Two iconic jazz saxophone players share October 13th as their birthdays. one, alto sax player Lee Konitz, is considered one of the main figures in the
cool jazz movement, although Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings throughout his career. The other, tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders is an important figure in the development of free jazz.
Two iconic jazz saxophone players share October 13th as their birthday. One, is alto sax player Lee Konitz. Konitrz is considered one of the main figures in the cool jazz movement. However, Konitz also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings throughout his career. The other,is tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. Sanders is an important figure in the development of free jazz.
So you can probably count on you fingers how many musicians are still performing beyond the age of 80. Two that I can think of off the top of my head are B.B. King and Tony Bennett, and when Wayne Shorter, Wayne Shorter joined that group last year and this year Wayne will kick off a European Tour on October 16th in Croatia. Among the destinations are Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Portugl! Wayne was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 25,1933.
Over the years I have heard the name Rashaan Roland Kirk and have listened briefly to his music. Since I was not really a big fan of improvisational and avant-garde music, I most generally avoided his music! But last year, I discovered the album Kirk’s Work, when I was researching Jack McDuff‘s music and was really, really impressed by the album. So today, on the 79th anniversary of this inventive and influential musician, I thought that it was a good time to explore the man and his music.
So this morning I loaded up two new jazz albums on the iPhone to serve as the soundtrack for my trip to Trader Joe’s, and then proceeded to listen to neither of the albums!! What I did listen to on the way over was Ride the great new release from New Jersey resident Tom Tallitsch!! The album has been on the iPhone for a week or more now and the more I listen to it, the more I like it!!
Yesterday and today I was back to work at my regular job. Because I spent the day performing soil borings, logging the borings and collecting soil samples for permeability testing,(sounds like fun doesn’t it!) the work did not lend itself to music listening. Today’s work the laboratory permeability testing was suited for music listening. The best music for that type of work is jazz or New Age. So I started off with the album that was # 5 on the JazzWeek Chart- Expression by Javon Jackson. Dare I say, that I do not know Javon Jackson? Oops, I guess I just did! A quick read of Javon’s biography at his website reveals that he is a tenor saxophone player who rose to prominence as a member of the last version of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. In addition to his work with that group Jackson has also appeared 125 recordings and toured with Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Betty Carter, Cedar Walton, Ron Carter, Donald Byrd, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Richard Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, Curtis Fuller and Stanley Turrentine. That’s some pretty good company – don’t you think!
So last Sunday April 6th was the day in 1927 that saxophonist Gerry Mulligan was born. Mulligan is another in what is becoming a long line of jazz musicians whose name I am familiar with, but whose music I never really listened to. As I try to figure our why, the only explanation that I have is that I’ve always associated Mulligan with Dave Brubeck and since I really don’t care that much for Brubeck, I have never explored the music of Mulligan.- Mistake! So I in my usual style I started my exploration of Gerry Mulligan at Wikipedia where I read….
So the other day I wrote about the great Dexter Gordon, today I’ll move to a contemporary saxophonist, but still a great one – Vincent Herring. I’ve been listening to Herring’s latest release The Uptown Shuffle for a couple of weeks now and I think I like it more and more each time I listen.
