Jawanza Kobie’s Weekly Wednesday Jazz Playlist April 27, 2022

Drummer Steve Gadd may be the most recorded drummer in history although others have claimed this coveted spot. He has played with a who’s who in the music industry from Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Bee Gees, Chick Corea, Grover Washington Jr. etc. One of his most famous recognizable playing was on singer song writer Paul Simon’s ’50 Way to Leave Your Lover’ from the Grammy winning Album ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’. Steve started playing at age 11 and is a graduate of Eastman School of Music in New York. Here is one of his tracks from his many albums and bands ‘Sly Boots’.

Percussionist master extraordinaire Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin Jazz compositions that endured over a 50-year career. During the 1950s, Puente was at the height of his popularity, and helped to bring Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds like mambo, son and cha cha’ to mainstream audiences. Puente was so successful playing popular Afro-Cuban rhythms that many people mistakenly identify him as Cuban. Dance Mania possibly Puente's most well known album, was released in 1958. Among his most famous compositions are mambo "Oye Como va’ (1963), popularized by Latin rock musician Carlos Santana and later interpreted, among others.

Trumpeter composer Freddie Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives for modern jazz and bebop. One of the greatest trumpet virtuosos ever to play in the jazz idiom, and arguably one of the most influential, Freddie Hubbard played mellophone and then trumpet in his school band and studied at the Jordan Conservatory with the principal trumpeter of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Often played with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and a host of Jazz and music greats, he was a member of the Art Blakey Jazz Messengers of the early 60s. Here is ‘Red Clay’ one of his most popular compositions and now a Jazz Standard.

One of my most admired music hero’s was composer, arranger Henry Mancini. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and twenty Grammy Awards, plus a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. He wrote many themes for television and movies including the ‘Pink Panther’ theme. He also was instrumental in recommending Quincy Jones for his 1st movie score ‘The Pawn Broker’ when Black people were denied this opportunity. Here is one of my favorites ‘The Theme To Peter Gunn’ television show.

Charles Mingus the bassist, composer, bandleader is being celebrated around the world this month on his 100th birthday. Although he passed in 1979 his influence is still felt through out the Jazz world. One of the most important figures in twentieth century American music, Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. His early professional experience, in the 40's, found him touring with bands like Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton. From the 1960's until his death in 1979 at age 56 from a rare decease, Mingus remained in the forefront of American music. When asked to comment on his accomplishments, Mingus said that his abilities as a bassist were the result of hard work but that his talent for composition came from God. ‘Better Git It In Your Soul’ is one of his most recognizable and popular compositions.

What hasn’t been written about the great American composer and bandleader Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington. One of the most prolific composers in history mainly in Jazz but not limited to this genre, Duke was and still revered as an American treasure. His influence in Jazz cast a wide shadow on many Jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck and Stevie Wonder to name but a few. ‘Drop Me Off In Harlem’ later with added lyrics was made popular by another Jazz icon Louis Armstrong.

Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson was a ‘monster’ of a player in my opinion. His playing and solos were never boring and filled with so much of a depth of a knowledge of harmony and phrasing which mesmerized the listener every time you heard it. His early musical interests included drums, piano, saxophone and composition. While attending classes of flute and bass at Wayne State University he further developed his saxophone and compositional skills. From 1963 to 1968, Henderson appeared on nearly 30 albums for Blue Note records including five released under his name. Though he occasionally worked with Echoes of An Era the Griffith Park Band and Chick Corea, Henderson remained primarily a leader throughout the 1980s. An accomplished and prolific composer, he began to focus more on reinterpreting standards and his own earlier compositions. ‘Shade of Jade’ is one of my favorite tunes of his.

Paul Laurence Dunbar Chambers Jr. was an American jazz double bassist. A fixture of rhythm sections during the 1950s and 1960s, his importance in the development of jazz bass can be measured not only by the extent of his work in this short period, but also by his impeccable timekeeping and virtuosic improvisations. His career was cut short by his untimely death in 1969 at the age of thirty three, left a huge whole in the Jazz world. In 1955 he joined the Mile Davis quintet, and was awarded the Down Beat"New Star Award" the following year. Chambers stayed with the group until 1963, and appeared on many classic albums, including Kind of Blue One of Chambers's most noted performances was on that album's first track, "So What. Here is one of his own compositions ‘Omicron’.

Flautist Herbert Jay Solomon known professionally by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor sax and clarinet but Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute. His most popular single was ‘Hijack’ which was a Billboard No. 1 dance hit for three weeks in 1975. He was a major influence on me when I use young and being introduced to jazz because of his groove based tracks. Here is one of his popular tracks ‘Comin Home Baby’

Child prodigy on the organ local phenom (Philadelphia PA) Joey Defrancesco has been wowing audiences for many years. I remember listening to him for the first time when he was fifteen and was blown away by his playing, which only improved over the years. He has since gone on to add trumpet and tenor saxophone to his arsenal. He has played with Miles Davis, guitarist great John McLaughlin, George Benson, Ray Charles, Bette Midler, Christian McBride, and others. He was born into a musical family that included three generations of jazz musicians. He was named after his grandfather, Joseph DeFrancesco, a jazz musician who played the saxophone and clarinet. Here is his rendition of ‘Fly Me To The Moon’

Another artist who had a short career due to an untimely death from an auto accident in 2002 was saxophonist great Bob Berg. He played with Miles Davis, Chick Corea, pianist composer Cedar Walton, Mike Stern, and his own band. He was a student of hard bop, he also played fusion, funk, and even country. I am so fond of his rendition of the Jazz standard ‘You and The Night And The Music’ I play this on my own gigs. A talent gone too soon.

Bobby Humphrey was an anomaly being she was one of the first female Jazz ‘super stars’ (my opinion) to come out of the 1970s. She plays Jazz fusion, Funk, and soul-jazz.  Barbara Ann "Bobbi" Humphrey has recorded twelve albums and founded the jazz label Paradise Sounds Records. In 1971, she was the first female instrumentalist signed by Blue Note. ‘Harlem River Drive’ is one of her most popular tracks.

I hope you Enjoy.

JK