105th birthday of Sun Ra

(Born 22 May 1914, Birmingham, Alabama, US)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

Pianist, bandleader, prolific composer whose output, arrangements and The Arkestra’s performances are influenced profoundly by Kemetic philosophical, astronomical and aesthetic conceptions

(Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra, “Space aura” [personnel: Sun Ra, piano, George Hudson, trumpet; percussion; Marshall Allen, alto saxophone, bells; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, percussion; Ronnie Boykins, bass, percussion; Jon Hardy, drums; recorded: Saturn, Chicago, US, [?] October 1960])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

103rd birthday of Billy Strayhorn

(Born 29 November 1915, Dayton, Ohio, US)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

RENOWNED composer, pianist and arranger whose near 30 years (1938-1967) of collaborative work with composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington has been the focus of expansive recordings, research and publications

(Charles Mingus Sextet, featuring Eric Dolphy, plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Take the ‘A’ train” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])

(Joe Henderson Quintet plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Johnny come lately” [personnel: Henderson, tenor saxophone; Wynton Marsalis, trumpet; Stephen Scott, piano; Christian McBride, bass; Gregory Hutchinson, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, Cliffs, NJ, US,  3-8 September 1991])

(John Coltrane Quintet plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Lush life” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Donald Bryd, trumpet; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Louis Hayes, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, US, 10 January 1958)

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

114th birthday of Fats Waller

(Born 21 May 1904, Harlem, New York, US)

INNOVATIVE pianist, comedian, prolific composer/co-composer including such standards as “Jitterbug waltz”, “Honeysuckle rose”, “Ain’t misbehavin’”, “I can’t give you anything but love, baby”, and “Squeeze me”

(Fats Waller, “Ain’t misbehavin’” [personnel: Waller, piano, vocal; recording: Victor Machine Co’s Studio 1, Camden, NJ, US, 21 August 1929; details of rest of personnel at the date not available])

(Charles Mingus Sextet – with multiinstrmentalist Eric Dolphy, Cornell University 1964, plays Waller’s “Jitterbug waltz” composition  [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, flute; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, Cornell University, 18 March 1964])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

104th birthday of Sun Ra

(Born 22 May 1914, Birmingham, Alabama, US)

Pianist, bandleader, prolific composer whose output, arrangements and The Arkestra’s performances are influenced profoundly by Kemetic philosophical, astronomical and aesthetic conceptions

(Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra, “Space aura” [personnel: Sun Ra, piano, George Hudson, trumpet; percussion; Marshall Allen, alto saxophone, bells; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, percussion; Ronnie Boykins, bass, percussion; Jon Hardy, drums; recorded: Saturn, Chicago, US, [?] October 1960])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

87th birthday of Jackie McLean

Born 17 May 1931, Harlem, New York, US)

ONE OF THE preeminent alto saxophonists, bandleader, prolific composer including the classic Let Freedom Ring (1962), worked through as this phase of the great Afcrican American age of freedom gathers pace, altoist on the Charles Mingus Quintet’s recording of Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956), the iconoclastic bassist’s audacious orchestration of the tortuous and contraditory human march across the ages, co-founder, in 1970, with wife Dollie, of Hartford’s (Connecticut) Artists Collective which works for the preservation of African diaspora art and culture, academic, named after the University of Hartford’s department of African American Music – Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz
(Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe)

(Jackie McLean and McCoy Tyner, “Passion dance” [composer: McCoy Tyner] [personnel: McLean, alto saxophone; Woody Shaw, trumpet; Tyner, piano; Cecil McBee, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums; recorded: live, One night with Blue Note, Town Hall, New York, 22 February 1985])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

102nd birthday of Billy Strayhorn

(Born 29 November 1915, Dayton, Ohio, US)

RENOWNED composer, pianist and arranger whose near 30 years (1938-1967) of collaborative work with composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington has been the focus of expansive recordings, research and publications

(Charles Mingus Sextet, featuring Eric Dolphy, plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Take the ‘A’ train” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])

(Joe Henderson Quintet plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Johnny come lately” [personnel: Henderson, tenor saxophone; Wynton Marsalis, trumpet; Stephen Scott, piano; Christian McBride, bass; Gregory Hutchinson, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, Cliffs, NJ, US,  3-8 September 1991])

(John Coltrane Quintet plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Lush life” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Donald Bryd, trumpet; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Louis Hayes, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, US, 10 January 1958)

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

84th birthday of Wayne Shorter

(Born 25 August 1933, Newark, New Jersey, US)

CEREBRAL tenor and soprano saxophonist, member of the Miles Davis Second Great Quintet (1964-1968; personnel: Davis, trumpet; Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums)) and arguably the most prolific living composer in the repertoire – compositions include standards “Lester left town”, “Footprints”, “Nefertiti” and “ESP” and Schizophrenia, Speak No Evil  and the classic, The All Seeing Eye

(Wayne Shorter Septet, “Schizophrenia” [personnel: Shorter, tenor saxophone; Curtis Fuller, trombone, James Spaulding, alto saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Joe Chambers, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliff, NJ,US, 10 March 1967)

(Wayne Shorter Septet, “Chaos” [personnel: Shorter, tenor saxophone; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Grachan Moncur III, trombone, James Spaulding, alto saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Joe Chambers, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliff, NJ,US, 15 October 1965)

(Wayne Shorter Octet, “Mephistopheles” [personnel: Shorter, tenor saxophone,  Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Alan Shorter, fluegelhorn; Grachan Moncur III, trombone;  James Spaulding, alto saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano;  Ron Carter, bass; Joe Chambers, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 15 October 1965])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

142nd birthday of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

(Born 15 August 1875, Holborn, London, England)

DISTINGUISHED prolific composer whose landmark works embody African peoples-centred/-inflected themes including, especially, “Land of the Sun”, Op. 15 (1897) [anticipating Biafra?! - HE-E], “African Romances” Op.17 (1897), The Song of Hiawatha, Op. 30 (“Overture to The Song of Hiawatha”, 1899; “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast”, 1898; “The Death of Minnehaha”, 1899; “Hiawatha’s Departure”, 1900), “African Suite”, Op. 35 (1899), Toussaint L’Ouverture, Op. 46 (1901), “Ethiopia Saluting the Colours”, Op. 51 [2?] (1902), “Moorish Dance”, Op. 55 (1904), “Four African Dances”, Op. 58 (1904), Kubla Khan, Op. 61 (1905), Symphonic Variations on an African Air, Op. 63 (1906), Thelma, Op. 72 (1907-9), The Bamboula, Op. 75 (1911)

(Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Symphonic variations on an African air, Op. 63 (1906), played here by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Grant Llewellyn, BBC Radio 3, London, 28 October 2004)

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

103rd birthday of Sun Ra

(Born 22 May 1914, Birmingham, Alabama, US)

Pianist, bandleader, prolific composer whose output, arrangements and The Arkestra’s performances are influenced profoundly by Kemetic philosophical, astronomical and aesthetic conceptions

(Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra, “Space aura” [personnel: Sun Ra, piano, George Hudson, trumpet; percussion; Marshall Allen, alto saxophone, bells; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, percussion; Ronnie Boykins, bass, percussion; Jon Hardy, drums; recorded: Saturn, Chicago, US, [?] October 1960])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

113th birthday of Fats Waller

(Born 21 May 1904, Harlem, New York, US)

Innovative pianist, comedian, prolific composer/co-composer including such standards as “Jitterbug waltz”, “Honeysuckle rose”, “Ain’t misbehavin’”, “I can’t give you anything but love, baby”, and “Squeeze me”

(Fats Waller, “Ain’t misbehavin’” [personnel: Waller, piano, vocal; recording: Victor Machine Co’s Studio 1, Camden, NJ, US, 21 August 1929; details of rest of personnel at the date not available])

(Charles Mingus Sextet – with multiinstrmentalist Eric Dolphy, Cornell University 1964, plays Waller’s “Jitterbug waltz” composition  [personnel: Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, flute; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, Cornell University, 18 March 1964])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

86th birthday of Jackie McLean

(Born 17 May 1931, Harlem, New York, US)

One of the preeminent alto saxophonists, bandleader, prolific composer including the classic Let Freedom Ring (1962), worked through as this phase of the great Afcrican American age of freedom gathers pace, altoist on the Charles Mingus Quintet’s recording of Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956), the iconoclastic bassist’s audacious orchestration of the tortuous and contraditory human march across the ages, co-founder, in 1970, with wife Dollie, of Hartford’s (Connecticut) Artists Collective which works for the preservation of African diaspora art and culture, academic, named after the University of Hartford’s department of African American Music – Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz

(Jackie McLean and McCoy Tyner, “Passion dance” [composer: McCoy Tyner] [personnel: McLean, alto saxophone; Woody Shaw, trumpet; Tyner, piano; Cecil McBee, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums; recorded: live, One night with Blue Note, Town Hall, New York, 22 February 1985])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe