bassist with the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Tootie, drummer with a plethora of jazz groups have contributed far more than their share to the world of jazz. A contemporary and close friend of John Coltrane, Heath eclipsed his friend early in their careers, nicknamed “Little Bird”, Heath was chosen over Coltrane by no less than Dizzy Gillespie for a spot in one of his bands. A prolific composer and arranger, Heath has written any number of tunes that have become jazz standards.
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While hardly a household name, pianist/composer Clare Fischer (born Oct 22, 1928) was a musician’s musician. While he spent a good portion of his career working as a studio musician in Hollywood, he cut his teeth as the musical director of the vocal group The Hi-Los. His musical imagination seemingly knew no bounds, over the course of his career he wrote for his own big band, a Latin group with a vocal group called Salsa Picante and 2+2, a huge band featuring keyed bugles, all of which he purchased for the project, a large clarinet choir, and string arrangements for Prince and other rock and roll artists. He a large catalog of original compositions, many of which have become jazz standards.
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Trumpet player/composer John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (born Oct 21, 1917) was, along with Charlie Parker, one of the major innovators behind the bebop movement in jazz. His pyrotechnic technical abilities on the trumpet set the bar high for all the players of that instrument who came after him. He was responsible for a number of compositions that have become jazz standards, and his bands have served as launching pads for a number of musicians who have become well known in their own rights, among them James Moody, Lalo Schifrin, John Coltrane, Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, Lee Morgan and the entire Modern Jazz Quartet, which was the rhythm section of his big band at one point.
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Pianist composer Thelonius Monk (born Oct 10, 1917) was possibly the most idiosyncratic performers and composers our music has ever produced. His music is second only to Duke Ellington in the number of times his many compositions have been recorded. Often referred to as the High Priest of Bebop, he was instrumental in the birth of this style, playing alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, he was the pianist of choice at Minton’s Playhouse where the new style was given birth.
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Saxophonist Park “Pepper” Adams (born Oct 8, 1930) was one of many jazz greats to emerge from the fertile jazz scene of Detroit, Michigan in the 1940s-50s. He was known for his fiery technical abilities and big sound on the cumbersome baritone saxophone. He recorded prolifically with just about everyone on the NYC jazz scene after he relocated there in the late 1950’s, and his unique voice as a jazz composer can be heard on full display on the 18 recordings he made as a leader throughout his career.
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Saxophonist John Coltrane (born Sept 23, 1926), is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential musical voices of the 20th Century. His influence can’t be overestimated; literally every musician who followed him has been shaped by his innovations and contributions to the music. A member of Miles Davis’ first great quintet, Coltrane also played with Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and many other jazz greats before forming his ground breaking quartet in 1960 with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones. Together, this band reshaped the jazz landscape as none had before or since.
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Saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (born Sept 15,1928) and his cornetist brother Nat (born Nov 25, 1931) co-led one of the most successful jazz groups of the 1960’s-1970’s. From the time they arrived on the NYC scene from their native Florida in 1955, and sat in with bassist Oscar Pettiford, they set the town ablaze. Both musicians found work with many of the jazz luminaries of the time, Cannonball famously with Miles Davis’ great sextet that included John Coltrane and recorded Kind of Blue, the biggest selling jazz recording of all time, and Nat with trombonist J. J. Johnson and Woody Herman. By 1959 they formed their long-standing quintet and had their first hit with This Here, the first of many successful recordings, many composed by Nat for the quintet. Nat is also one of the few jazz musicians to continue playing the cornet, instead of the brighter/brassier trumpet favored by most players, which helped give the quintet a more intimate warmer sound.
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Tenor Saxophonist Sonny Rollins, born September 7, 1930, is widely recognized as one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time. In his over seven-decade career he has produced over sixty albums as a leader, and penned a number of tunes that have become jazz standards. Growing up in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem he was surrounded by a hotbed of jazz activity from an early age, his neighborhood boasted such luminaries as Bud Powell, Thelonius Monk, and Coleman Hawkins. He and his contemporary Jackie McClean played together as teenagers in a band of young musicians drawn from the neighborhood. Health problems necessitated Rollins stop playing the saxophone in 2012, but he still lives in his upstate New York home, an elder jazz statesman at the age of 93.
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Pianist Horace Silver, born September 2, 1928, in Connecticut, played tenor saxophone and piano in school, and received his first national recognition when his trio was hired to play with saxophonist Stan Getz in 1950. His career received a major boost when he became part of the original Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey, and recorded his first hit composition, The Preacher. He toured with Blakey until 1956, when he left to start his own quintet, which featured his prolific compositional talents, and launched the careers of numerous younger players over the ensuing decades. He is one of the musicians credited with launching the hard bop style.
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Saxophonist, composer Wayne Shorter, born August 25, 1933, was one of the most influential jazz artists, and most creative, distinctive and prolific jazz composers the music has produced. Serving as the principal composer for both Art Blakey and Miles Davis’ bands during his tenures there, in addition to the music he wrote for his own twenty record dates and Weather Report, his catalog runs to hundreds of titles, many of which have become jazz standards.
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Pianist Mulgrew Miller, born August 13, 1955, toured with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for three years right out of college, later accompanying singer Betty Carter, then three year stints with trumpeter Woody Shaw followed by Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He was already recording with his own groups when he joined drummer Tony Williams in quintet and trio settings, he also served as director of jazz studies at William Paterson college up unto his tragic death of a stroke at age 57. His playing never lost its roots as a church pianist, but he also incorporated the pyrotechnic technical influences of Oscar Peterson and the harmonic language of McCoy Tyner.
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Bill Evans, born August 16, 1929, was one of his generation’s most influential jazz pianists. His lyrical melodic lines, use of impressionistic harmony and deft touch at the keyboard combined to make him an influence on every pianist that came after him. After working with Miles Davis and recording the seminal recording "Kind of Blue", he spent the rest of his career performing with his own trios, carving out a career as a soloist and jazz composer for decades, earning 31 Grammy award nominations and winning seven.
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Charlie Parker, nicknamed “Yardbird” or “Bird” for short was easily one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. Born in Kansas City, Kansas on August 29, 1920, he came up in the vital jazz scene of Kansas City, Missouri. Initially heavily influenced by the playing of saxophonist Lester Young, he developed a prodigious saxophone technique and his own unique harmonic and melodic language, heavily rooted in the blues tradition, and together with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie is credited with creating the style of jazz later referred to as bebop. Bassist Charles Mingus famously commented that so many musicians copied Bird’s innovations that they’d all be guilty of copyright violations in a just world!
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Virtuoso trumpeter Lee Morgan (born July 10, 1938) first rose to fame as a teenage member of Dizzy Gillespie’s band. He played as a sideman with John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Art Blakey in addition to producing a series of recordings as a leader, one of which “The Sidewinder” became a surprise commercial hit in 1964. He died tragically in 1972, shot at a club in NYC during a gig.
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Composer and lyricist Frank Loesser (born June 29, 1910) worked for years as a lyricist for a series of different songwriters, always telling them he could actually write both words and music himself, and he proved it in 1950 with the Broadway Premiere of Guys and Dolls. Over the course of his career he won a Pulitzer Prize for his show, How to Succeed in Business, Tony awards for Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business and an Academy Award for the song "Baby it’s Cold Outside." Jazz musicians have embraced his tunes for years, his melodies and harmonies are a continuing source of inspiration.
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