Jazz Sax/Trumpet Today - The Davis/Coltrane/Desmond Legacy

Top 10 Sax/Trumpet players today:



Enrico Rava
by Francesco Martinelli
Born: Aug. 20, 1939
This hugely popular trumpet player (born in Trieste, 1939) almost single-handedly brought Italian jazz to international attention. He began playing Dixieland trombone in Turin, but after hearing Miles Davis, switched instruments and embraced the modern style. Other key meetings were with Gato Barbieri, with whom he recorded movie soundtracks in 1962, and with Chet Baker. Right after, he began to play with Steve Lacy; he also teamed up with South African expatriates Louis Moholo and John Dyani and recorded The Forest and the Zoo (ESP) live in Argentina. In 1967 he moved to New York, playing with Roswell Rudd, Marion Brown, Rashied Ali, Cecil Taylor, and Charlie Haden. In a brief return to Europe, Rava recorded with Lee Konitz (Stereokonitz, RCA) and Manfred Schoof (European Echoes, FMP). From 1969 to 1976, he was back in New York, recording Escalator Over the Hill with Carla Bley's Jazz Composers' Orchestra (JCOA). After his first album as a leader, Il Giro del Giorno in 80 Mondi (Black Saint), he's been leading his own pianoless quartets/quintets. His recorded output numbers 100 records, 30 as a leader. ECM has reissued some of his essential recordings of the '70s, like The Pilgrim and the Stars, The Plot, and E. R. Quartet, while Soul Note and Label Bleu published CDs by his innovative Electric Five (in reality a sextet, as he always excludes himself from the count), which includes two electric guitars. With keyboard master Franco D'Andrea and trumpeter Paolo Fresu, Rava recorded Bix and Pop (Philology) and Shades of Chet, tributes to Bix Beiderbecke and Armstrong, and to Chet Baker, respectively. Also of note are Rava, l'Opera Va and Carmen, gorgeous readings of opera arias. In 2001 he created a new quintet with young talents Gianluca Petrella, Stefano Bollani, Rosario Bonaccorso, and Roberto Gatto, and toured with old friends Roswell Rudd and Gato Barbieri, releasing Easy Living with them in 2004 on ECM. Three years later, after Bollani, who had struck out as a solo player, was replaced by Andrea Pozza, The Words and the Days came out. In 2007, Rava and pianist Stefano Bollani released The Third Man on ECM.


Tomasz Stanko
by Stacia Proefrock
Born: Jul. 11, 1942
Jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stanko began his tenure as a major force in European free jazz in the early '60s with the formation of the quartet Jazz Darins in 1962 with Adam Makowicz. From 1963 to 1967 he played with Krzysztof Komeda in a group that revolutionized European jazz and made an impact across the Atlantic as well. Stanko also put in time with Andrzej Trzaskowski in the mid-'60s before leading his own quintet from 1968 to 1973. The Tomasz Stanko Quintet, which included Muniak and Zbigniew Seifert, garnered considerable critical acclaim, especially for their tribute to Komeda entitled Music for K. The early '70s brought collaborations with a number of avant-garde and creative jazz artists, including the Globe Unity Orchestra, Michal Urbaniak, Cecil Taylor, and Gary Peacock. From 1974 to 1978, Stanko played in a quartet with Edward Vesala, then returned to performing as a leader and soloist. The '80s brought Stanko collaborations with Chico Freeman in Freeman's group Heavy Life, as well as work with James Spaulding, Jack DeJohnette, and Rufus Reid. He was also briefly part of Cecil Taylor's big band in 1984. Shortly afterward, he formed another ensemble, Freelectronic. The '90s brought an alliance with ECM, which issued some of Stanko's most acclaimed work, including another lush, gorgeous tribute to Komeda, 1997's Litania, which was heavy with that composer's film work. The follow-up on ECM, 2000's From the Green Hill, drew from many of the same emotional and historic sources as Komeda's work, but this time the compositions were Stanko's. In 2002, Stanko's contributions to European jazz were honored when he was issued the very first European Prize, which was intended to honor outstanding European jazz musicians. During the final round of voting from 21 critics from as many countries, Stanko won ten votes, narrowly topping the runner-up, Dutch piano player Misha Mengelberg. That same year Soul of Things was released on ECM, followed by Suspended Night in 2004, also on ECM. Too Pee appeared in 2006, as did Chameleon and Lontano.


Francesco Cafiso
Born: May 24, 1989
One of the most precocious talents in the history of jazz. When he was barely nine years old Francesco took his first steps, working with internationally famous musicians.
First of all, veteran jazz critic Ira Gitler was blown away by the young man's incredible set with veteran pianist Franco D'Andrea at the 2002 Pescara Jazz Festival, most of which was issued on the Philology CD Standing Ovation and was described in detail by Gitler in an article written for the Jazz Journalist Association newsletter. Meeting Wynton Marsalis at a laterfestival was a decisive moment for Francesco’s career. Amazed by Francesco’s qualities, Marsalis took him along with his septet on his 2003 European tour, where Francesco performed in prestigious theatres in the largest cities in Europe.
From that moment on, Francesco went through a series of important experiences both in Italy and abroad. He attended the 2004 International Association of Jazz Education in New York City, amazing audiences in his nightly jazz sessions with veterans James Williams (piano), Ray Drummond (bass) and Ben Riley (drums). Phil Woods, who obviously knows the difference between musicianship and press hype, commented to one writer in jest, “I'd like to break his arm!”
He won various important prizes: the Massimo Urbani National Award to Urbisaglia, the EuroJazz Award to Lecco, the International Jazz Festivals Organization Award to New York, the World Saxophone Competition to London, the Django d’Or to Rome and many others.
In order to improve his English, but most of all, in order to experience new musical styles and genres, Francesco went to New Orleans where he played with Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Thadeus Richard, Bob Franch, Maurice Brown and many others important local musicians while taking special lessons from Alvin Batiste.
In 2005 the Swing Journal, the authoritative Japanese jazz music magazine, confers him the New Stars Award, prize reserved to the emergent foreign talents. Immediately later, the affirmation in the Top Jazz, referendum of the Italian Music Jazz magazine, that recognizes him as the best new talent of the year.
Francesco performed with a number of great musicians: Hank Jones, Cedar Walton, Mulgrew Miller, Ronnie Matthews, Jimmy Cobb, Ben Riley, Ray Drummond, Reggie Johnson, Doug Sides Lewis Nash, James Williams, Joe Lovano, George Mraz, Joe Locke, Enrico Rava, Gianni Basso, Dado Moroni, Franco D’Andrea and many other Italian and American musicians.
In February 2006 Francesco has achieved the Diploma in Transverse Flute at the Musical Institute V. Bellini in Catania with the Elena Favaron guide and he studies piano jazz.
One of the most precocious talents in the history of jazz. When he was barely nine years old Francesco took his first steps, working with internationally famous musicians.
First of all, veteran jazz critic Ira Gitler was blown away by the young man's incredible set with veteran pianist Franco D'Andrea at the 2002 Pescara Jazz Festival, most of which was issued on the Philology CD Standing Ovation and was described in detail by Gitler in an article written for the Jazz Journalist Association newsletter. Meeting Wynton Marsalis at a laterfestival was a decisive moment for Francesco’s career. Amazed by Francesco’s qualities, Marsalis took him along with his septet on his 2003 European tour, where Francesco performed in prestigious theatres in the largest cities in Europe.
From that moment on, Francesco went through a series of important experiences both in Italy and abroad. He attended the 2004 International Association of Jazz Education in New York City, amazing audiences in his nightly jazz sessions with veterans James Williams (piano), Ray Drummond (bass) and Ben Riley (drums). Phil Woods, who obviously knows the difference between musicianship and press hype, commented to one writer in jest, “I'd like to break his arm!”
He won various important prizes: the Massimo Urbani National Award to Urbisaglia, the EuroJazz Award to Lecco, the International Jazz Festivals Organization Award to New York, the World Saxophone Competition to London, the Django d’Or to Rome and many others.
In order to improve his English, but most of all, in order to experience new musical styles and genres, Francesco went to New Orleans where he played with Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Thadeus Richard, Bob Franch, Maurice Brown and many others important local musicians while taking special lessons from Alvin Batiste.

Brandford Marsalis
by Scott Yanow
Born: Aug. 26, 1960
The oldest of the four musical Marsalis brothers, Branford Marsalis has had an impressive career. After studying at Southern University and Berklee, Branford toured Europe with the Art Blakey big band in the summer of 1980 (playing baritone), played three months with Clark Terry, and then spent five months playing alto with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (1981). He mostly played tenor and soprano while with Wynton Marsalis' influential group (1982-1985), at first sounding most influenced by Wayne Shorter but leaning more toward John Coltrane at the end. The musical telepathy between the two brothers (who helped to revive the sound of the mid-'60s Miles Davis Quintet) was sometimes astounding. Branford toured with Herbie Hancock's V.S.O.P. II. in 1983 and recorded with Miles Davis (1984's Decoy). In 1985, when he left Wynton to join Sting's pop/rock group, it caused a major (if temporary) rift with his brother that made headlines. Marsalis enjoyed playing with Sting but did not let the association cause him to forget his musical priorities. By 1986, he was leading his own group which eventually consisted of pianist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Bob Hurst, and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts; sometimes the band was a piano-less trio that really allowed Marsalis to stretch out. After a couple of film appearances (in School Daze and Throw Mama from the Train), Branford Marsalis became even more of a celebrity when he joined Jay Leno's Tonight Show as the musical director in 1992. However, being cast in the role of Leno's sidekick rubbed against Marsalis' temperament and after two years he had had enough. Branford Marsalis, who attempted to mix together hip-hop and jazz in his erratic Buckshot LeFonque project, has recorded steadily for Columbia ever since 1983 (including a classical set). In 2002, having left Columbia, Marsalis formed his own label Marsalis Music. Intended as a true independent label focused on supporting the development of musicians, Marsalis Music has released albums by such diverse artists as guitarist/vocalist Doug Wamble, pianist/vocalist Harry Connick, Jr., saxophonist Miguel Zenón and others. Marsalis himself has also kept busy releasing a handful of albums on the label including Footsteps of Our Fathers which featured his take on the classic John Coltrane composition "A Love Supreme" in 2002, Romare Bearden Revealed in 2003, Eternal in 2004, Braggtown in 2006, and Metamorphosen in 2009.


Eric Alexander

Born: August 4, 1968
Boasting a warm, finely burnished tone and a robust melodic and harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander brings a seasoned veteran's proficiency and poise to his latest recording, Nightlife in Tokyo. As he has on his four previous Milestone albums as a leader, the 34-year-old colossus-on-the-rise approached this new project with an assured and mature musical vision, gracefully sidestepping the novelties and trends that have come to the fore in so much contemporary jazz marketing.
“I'm not consciously trying to do things differently from record date to record date,” explains the 34-year-old Galesburg, Illinois native. “I'm just really adhering to formula of assembling good musicians that I'm comfortable playing with, getting quality material--a combination of originals and standards and perhaps some new arrangements on standard tunes--and trying to make the kind of a recording that a jazz fan or musician can put on and enjoy listening to from start to finish.”
Nightlife in Tokyo, which follows tight on the heels of 2002's Summit Meeting (with trumpeter Nicholas Payton), succeeds on all counts. Featuring his longtime recording and performing partners, pianist Harold Mabern and drummer Joe Farnsworth, Nightlife in Tokyo is anchored by the resolute and creative bass playing of the legendary Ron Carter. “If I could play with Ron Carter on every gig I do for the rest of my life, I wouldn't be disappointed,” Alexander says. “He is arguably the greatest bass player alive right now, and he's certainly one of my all-time favorites. He has an uncanny ability to direct the music in a subtle way and make it go to places you didn't think it could go. He'll make subtle changes in the feel, the bass line, or the rhythm. In 'Nemesis,' for instance, right at the beginning of my first solo chorus, the bottom almost drops out as he stops in his tracks and then slides up and down the strings and creates this little weird moment in time where everything is suspended. It really influenced the way I played my solo--I found myself playing something entirely different than what I was preparing myself to play. It was a magical moment.”
Nightlife in Tokyo abounds with such exquisite episodes throughout the eight-song program that includes five Alexander originals, the standards “I Can Dream, Can't I?” and “I'll Be Around,” and Mabern's compelling minor blues title track. Alexander has maintained a close musical partnership with the veteran pianist for 16 years. Indeed, Mabern has appeared on all of Alexander's albums since 1999's The First Milestone. “He's such a great listener when he's comping,” Alexander enthuses, “that he's really able to highlight and emphasize the good things you're doing. He's also very challenging. Sometimes he'll throw something your way, harmonically speaking, that might completely throw off your chain of thought. Over the years he's worked out ways of altering chord progressions in various ways. He's able to insert these devices in various places in any given tune. It really took me years of playing with him to start to understand his thought process and get to a point of reacting naturally to what he was doing. It's very rewarding because once you begin to approach that level of musical communication, it opens up a whole new world of playing.”
Alexander has been exploring new musical worlds from the outset. He started out on piano as a six-year-old, took up clarinet at nine, switched to alto sax when he was 12, and converted to tenor when jazz became his obsession during his one year at the University of Indiana, Bloomington (1986-87). At William Paterson College in New Jersey he advanced his studies under the tutelage of Mabern, Joe Lovano, Rufus Reid, and others. “The people I listened to in college are still the cats that are influencing me today,” says Alexander. “Monk, Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson--the legacy left by Bird and all the bebop pioneers, that language and that feel, that's the bread and butter of everything I do. George Coleman remains a big influence because of his very hip harmonic approach, and I'm still listening all the time to Coltrane because I feel that even in the wildest moments of his mid- to late-Sixties solos I can find these little kernels of melodic information and find ways to employ them in my own playing.”
During the 1990s, after placing second behind Joshua Redman in the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, Alexander threw himself into the whirlwind life of a professional jazz musician. He played with organ trios on the South Side of Chicago, made his recording debut in 1991 with Charles Earland, and cut his first album as leader in 1992 (Straight Up for Delmark). More recordings for Delmark, Criss Cross, and Alfa followed, leading to 1997's Man with a Horn; the 1998 collaborative quartet session with George Mraz, John Hicks, and Idris Muhammad, Solid!; and, that same year, the first recording by One For All, Alexander's ongoing band with Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, Joe Farnsworth, Peter Washington, and Dave Hazeltine.
By now, Alexander has lost count of how many albums feature his playing; he guesses 60 or 70. While he has garnered critical acclaim from every corner, what has mattered most has been to establish his own voice within the illustrious bop-based jazz tradition. “There was a point several years ago where I stopped thinking, 'What would Stitt or Trane do on this tune?,'” he says. “I put the horn in my mouth and just played the way that I play, trying to get out the ideas that I had in my head. Although I'm a perfectionist by nature, lately I've been able to be a little more accepting about the way I sound when I play the horn.
“If I'm not mistaken,” Alexander concludes, “Joe Farnsworth once told me that Art Blakey used to say, 'I don't care whose instrument I play, I'll make it sound like me.' That's the battle we're trying to win--feeling confident and comfortable in all situations. If you get to the point where you can express yourself and get your sound, your feeling, and your vibe--on any instrument--then you've really gotten somewhere.”

Lee Konitz

Born: October 13, 1927
Lee Konitz (born October 13, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz composer and saxophone player.
Konitz is sometimes regarded as the preeminent cool jazz saxophonist, because he performed and recorded with Claude Thornhill, Lennie Tristano (both often cited as important cool jazz proponents of the mid 1940s), and with Miles Davis on his epochal Birth of the Cool, which gave the form its name.
Konitz has also been repeatedly noted as one of the few jazz saxophonists of the late 1940s and 1950s who did not seem imitative of the massively influential Charlie Parker.
In the early 1950s, Konitz recorded and toured with Stan Kenton's orchestra.
In 1961, he recorded Motion with Elvin Jones on drums and Sonny Dallas on bass. This spontaneous session, widely regarded as a classic in the cool genre, consisted entirely of standards. The loose trio format aptly featured Konitz's unorthodox phrasing and chromaticism.
In 1967, Konitz recorded The Lee Konitz Duets, a series of duets with various musicians. The duo configurations were often unusual for the period (saxophone and trombone, two saxophones). The recordings drew on very nearly the entire history of jazz, from a Louis Armstrong dixieland number with valve trombonist Marshall Brown to two completely free duos: one with a Duke Ellington associate, violinist Ray Nance, and one with guitarist Jim Hall.
Konitz has been quite prolific, recording dozens of albums as a band leader. He has also recorded or performed with Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Elvin Jones and others.

Charles Lloyd
Born: March 15, 1938Sangam is the first release from Charles Lloyd’s exciting new trio with Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland, the gifted drummer from his ‘regular’ quartet. The album--Lloyd’s first live disc for ECM--was recorded in California in 2004. Taped at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara in the context of a memorial concert for Billy Higgins, it brings to the surface some ‘Eastern’ enthusiasms that have been part of Lloyd’s palette for a very long time.
Already in the early to mid 1960s, Lloyd’s way of easing meaning and emotion from a melody in his tenor sax improvisations was influenced by sitar players and druhpad singers, just as it was influenced by the lineage of jazz greats extending from Lester Young and the expressive masters of the blues. The emotional climates of raga also influenced Lloyd’s extended modal compositions. In the early 1970s he collaborated on record with sarod player Aashish Khan and tabla player Pranesh Khan. The line-up of his touring bands, however, largely followed the conventions of jazz--sax, piano and/or guitar, bass, and drums.
The association with Billy Higgins changed this. On “Which Way Is East”(recorded 2001) and some of the duo concerts that preceded it, Lloyd and his drummer friend roved far beyond definitions of jazz ” touching on other traditions, combining traditions, playing a very open form pan-cultural music. Lloyd originally sought to extend the spirit of the collaboration with Higgins in the “Sangam” group, which quickly assumed a strong identity of its own. The trio has already toured widely, receiving ovations and ecstatic reviews from Montreal to Madrid.
One of the first surprises on encountering the group is the sense of completeness that it projects. A trio with sax and two drummers, it seems to lack nothing. “There are so many nuances....” Lloyd says. “Sometimes it seems almost orchestral. It’s not about somebody supporting and somebody leading. The carpet we fly on is powered by all of us and whatever is flowing through us.” Sangam, a word of multiple definition, signifies confluence, a meeting place, a gathering or coming-together, literally or metaphorically. Triveni sangam means a three-way junction or meeting of three rivers, which merge and flow as one. Flow--free and unimpeded flow--is of central importance to the members of the group. Hussain and Harland are granted a lot of space in the music; they make the fullest use of it.
Lloyd first encountered Eric Harland at a jam session in New York’s Blue Note club in September 2001 recognising immediately that he was hearing one of the great drummers. Within a year Harland was playing with the saxophonist--the latest in a long line of superb Lloyd group drummers that has included Roy Haynes, Tony Williams, Pete La Roca, Paul Motian, Jack DeJohnette, Jon Christensen and Billy Hart. Harland, who turns 30 in 2006, was first inspired to play jazz by the example of Elvin Jones on Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.” He has since played with McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders and Ravi Coltrane, with Joshua Redman, Betty Carter, Joe Henderson, Wynton Marsalis and many others. He is especially excited about the opportunity to play with Zakir Hussain in Lloyd’s trio: “Everything Zakir plays has this feeling of freedom and authenticity about it. No matter where you go, he is able to be right there in the centre of it with the full force and flavour of his musical identity. And, of course, he’s grown up with different complex rhythms since he was a child, so it is completely natural for him to play through any metric modulation. It’s really an honour to be in a situation where I can have these dialogues with such a master musician. I’m learning a lot about tabla and Indian music, just by breathing in his rhythms.”
The son of the great innovator Alla Rakha (who effectively introduced the tabla to the wider world through his 30 year collaboration with Ravi Shankar), Zakir studied with his father from the age of three and was playing professionally by the time he was 13. He has played with every major figure in Indian classical music but has also been a prime mover in the development of a trans-cultural world music aesthetic. He was barely 20 when he participated in the pioneering genre synthesis of sarod masterAli Akbar Khan and jazz altoist John Handy. Then came Shakti with John McLaughlin, and diverse collaborations with the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart.
His 1986 ECM album “Making Music” was a major statement in the ‘world’ arena, with Jan Garbarek, John McLaughlin and bansuri flute genius Hariprasad Chaurasia as contributors. Hussain has also played on several ECM discs with violinist L. Shankar--“Who’s To Know”, “Song For Everyone”, “Nobody Told Me”, “M.R.C.S.”, and “Pancha Nadai Pallavi”.
Latterly he has been playing with the aptly-named Tabla Beat Science whose high-volume collision of cultures incorporates an ever-shifting cast of percussionists and DJs around a core of Zakir, sarangi player Ustad Sultan Khan and bassist Bill Laswell. Zakir Hussain has also collaborated on music for ballet with Yo-Yo Ma.
Charles Lloyd, born in Memphis, Tennessee, has had a long and distinguished history in music. In the 1950s he played with Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Billy Higgins, Bobby Hutcherson and others in California, plotting the shape of jazz to come, and in the early 60s became musical director, and principal composer, of Chico Hamilton’s group. Charles Lloyd’s own groups have been exceptional from the outset. His first band featured Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo. It was followed by a quartet with the then largely unknown Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette, whose recorded legacy includes the million-selling “Forest Flower”. After a decade in retreat at Big Sur, Lloyd slowly returned to performing in the 1980s and began to record for ECM in 1989 with “Fish Out of Water”.
Subsequent albums have included Notes from Big Sur, The Call, All My Relations, Canto, Voice in the Night, The Water is Wide, Hyperion with Higgins, Lift Every Voice, Which Way is East, and Jumping the Creek.
Sangam is the first release from Charles Lloyd’s exciting new trio with Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland, the gifted drummer from his ‘regular’ quartet. The album--Lloyd’s first live disc for ECM--was recorded in California in 2004. Taped at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara in the context of a memorial concert for Billy Higgins, it brings to the surface some ‘Eastern’ enthusiasms that have been part of Lloyd’s palette for a very long time.
Already in the early to mid 1960s, Lloyd’s way of easing meaning and emotion from a melody in his tenor sax improvisations was influenced by sitar players and druhpad singers, just as it was influenced by the lineage of jazz greats extending from Lester Young and the expressive masters of the blues. The emotional climates of raga also influenced Lloyd’s extended modal compositions. In the early 1970s he collaborated on record with sarod player Aashish Khan and tabla player Pranesh Khan. The line-up of his touring bands, however, largely followed the conventions of jazz--sax, piano and/or guitar, bass, and drums.
The association with Billy Higgins changed this. On “Which Way Is East”(recorded 2001) and some of the duo concerts that preceded it, Lloyd and his drummer friend roved far beyond definitions of jazz” touching on other traditions, combining traditions, playing a very open form pan-cultural music. Lloyd originally sought to extend the spirit of the collaboration with Higgins in the “Sangam” group, which quickly assumed a strong identity of its own. The trio has already toured widely, receiving ovations and ecstatic reviews from Montreal to Madrid.
One of the first surprises on encountering the group is the sense of completeness that it projects. A trio with sax and two drummers, it seems to lack nothing. “There are so many nuances....” Lloyd says.

Joe Lovano
by Chris Kelsey
Born: Dec. 29, 1952
Active during a period of jazz history when it seemed radical innovation was a thing of the past, Joe Lovano nevertheless coalesced various stylistic elements from disparate eras into a personal and forward-seeking style. While not an innovator in a macro sense, Lovano has unquestionably charted his own path. His playing contains not an ounce of glibness, but possesses in abundance the sense of spontaneity that has always characterized the music's finest improvisers. Lovano doesn't adopt influences — he absorbs them — so that when playing a standard, he exudes the same sense of abandon as when playing totally free (which, it should be pointed out, he does well, if infrequently). Lovano's most significant achievement is his incorporation of free and modal expressive devices into traditional chord-change improvisation.Lovano is the son of the respected Cleveland saxophonist Tony "Big T" Lovano. Joe started playing alto sax as a child, taught by his father, who also introduced him to jazz. In his youth, Joe would hear many of the prominent jazz artists who passed through town, including Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Sonny Stitt, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Lovano began playing in jam sessions around Cleveland while still in his teens. Although thoroughly steeped in bebop, he also developed an interest in the jazz experimentalism of the 1960s, listening to such musicians as John Coltrane, Jimmy Giuffre, and Ornette Coleman. Following high school, Lovano moved to Boston and attended the Berklee School of Music. Fellow students included such future collaborators as John Scofield, Bill Frisell, and Kenny Werner. While at Berklee, Lovano discovered modal harmony and opened up to the broad areas of tonal freedom that he found so attractive in the music of John Coltrane, among others. After leaving Berklee, Lovano worked with organists Lonnie Smith (with whom he made his recording debut) and Jack McDuff. He toured with Woody Herman from 1976-1979. After leaving Herman, Lovano settled in New York City, where he quickly established himself. He joined drummer Mel Lewis' orchestra in 1980; he played the band's regular Monday night gigs at the Village Vanguard until 1992. He also recorded several times with the band. Lovano would also work with Elvin Jones, Carla Bley, Lee Konitz, Charlie Haden, and Bob Brookmeyer, among others. He joined drummer Paul Motian's band in 1981 (which also included his Berklee classmate Frisell), and played with guitarist John Scofield's quartet. Lovano began leading dates for Blue Note in the '90s, and continued doing so throughout that decade and into the next, recording in a variety of contexts ranging from trios to larger woodwind and brass ensembles. Lovano received a number of Grammy nominations for his work on Blue Note. His 1996 album Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note) was named Jazz Album of the Year by readers of Downbeat Magazine. Lovano's wife is vocalist Judi Silvano. Since then, Lovano has split his time in the studio between releasing impressive original recordings and albums reinterpreting the work of artists who have influenced him, including vocalist Frank Sinatra on 1996's Celebrating Sinatra, various bop-era stalwarts including pianist Tadd Dameron on 2000's 52nd Street Themes, and opera tenor Enrico Caruso on 2001's Viva Caruso. In 2004, the always unpredictable reedman released the ballads album I'm All for You, featuring journeyman pianist Hank Jones. Joyous Encounter followed in spring 2005 with Streams of Expression appearing on Blue Note a year later. Lovano once agian paired up with Jones for the live duets album Kids: Duets Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in 2007.

Steve Turre
Born: September 12, 1948
One of the world's preeminent jazz innovators, trombonist and seashellist Steve Turre, has consistently won both the Readers' and Critics' polls in JazzTimes, Downbeat, and Jazziz for Best Trombone and for Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist (shells). Turre was born to Mexican-American parents and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area where he absorbed daily doses of mariachi, blues and jazz. While attending Sacramento State University, he joined the Escovedo Brothers salsa band, which began his career-long involvement with that genre.
In 1972 Steve Turre's career picked up momentum when Ray Charles hired him to go on tour. A year later Turre's mentor Woody Shaw brought him into Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. After his tenure with Blakey, Turre went on to work with a diverse list of musicians from the jazz, Latin, and pop worlds, including Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, J.J. Johnson, Herbie Hancock, Lester Bowie, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Van Morrison, Pharoah Sanders, Horace Silver, Max Roach, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The latter introduced hum to the seashell as an instrument. Soon after that, while touring in Mexico City with Woody Shaw, Turre's relatives informed him that his ancestors similarly played the shells. Since then, Turre has incorporated seashells into his diverse musical style.
In addition to performing as a member of the Saturday Night Live Band since 1984, Turre leads several different ensembles. Sanctified Shells utilizes the seashell in a larger context, transforming his horn section into a “shell choir”. Turre's Spring 1999 Verve release, Lotus Flower, showcases his Sextet With Strings. The recording explores many great standards and original compositions arranged by Turre for a unique instrumentation of trombone and shells, violin, cello, piano, bass and drums. Turre's quartet and quintet provide a setting based in tradition and stretching the limits conceptually and stylistically. In the Summer of 2000, Telarc released In The Spur of the Moment. This recording features Steve with three different quartets, each with a different and distinct master pianist: Ray Charles, Chucho Valdes, and Stephen Scott.
Turre's self-titled Verve release pioneers a unique artistic vision, drawing upon jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian sources. This innovative recording also features Cassandra Wilson, Randy Brecker, Graciela, Mongo Santamaria and J.J. Johnson. Previously Turre recorded Right There and Rhythm Within, featuring Herbie Hancock, Jon Faddis, Pharoah Sanders, and Sanctified Shells, on Verve's subsidiary label, Antilles.
Steve Turre continually evolves as a musician and arranger. He has a strong command of all musical genres and when it comes to his distinct brand of jazz, he always keeps one foot in the past and one in the future.
One of the world's preeminent jazz innovators, trombonist and seashellist Steve Turre, has consistently won both the Readers' and Critics' polls in JazzTimes, Downbeat, and Jazziz for Best Trombone and for Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist (shells). Turre was born to Mexican-American parents and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area where he absorbed daily doses of mariachi, blues and jazz. While attending Sacramento State University, he joined the Escovedo Brothers salsa band, which began his career-long involvement with that genre.
In 1972 Steve Turre's career picked up momentum when Ray Charles hired him to go on tour. A year later Turre's mentor Woody Shaw brought him into Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. After his tenure with Blakey, Turre went on to work with a diverse list of musicians from the jazz, Latin, and pop worlds, including Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, J.J. Johnson, Herbie Hancock, Lester Bowie, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Van Morrison, Pharoah Sanders, Horace Silver, Max Roach, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The latter introduced hum to the seashell as an instrument. Soon after that, while touring in Mexico City with Woody Shaw, Turre's relatives informed him that his ancestors similarly played the shells. Since then, Turre has incorporated seashells into his diverse musical style.
In addition to performing as a member of the Saturday Night Live Band since 1984, Turre leads several different ensembles. Sanctified Shells utilizes the seashell in a larger context, transforming his horn section into a “shell choir”. Turre's Spring 1999 Verve release, Lotus Flower, showcases his Sextet With Strings. The recording explores many great standards and original compositions arranged by Turre for a unique instrumentation of trombone and shells, violin, cello, piano, bass and drums. Turre's quartet and quintet provide a setting based in tradition and stretching the limits conceptually and stylistically.

Toots Thielemans
Born: April 29, 1922
Jean 'Toots' Thielemans is widely regarded by most people as the most accomplished harmonica player in the world. Of course, that's not all he does and it would be a great injustice to label him as just a good harmonica player. If you are not into Jazz, you may not have heard of his name but you have probably heard his music many times and I suspect you liked it. He is equally good at playing guitar, the accordeon and many other instruments. For instance, you will never hear anyone whistle jazz better than Toots.
Born on 29 April 1922 in Brussels, he quickly got interested in music and was playing the accordeon at age 3. Later he started playing the harmonica and the guitar. He got seriously hooked on jazz in earnest during the German occupation and has been influenced predominantly by Django Reinhardt, another Belgian who invented a particular way of playing the guitar, and the legendary Charlie Parker. Other influences were Toots Mondello and Toots Camarata, resulting in Jean Thielemans being nicknamed 'Toots' early on in his career.
In an interview in 1983 with a Belgian radio station, he said : “My parents had a pub and each Sunday there was an accordionist. They have told me that when I was in my cradle, I already was imitating the gestures of the musician. One of the clients said “that kid wants to play accordion”. My father bought me a little cardboard accordion, and when I was three I got this little machine. (plays a little bit, accompanied by the barking of his little dog called Duke Yorkshire Ellington Thielemans)”.
He made his big breakthrough when he went on European tour with Benny Goodman in 1950. He moved to America in 1952 (and became a US citizen the same year) where he is extremely well-known, especially among the jazz community. Quincy Jones said this about him in 1995 : “I can say without hesitation that Toots is one of the greatest musicians of our time. On his instrument he ranks with the best that jazz has ever produced. He goes for the heart and makes you cry. We have worked together more times than I can count and he always keeps me coming back for more”. Toots hates his favourite instrument, the harmonica, being called a 'miscellaneous instrument'. Indeed, the late Clifford Brown said : “Toots, the way you play the harmonica they should not call it a miscellaneous instrument”.
His successes include harmonica solo contributions to film scores for Midnight Cowboy, The Getaway, Sugarland Express, Cinderella Liberty, Turks Fruit (Turkish Fruit), Jean de Florette and others. In 1962 he had a massive hit with 'Bluesette'. He also did many concerts and recordings with legends such as George Shearing, Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans, Jaco Pastorius, Natalie Cole, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon and Billy Joel. Many people also will remember him from the music used for the 'Old Spice' TV commercial.
Toots succeeded in doing something that is very difficult for Jazz musicians: being well-known by the general public and still practice high-class Jazz. Receiving the high appreciation of his peers and connoisseurs is no mean feat and Toots is regularly voted first in his category in the famous Down Beat Jazz Magazine in the USA by critics and public. In 1981, Toots suffered from a major stroke that left part of his body with little feeling. Today he has pretty much recovered from the stroke and admits that while he may not be able to play as many notes as he used to, he can still “play the good ones”. He has always suffered from asthma which makes his success even more remarkable.
Jean 'Toots' Thielemans is widely regarded by most people as the most accomplished harmonica player in the world. Of course, that's not all he does and it would be a great injustice to label him as just a good harmonica player. If you are not into Jazz, you may not have heard of his name but you have probably heard his music many times and I suspect you liked it. He is equally good at playing guitar, the accordeon and many other instruments. For instance, you will never hear anyone whistle jazz better than Toots.
Born on 29 April 1922 in Brussels, he quickly got interested in music and was playing the accordeon at age 3. Later he started playing the harmonica and the guitar. He got seriously hooked on jazz in earnest during the German occupation and has been influenced predominantly by Django Reinhardt, another Belgian who invented a particular way of playing the guitar, and the legendary Charlie Parker. Other influences were Toots Mondello and Toots Camarata, resulting in Jean Thielemans being nicknamed 'Toots' early on in his career.
In an interview in 1983 with a Belgian radio station, he said : “My parents had a pub and each Sunday there was an accordionist. They have told me that when I was in my cradle, I already was imitating the gestures of the musician. One of the clients said “that kid wants to play accordion”. My father bought me a little cardboard accordion, and when I was three I got this little machine. (plays a little bit, accompanied by the barking of his little dog called Duke Yorkshire Ellington Thielemans)”.
He made his big breakthrough when he went on European tour with Benny Goodman in 1950. He moved to America in 1952 (and became a US citizen ).