- published: 18 Oct 2007
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Mocean Worker (pronounced "motion worker") is the recording alias of jazz musician and producer Adam Dorn.
Philadelphia native Adam Dorn is the son of famous jazz and R'n'B producer Joel Dorn. He grew up around the jazz and R&B discs his father produced for Atlantic Records in the '60s and '70s. As a 15-year-old, he sent a fan letter to bassist Marcus Miller. When Miller responded, inviting Dorn to come by the studio, one visit turned into three years hanging around artists David Sanborn, Luther Vandross and Miles Davis. Dorn is a bass player and vocalist. He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
Dorn adopted the Mocean Worker moniker as a DJ of drum 'n' bass music. The project came about almost by accident, the results of a series of half-serious recording sessions. Since the release of his first album, Home Movies from the Brain Forest, the style has varied from a drum 'n' bass sound to a jazz-oriented dance sound, incorporating elements of funk, big-band and swing.
Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone /ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.
Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist as a child. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. She then began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendition of "I Loves You Porgy" became a smash hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career, Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958 — when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue — and 1974.