Sunday, May 31, 2009
Ma Rainey.....
Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 -- December 22, 1939), was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues. She did much to develop and popularize the form and was an important influence on younger blues women, such as Bessie Smith, and their careers.
Rainey was born in Columbus, Georgia. She first appeared on stage in Columbus in "A Bunch of Blackberries" at fourteen. She then joined a traveling vaudeville troupe, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. After hearing a blues song at a theater in St. Louis, Missouri, sung by a local girl in 1902, she started performing in a blues style. She claimed at that time that she was the one who coined the name "blues" for the style that she specialized in.
In the one known interview she did, Rainey told the following story, In 1902 "a girl from town... came to the tent one morning and began to sing about the "man" who left her. The song was so strange and poignant that it attracted much attention,and Rainey learned the song fron the visitor, and used it soon afterwards in her "act"." Audiences reacted strongly to the song.
She married fellow vaudeville singer William "Pa" Rainey in 1904, billing herself from that point as "Ma" Rainey. The pair toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels as "Rainey & Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues", singing a mix of blues and popular songs. In 1912, she took the young Bessie Smith into the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, trained her, and worked with her until Smith left in 1915.
Also known, though less discussed, is the fact that she was bisexual. She was arrested in Chicago in 1925 for hosting an 'indecent party' with a room full of semi-naked women. Rainey celebrated the lesbian lifestyle in "Prove It On Me Blues", but hid behind a cross-dressing man-hating persona that was quite distinct from her regular public image:
In most of her songs, Ma projected herself as a passionate and often mistreated lover of men. In private, her preference was for young men. The poet Sterling Brown tells of approaching her as a fan with the musicologist John Work. She immediately propositioned them as she was having trouble with her young musicians. Brown wrote a moving poem about Ma Rainey and her huge popularity with Southern audiences.
Ma Rainey was already a veteran performer with decades of touring in African-American shows in the U.S. Southern States when she made her first recordings in 1923. Rainey signed with Paramount Records and, between 1923 and 1928, she recorded 100 songs, including the classics "C.C. Rider" (aka "See See Rider") and "Jelly Bean Blues", the humorous "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", and the deep blues "Bo Weavil Blues". In her career, Rainey was backed by such noted jazz musicians as cornet players Louis Armstrong and Tommy Ladnier, pianists Fletcher Henderson and Lovie Austin, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and clarinetist Buster Bailey. Rainey recorded two vocal duets with Papa Charlie Jackson in 1928, which proved to be her last recordings; Paramount terminated her contract soon afterwards, claiming that her material had gone out of fashion.
Rainey's career dried up in the 1930s--as did the career of just about every other classic female blues singers of the previous decade. But her earnings were enough that she was able to retire from performing in 1933.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJm3YGAwPUM
Ma Rainey - Roots of Blues
Recorded: New York , October 15 1924
'Ma' Rainey And Her Georgia Band
Ma Rainey (vcl),
Howard Scott (cn),
Charlie Green (tb),
Don Redman (c),
Fletcher Henderson (p),
Kaiser Marshall (d)
Ruth Etting....
Ruth was born on November 23, 1897 in David City, Nebraska.
When Ruth was seventeen, she left her home to attend an art school in Chicago. While in Chicago, she got a job at a local nightclub designing costumes. One night while at the club, the tenor got sick, and she was quickly pulled on being the only one who could sing low enough. Ruth ventured on to dancing in the chorus line, then on to solos. Ruth soon forgot her career in art and costume design.
In 1918 Ruth was the featured vocalist at the club when she met Moe Snyder a.k.a. The Gimp. Moe was a Chicago gangster who married Ruth in 1922. He also managed Ruth's career for the next twenty years. During these years, Ruth made many radio appearances that earned her the name Chicago's Sweetheart.
Ruth was discovered in 1926 and immediately signed to an exclusive contract with Columbia Records, and she gained nation wide exposure. Ruth's delivery on her early records was very straightforward. Ruth stated, "I sounded like a little girl on those records!"
Ruth hit New York in 1927 and was an instant success. In 1927 and 1928 she appeared in the Ziegfield Follies. Ruth was in Whoopee! in 1929 and appeared in Simple Simon 135 times in 1930. Ruth appeared in many movie shorts and three full-length features. In Roman Scandals Ruth appeared with Eddie Cantor and Lucille Ball. She also appeared in Gift of Gab and Hips Hips Hooray.
Ruth was named America's Radio Sweetheart, Sweetheart of Columbia Records, and America's Sweetheart of Song. With Columbia Ruth made hundreds of recordings and had her own radio show. Her voice became recognizable to most Americans. She sang songs composed by the greats: Irving Berlin, Johnny Green, Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart. Some were written especially for her.
Later she experimented with different tempos during her songs, and tempo changes became a trademark. For some reason, her fans just loved it although today it might seem a little schizophrenic to audiences.
In 1926 Ruth made her first record and in 1937 she made her last. Ruth's ego couldn't handle being a performer. She didn't like her early records and wouldn't keep them.
Her marriage to Moe fell apart in Hollywood, and Ruth fell for her accompanist, Myrl Alderman. Moe wanted to end the relationship and shot Myrl in cold blood. Myrl survived and Moe went to jail. Ruth later divorced Moe and married Mryl. There was a movie made about Ruth's relationship troubles in 1955, Love Me or Leave Me, starring Doris Day and James Cagney.
Ruth was a very beautiful woman who influenced the way people dressed during her time. Mae West said this about Ruth: "The curtains opened, and here was this girl. Not what you'd call a classic beauty--but unusual. She had a sex quality that seemed to mesmerize the audience. And when she finished singing, they just kind of went crazy." It is rumored that Ruth, during the 1940s, destroyed all her records and attempted a comeback. She wouldn't listen to any of her old music for many years.
Ruth died on September 24, 1978, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0116404/main1.html
Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMenthe was born on October 20, 1890 in New Orleans, Louisiana. At an early age, his father abandoned him, and only a few years later, his mother passed away. Consequently, his aunt, uncle, grandmother, and great-grandmother took turns taking care of him. Ferdinand was a Creole--a mix of African, French, and Spanish. He took on his step-father's (Ed Morton) last name so that he would not be called "Frenchy" by his peers. His nickname, "Jelly Roll" (which at that time held sexual connotations), was picked up later in his life when he had established a reputation of being a ladies' man. Ferdinand was raised as a Roman Catholic, but was later introduced to the voodoo tradition by his godmother. His ties with voodoo inevitably compelled him to make bizarre decisions later in his life.
Music had always been a part of Jelly Roll Morton. As a toddler, young Ferdinand would beat on pots and pans. He then learned the guitar and banjo. By the age of ten, Jelly Roll was starting to play his main instrument, the piano. At twelve years of age, he began to play in the brothels of Storyville. Jelly Roll spent his days going to the famous red-light district, playing everything from popular ragtime pieces to French quadrilles, and becoming acquainted with various madames and prostitutes. Once his grandmother found out about this lifestyle, she kicked him out of her house. As a result, Jelly Roll had to resort to additional activities to earn a decent living. He soon became an exceptional card hustler, pool shark, and comedian, in addition to being a pimp in his spare time. However, music was still his main line of business.
In 1904, Jelly Roll took his show on the road. He traveled to New York City, Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City, and other various cities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. He then spent five years playing in Los Angeles. During these musical ventures, a new style of music began to evolve from Jelly Roll's performances. His style of playing was predominantly characterized by African American elements such as ragtime, blues, field hollers, spirituals. Elements of Hispanic/Caribbean music and white popular music were also present in his style. Jelly Roll also began to work with other musicians in bands and small ensembles.
In 1922, Jelly Roll moved to Chicago--the new, thriving center of jazz. It is during this period in Chicago where Jelly Roll established himself as the first significant jazz composer. Unlike most jazz musicians of his time, Jelly Roll envisioned jazz from the compositional perspective and shunned the ubiquitous collective jam sessions that were prevalent during this period. His works proved that composition and well-rehearsed arrangements were indeed compatible with the spontaneous nature of jazz, and that such an emphasis could even enhance improvisation. Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and other jazz legends shared Jelly Roll's perception of jazz.
Jelly Roll had a new interest--documenting his music. Gennet Records and the Melrose Bothers Music Company collaborated together to introduce the Chicago jazz scene to a national audience. Melrose Brothers hired Jelly Roll to write piano pieces for them to sell at their music stores. Gennet Records and Jelly Roll produced the first substantial body of recorded piano solos available to the public. In addition to his various solo and ensemble recordings, Jelly Roll recorded three major collections of his work: the Gennet recordings, a body of ensemble selections on Victor Records with his Red Hot Peppers, and his final collection of solos produced by the Library of Congress and Alan Lomax, his biographer. The self-proclaimed inventor of jazz was now the first great composer of jazz ever to be recorded.
As well as being a brilliant piano soloist, Jelly Roll was an important bandleader. He developed ragtime and instrumental blues into a new ensemble style which embraced collective polyphony, solo improvisations, and ever-changing textures and timbres.
Having thrived in the '20s, Jelly Roll encountered hard times during the '30s. His style was deemed antiquated as jazz enthusiasts preferred the homophonically harmonized big band swing style. Compounded with an economic depression, the man who had a diamond set in his gold teeth was now financially unstable. He settled in Washington, D.C. after a brief stint in New York. Jelly Roll's playing gradually ceased as he focused his attention on managing his own jazz club. Unfortunately, his health began to deteriorate--Jelly Roll blamed a voodoo curse for his physical suffering. His inevitable poor health was a tragic end to such a wonderful career. Jelly Roll died on July 10, 1941 in Los Angeles.
http://library.thinkquest.org/18602/history/classic/fmorton/fmorton.html
5th / 6th / June BARBARA DENNERLEIN at Ronnie Scott's
Barbara has created an innovative and distinctive style that opened up totally new musical dimensions for the Hammond organ. Above all, she is one of the very few organists who play a pedal bass, and is surely unequalled for her breathtaking technique.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Lennie Tristano....
Birth: 1919 03 19 - Chicago, IL
Death: 1978 11 18 - New York, NY
The history of jazz is written as a recounting of the lives of its most famous (and presumably, most influential) artists. Reality is not so simple, however. Certainly the very most important of the music's innovators are those whose names are known by all -- Armstrong, Parker, Young, Coltrane. Unfortunately, the jazz critic's tendency to inflate the major figures' status often comes at the expense of other musicians' reputations -- men and women who have made significant, even essential, contributions of their own, are, for whatever reason, overlooked in the mad rush to canonize a select few. Lennie Tristano is one of those who have not yet received their critical due. In the mid-'40s, the Chicago-born pianist arrived on the scene with a concept that genuinely expanded the prevailing bop aesthetic. Tristano brought to the music of Charlie Parker and Bud Powell a harmonic language that adapted the practices of contemporary classical music; his use of polytonal effects in tunes like "Out on a Limb" was almost Stravinsky-esque, and his extensive use of counterpoint was (whether or not he was conscious of it at the time) in keeping with the trends being set in mid-century art music. Until relatively recently, it had seldom been acknowledged that Tristano had been the first to perform and record a type of music that came to be called "free jazz." In 1949 -- almost a decade before the making of Ornette Coleman's first records -- Tristano's group (which included Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, and Billy Bauer) cut the first recorded example of freely improvised music in the history of jazz. The two cuts, "Intuition" and "Digression," were created spontaneously, without any pre-ordained reference to time, tonality, or melody. The resultant work was an outgrowth of Tristano's preoccupation with feeling and spontaneity in the creation of music. It influenced, among others, Charles Mingus, whose earliest records sound eerily similar to those of Tristano in terms of style and compositional technique. Mingus came by the influence honestly; he studied with the pianist for a period in the early '50s, as did many other well-known jazz musicians, such as Sal Mosca, Phil Woods, and the aforementioned Konitz and Marsh.
Tristano was stricken permanently blind as an infant. He first studied music with his mother, an avocational pianist and opera singer. From 1928-38, he attended a school for the blind in Chicago, where he learned music theory and developed proficiency on several wind instruments. Later, he attended Chicago's American Conservatory of Music, from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1943. During his early years as a professional performer and teacher, Tristano worked in and around Chicago, achieving his first measure of critical attention and attracting his first important students, Konitz and composer/arranger Bill Russo.
In 1946, Tristano moved to New York, where he made something of a big splash, performing with many of the leading musicians of the day, including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. The influential critic Barry Ulanov took an extreme liking to Tristano's music and championed his work in the pages of Metronome magazine; Tristano was named the publication's Musician of the Year for 1947. Tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh began studies with Tristano in 1948, and when Bauer and Konitz came back aboard, he had the core of his great sextet. In 1949 -- with the addition of bassist Arnold Fishkin and alternating drummers Harold Granowsky and Denzil Best -- Tristano, Bauer, Konitz, and Marsh recorded what was to become the basis of the band's collective legacy, the Capitol album Crosscurrents. The Capitol sessions spawned many of Tristano's best-known works, including the title track, and of course, the freely improvised cuts "Digression" and "Intuition" (these latter recorded without a drummer). The recordings synthesized the Tristano approach: long, rhythmically and harmonically elaborate melodies were played over a smooth, almost uninflected swing time maintained by the bassist and drummer. Counterpoint, which had been mostly abandoned by post-New Orleans/Chicago players, made a comeback in Tristano's music. Tristano's written lines were a great deal more involved than the already complex melodies typical of bebop; he subdivided and multiplied the beat in odd groupings, and his harmonies did not always behave in a manner consistent with functional tonality. The complexity of his constructs demanded that his rhythm section provide little more than a solid foundation. Tristano's bassists and drummers were not expected to interact in the manner of a bop rhythm section, but to support the music's melodic and harmonic substance. Such restraint lent Tristano's music an emotionally detached air, which to this day has been used by unsympathetic critics as a sledgehammer to pound him.
In 1951, Tristano founded a school of jazz in New York, the first of its kind. Its faculty consisted of many of his most prominent students, including Konitz, Bauer, Marsh, and pianist Sal Mosca. His public performances became fewer and farther between; for the rest of his life, Tristano was to concentrate on teaching, mostly to the exclusion of everything else. He shut down his school in 1956, and began teaching out of his home on Long Island. Thereafter he would play occasionally at the Half Note in New York City. Recordings became scarce. He made two albums for Atlantic, Lennie Tristano and The New Tristano. A compilation of odds and ends entitled Descent Into the Maelstrom was released on Inner City; its title track documents Tristano's experiments in multi-track recording of the piano. He toured Europe in 1965; his last public performance in the U.S. was in 1968.
Until his death in 1978, Tristano continued to teach. A later generation of his adherents continues to work and thrive in New York to this day. Musicians like pianist Connie Crothers, saxophonists Lennie Popkin and Richard Tabnik, and drummer Carol Tristano -- the pianist's daughter -- carry on his work into the next century.
Chris Kelsey, All Music Guide
Charles "Buddy" Montgomery, dies
Who died in 14 of the chain, to the 79 years was Buddy Montgomery, pianists and vibraphonist that with the brothers Monk (b) and Wes (g), in the Sixties the group “The Mastersounds” formed that recorded for the Pacific Jazz Records. The mortis cause was not divulged.
Charles "Buddy" Montgomery
William "Monk" Howard Montgomery (1921-1982)
John "Wes" Leslie Montgomery (1923-1968)
Histories of Jazz.....
This I did not read in no book or reviewed specialized and well late caught the fact in a presented program of television of the night, I do not remember the channel, for the actress Irene Ravache, I go many years there. It was a program of done interviews it are of the country, and this especially dedicated to the culture of grapes and the manufacture of wines. I was not interested myself of beginning but, opening the program the actress informed that one of the biggest croppers of grapes in California had in its resume to have been musician of the orchestra of Glenn Miller. I waited anxious for this interview and of certain form I was rewarded. The musician was the trumpeter Lee Knowles of who never hears to speak but, for he saw of the doubts I was to confer in the Hot Discography de Charles Delaunay and there the metal section was its name integrating. Before entering in the subject wine, it came the question on the participation of the musician in the orchestra of Glenn Miller and what it could count to the viewers on the famous band. E Knowles said that although to have many histories, detached of the subject “In the mood”, of authorship of Ed Garland, one of the biggest successes of the band. It informed that after an exhausting night of assays, the tired musicians already had had that to return to the studio therefore they had fond the partitions of the original arrangement of the subject and Glenn Miller did not want to leave stops later.
They had seated in its chairs, they had opened the partitions and obeying the signal of the teacher they had executed the subject. Knowles clarified that nobody liked music. Some found it other discouraged ones for the fatigue repetitive opted to its exclusion of the repertoire but, Glenn Miller insisted on the assay of the subject, trying to liven up its friends. Until somebody suggested that they changed the end of the subject, inserting that sequência of trompetes. As in a magician pass the environment it moved. The musicians, mainly the trumpeters, had given everything and the subject was ready in few minutes. Thus, in first of August of 1939 the orchestra recorded that one that would be one of its bigger successes. They had touched in the writing of “In the mood”:
Clyde Hurley, Red McKinkle, Lee Knowles (tps)
Glenn Miller, Paul Tanner, Al Mastren (tbs)
Al Klink, Hal McIntyre, Tex Beneke, Wilbur Schwartz, Harold Tenison (sxs)
Chummy McGregor (p), Richard Fisher (g) - Rolly Bundock (b), Moe Purtill (dm)
http://www.charutojazz.blogspot.com/
Simone Zanchini
Given a degree to with praise in classic Fisarmonica near the Conservatory “ G. Rossini ” of Pesaro. Eclectic Strumentista, exercises ’ an intense concertistica activity with groups of varied musical extraction (improvisation, contemporary, jazz and classic music).
Fisarmonicista between the more innovative interesting and of the international panorama, its search moves between the borders of contemporary, acoustic music and electronic, the sonorous experimentation and the extrapicked contaminations, leading in a most personal approach to the unexpected matter.
It has played in numerous festival and reviews in Italy (Clusone Jazz, Ruvo of Puglia, Tivoli Jazz, Berchidda, Sant ’ Surrendered Anna, Barga Jazz, Mara Jazz, Vignola, Ravenna Festival, Rossini Festival Work, Roccella Jonica, Joung Jazz) and one has exhibited in the more international important festival (France, Austria, Germany, England, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lettonia, Lituania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonian, Spain, Russia, Tunisia, Lebanese Ethiopia, India, Japan).
It boasts collaborations with many musicians of international reputation: Thomas Clausen, Gianluigi Trovesi, Javier Girotto, Tamburini Mark, Manzi Maximum, Tamara Obrovac, Krunoslav Levacic, Vasko Atanasovski, Paul Fresu, Tawny Tommaso, Ettore Fioravanti, Mario March, Stefano De Bonis, Michele Anger, Giovanni Maier, Frank Morocco, Andrea Dulbecco, Antonello Salis, Han Bennink, Art Van Damme, Adam Nussbaum, Jasper Soffers.
Orchestra of the Theatre to the Scale of Milan collaborates stablily from ‘ the 99 with the Solisti dell ’, with which it completes regularly tournée in every part of the world.
Currently it is working to some plans in which they meet its interests for contemporary music, first of all Electronic Trio (To. Alessi and MirKo Sabatini).
It has recently published the disc Better Only …. (Silta records) plan for classic fisarmonica, midi and laptop and the Quintet Escape for Art homage to Art Van Damme and Frank Morocco.
Frank Marocco....
Frank Marocco was born in Illinois and grew up in the town of Waukegan, a suburb of Chicago. When he was seven years old, his parents enrolled him in a six-week trial program on the accordion. His first instructor, George Stefani, was a source of inspiration to him. Marocco studied with him for nine years. His training was
in the classics but his teacher encouraged him to explore other areas: he played the piano and the clarinet, he studied music theory, harmony, conducting, and he was a member of his high school band. The next year, he studied with the legendary Andy Rizzo, a master teacher who has influenced many of this country's accordion artists.
At age 17, Marocco took first place in a national music contest, performing his winning solo with the Chicago Pops Orchestra for a huge crowd at Chicago's Soldier's Field. This might have encouraged him to see a full-time career in music. He formed a trio which went on tour in several Midwestern states. During his travels, he met his future wife, Anne, in South Bend, Indiana. Together they decided to head west to make their home in the Los Angeles area.
Marocco organized a new group which toured the hotel and club circuit of Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Palm Springs. But Hollywood was beckoning. Being close to the movie and the TV studios offered opportunities never available in the Midwest. He was launched on an unbelievable career - the list of his credits is endless.
Highlights: Traveling with Bob Hope visiting the servicemen in many countries; being featured on the Les Brown Band, including six Love Boat cruises. More recently, he has been very busy with studio work: movie soundtracks, TV movies, TV series, records and advertising jingles. Along the way, he has managed to find time to compose and arrange both jazz and classical music.
Frank and Anne Marocco have three daughters, Cynthia, Lisa and Venetia. Cynthia pursued a music career. She studied the flute and at age 13, had the distinction of being the youngest player in the American Youth Symphony, a group of high school and college musicians directed by Mehli Mehta. Lisa, attracted to dance, became a professional pair skater and toured for several seasons with the Ice Capades. Venetia was a physical Therapy instructor and is now a school teacher. The three Marocco daughters are married. Frank and Anne have eight grandchildren in all.
Personal Philosophy
Marocco is soft-spoken. His manner is unassuming. But he becomes almost fervent when he expresses his personal philosophy about being a musician. He says: "Although I've made a comfortable living, my primary goal has never been to make a lot of money.
It has been to be the best I could possibly be. This takes integrity, hard work, and dedication.
"You must have respect for what you do."
Written by Peggy Milne
Marocco & Zanchini - The Flintstones
Frank Marocco and Simone Zanchini in a live concert performance held in Castelfidardo, Italy - Spring, 2007 More videos and CD and sheet music available at www.frankmarocco.com
Chico Chagas....
by Andréa Zílio
To the 6 years of age it had the certainty of that its vocation was to be musician. With aid of father Chico Arigó, he inherited the perfeccionismo and he obtained a fast evolution in its work. Chiquinho Chagas, 32 years, became its name respected in the world of music Brazilian as tecladista, acordeonista and pianista. Whenever it visits the Acre, its native land, shows what it learned folloied of its accompanying fidiciary office, acordeom. But it shows the concern with the rescue and valuation of Brazilian music.
In the last days of stay here, it concluded the writing of the COMPACT DISC of the Acre Festival of Popular Music, that is producing and makes its fired today, in the House of the Gameleira, in a night of forró, for then coming back to Rio De Janeiro.
The musician does not see aptitude for another talent that is not to make music, says that it is the eighth wonder of the world. Chico Chagas started to touch with six years of age for incentive of the father, Chico Arigó, one of the great names of Acre music. It counts that placed it to study all the nights, in some times until tried to hide itself, but he was always joined. All the effort was the will of Arigó in having a son musician and when it perceived that Chico had aptitude did not hesitate in teaching it acordeom, that it is its instrument.
The perfeccionismo with that it learned to touch the melodies, if became characteristics of the works of Chico Chagas. “It was very important because everything that I make today, I strengthen myself so that he is optimum, independent of the profit”, the musician says.
Treading ways
To the 15 years, Chico Chagas left house and was alone for Porto Velho, with the objective to study with the Chico musician Freitas, who today is musician of Emilio Santiago. The professor selected the pupils who taught and Chiquinho was one of contemplated in lessons of harmony and the improvisation. After seven months he came back toward house. To the 18 years, he liberated it to the father to walk alone, affirming that he was prepared.
In the second adventure, it he returned to the Porto Velho, of this time for one year and three months. When Chico Freitas was even so for Rio De Janeiro, Chico Chagas was invited the substituiz it in a band called Caravela the Wood. In visit the city, to the professor saw it touching and of to this time it took off it of Rondônia it took and it for the wonderful city.
In Rio De Janeiro, the native of Acre touched in the night to pay the courses of harmony, improvisation and erudite piano, that made in three schools. From there he was called to make works with the singer Zeca Pagodinho and group of mood Casseta and Planeta. After the work with known people national he did not stop more. Beyond the musical participation in diverse novels of the Net Globe, it he divided palco with singers as Cássia Eller, Ivone de Lara and Elza Soares. Last year says to have had the pleasure to record a COMPACT DISC with the Frenchman Nicolas Krassik and the huge Naná Vasconcelos, with who has a band. “I will never leave to touch music Brazilian”, says.
A different talent
The recognition came as tecladista and pianista, but as soon as it was gone deep the musicalidade of acordeom, the musician perceived that the instrument was its perfect pair. The complicity between the two is so great that it used the imagination and dared when casting the sound in different styles of forró as the jazz. “Acordeom was friction as folclórico instrument and of forró, I decided to touch another thing. To be the precursor of this work is very good. My dream is always to take the instrument to the limit.”
Rescue of the culture
Chico was invited to produce a COMPACT DISC of Marie Sofhie, in the France, that must be made in February. But the country seems to want to adopt the native of Acre. It was called to live in City-Light, Paris, and to make shows of acordeom.
Attemped to go, the musician alone will say if the counterproposal not to involve the Acre. It wants to come back to live in terrinha on condition that to develop a work of rescue of the Brazilian and mainly Acre culture, making activities with the local artists and even though, to teach in a music school. “We had great musicians here as the Bararu, Melo Helium, Pixuta, Sandoval. Today we have the son Milton Bararu and Andres who is, perhaps, the last one of this generation of acordeonistas of the Acre. It leaves me very to this sad”.
Chico has the objective to study the sounds and cantos of the diverse etnias of the State and to develop a musical style for the Acre. “I want to study aboriginal musics and to create a style. The Acre its music as the other States and I do not see one another option if not them our indians, who are what we have of more original”.
http://www2.uol.com.br/pagina20/17012004/c_1317012004.htm
4th June NEIL COWLEY TRIO, Ronnie Scott's
Known for their remarkable rapport with their audience, helped by Cowley’s often hilarious and always amusing chat, the trio’s captivating and exciting live shows led many shows on their tour attract full houses and standing ovations. One of the finest pianists of his generation.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Elis Regina....
Born March 17, 1945 at 15:10 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Died January 19, 1982 at 11:45 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
INTRODUCTION.
With a natural talent, and a will that seemed to spring from a bottomless well, Elis Regina Carvalho Costa rose from very average lower-class beginnings to quickly become one of the most well-known, well-loved and well-paid entertainers in her country's history. She was nicknamed Furacao (hurricane) and Pimentinha (little pepper) because of her seemingly boundless energy. Her first name became a household word and several of her records are simply titled "Elis". Through her coverage of their songs, several of her country's most prominent composers were introduced to the limelight. She made many friends during her life and career, as well as some enemies. The one thing she didn't leave behind her was apathy: she made a difference in all the lives that she touched, if only with her voice. She once said: "I have dedicated my life to singing, and there isn't a man, father, mother or child that can drag me away from that."
EARLY LIFE.
Elis was born to relatively poor parents in Porto Alegre, a city located in the south of Brazil. Her mother was a housewife and her father was in and out of jobs. She was the first child, to be followed by an only brother, Rogerio, a few years later. Her mother was the daughter of portuguese immigrants, and her father was of brazilian descent. Family pictures show Elis to be impeccably dressed by her mother, with ribbons always in her hair. The Costas could pick up Argentinean radio stations and Elis at a very young age could sing spanish songs as well as portuguese. By the time she entered grade school, she already knew how to write, read and count. Her mother gave a tremendous amount of attention to Elis, but may have inadvertently smothered her, with future repercussions as we shall see.
A local radio station featured a children's show called Clube do Guri, where children often sang on the air. Elis' first experience at the microphone was at the age of 7, where she froze and could not utter a sound. At the age of 9, Elis took piano lessons for 2 years. She learned very fast, and eventually faced a dilemma: either buy a piano or stop her studies. She began to sing because they could not afford a piano. When she was 12, she returned to Clube do Guri, and this time she didn't freeze. She was a sensation and won the prize, the first of many... For 2 years, she sang on the show almost every Sunday, and became a local celebrity. Her only fear came when she had to go on stage. Until the end of her life, Elis became intolerable before going on stage: she always had the same insecurity, the same fear of making mistakes, of not being perfect.
Soon thereafter, she signed her first professional contract, at 13 and 1/2, with Radio Gaucha. There was some reticence from her mother, who wanted Elis to do well in school, possibly becoming a teacher some day. She felt that music would not last. Anyway, they came up with some kind of compromise and Elis' singing career continued. Not even 14, Elis was earning more money than her father. This created a family conflict that would only worsen as the years went by and her income increased.
At 15, Elis was urged to go to Rio de Janeiro, where she recorded her first LP. She was to record 3 records there, returning to Porto Alegre between each. Eventually, Porto Alegre had nothing to offer her, and Elis went with her father to live in Rio. He was out of work and hoping to find some there. Elis was 18. They arrived in Rio around the same time that a military junta took over control of the country. Her mother stayed behind with Rogerio and a young cousin that she was raising. Later, the mother would say that she lost her daughter at 19 years old.
RISE TO FAME.
It didn't take long for Elis to land a contract with a TV station, where she sang on various shows, and became quickly known. She did not arrive in Rio a quiet and timid girl, but rather with confidence and an aggressive desire to make a mark for herself. The Bossa Nova reigned at the time, but the "coolness" of that genre did not suit Elis' personality or her voice, which were very "hot". She was not well dressed, and looked somewhat awkward on stage, but her voice commanded attention and made people notice her. She was a rough pearl, full of talent.
Some months later, her mother and brother joined them in Rio. Elis had a boyfriend at that time, named Solano. At some point, she became pregnant and got an abortion without telling him. Solano felt that Elis was taking all the space, and that he did not want to become the "singer's husband". The relationship came to an end. At home, Elis realized that she had economic control over her family (her father had still not found work). On one hand, she wanted to fly her own wings, but felt guilty to leave her family in need. She never really resolved that quandary, and to the end of her life, had difficult relations with her family.
Elis faced a very competitive music market in Rio, with club owners, radio and TV stations, and numerous musicians and singers caught up in intense turf battles. She made friends and enemies, and had to learn to survive. In 1965, she sang at the first big popular music festival, and won first prize for her rendition of Arrastao, a controversial song that had come close to being censored by the ruling military government. She finished the song with strong voice, her arms outstretched like the Cristo Redentor, tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. Her career took off from then. She was on the cover of magazines, and was sought after by record companies, music producers, TV, etc. In 1966, at 21 years old, Elis was the highest paid singer in the country. She remained the reigning queen of brazilian popular song until her death.
FIRST MARRIAGE.
Successes followed each other. Money flowed in and although she made sure that her family lived in comfort, her relations with her parents did not improve, and were marked by long periods of little or no contact, interspersed with periods of intense fighting. In 1967, she shocked the music world by announcing her upcoming marriage to one of her arch-enemies from the turf battles in Rio, Ronaldo Boscoli, a composer/producer called the Don Juan of Rio. She was 22 and he was 38. They remained married for 6 years, and had a son together. Their relationship was one of open and passionate love and hate, as they would often get into terrible arguments in front of journalists. He had come from a rich, cultured family that had lost all its money while he was a child.
Elis always had a very volatile temperament, alternating between extremes of joy and anger. This wreaked havoc on all of her relationships, but particularly with the one with Boscoli. Their arguments became legendary, although they did have their good moments together. He was somewhat of a father figure to her, and proceeded to teach her manners and social etiquette that she was evidently lacking. He taught her how to dress and suggested that she cut her hair short like Mia Farrow - the look became a trademark with her. He claimed that one of the reasons for her bad relations with her parents is that they had used her when she was young, to make money from her voice.
In the end, he indeed became the "singer's husband", and of the most famous singer in Brazil to boot. This put great stress on their marriage. While she was travelling the country and the world because of her growing career, he stayed on the sidelines or at home, often drinking. When they broke up, and in retaliation to rumours that he had married her for money, he said that he had walked into the marriage with 3 suitcases, and came out with 2, and nothing else. The third suitcase contained series of love letters and personal documents from his past that Elis had burned during a fit of anger. Their house overlooked the ocean in Rio, and one day after a particularly strong argument, she had also thrown into the water his collection of LPs by Frank Sinatra. Until the end of her life, Elis maintained a bitter grudge against Boscoli, and made it difficult for him to even see his child.
SECOND MARRIAGE.
Her next relationship was with the pianist on her current recording, Cesar Camargo Mariano, a talented musician/arranger who was a shy, quiet, sensitive man (very different from Boscoli). He had been totally enthraled with her, sitting in the same studio for weeks/months. One day, she invited him to come to her house to see Bergman's film "Wild Strawberries" (she always had an avid interest for cinema). When he got there, he found a lot of people and was uncomfortable. Between two reels, she slipped him a piece of paper and quietly told him to go read it in the bathroom. When he got there, the paper read: "I love you". Uncertain as to what to do (he was married at the time), he climbed out the bathroom window and scampered home.
The next day, at the studio, Elis was distant to him. At some point, Cesar asked the producer to send the other musicians away, so that he could record a ballad with Elis, accompanying her on the piano. At the end of the day, she offered him a ride home in her car. He stopped at his house to pick up his toothbrush and they wound up at her house. She was a woman who possessed tremendous personal appeal. Cesar divorced his wife and married Elis thereafter. They were married for 8 years and had 2 children together. Although they had their fair share of quarrels, overall their relationship was quite a good one. On vinyl, the musical marriage of Cesar's arrangements with her voice is something truly special. Elis knew some of the most happy moments of her life with Cesar and the three children. They would spend a lot of time in an idyllic country house, away from the smog and hustle of Sao Paulo, which had an inground pool but no telephone.
POLITICAL ANECDOTE.
In 1969, while Elis was touring some European countries, she said during a press conference that Brazil was run by "gorillas", in a direct attack to the military junta ruling the country. Only her prominent stature in the music world apparently prevented her from being persecuted, exiled or even jailed by the Junta upon her return, as had been done to other outspoken composers and performers of that period (Veloso, Gil). A couple of years later, however, she was compelled to sing the national anthem at a big ceremony put on by the military government to celebrate the anniversary of Brazil's independence (according to Cesar, she was threatened with prison if she did not show up). This appearance attracted the criticism of many people in the Arts community and on the Left, who were opposed to the military rulers.
There was a cartoonist named Henfil who published in one of the large newspapers. He had a series of cartoons called the cemetery of the living-dead, in which he would portray publicly known people (living-dead) who had ridiculed themselves or fallen out of favour. Following her singing at the military gathering, Elis appeared in Henfil's cartoon, in which she metamorphosed into Maurice Chevalier singing to a crowd of saluting nazis. Some time later, Henfil and Elis found each other at the same table in a restaurant along with a crowd of people, after one of her shows. During the meal, Elis started attacking Henfil, saying that he should not have depicted her in such a way in his cartoon when he didn't know all the reasons behind her presence at that ceremony. She then started to cry, asking "Why did you bury me alive?". Henfil told her that it was just a cartoon but Elis would hear nothing of it. Finally, Henfil sort of apologized for it and he and Elis then began discussing a number of things, and eventually became good friends. Elis would often call him up to discuss politics or other issues. She would also give him money to give to intellectuals who were condemning
and opposing the junta, since he had contacts in that area.
Some years later, when the Junta appeared to be on the way out, and when there was talk about whether or not to provide an amnesty to the many people who had been exiled for political reasons, Elis picked up a song by Joao Bosco and Aldir Blanc, called O Bebabo e A Equilibrista (The Drunk and The Tightrope Walker) and made it her own, producing a wonderful recording of it in 1979. The song was an allegory about the absurdity of the military government, and the fragility of freedom. It featured a line that said "bring back Henfil's brother" (Henfil had a brother who had been exiled). Because of Elis' rendition of it, the song became the anthem for the amnesty of exiled brazilians, and contributed to uniting people on this issue, with the result that the government eventually gave in and amnestied the exiled.
At a concert that she gave around the time of the amnesty, Elis sang that song triumphantly. Henfil was in the audience, with his newly arrived brother. When the song was over, Elis looked at him with a way that seemed to say "We're even now." A few days after her death, there was a memorial concert in the Morumbi stadium in Sao Paulo, where several of the country's most popular singers sang tributes to Elis. The high point of the show was when all the singers and the audience (100,000 in all) joined in to sing O Bebabo E A Equilibrista. What a moment that must have been...
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS.
Elis was one of the most well-loved entertainers in her country's history. Several high points mark her career, as well as some low ones. First, there were the tremendous successes in the popular music festivals of the mid-60's that launched her career. In 1965, fate united her with another young singer, Jair Rodrigues, for a stage performance. They worked so well together that they became an extremely popular team who gave many concerts and produced 3 live records together (the Dois Na Bossa series) over a 3-year period. In the late 60's, Elis toured some European countries and was a hit at the Olympia in Paris; she also recorded an album with Toots Thielemans in Sweden, and with Peter Knight in London.
In 1974, Elis was sent to L.A. by her record company to record an album with the master of modern brazilian popular music, Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim. The record, simply called ELIS & TOM, is legendary, timeless, and generally regarded as one of the top 10 brazilian popular records of all time. A little later, she put on a stage show in Sao Paulo called FALSO BRILHANTE, featuring dance, mime and music; it went n for 18 months and is probably one of Elis' finest moments. Other shows that she put on and which were large successes were ESSA MULHER (79), SAUDADE DO BRASIL (80), and TREM AZUL (81). During the latter, she was singing under the influence of cocaine and attained levels of vocal expression exceeding what she had ever done, according to some commentators.
One low point was an appearance that she made at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in 1979. She and the band were enthraled at having been invited to that prestigious gathering, and they were nervous because of the famous musicians in attendance in the audience. During the warmup, as Elis was vocalizing offstage, the audience gave a standing ovation. Elis was so moved when she hit the stage that she started crying, which messed up her eye makeup and made it difficult for her to see. The first part of the concert was a fiasco because of that. She recovered enough in the second part to end on a good note but overall, the whole affair was very disappointing for her.
Another low point was an episode in the late 70's with the jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter. They were to record an album together, and Elis felt that this could launch her into an international career. She and Cesar put up Shorter in their home; she would cook him breakfast while he meditated or went on his jog, and they generally did all they could to please him. In the end, when they finally got to the studio, it became evident that Shorter only intended Elis to play a minimal background vocal role in the recording. Cesar became indignated at this and angrily criticized Shorter, who packed up his stuff and left the country.
Overall, though, her career is marked by many more successes than failures. She carried several notebooks in her purse, in which she would meticulously note down plans for the future, engagements, concert dates, song titles for possible recording, etc. As late as the night before her death, she was still entering plans for the future into her notebooks.
THE END.
Around the time that her marriage with Cesar broke up for good, Elis started using cocaine, probably after a stay in the U.S. She did this in the secrecy of her own bedroom, or dressing-rooms backstage. Even her family and closest friends knew nothing about it (which in fact contributed to her untimely death). In a way, cocaine may have provided her with the crutch that she needed at that time in her life, when she was trying to cope with raising three children, supporting her parents, and maintaining a very demanding career (touring, recording, engagements, etc.).
Soon after, Elis fell in love with her lawyer, Samuel MacDowell. In December 1981, they decided to get married in the coming year. As the year 1982 got underway, Elis's life opened up with many new ventures: a marriage with Samuel, a new house for their family, a new recording contract with a different company, a new show with a different band, etc. She was in the process of coming up with the songs for her new album, and getting ready to enter the studio, as well as finalizing the move to the new house that she would share with Samuel, when she succumbed to a bad combination of Cinzano and cocaine, during a night that she spent up alone in her bedroom, making plans for the future and listening to tapes for her new record. An accident and a senseless waste. This was on January 19, 1982. She was not yet 37 years old. Brazil was shocked and shattered by the news.
CONCLUSION.
Elis was often a controversial public figure. She took chances in her career and public life, and had her share of both great successes and dismal failures, although the good by far outweighed the bad. Her personal life consisted of great peaks and valleys, characterized by difficult relations with her parents, and often- tortuous relationships with the men who shared her life. She was opinionated, and publicly defended her views forcefully and convincingly, even though her viewpoints would often change drastically. She once said: "Between the wall and the sword, I am drawn toward the sword".
She was a temperamental person whose mood could quickly shift from exuberance to terrible anger and frustration. She was often very demanding of the friends around her, but would give a tremendous amount in return. It was said that there was no better place to be than around her when she was on top of things. Not when she was down, however, as she could then make life very miserable to those around her. She loved to cook a big meal for friends, and maintained a meticulous house, with everything in its place. She knew how to manage a house with children, and was very handy with crafts like crochet and knitting.
Elis was afflicted with an insecurity regarding the more intellectual composer/singers such as Gilberto Gil or Caetano Veloso, and late in life even considered going back to school to enhance her intellectual side. Having attained the status of top singer in the country at an early age, Elis fought all her life, and successfully, to maintain that status, because she could not bring herself to accept to being anything else than first. This drove her to be very demanding of herself and others. She was driven by a strong sense of achievement and was a perfectionist. She once said "I make a lot of compromises with my clothes, my friends; but with my stage, there are no compromises".
She could easily have become one of the top singers in the world, if she had so wished. A small woman, her stage presence was so strong that she often appeared to be a giant. She had an ear for music and language that would have enabled her to sing convincingly in almost any language. But she loved her country and didn't want to be away from it for the long periods of time required to engender an international career. Shortly after she died, a newspaper paid homage by publishing a caricature of her at the microphone, casting a shadow on the wall behind her; but instead of her shadow, it was the outline of Brazil that was projected. She was the soul of brazilian popular music, and her death has left a void that can never be filled. In a way, this void serves to remind us of the great talent that breathed so much life into 20 years of recorded and stage music.
Elis always took great care in choosing the songs that she would sing, either because they described aspects of her life, or portrayed her aspirations. In the end, I feel that those who know her music are probably the ones who know her best. She once said: "When I get old like Edith Piaf, they will put me on the stage. It's the only thing that I know how to do, and which will be left to me: singing."
http://www.geocities.com/nashville/opry/6544/elisbio.htm
Maria Rita....
Maria Rita took the MPB world by storm in 2003 with her debut album, winning all kinds of awards and crossing over abroad in light of her mammoth success. The beautiful and beautiful-sounding young lady is the daughter of one of Brazil's most (if not the most) legendary vocalists, the late Elis Regina, and if that alone weren't enough to make her a star in waiting, her father is César Camargo Mariano, one of the country's top arrangers, producers, and pianists, and her namesake is Rita Lee, yet another MPB legend. Add to that a close musical partnership with Milton Nascimento, who penned "A Festa," the opening track of her debut album, and you can see why the MPB world was eagerly awaiting her recording debut.
Born September 19, 1977, in São Paulo, Rita began singing professionally at age 24. Her debut album, Maria Rita, released domestically in late 2003 and internationally in 2004, spawned two big hits, the aforementioned "A Festa" and "Cara Valente." On the heels of the album's blockbuster success -- both critical and commercial -- Rita released a similarly self-titled DVD that captures her 2004 live performance at Bourbon Street in São Paulo. Among the awards won by Rita in 2004 were Latin Grammys for Best New Artist and Best MPB Album. Rita's second album, Segundo (2005), was even more popular than her first (selling over 700,000 copies in Brazil alone), if not as critically acclaimed. A live DVD, Segundo ao Vivo, followed in 2006. Rita's third album, Samba Meu (2007), was a change of style: a collection of acoustic sambas. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/rita_maria/bio.jhtml
Maria Rita & Quinteto em Branco e Preto - "Num Corpo Só"
Rita Maria singing "Num Corpo Só" live in the Radiola program in the TV Culture.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Natalie Cole....
Natalie Cole was born the second of five children on February 6, 1950 to the legendary singer Nat "King" Cole and his wife Maria Cole (who, before her marriage to Nat, was a singer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra). Natalie (who's nickname is Sweetie) was raised in the elegant Hancock Park district of Los Angeles, California. Music was a big part of her childhood – different kinds of music that also included jazz and rock. Since her Dad was on the same label as the Beatles, he would bring home their latest albums and would also bring those of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Natalie made her singing debut at the age of six on her Dad’s Christmas album. He had given her a tape recorder which she used to tape herself singing a few of Ella’s tunes at age 11. After hearing Natalie’s voice on the tape and being amazed, Nat asked conductor Nelson Riddle to write her into a song in his nightclub act. She performed for a week because she was in school, but it was her first paying job. Nat "King" Cole died of lung cancer when Natalie was 15 years old.
After Nat "King" Cole’s death, Maria Cole and her children eventually moved to Massachusetts. Natalie was into listening to the rock-‘n’-roll music of singers such as Janis Joplin and the Jefferson Airplane. Natalie enrolled at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. When she started at the University, she originally wanted to be a physician. At some point, she hooked up with a band in Amherst as lead singer and they played jazz as well as rock. The one thing that bothered her was that club owners would sometimes bill her as Nat King Cole’s daughter. She received a B.A. degree in child psychology from the University of Massachusetts in 1972 and continued performing. She increasingly won more distinctive venues. She developed her own style, which included the gospel flavor and rhythm-and-blues styles.
Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy (two Chicago-based songwriters and record producers) caught her act at Mister Kelly’s nightclub in Chicago. They liked the range of her talent and took her into the studio to record a demo tape. They began writing original compositions that fit her voice. They contacted the major record labels to obtain a recording contract for Natalie. However, it was Capitol Records, the label Nat "King" Cole had recorded for, who offered Natalie a contract. In 1975, Natalie Cole made her debut album, Inseparable. She took the music industry by storm. Two hit singles resulted which were "Inseparable" and "This Will Be." Natalie earned a gold record and in 1976 won two Grammy awards. She won for Best New Artist and for Best R & B Performance, Female for "This Will Be." The latter award was previously won by the great, Aretha Franklin for nine years straight. One of the things that I remember the most is how Natalie was compared so much to Aretha.
Her follow-up album, Natalie, in 1976 yielded the hit single "Sophisticated Lady" from which she won another Grammy award. Also, "Mr. Melody" was a top 10 single. Natalie and Marvin Yancy also got married in July of 1976. Capitol Records released Natalie’s third album, Unpredictable, which was a million seller and contained the hit single "I've Got Love On My Mind." Natalie gave birth to her son, Robert Adam Yancy, in October of 1977. From what I could gather, Thankful was released in November of 1977 which went platinum and yielded the hit single "Our Love." The Natalie Cole Special aired in 1978 and included the group Earth, Wind & Fire among others. In the summer of 1978, Natalie released Natalie…Live which is a two-record set. Ms. Cole (along with Chaka Khan) is also featured singing background vocals on Stephen Bishop’s Bish album of 1978 (ABC Records) on the song "A Fool At Heart." I Love You So was released in 1979 which contained the hit singles "Stand By" and "Sorry." Natalie also received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 1979! "Go Natalie!"
Natalie collaborated with Peabo Bryson on We’re The Best Of Friends in 1979 and the album went gold. Don't Look Back, of 1980, yielded the single "Someone That I Used To Love." which was featured on a special edition of the Merv Griffin Show. It also included "Stairway To The Stars." Natalie was also featured in a Posner hair products commercial in the late 70's or early 80's. In the commercial, she'd say something like "Posner, it takes the problem out of problem hair..." She would sing "Posner, positively beautiful." It was a great commercial with a catchy tune. Eventually, Natalie’s drug and alcohol use became heavy and took a toll on her career. Her album, Happy Love was recorded without Marvin Yancy. Although they reunited for the I'm Ready album, they eventually divorced but shared responsibility of care for their son, Robbie. In 1982, Natalie entered a drug rehabilitation clinic and stayed for 30 days. However, her stay wasn't successful. She was Johnny Mathis' special guest for "Unforgettable: A Musical Tribute to Nat King Cole" which was recorded live in May of 1983 and released in September of the same year. Her mother was named conservator of her estate to help Natalie with her personal matters. Later in 1983, Natalie entered a drug-treatment center in Minnesota, worked hard, won her battle and was able to leave the hospital on May 16, 1984. The I’m Ready album sold only about 40,000 copies. "Too Much Mister" was the sole single, but it didn't do enough to revive her career. In 1985, Natalie suffered another setback when Marvin Yancy passed away of a heart attack. As much as Natalie had to endure, it seemed to make her that much more stronger.
In 1985, Dangerous, was released which sold just under 150,000 copies. However, Natalie was back on top with Everlasting in 1987. The three hit singles were "Jump Start," "I Live For Your Love," and "Pink Cadillac." She also sang "Over You" in 1987 with Ray Parker, Jr. Natalie is also featured on Deniece Williams’ Special Love album in 1989 as they collaborated on the gospel tune "We Sing Praises." Still yet, another successful album of Natalie’s was the release of Good To Be Back in 1989. It contained the top ten hit "Miss You Like Crazy" as well as "Someone’s Rocking My Dreamboat." Natalie married musician/producer Andre Fischer in 1989, but she was said to be going through a divorce from him some time in 1996. Natalie’s largest selling album to date is the release of Unforgettable…..With Love in 1991 (Elektra Records) which is a special tribute to her father that contains twenty-two of his classics. The album won seven Grammy awards; Natalie is incredible! Through technology, she sings with her father, Nat King Cole, on the album in a duet of "Unforgettable." They are both unforgettable singers. Natalie’s follow-up album Take A Look (1993), although not as successful, also contains wonderful songs. She picked up another Grammy award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for the title song.
Natalie's Christmas album Holly and Ivy (released in 1994) is so good that I find myself playing it even in the summer (smile). Natalie Cole's Untraditional Traditional Christmas special concert can be viewed on video. She sings the songs from Holly & Ivy on the special with such ease; it really is a great performance! One will really enjoy her delivery of every song, particularly Natalie's version of "Joy To The World." Natalie also had to endure the death of her brother. Stardust which was released in 1996, also contains a duet with her father entitled "When I Fall In Love" from which she also won a Grammy award. She also released a Christmas CD entitled Celebration Of Christmas (with Jose' Carreras and Placido Domingo) and sings the title track of "A Smile Like Yours" (1997) from the motion picture of the same name. Natalie released Snowfall On The Sahara in June of 1999! The album is a mixture of Jazz, Pop and R&B...actually, the album contains all of the different styles of music that Ms. Cole has performed over her twenty-five years in the music industry thus far! (Click here for the lyrics to the hit song "Snowfall On The Sahara.") She also recorded a new Christmas CD with the London Symphony Orchestra entitled The Magic Of Christmas; it was released in stores on October 19, 1999.
In 2006, Natalie appeared in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. She also appeared in Grey's Anatomy. Natalie collaborated closely with R&B producer Dallas Austin on her album, Leavin.' It is an outstanding album of interpretive songs. She covers a wide range of contemporary artists such as Fiona Apple ("Criminal"), Shelby Lynn ("Leavin'"), and the Isley Brothers "Don't Say Goodnight (It's Time For Love)." Leavin' covers country, blues, soul and even Euro-pop and was released on September 26th. Cole's new hit single "Day Dreaming" was released in July, 2006 and is an up-tempoed version of Aretha Franklin's 1972 classic. Natalie's version of "Day Dreaming" peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard R&B Chart. One of the highlights of her tour was her awesome performance at the world famous Apollo Theater in New York on November 10, 2006; it was a great show!
In February of 2007, Ms. Cole was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance Female for "Day Dreaming." She also appeared in (rapper) Nas' music video for "Can't Forget About You" to pay tribute to her father, Nat King Cole. The song samples the legendary Mr. Cole's "Unforgettable." Her voice could also be heard on the album We All Love Ella: Celebrating The First Lady Of Song. Natalie's two tracks on the album are "(You'll Have To Swing It) Mr. Paganini" and "A Tisket A Tasket." She also appeared as herself in an episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; Natalie sang "I Say A Little Prayer" in the third episode of The Harriet Dinner.
Ms. Cole continues to tour with a mixture of tunes from her extensive collection of hits with songs like "Day Dreaming," "Unforgettable," and also songs that date back to the very start of her career. In May of 2008, Natalie gave two fantastic weekend concerts celebrating the 30th year anniversary of Resorts in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as well as concerts in Tokyo, Japan!
Although Natalie was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in February, 2008, she began a series of treatments to help ensure recovery, and Ms. Cole continued on with her career. To characterize her, Natalie is elegant, classy, and hard working; she's music at its best. Seventeen years after the multiplatinum Unforgettable...With Love album comes her much anticipated follow-up, Still Unforgettable; (DMI Records) which was released on September 9, 2008! Natalie produced the album which is full of treasures that she pulled from the American songbook. She also teamed up with her Dad on "Walkin' My Baby Back Home." The album won two Grammy Awards. One award was for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. It also won for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for "Here's That Rainy Day" in which Nan Schwartz was the Arranger. Last but not least, she was named the Outstanding Jazz Artist at the 40th NAACP Image Awards! Additionally, on or about May 19, 2009, Natalie had successful kidney transplant surgery! Look for her tour promoting her latest Still Unforgettable album to resume in or around November, 2009. The album can be purchased at Amazon.com; come along for a great ride with "Still Unforgettable!"
http://www.nataliecolesite.com/colebiography.html
Listen.... You Don't Know What Love Is
This tune was written in 1941 by Gene De Paul and Don Raye.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hq_GSsueXM
Nicole Mitchell....
Chicago, great redoubt vanguard of musicians and fans to experimentalism libertarians, goes to show their new talent. Since the mid-90s new voices like Rob Mazurek and Ken Vandermark - plus veteran musicians who are reactivated, as Fred Anderson - of Chicago to urge the world of "underground", recovering the free jazz, mixing different styles and creating projects and personalíssimas compositions comprising from tradition, elements african-american, world music, has manjar free improvisation, to projects where the new technology and post-modernity are included as inseparable elements of the new formats jazzística composition: just observe the work combos of personalíssimos Vandermark 5 (of Ken Vandermark) and Chicago Underground (from Mazurek), two of the most innovative training and raised in Chicago, of course, influenced by the teachings of the entity AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), since the decade conducts studies of 70 major branches in the integration of improvisation and writing music.
Recently, more specifically at the beginning of the XXI century, the greatest stronghold of the "progressive jazz" in the U.S. had a another great artist to be proud: this is the flutist, singer and bandleader and composer Nicole Mitchell, which, through its original projects, is launching discs intense, exciting and creative, according to a USA line of work that both the teachings of the aforementioned composition and updates the AACM School of improvisation styles of sets as Art Ensemble of Chicago trumpeter Lester Bowie of all that in the'70s, free jazz mixed with elements of world music.
Starting his career as a leader between the years 2001 and 2002, Nicole Mitchell surprised the media of the North American jazz compositions to show very brilliant understanding of tradition, contemporary, and arrangements that show a sophisticated interaction between the sounds emitted by their sidemans sets: the Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings and the Harambee Project, multicultural with three sets which the flutist performs his experiences and makes mixtures of jazz with other styles of world music, each in a way.Besides the peculiar sound of his flute, which requires leadership face the new generation of talent in Chicago, the compositions of Nicole Mitchell are very praised by critics: not to be missed are the suites Africa Rising Trilogy (piece in three movements, in this disk Africa Rising 2002) and Xenogenesis Suite (suite consists of a set of nine tracks, this one disc dedicated to the namesake of science fiction writer Octavia Butler, Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute to Octavia Butler, premiered at the Vision Festival in 2007 and launched by seal Firehouse12 in 2009).
Not for nothing, therefore, that critics of Downbeat magazine awarded flute as a highlight in the category "Rising Star Flutist" 2005 to 2008, the Jazz Journalist Association awarded in the category "Jazz Flutist of the Year 2008" and the Chicago newspaper Tribune medal in the category "Chicagoan of the Year" in 2006, among other awards and honorable mentions in the spotlight of major American and European jazz.
In parallel to their projects that soil mixed with elements of jazz and african music in the style of singing rhythm'blues, Nicole Mitchell works with the Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra playing flute and piccolo soloist convidade as participating in several "emsembles" between the major scenarios of Chicago and Vancouver, Canada.
As a collaborator in groups and bands, improvisation, already participated in other major projects alongside the most creative and distinguished musicians of the avant-garde: among them are George Lewis, Miya Masaoka, Anthony Braxton, Orbert Davis, Lori Freedman, Muhal Richard Abrams, Hamid Drake, David Boykin, Ed WILKERSON, Dee Alexander, Rob Mazurek, Harrison Bankhead, Arveeayl Ra, among other veterans and younger musicians pantheon of art. Another fact that deserves attention is that, apart from Nicole to be successful and cool in the scenario of the current avant-garde, it is not just a fruit of the AACM school to be one of the new educators and leaders of projects facing the institution mediatic of creative music in the U.S., as well as being a member teaching in Vancouver Creative Music Institute, leading workshops and projects in schools and universities as University of Guelph (Canada), University of Louieville, Dartmouth College, Howard University, Amherst College, South Suburban College, University of Illinois and Michigan, serving also as director of the jazz band from Wheaton College.
Participating in many projects and being highlighted in a number of specialist jazz spotlight, Nicole Mitchell presents itself, finally, as another woman - among the many women - to be part of the list of innovative tools that are contributing not only to the jazz is more equal between men and women, but contributing in particular to the diversification of heaven and new paradigms in the current scenario of contemporary jazz.
www.farofamoderna.com.br
29th - 30th May RAY GELATO GIANTS, on Ronnie Scott's
The UK’s own King of Swing returns for his mid-year taster, following on from his star turn at the club for the annual Christmas period residency. A true showman in the mould of Louis Prima and his peers, Gelato’s energetic saxophone playing and singing means that his performances at the club in the company of his excellent 7-piece band The Giants are always a big hit.
Chet Baker....
Born Chesney Henry Baker, Jr. in Yale, Oklahoma on December 23, 1929, Chet Baker began his musical career as a child, singing at amateur competitions and in a church choir. His father brought home a trombone for him to play, then replaced it with a trumpet when the larger instrument proved too much for him. His first formal training in music occurred at Glendale Junior High School, but Baker would play mostly by ear for the rest of his life.
In 1946, at the age of 16, he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the army. He was sent to Berlin, Germany, where he played in the 298th Army Band. After his discharge in 1948, he enrolled at El Camino College in Los Angeles, where he studied theory and harmony while playing in jazz clubs He quit college in the middle of his second year. He re-enlisted in the army in 1950 and became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco, but began sitting in at clubs like Bop City and the Blackhawk in the city, and soon obtained a second discharge to pursue a career as a professional musician.
Baker played initially in Vido Musso's band, and soon after with Stan Getz. His break came quickly, when, in the spring of 1952, he was chosen at an audition to play a series of dates with Charlie Parker, making his debut with the alto saxophonist at the Tiffany Club in Los Angeles on May 29, 1952. That summer, he began playing in the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, a pianoless group featuring baritone sax, trumpet, bass, and drums. The group attracted attention during an engagement at the Haig and through recordings on newly formed Pacific Jazz Records.
The Gerry Mulligan Quartet lasted for less than a year, ending when its leader went to jail on a drug charge in June of 1953. Baker soon formed his own quartet, which initially featured Russ Freeman on piano, Red Mitchell on bass, and Bobby White on drums. Baker won a number of polls (including DownBeat and Metronome) in the next few years. In 1954, Pacific Jazz released "Chet Baker Sings," an album that increased his popularity but alienated traditional jazz fans; he would continue to sing for the rest of his career. By 1955, he had made his acting debut in the film Hell's Horizon. He declined an offer of a studio contract and toured Europe from September 1955 to April 1956. When he returned to the U.S., he formed a quintet that featured saxophonist Phil Urso and pianist Bobby Timmons. Contrary to his reputation for relaxed, laid-back playing, Baker turned to more of a bop style with this group, which recorded the album "Chet Baker & Crew" for Pacific Jazz in July 1956.
Baker toured the U.S. in February 1957 with the Birdland All Stars and took a group to Europe later that year. He returned to Europe to stay in 1959, settling in Italy, where he acted in the film Urlatori Alla Sbarra. In 1960, a fictionalized film biography of his life, "All the Fine Young Cannibals," appeared with Robert Wagner in the starring role of Chad Bixby.
Baker had become addicted to heroin in the 1950s and had been incarcerated briefly on several occasions, but his drug habit only began to interfere with his career significantly in the 1960s. He was arrested in Italy in the summer of 1960 and spent almost a year and a half in jail. Upon his release he recorded "Chet Is Back" (since reissued as "The Italian Sessions" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow") in 1962. Later in the year, he was arrested in West Germany and expelled to Switzerland, then France, later moving to England in August 1962 to appear as himself in the 1963 film "The Stolen Hours." He was deported from England to France because of a drug offense in March 1963. He lived in Paris and performed there and in Spain over the next year, but after being arrested again in West Germany, he was deported back to the U.S. He returned to America after five years in Europe on March 3, 1964, and played primarily in New York and Los Angeles during the mid-'60s, having switched temporarily from trumpet to flügelhorn. During this period he recorded several excellent recordings for the Prestige label. In the summer of 1966, he suffered a severe beating in San Francisco that was related to his drug addiction. In the late 1960s Baker's teeth had deteriorated to the point where he was fitted with dentures and had to retrain his embouchure (it is commonly misstated that the beating in 1966 left him with no teeth). By the early 1970s he had stopped playing altogether.
Although he remained an addict, Baker began to control his herion addiction by taking methadone, and eventually mounted a comeback that culminated in a prominent New York club engagement in November 1973 and a reunion concert with Gerry Mulligan at Carnegie Hall in November 1974. By the mid-'70s, Baker returned to Europe and spent the rest of his life performing there primarily, with occasional trips to Japan and periods back in the U.S., though he had no permanent residence.
In 1987, photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber began work on a documentary film about Baker. The following year, Baker died in a fall from a hotel window in Amsterdam after taking heroin and cocaine. Weber's film, "Let's Get Lost," premiered in September 1988 to critical acclaim and earned an Academy Award nomination. In 1997, Baker's unfinished autobiography was published under the title As Though I Had Wings: The Lost Memoir and the book was optioned by Miramax for a film adaptation.
Baker's constant need for cash to supply his drug addiction led him to accept many recording offers he should probably have avoided, while his unreliability prevented record companies from signing him to long-term commitments. As a result, his discography is extensive and unfortunately uneven.
http://www.shout.net/~jmh/baker/biography.htm
Rio das Ostras Jazz & Blues Festival
Elected by the critics as one of the best jazz blues festivals in the country, the Rio das Ostras Jazz & Blues Festival is at its seventh edition. From June 10th until June 14th, a selection of the best musicians and interpreters of the present time will perform on stages in the City of Jazz & Blues in Costazul, Turtle Beach and the Iriry Lagoon.
The music schedule brings well known names as:
•Spyro Gyra
•John Hammond Quartet
•Coco Montoya
•The Bad Plus c/ Wendy Lewis
•Rudder
•Jason Miles - In the Spirit of Miles Davis
•DJ Logic
•Michael ”Patches” Stewart
•Duofel c/ Fábio Pascoal
•Pau Brasil
•Jefferson Gonçalves Blues Band
•Ari Borger
•Big Time Orchestra
•Orquestra Kuarup
All of this is free and outdoors, with the audience having access to all the stages.
The 7º Rio das Ostras Jazz & Blues Festival, beyond the performances on the stages in Costazul, Turtle Beach and Iriry Lagoon, brings a new thing. The Dixie Square Jazz Band will perform at the main places of the city, playing New Orleans jazz standards. The presentations of the group rescue a musical tradition of the south of the United States.
Another attraction is the House of Jazz & Blues, in Costazul. In this space people will have the opportunity to see an exposition of photos and biographies from the biggest names of the jazz and blues and also an exhibition of music videos. The infrastructure of Costazul will have, besides the main stage, a square with restaurants, a big screen that will broadcast the live shows and a shop that will sell CDs, magazines and t-shirts.
Presenting experienced and young musicians, tradition and innovation, technique and improvisation, the 7º Rio das Ostras Jazz & Blues Festival show the melodic sophistication of the jazz and the strong rhythm of the blues. Five days of free performances, with presentations at 02:15pm (Iriry Lagoon), 05:15pm (Turtle Beach) and 08:00pm (Costazul).
A presentation of the Tourism, Industry and Commerce Secretary of the Rio das Ostras City Hall.
Production by Stenio Mattos – Azul Produções
The festival is supported by:
Portal Rio das Ostras - www.riodasostras.com.br
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Gonzalo Rubalcaba....
Imagine: you're a world class concert pianist, the conservatory-educated heir of an eminent musical family, celebrated world-wide as a virtuosic, daring, innovative bandleader since your late teens. Having turned 30, you've become acclaimed as an ever-more accomplished composer and rhapsodic improviser. But you can't visit, much less perform, in the United States of America.
You're Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette and your native Cuba's most renown musicians are your mentors. Your recordings--thrilling live sets from the great European and Japanese jazz festivals and artful studio sessions--have been embraced by enthusiastic listeners and respected critics alike. Your only enemy is the U.S. economic blockade, enforced against your country as the result of a political feud dating from before you were born.
Imagine intense lobbying on your behalf of the U.S. State Department by Dizzy's widow Lorraine, respected American recording industry executives and artists led by Wynton Marsalis, who among his other activities is artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center--and that you've suddenly scheduled to present an evening-long concert with your regular ensemble and special guests to end the season of New York City's most prestigious jazz series. Tickets for Lincoln Center's jewelbox Alice Tully Hall sell out.
You begin your concert at the grand piano, alone and pressing gently as the wind stirs a harp, somehow evoking delicate belltones from your keyboard. "Imagine," John Lennon's utopian reverie, emerges. Jericho's wall falls.Rubalcaba's dream came true on May 14, 1993, the date of his professional U.S. concert debut. It's all documented and relived on Imagine: Gonzalo Rubalcaba In the USA, his seventh album for Blue Note Records.
Starting with his unaccompanied "Imagine"(deja vu, as this rendition was recorded before an invited audience in Capitol Records' Hollywood Studios in June 1994), on with "First Song," from the historic Lincoln Center concert itself, featuring Rubalcaba, bassist Haden and drummer DeJohnette absorbed in the level of musical empathy that transcends barriers rather than being blocked by them, and continuing with Rubalcaba's boldly brilliant "Contagio," which his compatriots Reynaldo Melian (trumpet), Felipe Carbera (electric bass) and Julio Barreto (drums) tore through both at Lincoln Center and the next year at UCLA's Wadsworth Theatre--here's proof that after Rubalcaba's American debut the walls did tumble. In 1994, Rubalcaba--still a Cuban citizen but identified as a legal resident of the Dominican Republic--was "unblocked" by the U.S. State Department, so he can visit and perform stateside by application of conventional immigrantion procedures.
This is to all music lovers' benefit because Rubalcaba demonstrates on Imagine, as he has on all his recorded productions since 1990's Blue Note debut Discovery: Live at Montreux, an incomparable personal and modern jazz sensibility. His music is rooted in Afro/Euro-Caribbean culture and links the 19th century romantic pianism of Chopin and Liszt with son montuno and the cha-cha, stretching beyond Latin jazz as pronounced by Diz, Chano Pozo, Machito, Irakere and Chico Hamilton, embracing the sophisticated influences of McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul and iconoclasts on the order of Miles Davis.
Whether approaching bebop or pop ballads, free modalism or electro-acoustic world music, Rubalcaba is a stunning artist who makes every melody he touches his own. Among his hallmarks are an incomparable dynamic sensitivity, imaginatively dramatic recastings of songs' structures, and the harmoare an incomparable dynamic sensitivity, imaginatively dramatic recastings of songs' structures, and the harmonic security to linger over a single pitch, probing it percussively, as well as spilling out immeasurably long phrases that resolve with a sigh. Rubalcaba's ensemble scores are often complex and his own statements may seem expansive to abstraction, yet his music is always rhythmical, grounded and compelling. He's a generous, attentive accompanist; in solos such as "Circuito II," he brings his dimensions of subtle thought to light; and he consistently invests such standard Latin repertoire as "Perfidia" with credible fresh feeling.Born May 27, 1963 in Havana, Gonzalo Julio Gonzales Ponseca Rubalcaba is the son of Guilhermo Rubalcaba, who was pianist in Enrique Jorrin's Orchestra and elsewhere, and grandson of trombonist-composer Jacobo Gonzalez Rubalcaba, whose immortal danzones include "El Cadete Constitucional" and "Linda Mercedes." Originally drawn to the drums, Rubalcaba commenced formal piano studies at age 9, studied both and percussion at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory, and earned his degree in music composition from Havana's Institute of Fine Arts.
A protégé of Frank Emilio, Chucho Valdez and Paquito D'Rivera, among those musicians who made the scene at the Havana night club Johnny Drink, Rubalcaba played at dances, parties and recitals organized by the Cuban Ministry of Culture during his mid-teens, touring France and Africa with Orquesta Aragon in 1980. Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie discovered him at the Havana Jazz Plaza Festival of February 1985 (their subsequent album on Engrem Records has not been released outside Cuba, but Rubalcaba was a pall-bearer at Gillespie's funeral in 1993). In 1985, Gonzalo introduced Grupo Projecto (with Melian and Carbero of his current band) at Holland's North Sea Jazz Festival, the Berlin Jazz Festival and the London club Ronnie Scotts.
His international profile gained a considerable boost from his surprise appearance with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian at the 1990 Montreux Jazz Festival, issued on record by Blue Note as Discovery. Rubalcaba followed that up with The Blessing, studio sessions in trio with Haden and DeJohnette recorded in Toronto; Images, with DeJohnette and bassist John Pattituci from the Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival of 1991; Suite 4 y 20, from spring 1992 studio sessions in Madrid, Spain; Rapsodia, recorded in Woodstock Karnizawa studio in Japan during November '92; and Diz, a dedication to the bebop founder featuring bassist Ron Carter and drummer Julio Barreto, released in 1994. Rubalcaba enjoyed his first New York club stand of a week with bassist Carter and drummer Idris Muhammad at the Blue Note in Spring '95. Rubalcaba was invited to give a solo performance on the world-wide telecast of the Grammy Awards, in support of his Best Jazz Small Group Album nomination for Rapsodia.
"It's very important for me to have a connection with musicians in the States," Rubalcaba has said. "I want to learn from them. I also want to present myself there, and perhaps create a level of integration within my music and the music of jazz." Imagine--what Gonzalo Rubalcaba has dared to dream and achieve by age 34. Realize: he's still on his way.
Blue Note Records
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