Jazz Legends

Ray Noble

Ray Noble, born Dec 17th, 1903, was a British big band leader responsible for composing a number of songs that have become standards. Jazz musicians have long played his tune Cherokee, with its bridge that traverses a number of far-flung key centers foreign to the tune’s home key, but he is also responsible for The Very Thought of You, I Hadn’t Anyone Till You, Goodnight Sweetheart, The Touch of Your Lips, the lesser-known Love is the Sweetest Thing, and Live Locked Out. He is also remembered as a radio and motion picture star, appearing alongside Burns and Allen and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.
 

Woody Shaw

Woody Shaw (born Dec 24, 1944) was one of the most influential and prolifically virtuostic trumpet players and jazz composers of the twentieth century. In his brief career (he died at the young age of 44) he was pivotal in applying many of the harmonic and technical innovations of saxophonist John Coltrane to the trumpet, and his compositions celebrated those innovations as well, pushing the boundaries of jazz composition in an organic and logical way and extending the art of jazz trumpet playing.

Season 3 Mardi Gras Kick-off

The Jazz Evensong Quintet continues its tradition of kicking off a new season with a celebration of traditional jazz. New Orleans is widely considered the birthplace of jazz music, and this style is still universally admired and practiced throughout the world. Devotees of such artists as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke and many others, are still inspired to emulate their accomplishments in this style to this day. Such groups as Tuba Skinny, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and the Rebirth Brass Band are testament to the vitality of this music.

Jazz Family Christmas

Music is an integral part of any Christmas celebration and over the years, jazz musicians and popular songwriters have contributed their art to celebrate the season. The repertoire includes traditional carols done up in jazz style as well as Great American Songbook tunes written especially for the season of light. At St. Michael’s by-the-Sea on December 14th, our Jazz Family Christmas event includes a special performance of the Jazz Evensong Quintet with the string orchestra of the Renaissance Institute of Music.

McCoy Tyner (Round 2)

Pianist McCoy Tyner ( born December 11, 1938) is perhaps best remembered for his association as the youngest member of the John Coltrane Quartet, but his long career as a band leader in his own right eclipses even that of his association with the legendary saxophonist. He was an NEA Jazz Master and five-time Grammy winner and recorded over eight albums as a leader, and many more as a sideman. He was one of the most influential jazz pianists of all time, and his many compositions have been recorded by numerous other artists.

Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond (Round 2)

Pianist Dave Brubeck (born December 6, 1920) and saxophonist Paul Desmond (born November 25, 1924), along with bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello, formed one of the most popular jazz quartets ever assembled. They were responsible for over 60 albums, and Desmond’s composition “Take Five” became the biggest selling jazz single of all time and an unlikely hit on pop charts as well. The group became well known for its innovative, complex compositions and use of unusual time signatures. 

Billy Strayhorn (Round 2)

While often overshadowed by his association with his longtime employer and collaborator Duke Ellington, composer/arranger and pianist Billy Strayhorn (born November 29, 1915) was no less a genius in his own right. In a life cut short by cancer at the age of 51, he produced a huge catalog of original music, all of it bearing his unique harmonic and melodic stamp. In his autobiography and in a spoken word passage in his Second Sacred Concert, Ellington listed what he considered Strayhorn's "four major moral freedoms": freedom from hate, unconditionally, freedom from self-pity (even through all the pain and bad news), freedom from fear of possibly doing something that might possibly help another more than it might himself, and freedom from the kind of pride that might make a man think that he was better than his brother or his neighbor.
Jazz pianist Fred Hersch wrote of Strayhorn: "He was a quadruple threat: a great composer of jazz tunes, a first-rate jazz pianist, a remarkable songwriter (music and lyrics), and one of the all-time great arrangers for jazz orchestra."

Hoagy Carmichael

Songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (born November 22, 1899) is one of the best-loved and most prolific of the Great American Songbook composers. He is responsible for several hundred songs, including fifty that achieved hit record status. His timeless compositions, Stardust, Georgia on my Mind, Skylark, I Get Along Without You Very Well, The Nearness of You, How Little We Know and many others still inspire musicians and singers to this day.

Phil Woods (Round 2)

Saxophonist Phil Woods (born November 2, 1931) was much more than just another alto saxophonist who followed in the footsteps of the great Charlie Parker. Throughout his career, he carved his own path, continuing to develop his own voice on the instrument, as well as his voice as a prolific composer. He delved into the avant-guarde with his group 'The European Rhythm Machine' for several years when he chose to become an expatriate. But shortly after his return to the United States in 1972, he formed the straight ahead group he was to lead until shortly before his death ten years ago. Through multiple changes in personnel, his bassist, Steve Gilmore and his drummer, Bill Goodwin stayed with him the entire time. 

Clifford Brown

Before his life was tragically ended by an automobile accident at the age of 25, trumpeter Clifford Brown (born October 30, 1930) set the jazz world ablaze with his seemingly effortless mastery of his instrument and incendiary playing. His trailblazing quintet with drummer Max Roach and saxophonists Sonny Rollins, and later, Harold Land, set the standard for the post bop era, and many of the compositions he penned for this band remain jazz standards.