Chet Baker
Chesney Henry Baker Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s for albums featuring his vocals. Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean and Bix, rolled into one." His well-publicized drug habit drove his notoriety and fame. Baker was in and out of jail before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and'80s. Baker was raised in a musical household in Yale, Oklahoma, his father, Chesney Baker Sr. was a professional guitarist, his mother, Vera Moser, was a pianist who worked in a perfume factory. His maternal grandmother was Norwegian. Baker said that due to the Great Depression, his father, though talented, had to quit as a musician and take a regular job. Baker began his musical career singing in a church choir, his father gave him a trombone, replaced with a trumpet when the trombone proved too large. His mother said. After "falling in love" with the trumpet, he improved noticeably in two weeks.
Peers called Baker a natural musician. Baker received some musical education at Glendale Junior High School, but he left school at the age of 16 in 1946 to join the United States Army, he was assigned to Berlin, where he joined the 298th Army band. After leaving the Army in 1948, he studied music theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles, he dropped out during his second year to re-enlist. He became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco, spending time in clubs such as Bop City and the Black Hawk, he proceeded to pursue a career in music. Baker performed with Vido Musso and Stan Getz before being chosen by Charlie Parker for a series of West Coast engagements. In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Rather than playing identical melody lines in unison like Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and Mulligan complemented each other with counterpoint and anticipating what the other would play next. "My Funny Valentine", with a solo by Baker, became a hit and would be associated with Baker for the rest of his career.
With the Quartet, Baker was a regular performer at Los Angeles jazz clubs such as The Haig and the Tiffany Club. Within a year, Mulligan was imprisoned on drug charges. Baker formed a quartet with a rotation that included pianist Russ Freeman, bassists Bob Whitlock, Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon, Jimmy Bond, drummers Larry Bunker, Bob Neel, Shelly Manne. Baker's quartet released popular albums between 1953 and 1956. Baker won reader's polls at Metronome and Down Beat magazine, beating trumpeters Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. In 1954, readers named Baker the top jazz vocalist. In 1956, Pacific Jazz Records released Chet Baker Sings, an album that increased his visibility and drew criticism. Baker sang throughout the rest of his career. Hollywood studios saw an opportunity in Baker's chiseled features, he made his acting debut in the film Hell's Horizon, released in the fall of 1955. He declined a studio contract. Over the next few years, Baker led his own combos, including a 1955 quintet with Francy Boland, where Baker combined playing trumpet and singing.
In 1956 he completed an eight-month tour of Europe. In late 1959 he returned to Europe, recording in Italy what would become known as the Milano Sessions with arranger and conductor Ezio Leoni and his orchestra. Baker was arrested for drug possession and jailed in Pisa, forcing Leoni to communicate through the prison warden to coordinate arrangements with Baker as they prepared for recording. During most of the 1960s, Baker played flugelhorn and recorded music that could be classified as West Coast jazz. Baker said he began using heroin in 1957. Author Jeroen de Valk and pianist Russ Freeman say. Freeman was Baker's musical director. Sometimes Baker pawned his instruments to buy drugs. During the 1960s, he was imprisoned in Italy on drug charges and was expelled from Germany and the UK on drug-related offences, he was deported to the U. S. from Germany for getting into trouble with the law a second time. He settled in Milpitas, performing in San Francisco and San Jose between jail terms for prescription fraud.
In 1966, Baker was beaten while attempting to buy drugs, after performing at The Trident restaurant in Sausalito. In the film Let's Get Lost, Baker said an acquaintance attempted to rob him but backed off, only to return the next night with a group of men who chased him, he became surrounded. Instead of rescuing him, the people inside the car pushed him back out onto the street, where the chase continued, he received cuts and some of his teeth were knocked out, ruining his embouchure and leaving him unable to play trumpet. He worked at a gas station until concluding. After developing a new embouchure resulting from dentures, Baker returned to the straight-ahead jazz that began his career, he moved to New York City and began performing and recording again, including with guitarist Jim Hall. In the 1970s, Baker returned to Europe, where he was assisted by his friend Diane Vavra, who took care of his personal needs and helped him during his recording and performance dates. From 1978 until his death in 1988, Baker lived and played exclusively in Europe, returning to the U.
S. once a year for a few performances. This was Baker's most prolific era as a rec
Tony Banks (musician)
Anthony George Banks is an English musician and film composer known as the keyboardist and founding member of the rock band Genesis. Banks is a prolific solo artist, releasing six solo albums that range through progressive rock and classical music. Banks co-formed Genesis in 1967 while studying at Charterhouse as their keyboardist and one of their principal songwriters and lyricists, he became a prolific user of the Hammond T-102 organ, Mellotron, ARP Pro Soloist and Yamaha CP-70 piano. In the band's earliest years Banks would play acoustic guitar for some of the mellow and pastoral songs. In 2010, Banks was inducted into the Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis. In 2015, he received a Prog God Award at the Progressive Music Awards. Banks is ranked No. 11 on MusicRadar's greatest keyboard players of all time. Anthony George Banks was born on 27 March 1950 in East Hoathly with Halland, East Sussex as the youngest of five children, he cites his mother, a pianist, as being into music, first listened to classical music albums that she owned from around six before he moved to musical theatre compositions by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Banks's elder brother introduced him to a wider variety, naming "Sixteen Tons" sung by Frankie Laine as one of the songs, said, "By 1961, for the next five to six years, I was music mad!" Banks started piano lessons at school at eight with the headmaster's wife, but did not enjoy tuition at first because he was "quite forced into it" by his parents until he grew to enjoy it. He considered himself an average piano player, learned to recite pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Maurice Ravel, his two favourite piano composers, by ear. At thirteen, he began lessons with an unsuitable teacher who made him lose interest in classical music, but he started to recite songs by ear that he heard on the radio. Months he acquired a new piano teacher who sparked his interest in classical compositions once more, which became a deciding factor for Banks's decision to pursue a career in music. In addition to the piano, Banks taught himself to play the guitar. At seven, Banks began six years of study at Boarzell Preparatory School, a boarding school in Hurst Green.
In September 1963, Banks began study at a private school in Godalming, Surrey. He studied classical piano as an extracurricular subject. Shortly after his arrival he befriended fellow pupil and future Genesis bandmate Peter Gabriel over their general distaste for the school's environment, they went on to play in a school band with drummer Chris Stewart. In early 1967, they merged with guitarists Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips, two members of Anon, another school band, to record a series of demos which led to the formation of their new band, Genesis. Banks planned to study mathematics in higher education. After leaving Charterhouse, Banks began studying chemistry at Sussex University but soon switched to physics and philosophy. After a year at Sussex, he took a leave of absence in 1969 to explore a career with Genesis as the group had split but decided to reform and become a full-time professional band. Banks never returned to university. Banks's elaborate arrangements and keyboard solos – such as the piano introduction to "Firth of Fifth" and the instrumental sections of "The Cinema Show", "Watcher of the Skies", "Supper's Ready" – helped to establish Genesis's sound.
In addition to playing keyboards, Banks contributed to Genesis's 12-string acoustic passages in songs such as "The Musical Box", "Entangled", "The Cinema Show", the beginning part of "Supper's Ready". Banks was an occasional back-up vocalist and sang co-lead vocals on "Shepherd", an unreleased track from 1970 which surfaced on the Genesis Archive 1967–75 boxed set. Notable Banks-penned Genesis songs include "Mad Man Moon", "One for the Vine" and the anthemic ballad "Afterglow", which remained a popular coda to the Banks-driven medleys that the group played during live shows for years. In 1997, Banks turned down an invitation to play on Steve Hackett's solo album Genesis Revisited as he disliked going over past material and an appearance would have added confusion to the fact Genesis were close to putting out Calling All Stations. After Genesis split in 1998, Banks's career stagnated, he considered retirement from music, it was during this time that he began composing, titling an early piece "Black Down" which led to his decision to pursue orchestra composition.
Banks first thought following Gabriel's departure from Genesis. He had a group of songs in development at the time which were used on A Trick of the Tail, their first album recorded without Gabriel, including "Mad Man Moon" and sections of "Entangled" and "Ripples". In 1979, after Genesis had entered a break in activity and Rutherford travelled to Polar Studios in Stockholm and recorded their first studio albums. Banks's album, A Curious Feeling, was released first in October of that year, it was meant to be based and titled after the short story Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Banks had written a complete set of lyrics for the story, but shelved the idea after he was made aware of an upcoming musical about the book. In addition to keyboards Banks plays the guitar and bass as he wanted the album to be "As personal as possible", he enlisted Kim Beacon of String Driven Thing as vocalist. In June 1983, Banks released The Fugitive, it remains his only album to feature himself as lead vocalist, considered it after recording guide vocals for Collins to sing for "Me and Sarah Jane" and "Keep It Dark" on the Genesis album Abacab.
Banks has empl
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the second single from his fourth studio album, Still Crazy After All These Years, released on Columbia Records. Backing vocals on the single were performed by Patti Austin, Valerie Simpson, Phoebe Snow; the song features a recognizable repeated drum riff performed by drummer Steve Gadd. One of his most popular singles, "50 Ways" was released in December 1975 and began to see chart success within the new year, it became Simon's sole number-one hit as a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, was his highest position in France, where it peaked at number two. Elsewhere, the song was a top 20 hit in New Zealand; the single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting sales of over one million copies. Following Simon's divorce from first wife Peggy Harper, Simon opted to take a more humorous approach to document the incident, he recorded the song in a small New York City studio on Broadway, built the song around the drums in order to "avoid clutter".
"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" was Paul Simon's biggest solo hit and broke in the US in late 1975. It hit number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 on February 7, 1976, soaring from number ten the previous week, remained there for three weeks. Overseas, on the UK Singles Chart, the song reached number 23 in January 1976, it was certified gold on March 11, 1976, remained a best seller for nearly five months. Billboard ranked it as the No. 8 song of 1976. Paul Simon – vocals, acoustic guitar John Tropea, Hugh McCracken – electric guitars Tony Levin – bass guitar Kenny Ascher – Hammond organ Steve Gadd – drums Ralph MacDonald – tambourine, shaker Patti Austin – background vocals Valerie Simpson – background vocals Phoebe Snow – background vocals Brad Mehldau covered the song on the album Day is Done. Sophie Milman covered. Miley Cyrus covered the song in her "Backyard Sessions" for her charitable "Happy Hippie Foundation". Heather Small covered the song on her 2006 album, Close to a Miracle. Hot 100 number-one hits of 1976 Paul Simon biography Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Stuff (band)
Stuff was an American jazz-funk band during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The members were Gordon Edwards, Richard Tee, Eric Gale, Cornell Dupree, Chris Parker, Steve Gadd. Edwards describes how the band was founded: "I was contracting and playing studio sessions, hired Cornell for many of the dates – so we started recruiting for the band. One day at Rudy Van Gelder's – I remember it was a hell of a job. George Benson was on the job, Bernard Purdie, Richard Tee on keyboards. Esther asked me if she could use the band for a club date she had lined up – a club called Mikell's in New York City. We did play there, Richard Tee stopped by one time and he started coming every night. We only worked Monday through Thursday, Mikell's was packed, wall to wall, round the block." After parting ways with Esther the band returned to play there every week: "Steve Gadd came by one night to sit in with us, as did Eric Gale, they both became a part of the band. We were rolling heavy, one night I was approached by Michael Lang, the gentleman who put on Woodstock, who said he was sure he could get us a record deal – were we interested.
Sure enough Warner Bros. flew in from California to hear us live. They liked us, but we couldn't use the name The Encyclopedia of Soul – it was too long. I remember we were in a diner, on the corner by Atlantic Records one day, it was Erma who said, "You know Gordon, you always call everybody stuff, I don't care. You should call the band Stuff." Stuff developed a danceable blues and funk sound. Members of Stuff were among the most sought session musicians of that era, playing with Aretha Franklin, John Lennon and Paul Simon; the band released five albums between 1975 and 1980. Stuff's first album was recorded at Long View Farm in North Brookfield and produced by Herb Lovelle in 1976. In Japan it was certified platinum. Stuff was associated with Mikell's, the New York jazz club where session musicians would meet for jam sessions with visiting soul and funk musicians. 1976 Stuff 1977 More Stuff 1978 Live Stuff 1979 Stuff It 1980 Live in New York 2008 "Live at Montreux 1976"
Late in the Evening
"Late in the Evening" is a song by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was One-Trick Pony, released on Warner Bros.. Records, his first single release for Warner, "Late in the Evening" was released in July 1980 and became a hit on several charts worldwide. In the U. S. the song hit number six on the Billboard Hot 100. Internationally, the song was a top 20 hit in the Netherlands and New Zealand. Drummer Steve Gadd devised the distinctive drum part by using two pairs of drumsticks - one in each hand - in order to give the impression of two drummers playing together, as he has demonstrated in drum clinics. Paul Simon - vocals Steve Gadd - drums Tony Levin - bass Eric Gale - electric guitar Hugh McCracken - acoustic guitar Ralph MacDonald - cowbell, temple blocks Dave Grusin - horn arrangement "Late in the Evening" performed on singles charts in several territories worldwide. In the U. S. the single premiered on the Billboard Hot 100 at position 46 on August 9, 1980, rising over the following weeks to a peak of number six on September 27, 1980.
It spent sixteen weeks on the chart in total. It had peaked at number seven on the magazine's Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart two weeks earlier, where it spent sixteen weeks. In Canada, it first premiered on the magazine's RPM's all-genre singles chart, the RPM 100, on August 23 at number 87 peaking at number 19 on October 25, it debuted on the magazine's "Adult Oriented Playlist" chart on September 6, 1980 at number 39 peaking at number two on October 25. In the United Kingdom, the song premiered on the UK Singles Chart on August 31, 1980 at number 74, rose over two weeks to a peak of number 58 on September 14, 1980, it performed better in the Netherlands, peaking at number 11, in Belgium at number 15, in New Zealand at number 19. Nearby in Australia, the song fared better than its UK performance, peaking at position 34. Official music video on YouTube Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist/electric keyboardist and composer. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta" and "Windows", are considered jazz standards; as a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed the fusion band Return to Forever. With Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era. Corea continued to pursue other collaborations and to explore musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he is known for promoting and fundraising for a number of social issues. Armando Corea was born in Massachusetts, he is of southern Spanish descent. His father, a jazz trumpeter who led a Dixieland band in Boston in the 1930s and 1940s, introduced him to the piano at the age of four. Surrounded by jazz, he was influenced at an early age by bebop and Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Horace Silver, Lester Young.
At eight he took up drums. Corea developed his piano skills by exploring music on his own. A notable influence was concert pianist Salvatore Sullo, from whom Corea started taking lessons at age eight and who introduced him to classical music, helping spark his interest in musical composition, he spent several years as a performer and soloist for the St. Rose Scarlet Lancers, a drum and bugle corps based in Chelsea. Given a black tuxedo by his father, he started playing gigs when in high school, he enjoyed listening to Herb Pomeroy's band at the time and had a trio that played Horace Silver's music at a local jazz club. He moved to New York City, where he studied musical education for one month at Columbia University and six months at Juilliard, he quit after finding both disappointing, but he liked New York City and made it the starting point for his career. Corea began his career in the early 1960s with Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Blue Mitchell, Herbie Mann, Stan Getz, he released his debut album, Tones for Joan's Bones, in 1966.
Two years he released a trio album, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, with Roy Haynes and Miroslav Vitous. From 1968 to 1971 Corea had associations with avant-garde players, his solo style revealed a dissonant orientation. In 1970 he played electric piano on Larry Coryell's third album as a leader; the album was released on the Vanguard label with John McLaughlin on guitar, Miroslav Vitous on bass, Billy Cobham on drums. The album was produced by Daniel Weiss and engineered by David Baker with assistance of Paul Berkowitz. Spaces is sometimes considered to have started the jazz fusion genre, his avant-garde playing can be heard on his solo works of the period, his solos in live recordings under the leadership of Miles Davis, his recordings with Circle, his playing on Joe Farrell's Song of the Wind album on CTI Records. In September 1968 Corea replaced Herbie Hancock in Davis's band and appeared on Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew. In concert, Davis's rhythm section of Corea, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette combined elements of free jazz improvisation and rock music.
Corea experimented with using electric instruments the Fender Rhodes electric piano, in the Davis band. In live performance he processed the output of his electric piano with a device called a ring modulator. Using this style, he appeared on multiple Davis albums, including Black Beauty: Live at the Fillmore West and Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East, his live performances with the Davis band continued into 1970, with a touring band of Steve Grossman, tenor sax, Keith Jarrett, additional electric piano and organ, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Airto Moreira and Davis on trumpet. Holland and Corea left to form their own group, active in 1970 and 1971; this free jazz group featured drummer Barry Altschul. This band was recorded on Blue Note and ECM. Aside from soloing in an atonal style, Corea sometimes reached into the body of the piano and plucked the strings. In 1971 or 1972 Corea struck out on his own. In April 1971 he recorded the sessions that became Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 and Piano Improvisations Vol. 2 for ECM.
The concept of communication with an audience became a big thing for me at the time. The reason I was using that concept so much at that point in my life – in 1968, 1969 or so – was because it was a discovery for me. I grew up kind of only thinking how much fun it was to tinkle on the piano and not noticing that what I did had an effect on others. I did not think about a relationship to an audience until way later. In the early 1970s, Corea took a profound stylistic turn from avant-garde to a crossover jazz fusion style that incorporated Latin jazz with Return to Forever. Named after their eponymous 1972 album, the band relied on both acoustic and electronic instrumentation and drew upon Latin American styles more than on rock music. On their first two records, Return to Forever consisted of Flora Purim on vocals, Joe Farrell on flute and soprano saxophone, Airto Moreira on drums, Stanley Clarke on double bass. Drummer Lenny White and guitarist Bill Connors joined Corea and Clarke to form the second version of the group, which expanded the earlier Latin jazz elements with a more rock and funk-oriented sound inspired by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, led by his Bitches Brew bandmate John McLaughlin.
This incarnation of the group recorded the album Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, before Connors' departure and replacement by Al Di Meola, present on the subsequent releases Where Have I Known You Before, No Mystery, Romantic Warrior. Corea's composition "Spain"
Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist, active since the late 1960s. Ritenour was born on January 1952 in Los Angeles, California. At the age of eight he started playing guitar and four years decided on a career in music; when he was 16 he played on his first recording session with the Papas. He was influenced by guitarist Wes Montgomery. At the age of 17 he worked with Tony Bennett, he studied classical guitar at the University of Southern California. Ritenour's solo career began with the album First Course, a good example of the jazz-funk sound of the 1970s, followed by Captain Fingers, The Captain's Journey, Feel the Night. In 1979, he "was brought in to beef up one of Pink Floyd's The Wall' heaviest rock numbers, "Run Like Hell", he played "uncredited rhythm guitar" on "One of My Turns". As the 1980s began, Ritenour began to add stronger elements of pop beginning with Rit. "Is It You" with vocals by Eric Tagg reached No. 15 on the Billboard pop chart and No. 27 on the Soul chart. The track peaked at number fifteen on Hot Adult Contemporary chart.
He continued with the pop-oriented music for Rit/2 and Banded Together, while releasing a Direct-Disk instrumental album in 1983 called On the Line. He provided rhythm guitar on Tom Browne's album Funkin' for Jamaica, he recorded Harlequin with vocals by Ivan Lins. His next album, Earth Run, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance; the album's title track was Grammy nominated in the category of Best Instrumental Composition. Portrait included guest performances by The Yellowjackets and Kenny G. In 1988, his Brazilian influence came to the forefront on Festival, an album featuring his work on nylon-string guitar, he changed direction with his straight-ahead jazz album Stolen Moments which he recorded with saxophonist Ernie Watts, pianist Alan Broadbent, bassist John Patitucci, drummer Harvey Mason. During the same year, he composed the theme song for the Canadian TV series Ramona. In 1991 Ritenour and keyboardist Bob James formed the group Fourplay, he was replaced by Larry Carlton.
He released the career retrospective Overtime in 2005. Smoke n' Mirrors came out the next year with the debut of his thirteen-year-old son, Wesley, on drums. Celebrating his fifty years as a guitarist in 2010, Ritenour released 6 String Theory, a title that refers to six musical areas covered by the use of guitar. Ritenour has been a judge for the Independent Music Awards; the Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Ritenour has received one award out of sixteen nominations. Album of the Year, Jazziz magazine Best International Instrumentalist, Echo Jazz Award 1991 Fourplay 1993 Between the Sheets 1995 Elixir 1997 Best of Fourplay 1988 Norwegian Wood 1994 Norwegian Wood, vol. 2 1977 "Strawberry Letter 23" from the album Right On Time by Brothers Johnson 1987 Joyride - track 6 "Midi Citi" - 1985 American Flyer with Greg Mathieson - GRP Peggy Lee - Let's Love Brass Fever – Brass Fever Oliver Nelson - Skull Session Brass Fever – Time Is Running Out John Handy - Carnival Quincy Jones - Roots Dizzy Gillespie – Free Ride Alphonse Mouzon – Mind Transplant Alphonse Mouzon – The Man Incognito Joe Henderson – Black Miracle Stanley Turrentine – Everybody Come On Out Lalo Schifrin – Rollercoaster Paulinho da Costa – Agora Eddie Henderson – Comin' Through David "Fathead" Newman - Keep the Dream Alive Herb Alpert - Herb Alpert / Hugh Masekela Pink Floyd – The Wall Grover Washington Jr.
– The Best Is Yet to Come Karimata – Jezz, on "Rainy Days and You" only Lee Ritenour official site Lee Ritenour Interview NAMM Oral History Program
