News & Updates — jazz

Happy birthday to Trinidadian composer André Tanker, the "Bob Dyan of T&T". Born in Port-of-Spain, he started playing the steelpan at 7 and as a teenager learned guitar and cuatro. He also played vibraphone and harmonica. He worked as an arranger for the Invaders Steel Orchestra, who were based in his neighborhood. His own Hilton Flamingos were a steady-working hotel band in the late '50s and early '60s. His late '60s & '70s work fused Caribbean folk music, Indian "chutney" music, jazz, Yoruba drumming, funk and black power themes, with Mongo Santamaría being a major influence. He scored the music...

Happy birthday to the bop trumpeter Fats Navarro, good friend of Charles Mingus and a huge influence on Clifford Brown before Navarro's short life ended at just 26. Our Afro-Cuban-Chinese hero was from Key West and played in Florida and Cincinnati to begin his pro career. To Kansas City in '44, he started playing in the swing band of Andy Kirk before settling in NYC in '46. He joined Billy Eckstine's great band as well as participating in the bebop revolution with Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Tadd Dameron, Kenny Clarke and others. As a bi-lingual Latino, he also spent time jamming...

Happy birthday to Billy Bang, avant-jazz violinist of the NYC downtown loft jazz scene of the '70s & '80s and beyond. A unique presence, his style merges contemporary "classical"/avant-garde, fire music/free-jazz, blues, swing and funk and he always chose great sideman. He could work well as a solo performer, in duos, jazz combos, as part of an orchestra or with dancers (he himself was a great dancer onstage). Born William Walker in Alabama, he grew up in the Bronx & Harlem. He was given a violin because he was small. He learned to play it as a youth but quit...

Here's a nod to the underknown pianist Harry Whitaker, on his day of birth. Harry was more of a behind-the-scenes guy, best known for his work with Roy Ayers' Ubiquity (he composed the classic "We Live In Brooklyn Baby") and Roberta Flack (during her peak years). From Pensacola FL, he started playing piano at 5. His family moved later to Detroit, and he got his career started there with local gigs as a teenager. In 1960 he moved to NYC. He played with Slide Hampton in '65 before taking to playing on the road in various bands. He joined Ayers...

Julian "Cannonball" Adderley became one of the highly respected alto saxophonists of the hard bop and soul-jazz eras. Indeed, with his bluesy wail and accessible style he was one of jazz's most popular and visible artists in the late '60s and into the '70s before his death from a stroke. Originally from Tampa, he and his brother Nat, a cornetist, grew up in Tallahassee FL, both of them earning early professional experience in the early '40s backing Ray Charles in Florida. Cannon moved to Ft Lauderdale for awhile before a move to NYC in '55, the year he first recorded...