WAER Black History Jazz & Blues Focus February 2008

WAER is focusing on black jazz and blues greats in celebration of Black History Month.
Each weekday we'll spotlight two African-American artist's that have made a significant contribution to the art of jazz.

Friday 2/1

James Moody

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of James Moody. Born in Savannah, Georgia and raised in New Jersey, Moody took up the saxophone and the flute at an early age. After spending time in the U.S. Air Force, Moody went on to play be-bop with Dizzy Gillespie for a couple of years. In 1948, he would record his first album for Blue Note records...the beginning of an incredible recording career that continues to this day. Moody spent some time in Europe in the early 50s where he first recorded perhaps his most famous song "Moody's Mood For Love". He played a major role in the growth of European jazz in the 50s and 60s. Currently residing in San Diego, Moody still travels and performs globally with his own quartet as well as as a member of the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band. On March 26th, the legendary saxophonist James Moody will celebrate his 83rd birthday.

Thelonious Monk

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Thelonious Monk. Monk grew up playing gospel and stride piano, but when he was pianist at the celebrated Minton's Playhouse in the 1940s, he was there for the beginnings of bebop. Although such jazz figures as Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker recognized Monk's genius early on, many people thought that he was just crazy due to his unusual playing style, advanced harmonies, and eccentric ways. Eventually, though, public taste caught up with Monk, and he even wound up on the cover of Time Magazine in 1964. After the early 1970s, Monk seldom appeared in public due to mental illness, but his recordings and compositions like "'Round Midnight," "Rhythm-A-Ning," and numerous others kept his name before the public. Since his death in 1982, Thelonious Monk has come to be appreciated as one of the true originals of American music, and he has been remembered with everything from a U.S. postage stamp to the annual music competitions held by the Thelonious Monk Institute. The Monk family has gone into a second generation of first-rate jazz, with his son T.S. Monk showing great talent as a drummer and group leader.

Monday 2/4

Billie Holiday

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Billie Holiday. Billie escaped from a terrifying adolescence thanks to her singing talents. After Billie's singing attracted the attention of writer and record producer John Hammond, she made her first record in 1933 with a small group led by Benny Goodman. Holiday's collaboration with saxophonist Lester Young was especially fruitful, and Young gave her the nickname of "Lady Day." However, she also faced many hardships due to racial discrimination and her individual style, and she courageously popularized the haunting "Strange Fruit," a song that protested against lynching. Holiday's life was complicated by problems with drugs, alcohol and several unhappy marriages, but she kept working and recording. Sadly, the years of tough living wore out Holiday's body, and she died at just 44 years old. Holiday's life and career made her a cult figure, and a film of her book "Lady Sings the Blues" made her popular with a new generation of fans. However, Holiday's blues‑based, emotionally direct singing is the real reason that she is remembered with such devotion by her fans.

Stanley Turrentine

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Stanley Turrentine. This saxophonist was known as "Mister T" long before the TV star of that name became famous. Turrentine, a native of Pittsburgh, was born in 1934. He began playing with blues and R & B groups, and started out with a strong Illinois Jacquet influence. Turrentine played for Ray Charles in the early 1950s, and replaced John Coltrane in the Earl Bostic band in 1953. After a time in the Army, he played in Max Roach's band, and married organist Shirley Scott in 1960, recording with her often and remaining friends with her even after their divorce some years later. Also in 1960, Turrentine made the first of several recordings with organist Jimmy Smith, and began recording for Blue Note as a solo act and as a member of The Three Sounds. However, he returned to a soul-jazz style in his later years, and was a big influence on the young artists of the acid-jazz movement. Turrentine remained as an active performer and recording artist until his death in 2000 of a stroke. Stanley Turrentine is very fondly remembered by fans of soul-jazz and acid-jazz, and the critical disapproval he got in the 1970s is largely forgotten. Meanwhile, his recordings are an inspiration to a new generation of jazz fans and musicians who have come to love his bluesy, funky style.

Tuesday, 2/5

Louis Armstrong

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Louis Armstrong, who was called "the beginning and end of music in America" by his good friend Bing Crosby. Armstrong's humble roots in New Orleans are well-known; he got his first cornet with the help of a junk dealer he worked for as a child. Armstrong eventually switched from cornet to trumpet and made pioneering recordings as a leader of studio groups known as the Hot Five and Hot Seven. He soon made his mark as one of the greatest innovators and most virtuosic trumpeters in jazz history. Armstrong eventually became a bandleader himself, and also became a singer who helped popularize scat singing; his freewheeling style changed the sound of popular singing forever. After spending a few years in Europe, Armstrong returned to the U.S. and, under the management of Joe Glaser, became one of the most popular musicians and entertainers in the country. He led a big band and often appeared on radio and in films. When the big-band era ended after World War II, Armstrong started playing with smaller "All-Stars" groups that emphasized a traditional New Orleans style. He made international State Department tours as a goodwill ambassador, and also stood up for civil rights in the 1950s at a time when many other entertainment figures were not yet ready to take a stand. Armstrong had a huge pop hit in 1964 with "Hello, Dolly," and guest-starred in Barbra Streisand's movie of that hit musical. He also had such pop hits as "What a Wonderful World," which became a hit again years after his death in the film "Good Morning, Vietnam." Age and ill health forced Armstrong to cut back on performing in his last years, but he was planning yet another tour when he died in 1971. Although Louis Armstrong's career as a popular entertainer didn't please some jazz purists, he nonetheless laid many of the foundations for what jazz became. Dizzy Gillespie said it best when he said of Louis Armstrong, "No him--no me."

Wednesday 2/6

Ernestine Anderson

WAER salutes Black History month with the music of Ernestine Anderson. A native of Houston, Texas she sang with Russell Jacquet's big band when she was only 12. In the 1950s, she caught the ear of the jazz world, and was dubbed "the toast of the nation's critics." When times grew hard for many jazz musicians in the 1960s, she moved to Europe, and then went into semi-retirement in America. Anderson returned to singing in the 1970s at the urging of bassist Ray Brown, and has since recorded styles ranging from blues to ballads with strings. Her career has spanned more than five decades, having recorded over 30 albums. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center and at jazz festivals all over the world. The legendary jazz and blues singer will celebrate her 80th birthday on November 11th.

Count Basie

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of William "Count" Basie. Basie was born in 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. Basie played in vaudeville as a young man, and became stranded in Kansas City when his troupe broke up in 1927. It was a blessing in disguise, for Basie stayed there and became part of several bands, including Walter Page's Blue Devils and the Bennie Moten band. After Moten died in 1935, Basie worked as a single, and then formed a band that included many of Moten's former musicians. This band had such legends as saxophonist Lester Young, drummer Jo Jones, and vocalist Jimmy Rushing. Basie's famous "splank" style of light piano and rhythm accompaniment gave the band its special sound, providing just enough of a framework to let the band swing. The young Basie band was soon heard on radio broadcasts from Kansas City by listeners all over the Midwest, and Basie got his nickname of "Count" from a radio announcer who thought he should have a title like Duke Ellington or Earl Hines. The Basie band soon became a household name, enjoying great popularity during the big band era. When big bands declined after World War II, Basie led small groups for a few years. However, he formed a new big band in 1952, and this band took off thanks to recordings and touring around the world. The band's new vocalist, Joe Williams, also added to the Basie band's appeal. The famous 1956 Basie recording of "April in Paris" was a Top 40 hit, even at a time when rock and roll was starting to capture public fancy. The band won many awards and continued recording and touring, and also backed Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and other singers in several popular albums. In Basie's later years, he had serious problems with his health that resulted in several hospitalizations, but he continued to lead the band and play piano from a wheelchair until his death in 1984. Since Basie's death, the Count Basie Orchestra has continued under several directors, and it continues to tour and record, including the famous Basie standards and some newer pieces. Thanks to the continued existence of the band, and the many great recordings he left behind, Count Basie will be remembered as one of the great big band leaders.

Thursday 2/7

Clark Terry

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Clark Terry. He got his start in his native St. Louis in the 1940s, and also got experience in a Navy band during World War II. After the war, he graced the bands of Charlie Barnet, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. In the 1950s, he started gaining recognition as a leader, and also gained a reputation for his use of the flugelhorn. He also became celebrated for his witty performances and for his famous "mumbles" style of singing, which was originally a satire on the poor diction of some blues singers. He also toured Europe with Quincy Jones, became a member of the Tonight Show Orchestra, and became a busy recording artist. He has led his own big band and a number of small groups, and has been a guest soloist with many jazz festivals and orchestras, including the Central New York Jazz Orchestra. Along with his decades of solid achievement as a performer, he is also noted for his hard work in jazz education and for his infectious sense of humor. "Mumbles," Clark Terry, is one of the many fine trumpeters we play on WAER.

Quincy Jones

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Quincy Jones. Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American music impresario, conductor, record producer, musical arranger, film composer and trumpeter. Throughout the 50s, Jones successfully toured all over Europe with a number of jazz orchestras. In 1956, Quincy toured as musical director with the Dizzy Gillepie Big Band. During five decades in the entertainment industry, Jones has earned 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. He is best known as the producer of two of the top-selling records of all time: the album Thriller, by pop icon Michael Jackson, which sold 104 million copies worldwide, and the charity song We Are the World. In 1968, Jones and his songwriting partner Bob Russell became the first African-Americans to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Original Song category. That same year, he became the first African-American to be nominated twice within the same year when he was nominated for Best Original Score for his work on the music of In Cold Blood. Jones was also the first (and so far, the only) African-American to be nominated as a producer in the category of Best Picture (in 1986, for The Color Purple). He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the most Oscar-nominated African-American, each of them having seven nominations. On March 14th, Quincy Jones will celebrate his 75th birthday.

Friday 2/8

Dinah Washington

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Dinah Washington. Ruth Lee Jones started in music as a teenager singing gospel, but then began singing and playing piano in nightclubs. Lionel Hampton hired her as a vocalist and changed her name to Dinah Washington. She soon became a star in jazz and R & B, and earned the nickname of "Queen of the Blues." Dinah Washington also branched out into mainstream pop with great success. She died at only 39, but was a great influence on later singers such as Nancy Wilson, Diane Schuur, and her own godchild Patti Austin. Dinah Washington's powerful, honest style and versatility have kept her as "The Queen" in the hearts of her many fans nearly 40 years after her passing.

George Benson

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of George Benson. Benson started out in music as a singer when he was only eight years old, and as a teenager started playing rock music with a guitar that his stepfather made for him. After he heard recordings by such jazz guitarists as Wes Montgomery and Charlie Christian, Benson decided that jazz was for him. After a stint with organist Jack McDuff, Benson was discovered by legendary record producer John Hammond, and started making records under his own name and playing with other jazz greats. After Wes Montgomery died in the late 60s, Benson followed his lead by working with producer Creed Taylor with larger groups and with a pop-influenced sound. Benson showed in the 1970s that his singing was equal to his guitar playing, and the album "Breezin'" became one of the biggest crossover sellers in jazz history thanks to the song "This Masquerade." However, once the novelty of such efforts wore off, Benson returned to a more jazz‑centered approach that showed both guitar and voice, making the standards album "Tenderly" and "Big Boss Band" with the Count Basie Orchestra. He has also continued pop‑jazz guitar, but with more substance than in his work from the 1980s. George Benson is an artist of great versatility, and can sound at home with anyone from Benny Goodman to Jon Hendricks.

Monday 2/11

Chico Hamilton

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Chico Hamilton. Legendary jazz drummer and bandleader Foreststorn Chico Hamilton, born September 21st, 1921 in Los Angeles, had a fast track musical education in a band with his schoolmates Charles Mingus, Illinois Jacquet, Ernie Royal, Dexter Gordon, Buddy Collette and Jack Kelso. Engagements with Lionel Hampton, Slim & Slam, T-Bone Walker, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnett, Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan and six years with Lena Horne established this young West Coast prodigy as a jazz drummer on the rise, before striking out on his own as a bandleader in 1955. In 1997, Chico received the New School University Jazz & Contemporary Music Programs Beacons in Jazz Award in recognition for his "significant contribution to the evolution of Jazz". In 2002, Chico was awarded the WLIU-FM Radio Lifetime Achievement Award. At the IAJE in NYC January 2004, Hamilton was awarded a NEA Jazz Master Fellowship, presented to him by Roy Haynes. In December 2006, Congress confirmed the President’s nomination of Chico to the Presidents Council on the Arts. And in 2007, Chico received a Living Legacy Jazz Award as part of The Kennedy Center Jazz in Our Time Festival, as well as receiving a Doctor of Fine Arts from The New School. Dynamic as ever at the age of 86, Chico Hamilton has a resume that includes scores for film, original compositions, commercial jingles, 50 + albums as a leader, and countless international tours.

Duke Ellington

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. Ellington grew up in Washington, D.C. as the son of a White House butler. After leading bands in the Washington area, Ellington went to New York with a small group, the Washingtonians. The band started making recordings and appearing in clubs. Ellington added musicians to his group, experimented with various "jungle" and other musical effects, and became famous thanks to radio broadcasts his band made during its three years at the world-famous Cotton Club. Ellington left the club in 1931, and continued leading his own bands until his death in 1973. Ellington continued to compose as well, and wrote such standards as "Rockin' In Rhythm," "Mood Indigo," "Sophisticated Lady," "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," and a host of others. Ellington became famous for the musical sophistication of his compositions. One of the biggest assets Ellington had was the great composer, arranger, and pianist Billy Strayhorn, whose "Take the 'A' Train" became the band's theme song. Ellington also wrote extended works such as "Black, Brown and Beige," scores for several Broadway musicals, and music for such films as "The Asphalt Jungle" and "Anatomy of a Murder." After the decline of the big bands, Ellington was one of the few leaders who was able to keep his band working, and continued to record and tour. After a few years of diminished fortunes, the Ellington band returned to the spotlight after a famous performance of "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival that nearly caused a riot. The album of that concert still sells well today, and Ellington was put on the cover of Time magazine. Ellington frequently appeared on TV and on the road in his later career, recorded projects on his own and with such singers as Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney, and composed works ranging from sacred music to a moving tribute to Billy Strayhorn that won a Grammy. Ellington died in 1974, but the band was continued by his son, Mercer Ellington and by his grandson, Paul Mercer Ellington. Without a doubt, Duke Ellington was and is the best-known composer of jazz, one of its most enduring bandleaders, and a continued influence on jazz as it goes into its second century.

Tuesday 2/12

Sonny Rollins

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Sonny Rollins. He came from the Sugar Hill section of Harlem that was also the home of such musicians as Duke Ellington, and started playing alto sax at 11. He switched to tenor when he was 16. His high school chums included Jackie McLean, Arthur Taylor, and Kenny Drew, and they formed a band in 1946. He was soon performing and recording with Thelonious Monk, Babs Gonzales, J.J. Johnson, and with Bud Powell. He was also a sideman for Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and many other stars of jazz. However, he also developed a drug problem, which he overcame after moving to Chicago in 1955, where he became part of a group with Clifford Brown and Max Roach. In 1956, he made his first recordings as a leader. Before long, he was voted "New Star of the Tenor Sax" in the Down Beat Magazine Critics' Poll. Surprisingly, Rollins suddenly stopped performing, and decided to improve his skills, often spending hours practicing his playing on New York's Williamsburg Bridge. After two years, Rollins returned to jazz with renewed vigor, and in 1965 attained commercial success with his soundtrack for the popular film "Alfie." He then took off more time to study Eastern philosophy, and later lived in India for a while. The times he spent away from music helped refresh his creativity, and he tried such new things as the soprano saxophone and the lyricon. In recent years, he has returned to the tenor sax, and his most recent CD, "Sonny, Please" garnered rave reviews. The name of one of his albums, "Saxophone Colossus," certainly fits Sonny Rollins well.

Slide Hampton

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Slide Hampton. At age 20, trombonist Slide Hampton made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Lionel Hampton band. During his career, he has performed and composed with Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Barry Harris, Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. As a master trombonist, composer and arranger, Slide Hampton is a highly respected champion and innovator of the jazz tradition and evolution. He has presented master classes at Harvard, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, DuPaul and Indiana University. In 1998 he received a Grammy Award for "Best Jazz Arrangement with a Vocalist," and in 2005 he was named a National Endowment for the Arts "Jazz Master."

Wednesday 2/13

Mary Lou Williams

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Mary Lou Williams. Williams began playing as a child in her native Pittsburgh. When she was only 19, she became the deputy pianist and arranger for Andy Kirk's big band. She was first known as "The Pest," but when her talent became obvious, she got her lifelong nickname of "The Lady Who Swings The Band." She became famous in jazz circles for her fine piano playing, and also for the compositions and arrangements she did for Kirk and many other big bands. She eventually went out on her own with a small group, and when bebop came along, she wrote for Dizzy Gillespie's band. She left the music field for a while to pursue religious and charitable causes, but returned as a pianist, composer of sacred jazz works, and teacher. She led the way for women to be taken seriously as jazz instrumentalists and composers, and her influence as a teacher has left its mark on jazz musicians of both sexes.

Herbie Hancock

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Herbie Hancock. Hancock was a child prodigy in classical piano, and appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony when he was just 11. After further study, he showed a leaning toward jazz, and got his first break when he worked with trumpeter Donald Byrd. Hancock was signed to Blue Note Records, and also showed early talent as a composer when his song "Watermelon Man" became a crossover jazz and pop hit thanks to Mongo Santamaria's recording. Hancock joined Miles Davis' group in 1963, and worked with him for five years. While in the Davis band, Hancock started using electronic keyboards, and eventually formed his own sextet and got into a funkier style. This led to the hit album "Head Hunters" and other electronic jazz, and also to some disco recordings when that style was popular. Hancock also played acoustic jazz, and after a reunion of the Miles Davis quintet minus Miles in 1976, the group went on tour as V.S.O.P. This group helped point the way to the acoustic jazz revival of the 1980s that brought on Wynton Marsalis and others of the "young lions" generation. Hancock has continued in several directions with such projects as a "Head Hunters" revival, film music, a CD that treated modern pop songs as "new standards" to inspire jazz musicians, and his most recent album "River: The Joni Letters" which just became the first jazz album in decades to win the Grammy award for Album of the Year. Herbie Hancock continues to be one of the most versatile players and composers in jazz.

Thursday 2/14

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. This Columbus, Ohio native lost his eyesight as a small child, but that did not stop him from becoming one of the most inventive saxophonists in jazz history. After learning to play the bugle and trumpet, he learned clarinet and saxophone. He became a professional musician when he was just 15, playing tenor sax in R & B groups. He also learned how to play such unusual instruments as the manzello and the stritch, and learned how to make his own instruments that would do what he wanted. He was able to play three modified saxophones at the same time, and could also use circular breathing so that he could play without stopping. However, this wasn't just to show off, but served his musical purposes, since he was a very inventive improviser with a command of many styles of jazz. He invented the term "black classical music" that has since been used many times to describe jazz. He also led the Jazz And People's Movement, which tried to get more opportunities for jazz musicians, and sometimes interrupted radio and TV broadcasts to protest when qualified African-American musicians were shut out of jobs on the networks and in the recording industry. He was even the last performer ever to appear on the Ed Sullivan variety show on CBS. Late in his life, he suffered a stroke that paralyzed one side of his body, but thanks to his special saxophones and unusual technique, he was able to play sax with just one hand. He was only 41 when he died in 1977.

Art Farmer

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Art Farmer. This trumpeter was half of a pair of twins; his brother became a bassist. He studied piano, violin and tuba in addition to the trumpet. From the mid-1940s, he worked on the West Coast with Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson and others. He toured Europe with Lionel Hampton, and then settled in New York, where he worked with Horace Silver and Gerry Mulligan. He became co-leader with Benny Golson of the world-famous group called the Jazztet. When the music scene changed in the U.S. in the late 1960s, he moved to Vienna, where he settled into a job with the orchestra of Austrian Radio and married an Austrian woman. However, he did not abandon jazz, and worked in both small groups and big bands. In his later career, Farmer was again in demand in his homeland, and also frequently played an instrument of his own invention called the "flumpet," which combined the best characteristics of the fluegelhorn and the trumpet. He is much missed by jazz connoisseurs since his death in 1999, and his smooth and lyrical style is still not matched by anyone else.

Friday 2/15

Betty Carter

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Betty Carter. Her real name was Lillie Mae Jones, but when she sang with Lionel Hampton's band, he nicknamed her "Betty Bebop." For years, she had problems finding work and record contracts because many in the music industry misunderstood her very individual style. Carter's career was eclipsed somewhat during the 1960s and 1970s, though a series of duets with Ray Charles in 1961, including the R&B-chart-topping "Baby, It's Cold Outside," brought her a measure of popular recognition. In 1963 she toured in Japan with Sonny Rollins. She recorded for various labels during this period, including ABC-Paramount, Atco and United Artists, but was rarely satisfied with the resulting product. An episode in which a record company A&R man tried to run off with a set of her master recordings led her to establish her own record label, Bet-Car, in 1970. Some of her most outstanding recordings were originally issued on Bet-Car, including the double album The Audience with Betty Carter (1980). In 1980 she was the subject of a documentary film by Michelle Parkerson, But Then, She's Betty Carter. She finally got the recognition she deserved when she won a Grammy award in 1988. She has been an influence on such younger singers as Cassandra Wilson, and such jazz stars as John Hicks and Benny Green learned much about their craft by playing for her.

Dizzy Gillespie

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie. Born in South Carolina in 1917, Gillespie taught himself the trombone, switched to trumpet, and got more musical training while in an agricultural school, which he left so he could play professionally. He got the nickname of "Dizzy" because of his crazy antics and sense of humor, and was fired from the Calloway band when someone else threw a spitball at Cab and blamed it on Dizzy. However, Gillespie was far from "dizzy" musically; along with Charlie Parker and other musicians, he pioneered bebop in the Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine big bands and in the famous jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse in New York. After World War II, the records that Gillespie and Parker did caught the music world and the public by surprise, but the new bebop style became the foundation for jazz in the second half of the 20th century. After an early big band failed, Gillespie tried again in 1946, and made such great records as "A Night In Tunisia" and experiments with Afro-Cuban music featuring the great Chano Pozo. After the novelty of bebop wore off, Gillespie broke up the big band, but continued to play in smaller groups, and the famous "Jazz at Massey Hall" concert in Toronto in 1953 with Dizzy, Parker and other stars of the new style was recorded and became an inspiration to later players. Gillespie formed another big band in 1956 for a State Department tour, and it included the young Quincy Jones, Benny Golson and Melba Liston as players and arrangers. In later years, Dizzy kept performing with small groups, and was also a mentor to many younger musicians. He also formed the United Nation Orchestra, which got its name from Gillespie's belief that music could help the world be one united nation; this band included players from a number of countries. Gillespie kept working until 1992, when his health began failing, and he died of cancer in 1993. Dizzy Gillespie will be remembered for his musical adventurousness, his incredible virtuosity on the trumpet, his help of up-and-coming talent, and for the showmanship that delighted several generations of jazz fans.

Monday 2/18

Lester Young

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Lester Young. This saxophonist started his musical career in a family band in Minneapolis, where he grew up. He studied violin, drums and trumpet before settling on the saxophone. He quit the family group at 18 because he did not want to be subjected to discrimination in the South of the 1920s, but returned to them after touring with another group. He became a freelancer with such great Kansas City bands as Walter Page's Blue Devils and the Bennie Moten band. He joined Count Basie's new band in 1934, but left to replace Coleman Hawkins in the Fletcher Henderson band. His sound, a more laid-back and delicate one than that of Hawkins and most other sax players of the time, got him fired from the Henderson band, but also attracted a lot of attention because it was so revolutionary. He eventually returned to Count Basie, and also had many wonderful records and a close friendship with Billie Holiday; he nicknamed her "Lady Day," and she called him "Prez" because she considered him the musical equivalent of her hero, President Franklin Roosevelt. He returned to Basie's band in 1943, but was drafted into the Army, and the horrible racism he experienced during World War II affected his sensitive mind for the rest of his short life. However, he still created fine music in live performances with Jazz at the Philharmonic, and kept working and recording as a single. He was reunited with old friend Billie Holiday for the 1957 "Sound of Jazz" TV special, but within two years he was dead at 49 due to complications from alcoholism. However, his style was a great influence on such later players as Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and many others, and he helped pave the way for the "cool" school of jazz. Lester "Prez" Young is one of the great saxophonists heard on Jazz 88 over the past 55 years.

Milt Jackson

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Milt Jackson. "Bags" was born in Detroit in 1923. He started studying guitar at the age of seven, followed by piano and then by the instrument that made his career, the vibes. Jackson's first work as a professional musician, however, was as a gospel singer in a quartet. However, when Dizzy Gillespie heard him playing vibes in Detroit, he invited Jackson to join his sextet, and later put him in his big band. Jackson's colleagues in the rhythm section of the Gillespie big band were bassist Ray Brown, pianist John Lewis, and drummer Kenny Clarke, and they sometimes had featured spots while the rest of the band took a break. They recorded in 1951 as the Milt Jackson Quartet, and after Brown was replaced by Percy Heath, the group known as the Modern Jazz Quartet took shape. This group became known for its combination of bluesy jazz and elegant classical influence, and was a huge success in concert halls and on recordings. Eventually, Jackson decided to leave the group, and the MJQ had a farewell concert at Lincoln Center. Jackson got more chances to perform as a solo act and as a guest with other groups, and also made more recordings under his own name. The Modern Jazz Quartet reunited in 1981, but worked together on a more limited basis into the 1990s, and Jackson continued to perform and record as a soloist as well. Eventually, age and illness took their toll on the group's members; although the MJQ kept going a while longer, the deaths of Milt Jackson in 1999 and of John Lewis in 2001 meant the end of the group. Milt Jackson is still remembered by jazz fans around the world, both for his work with the Modern Jazz Quartet and with other artists ranging from Charlie Parker to Regina Carter. "Bags'" successors on the vibes, such as Gary Burton, Bobby Hutcherson, and Stefon Harris, have all benefited from his influence, and listeners continue to enjoy his disciplined yet swinging sound.

Tuesday 2/19

Art Blakey

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Art Blakey. Blakey was born in Pittsburgh in 1919, and began his musical training with childhood piano lessons. By the time he was 12, Blakey was leading a professional jazz group. After switching to the drums, Blakey worked with such jazz stars as Mary Lou Williams and Fletcher Henderson. Blakey led his own big band for a while, and then joined the Billy Eckstine band, which also produced such giants as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. When the Eckstine group disbanded, Blakey formed a rehearsal band called the 17 Messengers, which he eventually reduced to an octet that he called the Jazz Messengers. This soon-to-be famous name was then given to a group that Blakey was in, but that was led by pianist Horace Silver and which also included Hank Mobley and Kenny Dorham. When Silver left the group, Blakey became the leader of the Jazz Messengers, and he led the group through various personnel changes for most of his career. Blakey became noted as a judge and guide of young jazz talent, and such stars as Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Benny Golson, Joanne Brackeen, Geoffrey Keezer, Chuck Mangione, and Wayne Shorter learned much of their craft as members of the Jazz Messengers. Blakey's hard-bop style, which he kept even in the face of such movements as free jazz and fusion, was a huge influence on the "young lions" who became the major figures of today's mainstream jazz. Blakey lived long enough to see his style come back into style, and since his death from cancer in 1990, much of his music has been reissued to be enjoyed by a new audience.

Junior Mance

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Junior Mance. Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1928. He is a jazz pianist, composer, and recording artist of thirty plus albums as a leader and numerous recordings as a sideman, and the author of "How to Play Blues Piano." He began his career with saxophonists Gene Ammons and Lester Young before he joined Cannonball Adderley's quintet. After two-year stints with Dizzy Gillespie and the Johnny Griffin, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Quintet, he formed his own trio and toured with vocalist Joe Williams. In 1988 Junior joined the faculty at the New School in New York where he teaches classes in Blues performance. During the 1990's Junior has been part of a very elite group called "100 GOLD FINGERS". This is a group which tours Japan every other year, consisting of ten outstanding jazz pianists. On various tours the group has included people such as Hank Jones, John Lewis, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Barron, Ray Bryant, Roger Kellaway, Gene Harris, Marion McPartland, Barry Harris, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Lynn Arriale, Cyrus Chestnut, Benny Green, Duke Jordan, Joanne Brackeen, Monty Alexander, Dave McKenna, Renee Rosnes, Mulgrew Miller, Harold Mabern as well as Junior and a the rhythm section consisting of bassist Bob Cranshaw and either Alan Dawson or Grady Tate on drums. On November 21, 1997, at Tampa Florida, Junior was inducted into THE INTERNATIONAL JAZZ HALL OF FAME, an honor Junior is extremely proud of, being in the elite company of many of his heroes, both past and present. Junior is healthy and still very active in NYC, Japan, and all over the world. Junior will celebrate his 80th birthday on October 10th.

Wednesday 2/20

Max Roach

WAER salute Black History Month with the music of Max Roach. Born in North Carolina in 1924, Max Roach was a jazz percussionist, drummer and composer. He was one of the first drummers (along with Kenny Clarke) to play in the bebop style, and performed in bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis. Roach played on many of Parker's most important records, including the Savoy 1945 session, a turning point in recorded jazz. n 1952, Roach co-founded Debut Records with bassist Charles Mingus. This label released a record of a concert, billed and widely considered as "the greatest concert ever," called Jazz at Massey Hall, featuring Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Mingus and Roach. Also released on this label was the groundbreaking bass-and-drum free improvisation, Percussion Discussion. In 1954, he formed a quintet featuring trumpeter Clifford Brown, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell (brother of Bud Powell), and bassist George Morrow, though Land left the following year and Sonny Rollins replaced him. The group was a prime example of the hard bop style also played by Art Blakey and Horace Silver. Tragically, this group was to be short-lived; Brown and Powell were killed in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in June 1956. Not content to expand on the musical territory he had already become known for, Roach spent the decades of the 1980s and 1990s continually finding new forms of musical expression and presentation. Roach even surprised his fans by performing in a hip hop concert, featuring the artist-rapper Fab Five Freddy and the New York Break Dancers. He expressed the insight that there was a strong kinship between the outpouring of expression of these young black artists and the art he had pursued all his life. Max Roach passed away in the early morning on August 16, 2007 in Manhattan. He was survived by five children: sons Daryl and Raoul, and daughters Maxine, Ayo and Dara. Over 1900 people attended his funeral at Riverside Church in Manhattan, New York City on August 24, 2007.

Oscar Peterson

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Oscar Peterson. This great pianist was born in 1925 in Montreal, Canada. Peterson studied classical piano as a child, and started performing professionally in his teens, including radio appearances and with the Johnny Holmes Orchestra. Jazz impresario and record producer Norman Granz invited him to play in a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1949, and from there his career took off. Peterson formed his own trios based on the piano-guitar-bass format pioneered by Nat King Cole, became a prolific composer, and in later years started to concentrate more on solo performances. Peterson's virtuosity is among the greatest in the history of jazz piano. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends, and was a member of jazz royalty. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career. He is considered to have been one of the greatest pianists of all time, who played thousands of live concerts to audiences worldwide in a career lasting more than 65 years. Sadly, Peterson's health declined rapidly in 2007. He had to cancel his performance at the 2007 Toronto Jazz Festival and his attendance at a June 8, 2007 Carnegie Hall all-star performance in his honor. On December 23, 2007, Oscar Peterson died at his home in Mississauga, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. He left seven children, his fourth wife Kelly, and their daughter, Celine.

Thursday 2/21

Cannonball Adderley

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. This Tampa native got the nickname "Cannibal" as a kid due to his hearty appetite, but the name later changed to "Cannonball," and it described his explosive impact on the jazz world. Adderley started out as a high-school band director, but when he visited New York in 1955 and sat in with Oscar Pettiford at the Cafe Bohemia, he caused such a stir that he got a recording contract and moved to New York to play full-time. Cannonball and his cornetist brother Nat formed their own group, but then he joined Miles Davis' sextet, where he played on such great albums as "Kind of Blue." Later, Adderley and his brother had a more successful quartet, and had such hits as "This Here," "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," and "Things Are Getting Better." He also did a lot for the career of a young singer from Ohio named Nancy Wilson, and their duet album is one of the classics of vocal jazz. Other musicians who were closely associated with Adderley were Joe Zawinul, Yusef Lateef, and Bobby Timmons. He became legendary for his soulful, funky style, which made him one of the most popular jazz musicians of his time. Sadly, he was cut down while still in his prime, dying of a stroke when he was only 46. Luckily, we still have many recordings by which to remember the great "Cannonball" Adderley.

Jack McDuff

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of "Brother" Jack McDuff. Born Eugene McDuffy in Champaign, Illinois, McDuff began playing bass, appearing in Joe Farrell's group. Encouraged by Willis Jackson in whose band he also played bass in the late 50s, McDuff moved to the organ and began to attract the attention of Prestige Records while still with Jackson's group. McDuff soon became a bandleader, leading groups featuring a young George Benson, Red Holloway on saxophone and Joe Dukes on drums. McDuff recorded many classic albums on Prestige including his debut solo Brother Jack in 1960, The Honeydripper (1961), with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest and guitarist Grant Green, and Brother Jack Meets The Boss (1962), featuring Gene Ammons, and Screamin (1962). The decreasing interest in jazz and blues patent during the late 70s and 1980s meant that many jazz musicians went through a lean time and it wasn't until the late 1980s, with The Re-Entry, recorded for the Muse label in 1988, that McDuff once again began a successful period of recordings, initially for Muse, then on the Concord Jazz label from 1991. George Benson appeared on his mentors 1992 Colour Me Blue album. Despite health problems, McDuff continued working and recording throughout the 1980s and 1990s. "Captain" Jack McDuff, as he later became known, died of heart failure at the age of 74 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Friday 2/22

Nnenna Freelon

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Nnenna Freelon. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1954. As a young woman, Nnenna really developed her love for singing while in church. She suggests that her influences included several "not famous people," as well as such familiar names as Nina Simone and Billy Eckstine, artists whose records her parents played at home. In 1979, she married architect Philip G. Freelon, native of Philadelphia, and raised three children, Deen, Maya and Pierce, before deciding to go pro as a jazz singer. In fact, her son Pierce Freelon, is currently a fellow in the Pan-African Studies Masters program at Syracuse University, where he founded a website called Blackademics and has had the honor to interview many notable figures such as Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, and Jesse Jackson. She has been nominated for five Grammy Awards for her vocal work,[2] and has performed and toured with such top artists as Ray Charles, Ellis Marsalis, Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall, Ramsey Lewis, George Benson, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, just to name a few. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Ellington Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Apollo Theater, Montreux Jazz Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and more. Nnenna is also deeply involved in arts education as the national spokesperson for the National Association of Partners in Education, an organization with over 400,000 school/community partnership programs across the United States, dedicated to the improvement of the quality of American education by supporting arts education programs. On January 8th, Nnenna began a 54-date 10-week tour of the United States with the Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary Band. The band also features trumpeter Terence Blanchard, pianist Benny Green, saxophonist James Moody, bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Kendrick Scott. She will celebrate her 54th birthday on July 28th.

Ahmad Jamal

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Ahmad Jamal. In 1930, he began life in Pittsburgh with the name of Frederick Russell Jones, and he had the nickname of Fritz. Jamal started playing piano at age 3, and was a professional musician by age 11. After high school, Jamal toured with George Hudson's Orchestra and a group called the Four Strings. Jamal's first trio, the Three Strings, attracted the attention of the great jazz promoter and record producer John Hammond. Jamal became a Muslim in 1952, and adopted the name by which he became famous. His spare style of playing got the attention of such jazz leaders as Miles Davis, and was an inspiration for Davis and his arranger colleague Gil Evans. In 1958, the Ahmad Jamal Trio's famous recording of "Poinciana" from "Live at the Pershing" was a big crossover hit, and went to number 3 on the pop charts. Jamal also had his own jazz club for a while. Although the trio disbanded and Jamal sold his club within a few years, he kept recording and touring. Jamal also experimented with electronic keyboards in the 1970s. In 1994, Jamal was awarded the American Jazz Master Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. Ahmad Jamal continues to contribute to the jazz world through his excellent playing, and although some critics derided him when he was on the pop charts, that attitude has given way to respect for his artistic longevity and ability to reach many kinds of listeners. On July 2nd, the great Ahmad Jamal will celebrate his 78th birthday.

Monday 2/25

Miles Davis

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Miles Davis. Miles was born in 1926 and showed musical talent as a child. He began playing professionally while still in school. After Davis saw the Billy Eckstine band, he decided to study at the Juilliard School in New York. However, he soon dropped out and got his real education in bebop by playing with Charlie Parker, Benny Carter and Billy Eckstine. Davis made his first recordings in 1947 with Charlie Parker, but made his first real musical history with a nine-piece band in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This band made the celebrated recordings that were released in the famous album "Birth of the Cool," which started the "cool" or "West Coast" school of jazz, which was marked by a more relaxed and economical style of playing than that of early bebop. Davis put together his famous quintet that also featured John Coltrane, and made a number of recordings with them. Davis also teamed up with arranger and composer Gil Evans for a series of albums that included "Sketches of Spain," "Miles Ahead," "Porgy and Bess," and many others. Davis formed a sextet that experimented with modal playing, and that group recorded one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, "Kind of Blue." Eventually, Davis formed a new quintet with such stars as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and others. Miles began experimenting with electronic instruments and fusion, and attracted a younger group of fans with such rock-tinged albums as "Bitches Brew" while influencing many younger musicians. Davis even experimented with hip-hop in his final studio recording, "Doo-Bop." Miles Davis died at the age of 65 on September 25, 1991. However, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame on March 13, 2006. With a unique style that stripped away everything but the essentials of what he was trying to communicate, and with his willingness to try new paths instead of sticking to the tried and true, Miles Davis continues to be one of the greatest influences on jazz and on American music.

Sarah Vaughan

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Sarah Vaughan. "Sassy" started out singing and playing piano in church, but was hired for Earl "Fatha" Hines' legendary big band after she won one of the famed amateur contests at the Apollo Theatre. However, due to the recording ban of the mid-1940s, she was not heard on records until she joined Billy Eckstine's band, which also had such luminaries as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Being around these giants of bebop greatly influenced Sarah Vaughan's style, and between her near-operatic voice and her sense of musical daring, Sarah Vaughan became hard to top. Like the great actress Sarah Bernhardt, she also became known as "The Divine Sarah." Along with her many fine jazz recordings, Vaughan also recorded a huge number of pop hits such as "Tenderly" and "Broken‑Hearted Melody," and perhaps as a nod to those who thought she could have had a classical career, also recorded an extended religious work called "The Mystery of Man." Vaughan's voice grew somewhat deeper over the years so that she could almost sing baritone, but she never lost her great vocal beauty and flexibility, and kept singing until shortly before her death from cancer in 1990. Thanks to the many recordings that she left behind, jazz fans will continue to enjoy the artistic legacy of the "Divine One," Sarah Vaughan.

Tuesday 2/26

Charles Mingus

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Charles Mingus. Mingus was born in an Army camp in Nogales, Arizona in 1922, and was raised in the Watts section of Los Angeles. Although Mingus' stepmother only allowed gospel music in their home, he heard the Duke Ellington band one day while tuning his father's crystal set radio, and became hooked on jazz. Mingus tried learning a few instruments from an early age, but settled on the bass in his teens after studying with both jazz and classical bassists. As a young professional, Mingus worked with Barney Bigard and Louis Armstrong, and gained his first fame while with vibraphonist Red Norvo. He even worked with Duke Ellington for a short time, but his legendary temper got the better of him, and Mingus became the only musician that Ellington ever personally fired from his band! He eventually founded Debut Records, and was bassist for the legendary "Jazz at Massey Hall" concert that was recorded for that label. Mingus also came into his own as a composer with such works as "Goodbye Porkpie Hat," "Better Get Hit In Your Soul," "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady," and the posthumously released "Epitaph." Using both large and small groups, Mingus recorded such legendary albums as "Pithecanthropus Erectus," "Mingus Ah Um," and "Oh Yeah." However, the strain of coping with financial problems, racism and the failure of his Jazz Artists Guild undermined Mingus' mental health, and he left the music business for three years and went into therapy. He returned to performing in 1969 to earn some badly-needed money, and got a boost in the form of a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition and the purchase of the Debut Records master tapes by the Fantasy label. Mingus also formed a new group with young musicians, married his devoted second wife Sue, and was honored at the White House. Towards the end of his life, working from a wheelchair, Mingus continued to compose and also did his last project, a collaboration with Joni Mitchell. Mingus died in Mexico in 1979, but thanks to the efforts of Sue Mingus, his music lives on. She has helped to establish repertory groups such as Mingus Dynasty and the Mingus Big Band. Younger jazz musicians have also learned much from Mingus' pathbreaking compositions. Charles Mingus will be remembered for his music and for his integrity as long as there is jazz.

Wes Montgomery

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Wes Montgomery. This Indianapolis native taught himself guitar at the age of 18, and gained his signature sound by using his thumb instead of a pick. After touring with Lionel Hampton for two years, Montgomery came back home, and for years he worked a day job to support his family and played jazz at night. In the late 1950s, he recorded with his brothers: Buddy Montgomery played vibes and Monk Montgomery played bass. After several other albums, he caught on with "The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery," recorded in 1960, and played as a leader for the rest of his career. Late in his career, Montgomery made a number of recordings for the A & M label with strings and woodwinds, which bothered jazz purists but which also got radio airplay, brought new fans to jazz and helped provide for his family. Montgomery's new fans also came to his live shows, which had as much jazz as they ever did. Years of overwork took their toll, and Wes died at only 43 in 1968 of a heart attack. However, Wes Montgomery continues to have many loyal fans and is highly influential among guitarists almost four decades.

Wednesday 2/27

Lee Morgan

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Lee Morgan. He was a child prodigy; he was a professional trumpeter at 15, and his work in Philadelphia helped him get to know Miles Davis and Clifford Brown; after the death of the latter in an accident in 1956, many in jazz considered him to be Brown's successor. At 18, he went to work for fellow trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and began recording for Blue Note. He was one of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for three years, but left the band due to a drug problem and went back to Philadelphia for two years. When he returned to the music scene, he had a huge hit with "The Sidewinder," which was the start of a series of legendary recordings. He also returned to the Jazz Messengers. Later, he added modal elements to his hard-bop style, and also showed some funk influence. However, his personal life was complicated, and in 1972, he was murdered by his girlfriend when he was just 33. Despite his early demise, Lee Morgan will always be remembered by jazz fans for his adventurousness, soulfulness, and incredible technique.

Ray Brown

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Ray Brown. Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one. With a vacancy in the high school jazz orchestra, he took up the double bass. From 1946 to 1951 he played in Gillespie's band. Brown, along with the vibraphonist Milt Jackson, drummer Kenny Clarke, and the pianist John Lewis formed the rhythm section of the Gillespie band, and their work together eventually led to the creation of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Brown became acquainted with singer Ella Fitzgerald when she joined the Gillespie band as a special attraction for a tour of the southern United States in 1947. The two married that year, and together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown, Jr. It was at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in 1949 that Brown first worked with the jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, in whose trio Brown would play from 1951 to 1966. In 1966, he settled in Los Angeles where he was in high demand working for various television show orchestras. He also accompanied some of the leading artists of the day, including Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, and Nancy Wilson. He also managed his former musical partners, the Modern Jazz Quartet, as well as a young Quincy Jones, produced some shows for the Hollywood Bowl, wrote jazz double bass instruction books, and developed a jazz cello. In the 1980s and 1990s he led his own trios and continued to refine his bass playing style. In his later years he recorded and toured extensively with pianist Gene Harris. In the early 1980s, he even discovered a young singer by the name of Diana Krall in a restaurant in British Columbia. He continued to perform up until his death in July of 2002 right before he was set to play a show in Indianapolis.

Thursday 2/28

Les McCann

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Les McCann. McCann was born in 1935 in Lexington, Kentucky. He taught himself piano as a teenager, and after winning a talent contest in the Navy as a singer in 1956, he appeared on Ed Sullivan's TV show. McCann became a well-known jazz figure after settling in California, becoming quite popular with his soulful, gospel-influenced style. McCann, to the surprise of many, turned down a chance to join Cannonball Adderley's quintet so that he could work on his own music. McCann became famous for his funky piano playing, and recorded a number of albums in the 1960s, both as a leader and with such performers as Gerald Wilson, "Groove" Holmes and Ben Webster. McCann's appearance with Eddie Harris at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival resulted in the famous album "Swiss Movement," and he performed more in the R & B style through the 1970s, with more emphasis on his singing. McCann recorded very little for many years, but was still a popular live performer, and had a successful 1994 reunion tour with Eddie Harris. McCann was out of action for a while in the mid-1990s due to a stroke, which hampered his keyboard playing somewhat but which left his singing voice intact. Since his recovery, McCann has returned to performing and recording. The name of Les McCann is synonymous with funk for his many fans, and he has shown great courage in his return from what could have been a career-ending illness.

Freddie Hubbard

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Freddie Hubbard. This trumpeter was born in Indianapolis in 1938. Hubbard came from a musical family, and learned to play trumpet and mellophone in school. While still in his hometown, Hubbard formed a band called the Jazz Contemporaries, which included two players who would also become professional jazz musicians, Larry Ridley and James Spaulding. He also played with Wes and Monk Montgomery. When Hubbard went to New York, he attracted the attention of the jazz world, playing at various times with Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson and others. He joined Quincy Jones' band for a tour of Europe, and participated in pathbreaking albums by Ornette Coleman, Oliver Nelson, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy (who was also his roommate) and Herbie Hancock. Hubbard attained fame with his work with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers from 1961 to 1964. Hubbard formed his own quintet in the mid-1960s, and also composed such jazz standards as "Up Jumped Spring" and "Red Clay." After recording some popular albums for CTI, Hubbard had a bad patch after signing for Columbia Records, where he had a number of projects that were more pop-oriented and that were artistically weak. Luckily, Hubbard's participation in Herbie Hancock's group V.S.O.P. showed that he was still good when his talent was guided in the right direction. Hubbard suffered a lip injury in 1992 from playing too many high notes, and kept playing instead of letting his lip heal. This caused Hubbard to lose a great deal of his "chops", and he was even feared to have cancer; fortunately, that was not so. However, Hubbard's problems made him take stock of his life, so that he became sober and also stopped playing for several years. After studying with classical teachers and relearning his technique, Hubbard was eventually able to resume playing on a limited basis, and he still performs and records. Although Freddie Hubbard no longer has the virtuosity of his early years, he has learned from his experiences, and his recent work shows a new maturity. Live material from Hubbard's prime has also resurfaced, adding to an already considerable discography. Hubbard became a member of the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1974, and was named a 2006 Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. Freddie Hubbard will celebrate his 70th birthday on April 7th.

Friday 2/29

Nina Simone

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of Dr. Nina Simone. Simone originally went to the Juilliard School of Music to study classical piano, which was rare for a black musician at the time, but had to play in nightclubs to support herself. Simone began singing when a club owner would only hire her if she both sang and played. She came up with a unique style that combined jazz with classical, soul, folk and blues influences. Simone's emotional singing style, strong statements against racism and oppression, and strong personality made her a star. Richard Pryor once said that, while white people had Judy Garland, black people had Nina Simone. Simone kept on despite problems with racism, mental and physical illness, and unhappiness in her personal life. Late in her career, Simone became known to a new generation when her famous recording of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" was used in a perfume commercial, and she even returned for occasional American appearances after years as an expatriate in Europe and Africa. Nina Simone died in April of 2003 after years of poor health, but her great artistic integrity will ensure that she'll be remembered as long as people can hear her recordings.

John Coltrane

WAER salutes Black History Month with the music of John Coltrane. This North Carolina native learned to play clarinet and saxophone in community and high school bands. After graduating from high school, he moved to Philadephia to join his family that was already there, and studied music and played in local clubs until he went into the U.S. Navy. While stationed in Hawaii, he kept playing and made his first recording with a group of other sailors. After his return to Philadelphia, he worked for several bands, and switched to the tenor sax. He remained with Dizzy Gillespie from 1949 to 1951, but a drug problem made him hard to deal with, and he was fired several times by Miles Davis and other leaders before he finally gave up drugs and became more reliable. He made his first record as a leader in 1957, and soon rejoined Miles Davis, becoming part of the sextet that recorded "Milestones" and "Kind of Blue." His own projects became the subject of controversy for what became known as "sheets of sound". However, he also enjoyed popular success with such recordings as "My Favorite Things," "Ballads," and recordings with Duke Ellington and Johnny Hartman. His later playing included a great deal of free jazz, long solos and influences from world music from Africa and India. He died of liver cancer when he was only 40, but his willingness to take musical chances and his emotionally powerful playing will inspire both musicians and listeners as long as there is jazz.