Steve Kuhn (born March 24, 1938, Brooklyn, New York City) is an American jazz pianist, composer and trio leader.

Biography

He began studying piano at the age of five and studied under Boston piano teacher Margaret Chaloff, mother of jazz baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff, who taught him the "Russian style" of piano playing. At an early age he began improvising classical music. As a teenager he appeared in jazz clubs in the Boston area, gigging with the likes of Coleman Hawkins, Vic Dickerson, Chet Baker, and Serge Chaloff. He graduated from Harvard and attended the Lenox School of Music where he was associated with such other future jazz masters as Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Gary McFarland, with a supportive faculty that included George Russell, Gunther Schuller, the Modern Jazz Quartet members, and Bill Evans. This allowed Kuhn to play, study, and create with some of the most forward-thinking innovators of jazz improvisation and composition, culminating with his joining trumpeter Kenny Dorham's group for an extended time and (briefly) John Coltrane's quartet at New York's Jazz Gallery club.

He also has appeared most with Stan Getz, Art Farmer, Oliver Nelson, Gary McFarland, Ron Carter, Scott LaFaro, Harvie Swartz, vocalist Shelia Jordan, Billy Drummond, David Finck, and Miroslav Vitous. From 1967 to 1971 Kuhn moved to Stockholm, Sweden where he worked with his own trio throughout Europe. In 1971 Kuhn moved back to New York and formed a quartet but continued doing European gigs, and appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival. In his early years, Kuhn was known as an 'avant-garde' pianist (but not "New Thing"). Kuhn was associated with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Pete La Roca (Sims) during the 1960s for several notable recordings: Three Waves under Kuhn's leadership, Basra under La Roca's leadership which also featured Joe Henderson, and Sing Me Softly Of The Blues under the leadership of flugelhornist Art Farmer. Also notable was Kuhn's inclusion in the quartet on the landmark recording Sound PIeces led by saxophonist, composer, and arranger Oliver Nelson and including Ron Carter on bass and Grady Tate on drums. Among other notable recordings which were also critically acclaimed was The October Suite composed by Gary McFarland or Kuhn and an ensemble which included strings, woodwinds, and reeds. A CD Promises Kept featuring Kuhn's compositions, piano, and strings. For decades, Steve Kuhn has led all-star trios that have included such players as bassists Ron Carter and David Finck, and drummers Al Foster, Jack DeJohnette, and Joey Baron. He has had several live recordings made in some of New York's leading jazz clubs.

Discography

As leader

1966 - Three Waves: The Steve Kuhn Trio (Contact)

1968 - Steve Kuhn in Europe

1969 - Childhood Is Forever (Charly/BYG)

1972 - Chicken Feathers (With Monica Zetterlund)

1972 - Raindrops (Steve Kuhn Live in New York)

1972 - Steve Kuhn

1974 - Ecstasy (ECM)

1974 - Trance (ECM)

1977 - Motility (ECM)

1978 - Non-Fiction (ECM)

1979 - Playground (ECM)

1981 - Last Year's Waltz (ECM)

1984 Mostly Ballads (New World Records) with Harvie Swartz

1986 The Vanguard Time (Owl Time Line)

1986 Life's Magic (Black Hawk)

1988 Porgy (Jazz City)

1988 Porgy (Evidence) with Eddie Gomez, Buster Williams, Al Foster

1989 Oceans In The Sky (Owl)

1990 Looking Back (Concord)

1990 Live At Maybeck Recital Hall. Volume 13 (Concord)

1992 Years Later (Concord) with David Finck, Lewis Nash

1995 Remembering Tomorrow (ECM) with David Finck, Joey Baron

1995 Seasons Of Romance (Postcards Records) with Tom Harrell, Bob Mintzer, George Mraz, Al Foster

1998 Dedication (Reservoir) with David Finck, Billy Drummond

1998 "Love Walked In" (Venus) with Buster Williams and Bill Stewart

1999 Countdown (Reservoir)

2000 The Best Things (Reservoir)

2007 "Live at Birdland" (EMI/Blue Note) with Ron Carter and Al Foster

2009 "Mostly Coltrane" (ECM) with David Finck, Joey Baron, and guest Joe Lovano

As sideman

1960 Kenny Dorham: Jazz Contemporary (Time)

1961 Stan Getz: Recorded Fall 1961 (Verve) mit Bob Brookmeyer, Roy Haynes

1965 Art Farmer: Sing Me Softly Of The Blues (Atlantic)

1965 Pete La Roca (Sims): "Basra" (Blue Note)

1966 Oliver Nelson: Sound Pieces (Impulse! Records)

1979 Steve Swallow: Home (ECM)

1991 Steve Swallow: Swallow (XtraWATT) with Carla Bley and John Scofield

1997 Sheila Jordan: Jazz Child (High Note)

As Collaborator

1966 "The October Suite" (Impulse) with Gary McFarland

2004 "Promises Kept" (ECM) with Carlos Franzetti

Box Set Compilation

2009 "Life's Backward Glances" (Box Set): Solo Piano, Trios, and Quartets with Steve Slagle or Sheila Jordan.

External links

stevekuhnmusic.com

Steve Kuhn discography at JazzDiscography.com

Steve Kuhn on ECM Records

Steve Kuhn at SunnysideRecords.com

Interview with Steve Kuhn

Steve Kuhn in-studio performance from WGBH Radio Boston

NY Times -- Steve Kuhn: Revisiting an Old Boss Named John Coltrane

Category:1938 births Category:American jazz pianists Category:Cobblestone Records artists Category:ECM artists Category:Free jazz pianists Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Impulse! Records artists Category:Living people Category:Muse Records artists Category:Postcards Records artists

Name	Scott LaFaro
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Rocco Scott LaFaro
Born	April 03, 1936Newark, New Jersey, United States
Died
Instrument	Double bass
Genre	Jazz, bebop, cool jazz, modal
Occupation	Double bassist
Associated acts	Bill EvansChet Baker Victor Feldman Stan KentonStan Getz

Rocco Scott LaFaro (April 3, 1936 – July 6, 1961) was an influential jazz bassist, perhaps best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio.

Biography

Born in Irvington, New Jersey, LaFaro grew up in a musical family (his father played in many big bands). His family moved to parent's hometown of Geneva, New York when Scott was five years old. He started on piano while in elementary school, began on the bass clarinet in junior high school, changing to tenor saxophone when he entered high school. He only took up the double bass at 18, in the summer before he entered college, when he learned a string instrument was required for music education majors. About three months into his studies at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, LaFaro decided to concentrate on bass. He often played in groups at the College Spa and Joe's Restaurant on State Street in downtown Ithaca.

He entered college to study music but left during the early weeks of his sophomore year, when he joined Buddy Morrow and his big band. He left that organization in Los Angeles after a cross country tour and decided to try his luck in the Los Angeles music scene. There, he quickly found work and became known as one of the best of the young bassists. In 1959, after many gigs with such luminaries as Chet Baker, Victor Feldman, Stan Kenton, Cal Tjader , and Benny Goodman, LaFaro joined Bill Evans, who had recently left the Miles Davis Sextet. It was with Evans and drummer Paul Motian that LaFaro developed and expanded the counter-melodic style that would come to characterize his playing. LaFaro replaced Charlie Haden as Ornette Coleman's bassist in January, 1961.

LaFaro played a double bass made in 1825 in Concord, New Hampshire by Abraham Prescott. The top of the instrument is a three-piece plate of slab-cut fir; the back is a two-piece plate of moderately flamed maple with an ebony inlay at the center joint; the sides are made of matching maple. It has rolled corners on the bottom and very sloped shoulders on the top, making it easier to get in and out of thumb position.

In 2009 , University of North Texas Press published "Jade Visions" a biography about Scott by his sister Helene LaFaro-Fernandez. It includes an extensive discography of Scott's recorded work.

In 2009, Resonance Records released "Pieces of Jade", the first album released featuring LaFaro as a bandleader. The album includes five selections recorded in New York City during 1961 that showcase LaFaro with pianist Don Friedman and drummer Pete LaRoca, as well as a 22 minute practice tape of LaFaro and Bill Evans rehearsing "My Foolish Heart" in late 1960.

Death

LaFaro died in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 in Flint, New York on U.S. 20 between Geneva and Canandaigua, two days after accompanying Stan Getz at the Newport Jazz Festival. His death came just ten days after recording two live albums with the Bill Evans Trio, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby, albums considered among the finest live jazz recordings.

Although he performed for only six years (1955–1961), LaFaro's innovative approach to the bass redefined jazz playing bringing an "emancipation" introducing "so many diverse possibilities as would have been thought impossible for the bass only a short time before" , and inspired a generation of bassists who followed him.

References

External links

Scott LaFaro at Resonance Records

A biography (at Jazz Improv magazine), with recommended recordings

Scott LaFaro Discography

http://www.worldwidewoodshed.com/woodsheddin/issue4/LaFaro.htm

Category:1936 births Category:1961 deaths Category:American jazz double-bassists Category:American jazz musicians of Sicilian descent Category:Road accident deaths in New York

Name	Karin Krog
|image size	150px
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Karin Krog
Born	May 15, 1937
Origin	Oslo, Norway
Genre	Vocal jazz
Label	Meantime Records
Url

Karin Krog (born May 15, 1937 in Oslo) is a Norwegian jazz vocalist.

Life and career

She started to sing at an early age and in 1955 she was hired by the pianist Kjell Karlsen to sing in his sextet.

Her great grandfather is Anders Heyerdahl

In 1962 she started her first group and that same year she become a student of the well-known Norwegian-American singer Anne Brown. Karin studied with Brown until 1969. In the 1960's she also performed with the rhythm and blues band Public Enemies, releasing the hit singles Sunny and Watermelon Man.

During her career, she has worked with such musicians as Arild Andersen, Jan Garbarek, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Drew, Don Ellis, Steve Kuhn, Archie Shepp, John Surman, Red Mitchell, and Bengt Hallberg among others.

Awards

1965 - Buddyprisen from Norsk jazzforbund

1974 - Norwegian Grammy Årets spellemann

1975 - Female Singer of the Year from European Jazz Federation

1981 - Oslo Council Artist Award

Selected discography

Some Other Spring 1970

George Gershwin + Karin Krog 1974

Different Days, Different Ways 1976

Hi-Fly 1976, with Archie Shepp

Three's a Crowd 1977, with Red Mitchell

Cloud Line Blue 1978, with John Surman

I Remember You 1980, with Red Mitchell

Something Borrow, Something Blue 1989

Karin Krog Sings Gershwin 1993

Jubilee 1995

Bluesand 1999, with John Surman

Raindrops, Raindrops 2002

Where Flamingos Fly 2003

Where You At? 2003

Sweet Talker - The Best of Karin Krog 2005

References

External links

Complete discography

Category:1937 births Category:Living people Category:Norwegian female singers Category:Norwegian jazz singers Category:Women in jazz

Name	Benny Carter
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Bennett Lester Carter
Alias	"King"
Born	August 08, 1907 in Harlem, New York, USA
Died	July 12, 2003 in Los Angeles, California (aged 95)
Instrument	Saxophone, Trumpet, Clarinet
Genre	Swing, Big band, Jazz
Occupation	Musician, Bandleader, Composer, Musical arranger
Years active	1920s–1997
Label	Columbia, OKeh, Crown, Decca, Vocalion, Brunswick, Bluebird,Music Masters, Verve, United Artist, Norgran, Swingville, Clef
Associated acts	Billie Holiday, Fats Waller, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Phil Woods, Marian McPartland
Url	www.BennyCarter.com

Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King. In 1958, he performed with Billie Holiday at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival.

The National Endowment for the Arts honored Benny Carter with its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 1986. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, winner of the Grammy Award in 1994 for his solo "Prelude to a Kiss", and also the same year, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2000 awarded the National Endowment for the Arts, National Medal of Arts, presented by President Bill Clinton.

Biography

Born in New York in 1907, the youngest of three children and the only boy, received his first music lessons on piano from his mother. Largely self-taught, by age fifteen, Carter was already sitting in at Harlem night spots. From 1924 to 1928, Carter gained valuable professional experience as a sideman in some of New York's top bands. As a youth, Carter lived in Harlem around the corner from Bubber Miley who was Duke Ellington's star trumpeter, Carter was inspired by Miley and bought a trumpet, but when he found he couldn't play like Miley he traded the trumpet in for a saxophone. For the next two years he played with such jazz greats as cornetist Rex Stewart, clarinetist-soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, pianists Earl Hines, Willie "The Lion" Smith, pianist Fats Waller, pianist James P. Johnson, pianist Duke Ellington and their various groups.

First recordings

, New York, N.Y., ca. Oct. 1946]] He first recorded in 1928 with Charlie Johnson's Orchestra, also arranging the titles recorded, and formed his first big band the following year. He played with Fletcher Henderson in 1930 and 1931, becoming his chief arranger in this time, then briefly led the Detroit-based McKinney's Cotton Pickers before returning to New York in 1932 to lead his own band,including such swing stars as Leon "Chu" Berry (tenor saxophone), Teddy Wilson (piano), Sid Catlett (drums), and Dicky Wells (trombone). They were sophisticated and very complex arrangements, and a number of them became swing standards which were performed by other bands ("Blue Lou" is a great example of this). He also arranged for Duke Ellington during these years. Carter was most noted for his superb arrangements. Among the most significant are "Keep a Song in Your Soul", written for Fletcher Henderson in 1930, and "Lonesome Nights" and "Symphony in Riffs" from 1933, both of which show Carter's fluid writing for saxophones. By the early 1930s he and Johnny Hodges were considered the leading alto players of the day. Carter also quickly became a leading trumpet soloist, having rediscovered the instrument. He recorded extensively on trumpet in the 1930s. Carter's name first appeared on records with a 1932 Crown label release of "Tell All Your Day Dreams to Me" credited to Bennie Carter and his Harlemites. Carter's short-lived Orchestra played the Harlem Club in New York but only recorded a handful of brilliant records for Columbia, OKeh and Vocalion. The OKeh sides were issued under the name Chocolate Dandies.

In 1933 Carter took part in an amazing series of sessions that featured the British band leader Spike Hughes, who came to New York specifically to organize a series of recordings featuring the best Black musicians available. These 14 sides plus four by Carter's big band were only issued in England at the time, originally titled Spike Hughes and His Negro Orchestra. The musicians were mainly made up from members of Carter's band. The bands (14-15 pieces) include such major players as Henry "Red" Allen (trumpet), Dicky Wells (trombone), Wayman Carver (flute), Coleman Hawkins (saxophone), J.C. Higginbotham (trombone), and Leon "Chu" Berry (saxophone), tracks include: "Nocturne," "Someone Stole Gabriel's Horn," "Pastorale," "Bugle Call Rag", "Arabesque," "Fanfare," "Sweet Sorrow Blues," "Music at Midnight," "Sweet Sue Just You," "Air in D Flat," "Donegal Cradle Song," "Firebird," "Music at Sunrise," and "How Come You Do Me Like You Do".

Europe

Carter moved to Europe in 1935 to play trumpet with Willie Lewis's orchestra, and also became staff arranger for the British Broadcasting Corporation dance orchestra and made several records. Over the next three years, he traveled throughout Europe, playing and recording with the top British, French, and Scandinavian jazzmen, as well as with visiting American stars such as his friend Coleman Hawkins. Two recordings that showcase his sound most famously are 1937's "Honeysuckle Rose," recorded with Django Reinhardt and Coleman Hawkins in Europe, and the same tune reprised on his 1961 album Further Definitions, an album considered a masterpiece and one of jazz's most influential recordings.

Return to Harlem and a move to L.A.

Returning home in 1938, he quickly formed another superb orchestra, which spent much of 1939 and 1940 at Harlem's famed Savoy Ballroom. His arrangements were much in demand and were featured on recordings by Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey. Though he only had one major hit in the big band era (a novelty song called “Cow-Cow Boogie,” sung by Ella Mae Morse), during the 1930s Carter composed and/or arranged many of the pieces that became swing era classics, such as “When Lights Are Low,” “Blues in My Heart,” and “Lonesome Nights.” , Benny Carter, Louis Armstrong, and Leonard Feather in 1942.]] He relocated to Los Angeles in 1943, moved increasingly into studio work. Beginning with "Stormy Weather" in 1943, he arranged for dozens of feature films and television productions. In Hollywood, he wrote arrangements for such artists as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Slack and Mel Torme. In 1945, trumpeter Miles Davis made his first recordings with Carter as sideman on album Benny Carter and His Orchestra, and considered him a close friend and mentor. Carter was one of the first black men to compose music for films. He was an inspiration and a mentor for Quincy Jones when Jones began writing for television and films in the 1960s. Carter's successful legal battles in order to obtain housing in then-exclusive neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area made him a pioneer in an entirely different area.

Benny Carter visited Australia in 1960 with his own quartet, performed at the 1968 Newport Jazz Festival with Dizzy Gillespie, and recorded with a Scandinavian band in Switzerland the same year. His studio work in the 1960s included arranging and sometimes performing on Peggy Lee’s Mink Jazz, (1962) and on the single "I’m A Woman" in the same year.

Academia

In 1969, Carter was persuaded by Morroe Berger, a sociology professor at Princeton University who had done his master's thesis on jazz, to spend a weekend at the college as part of some classes, seminars, and a concert. This led to a new outlet for Carter's talent: teaching. For the next nine years he visited Princeton five times, most of them brief stays except for one in 1973 when he spent a semester there as a visiting professor. In 1974 Princeton awarded him an honorary master of humanities degree. He conducted workshops and seminars at several other universities and was a visiting lecturer at Harvard for a week in 1987. Morroe Berger also wrote the book "Benny Carter - A Life in American Music," (1982) a two-volume work, covers Carter's career in depth, an essential work of jazz scholarship.

In the late summer of 1989 the Classical Jazz series of concerts at New York's Lincoln Center celebrated Carter's 82nd birthday with a set of his songs, sung by Ernestine Anderson and Sylvia Syms. In the same week, at the Chicago Jazz Festival, he presented a recreation of his Further Definitions album, using some of the original musicians. In February 1990, Carter led an all-star big band at the Lincoln Center in a concert tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. Carter was a member of the music advisory panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1990, Carter was named "Jazz Artist of the Year" in both the Down Beat and Jazz Times International Critics' polls. In 1978, he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and in 1980 received the Golden Score award of the American Society of Music Arrangers. Carter was also a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1996, and received honorary doctorates from Princeton (1974), Rutgers (1991), Harvard (1994), and the New England Conservatory (1998).

One of the most remarkable things about Benny Carter's career was its length. It has been said that he is the only musician to have recorded in eight different decades. Having started a career in music before music was even recorded electrically, Carter remained a masterful musician, arranger and composer until he retired from performing in 1997. In 1998, Benny Carter was honored at Third Annual Awards Gala and Concert at Lincoln Center. He received the Jazz at Lincoln Center Award for Artistic Excellence and his music was performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall and Bobby Short. Wynton accepted on Benny's behalf. (Back trouble prevented Benny from attending).

Carter died in Los Angeles, California at Cedars-Sinai Hospital July 12, 2003 from complications of bronchitis at the age of 95. In 1979, he married Hilma Ollila Arons, who survives him, along with a daughter, a granddaughter and a grandson.

Songs composed by Carter

"Blues In My Heart" (1931) with Irving Mills

"When Lights Are Low" (1936) with Spencer Williams

"Cow Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay)" (1942) with Don Raye and Gene De Paul

"Key Largo" (1948) with Karl Suesdorf, Leah Worth

"Rock Me To Sleep" (1950) with Paul Vandervoort II

"A Kiss From You" (1964) with Johnny Mercer

"Only Trust Your Heart" (1964) with Sammy Cahn

Selective awards and recognitions

Inducted into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame, 1977.

Grammy history

Career Wins: 2

Career Nominations: 7

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=6 align=center | Benny Carter Grammy Awards History |- ! Year ! Category ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Result |- align=center | 1994 | Best Jazz Instrumental Solo | "Prelude to a Kiss" | Jazz | Music Masters | Winner |- align=center | 1994 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance - Individual or Group | Elegy in Blue | Jazz | Music Masters | Nominee |- align=center | 1993 | Best Jazz Instrumental Solo | "The More I See You" | Jazz | Telarc | Nominee |- align=center | 1992 | Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance | Harlem Renaissance | Jazz | Music Masters | Nominee |- align=center | 1987 | Lifetime Achievement Award | | | | Winner |- align=center | 1986 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance - Group | Swing Reunion | Jazz | Musicmasters | Nominee |- align=center | 1963 | Best Background Arrangement | Busted (Ray Charles) | R&B; | Rhino / Wea | Nominee |- align=center |}

Selective discography

Albums

Compilation albums

Royal Garden Blues (Quadromania: Benny Carter) (Membran/Quadromania, 2006)

The Music Master: Benny Carter (Proper Box, 2004), 1930-1952 recordings

References

External links

[ Benny Carter] — brief biography by Scott Yanow for Allmusic

Benny Carter's Music - Past Perfect

[ Discography]

Benny Carter's entry in Jazz Improv magazine

Norman Granz introduces Coleman Hawkins on tenor and Benny Carter on alto - Jazz At The Philharmonic for the London BBC

Carter biography on swingmusic.net

Jazz Conversations with Eric Jackson: Benny Carter from WGBH Radio Boston

Category:Harvard University staff Category:Swing bandleaders Category:Swing saxophonists Category:Mainstream jazz saxophonists Category:Swing clarinetists Category:Clarinetists Category:Mainstream jazz clarinetists Category:Swing trumpeters Category:Mainstream jazz trumpeters Category:Big band bandleaders Category:Jump blues musicians Category:East Coast blues musicians Category:American jazz alto saxophonists Category:Jazz alto saxophonists Category:American music arrangers Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Deaths from bronchitis Category:1907 births Category:2003 deaths