Drew Gress (born November 20, 1959) is an American jazz double-bassist and composer born in Trenton, New Jersey, raised in the Philadelphia area, and currently based in New York City.

Biography

During the 1980s in the Baltimore/Washington DC area, he played with Sonny Stitt, Clifford Jordan, Albert Dailey, Mose Allison, Zoot Sims, Cab Calloway, Buddy Hackett, Phyllis Diller, and pianist Marc Copland, with whom he still plays today. He also served on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory, Towson State University, and the Baltimore School for the Arts. He formed a quartet, Tekke, in 1989 with David Kane, Glenn Cashman, and Michael Smith.

In 1998, he released his first album as leader, ''Heyday'', with his band Jagged Sky (featuring David Binney, Ben Monder, and Kenny Wollesen). 2001 saw the release of ''Spin & Drift'' with Uri Caine, Berne, and Rainey, in which he played pedal steel guitar for the first time.

Earlier in the 1990s, he served tenures as artist in residence at University of Colorado-Boulder and at Russia's St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Since 1992, Gress has maintained an extensive touring schedule, traveling to Europe, Asia, and South America. Those with whom he has and continues to work include Tim Berne, Ravi Coltrane, Uri Caine, John Hollenbeck, Fred Hersch, Marc Copland, Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas, Jack DeJohnette, John Surman, Ray Anderson, Erik Friedlander, Kenny Werner, Bill Carrothers, Ralph Alessi, Tony Malaby, Steve Lehman, and Edsel Gomez. To date, he has appeared on over 140 recordings, 4 of which have received Grammy nominations.

Gress’ own ensembles have toured Europe four times since 2002, in addition to isolated festival appearances in Italy and Portugal. In 2004, the UK’s BBC Radio and London’s Guardian selected his quartet’s live radio broadcast as Jazz Concert of the Year.

Composition awards include an NEA grant (1990), funding from Meet the Composer (2003), a Chamber Music America New Works Grant (2005), a CMA French-American Exchange Grant (2007), and an Encore Grant from that same organization (2008). He continues to compose for larger groups and has begun experimenting with virtual synthesizers.

Discography

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;Joint Venture

;Mika Pohjola

With Tom Varner

References

External links

Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:American jazz double-bassists Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:People from Trenton, New Jersey

Gress () is a thriving hamlet on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. Gress is adjacent to the larger village of Back.

Between 1919 and 1921, Gress along with nearby Coll, Lewis and Tong was the scene of several land raids.

See also

References

External links

Ellery Eskelin (born August 16, 1959) American tenor saxophonist. Born in Wichita, Kansas, raised in Baltimore, Maryland from the age of two. His parents, Rodd Keith and Bobbie Lee, were also musicians. Rodd Keith died in 1974 in Los Angeles, California and became a cult figure after his death in the little known field of "song-poem" music. Organist Bobbie Lee performed in local nightclubs in Baltimore, Maryland in the early 1960s and provided Eskelin an introduction to standards from the Great American Songbook as well as inspiring an early interest in jazz music.

Eskelin has resided in New York City since 1983 and has led numerous international touring ensembles while participating as a side-person with many of today's most forward thinking composers and improvisors. He has released more than twenty recordings as a leader since the late 1980s, primarily for the Swiss hatOLOGY label. His most important work continues to be with the group he formed in 1994 featuring keyboardist Andrea Parkins and drummer Jim Black although he has maintained lasting musical associations with Joey Baron, Mark Helias, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Ribot, David Liebman, Han Bennink, Sylvie Courvoisier, Bobby Previte and Daniel Humair among others.

Eskelin's style has its roots in the jazz realm yet his unique phrasing (which is compared to Arnold Schoenberg's technique of "klangfarbenmelodie" in ''The Wire'', December 1996) and the unorthodox techniques utilized in his compositions (in which composed and improvised elements often collide unpredictably) make for a music that defies easy categorization. Over the years, Eskelin has garnered significant critical praise in the international jazz press. Down Beat Magazine has recognized him as "a major player in today's creative music" (September 1995) and described his compositional approach as "a startlingly new concept" (January 1997).

Discography

As leader

As sideman

Filmography

External links

Gallery

Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:Jazz tenor saxophonists Category:Cadence Jazz Records artists

Ravi Coltrane (b. August 6, 1965 in Long Island, New York) is an American post-bop jazz saxophonist. Co-owner of the record label RKM Music, he has produced artists such as pianist Luis Perdomo (pianist), guitarist David Gilmore and trumpeter Ralph Alessi.

Biography

Ravi was two years old in 1967 when his father John Coltrane died. In 1986, he studied music, focusing on the saxophone at the California Institute of the Arts. Ravi has worked extensively with M-Base guru Steve Coleman, a significant influence on Ravi's own musical conception. Coltrane has played with Geri Allen, Kenny Barron, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Stanley Clarke, Branford Marsalis and others.

In 1997, after performing on over thirty recordings as a sideman, Ravi entered the studio to record his first album as leader ''Moving Pictures'', working with drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, bassist Lonnie Plaxico and pianist Michael Cain. This led to extensive touring with his working featuring Andy Milne on piano, drummer Steve Hass, and bassist Lonnie Plaxico. His second disc, ''From the Round Box'' (2000), finds Coltrane in the company of pianist Geri Allen, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, bassist James Genus, and drummer Eric Harland. Followed by ''Mad 6'' (2002) his first release for Sony music, featuring drummer Steve Hass, pianist George Colligan, and bassist James Genus and ''In Flux'' (2005) he has been working with bassist Drew Gress, pianist Luis Perdomo, and drummer E.J. Strickland.

In January 2005, Ravi Coltrane performed in India for the first time, as part of a delegation of American jazz musicians sent on a State Department tour to promote HIV/AIDS awareness. Also participating in the tour were vocalist Al Jarreau, guitarist Earl Klugh, and pianist George Duke. Performances included a January 16 concert in Mumbai (Bombay), a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. in Delhi on January 17, and a music festival in Delhi on January 18 organized by violinist L. Subramaniam. Also on January 18, Ravi Coltrane stopped to visit and perform at the Ravi Shankar Centre, where Coltrane met with the man he was named after. Then picking up a clarinet to engage in an unplanned jam session with a pair of shehnai players, Coltrane said, "I'm a little nervous with the master here."

The Coltrane Quartet played at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2001, the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival in 2004, and the Vienne Jazz Festival in 2005.

In 2008, Ravi became part of The Blue Note 7, a septet formed that year in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records. The group recorded an album in 2008, entitled ''Mosaic'', which was released in 2009 on Blue Note Records/EMI, and toured the United States in promotion of the album from January until April 2009. The group plays the music of Blue Note Records from various artists, with arrangements by members of the band and Renee Rosnes.

Gallery

Discography

As leader

In group collaboration

As sideman

With David Murray

With Ryan Kisor

With Wallace Roney

With Steve Coleman

With Art Davis

With Billy Childs

With Bheki Mseleku

With Yosuke Yamashita

With Gerry Gibbs

With Cindy Blackman

With David Gilmore

With Andrei Kondakov

With Jeff "Tain" Watts

With Scott Coley

With Alice Coltrane

With Luis Perdomo

With Flying Lotus

Compilations

References

External links

Category:1965 births Category:Post-bop jazz musicians Category:Living people Category:American jazz tenor saxophonists Category:American jazz soprano saxophonists Category:American jazz clarinetists Category:John Coltrane Category:African American musicians Category:American Hindus Category:Musicians from California Category:RCA Records artists

Though rooted in jazz, Byron's music is stylistically eclectic. He's worked in many different musical genres, ranging from klezmer music and German lieder, to Raymond Scott's "cartoon-jazz," hard rock/metal, and rap. Most of Byron's albums have been conceptual, devoted to works of a particular musician and/or style of music.

Early life

He studied clarinet with Joe Allard and studied music at the New England Conservatory in Boston with George Russell. While in Boston, Byron performed and recorded with the Klezmer Conservatory Band, founded by NEC faculty member Hankus Netsky.

Musical career

Byron is a practicing jazz historian, and some of his albums have been recreations (in spirit) of forgotten moments in the history of popular music. Examples are ''Plays the Music of Mickey Katz'', ''Bug Music'', and ''Ivey-Divey''. Byron has been nominated for a Grammy award for his bass clarinet solo on "I Want to Be Happy" from ''Ivey-Divey''.

Byron is a member of the Black Rock Coalition. He has recorded with Uri Caine, Dean Bowman, Vernon Reid, Bill Frisell, Joe Henry, and others.

Byron was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

In 2001, Byron performed "Bli Blip" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album ''Red Hot + Indigo'', a tribute to Duke Ellington, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.

Byron was named a 2007 USA Gund Foundation Fellow and awarded a US$50,000 grant by United States Artists, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

References

External links

Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Post-bop clarinetists Category:M-Base clarinetists Category:American jazz clarinetists Category:American jazz composers Category:Klezmer musicians Category:People from the Bronx Category:New England Conservatory alumni Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:Avant-garde jazz clarinetists Category:American jazz bass clarinetists Category:Rome Prize winners