Jazz Pioneer Horace Silver Dies

by Richard Paul

Jazz pianist and composer Horace Silver, 85, has died in New Rochelle, New York.

Throughout his remarkable career that began in the 1940s, the pianist, composer and arranger always had one goal in mind.

“I try to make people think with my music,” he said in a long, biographical interview from 1981 with jazz writer and photographer Bob Rosenbaum. 

Speaking recently, Rosenbaum recounted the highlights of Silver’s life, which started as the son of an immigrant from Cape Verde. 

“He grew up in a musical household," he said. "They used to throw parties for the family - you know - on Saturday afternoons - people would come over and play the music that they grew up with in Cape Verde islands.

While he was successful as a pianist, throughout his career, Silver was most revered as a composer and arranger.  His strength was drawing from multiple sources and putting them together in the jazz idiom.

“I've always taken a bit of this and a bit of that and blended it together," Silver said. "In the beginning, and I still do dig the Blues, gospel.  I love Latin rhythms.  I love Broadway show music.  Classical music.” 

Silver began playing in clubs in his hometown of Hartford, Connecticut. 

“We played for the floor shows -- they had a strip dancer and a comedian and a singer,” he said.

While the setting was less than ideal for the straight-laced Silver, Rosenbaum points out, the clubs had one key benefit.

“They would bring in name players,” he said.

One was saxophonist Stan Getz, who sat in with the house band one night in 1950.

“He just liked Horace’s playing and he said, ‘Would you come on the road with me?’ and then they were on the road half a year,” Rosenbaum said.

After Silver got off the road with Getz, he took to rehearsing during the days at New York’s famous Birdland jazz club, mainly because he didn’t have a piano of his own.

But being at Birdland put him on touch with all the jazz greats of the time and it was there, around 1952 that he met drummer Art Blakey and started one of his most important collaborations, the Jazz Messengers. 

“It was really Horace who created the Jazz Messengers," Rosenbaum said. "His presence enabled the establishment of of the Jazz Messengers. They had a very, very together balanced sound.  It created a unit of sound which didn't exist before -- actually, taking the idea of be-bop which is melodically very exciting and rhythmically very exciting and adding a front line to it - of horn players - and making it more of an orchestrated sound.”

Working with the Jazz Messengers connected Silver with the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records, which would be his musical home for the next 25 years.

But Silver’s time at Blue Note ended in disappointment. He left the iconic label and struck out on his own.

Creating his own record labels, Silver dove headlong into music that made people think.  He created a trilogy of experimental compositions with voices and unusual combinations of instruments, and in 1981, he collaborated with Bill Cosby on a record for kids called “Guides to Growing Up.”

“I think he felt deep inside that it wasn’t just about improvising in clubs and making people happy for an evening, but that he really had something to say with his music,” said Rosenbaum.

And he wanted those messages - above all - to last.

“To try to write music, and record it, perform it in such a manner that it will withstand the test of time,” said Silver.

Jazz Pianist Marian McPartland Dead at 95

by Eric Felten, Bernie Bernard

Marian McPartland, one of the best-known jazz artists in America, died August 20 in Port Washington, New York. She was 95. A musician who broke ground for women instrumentalists in the 1940s and ‘50s, she would later become best known as host of the long-running radio program “Piano Jazz.”

McPartland’s elegant approach to jazz gracefully spanned several major eras, from swing to bebop and beyond. Ms. McPartland brought the musical knowledge earned over decades playing in night-clubs to National Public Radio, where for more than 30 years she hosted “Piano Jazz,” a program that mixed conversation and performance with many of the world’s best musicians.

Born Margaret Marian Turner in Windsor, England, as a girl she took up piano. To her parents’ dismay, when she was 20 she left home to join a four-piano vaudeville act. On a tour playing for Allied troops during World War II she met American jazz trumpeter Jimmy McPartland. They married, and, after the war, moved to the United States. With her husband's encouragement, McPartland went on to lead her own small bands.

McPartland landed a steady job performing at a New York City jazz club, the Hickory House. She played there for eight years, and developed a reputation not only for her fine piano playing, but for her melodic original compositions. Her songs were recorded by singers such as Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, and Peggy Lee.

At first, McPartland was so nervous about her songwriting she wouldn't take the credit for her own tunes.

"Years ago, I felt very insecure about writing songs, and I wrote one at the Hickory House," she said. "Somebody said, 'That's a nice song,' so then it was O.K. for me to say that I had written it. Isn't that sick?"

Starting in the 1960s, McPartland traveled to schools around the United States, encouraging students to develop an appreciation for jazz. She would use popular songs to introduce young listeners to the many sounds of jazz.

"I'll probably pick a tune that they know, something they've all heard, like the theme of [television program] 'M.A.S.H.,' for instance. They all know that. Then I'll do it another way, maybe like jazz, blues or something slow.  And I'll go through a whole thumbnail history of jazz. I'll do some boogie-woogie and so on, and really kind of grab them with that. But as long as you know tunes that they know, I think that helps a lot."

McPartland took that approach to the airwaves in 1979. Her weekly show, “Piano Jazz” became one of the most popular programs on public radio, airing across the United States for over three decades. Each week she would engage noted musicians in casual, relaxed interviews. She would take turns with her guests playing songs, and then would perform duets with them. Both in its music and its conversations, McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” expressed the core jazz virtue of improvisation.

The National Endowment for the Arts recognized McPartland as a “Jazz Master” in 2000. Four years later she won a special Grammy Award for her lifetime achievement. She continued to perform and broadcast into her nineties.

Pioneering Jazz Musician Dave Brubeck Dies

by Doug Levine

Jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck died Wednesday in Norwalk, Connecticut of heart failure.  He was 91.  Brubeck rose to fame in the 1950s and became known the world over.  His recordings cover a wide spectrum of music including jazz, classical, spiritual and even pop.

Many believe that Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo A La Turk" from his groundbreaking 1959 album "Time Out" ushered in a new era for jazz.  Like others on the album, it was a song that combined complex time signatures with classical, jazz and Third World rhythms.

David Warren Brubeck was born in Concord, California and was first exposed to music by his mother, a classically trained piano teacher.  He discovered jazz improvisation while studying with French composer Darius Milhaud.  His interest in jazz was fueled by the formation of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and his own label Fantasy Records.

Following World War II, his group found work in small towns across America.  Brubeck said those thriving jazz clubs provided his finest training.  

"When I grew up almost every bar had a small combo and there were dance halls that we used to drive across this country, from one dance hall -- and maybe 200 or 300 miles -- the next day we'd be in a different dance hall.  Great dance halls clear across the open part of Nebraska and those towns, and we'd come across that way.  It's changed a lot because most of our jazz now is in the universities and colleges [that] have taken over the old way that we used to have...a way to learn was one-on-one next to an old veteran."

The Dave Brubeck Quartet consisted of Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, Joe Morello on drums, Eugene Wright on bass and Dave Brubeck on piano when they recorded the Desmond classic "Take Five."  The song was so successful that it earned a spot on the popular music charts.

One of Brubeck’s best-selling albums was "Jazz Goes To College," recorded in American coffeehouses and college auditoriums during a tour in 1954.  It sold more than a million copies and landed Brubeck on the cover of Time magazine.

Brubeck believed that the younger generation played an important role in shaping the direction of jazz. 

"What we're going to have now is the individual who's come out of this group of people that respect the past," he said. "Because you really can't take a step forward until you know what was behind you."

The Dave Brubeck Quartet continued to tour and record until 1967 when Brubeck decided to pursue jazz-based symphonic works and sacred music.  A seasoned world traveler, he recorded several albums based on his reflections of other cultures.  Among them, were "Jazz Impressions of Eurasia," "Jazz Impressions of Japan" and "Moscow Night."

In 1993, Dave Brubeck teamed up with his sons Chris on bass and Dan on drums to record "Trio Brubeck."  Three years later, he won a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2009, he was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.  His son Chris once remarked, "Making music together is the most natural thing in the world for this family."

Dave Brubeck died Wednesday December 5, one day before his 92nd birthday.

Bulgarian-Born Pianist Alexis Weissenberg Dies at 82



 Bulgarian-born French pianist Alexis Weissenberg, whose passion for music saved him and his mother from a World War II concentration camp, has died at the age of 82.

Weissenberg died Sunday in Lugano, Switzerland, where his family had settled. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease for years.

Bulgarian Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov described Weissenberg as “one of the greatest piano players of the 20th century.”

An only child, Weissenberg was born into a Jewish family in Sofia in 1929. When he and his mother tried to flee German-occupied Bulgaria for Turkey during World War II, they were captured and thrown into a concentration camp.

Weissenberg's musical talent saved his and his mother's lives. A German officer who enjoyed listening to the three-year-old play the accordion helped them escape.

After the war, Weissenberg moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School of Music. Weissenberg's musical talent quickly catapulted him to fame. He performed with renowned musical composers, including Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein.

Weissenberg eventually settled in France and became a French national.

(Photo: Euroarts)

Dave 'Omar' Alexander



 Dave Alexander, 73, American blues singer and pianist. Died 8 January 2012 (age 73) in Marshall, Texas, United States.

Dave Alexander aka Omar Sharriff, Omar Hakim Khayam (10 March 1938 – 8 January 2012) was an American Texas blues singer, and pianist.

In February, 2011, Alexander relocated to Marshall, Texas where he lived until his death.

On 8 January 2012, Alexander was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Marshall, Texas. He was 73 years old.

Photo by Mike Shea: Dave Alexander performing at the 2007 San Francisco Blues Festival.

Renowned Russian Pianist Nikolai Petrov Dies

Renowned Russian pianist Nikolai Petrov has died after suffering a stroke a few months ago while performing in Belarus.

An assistant for Petrov said he passed away Wednesday in a Moscow hospital.

He was 68.

Petrov was an award winning pianist who performed 70 to 100 concerts each year.

His career included performances with top orchestras in New York, Washington and across Europe.

He also taught at the Moscow Conservatory.

Petrov's funeral is scheduled for Friday in Moscow.

Jazz Great George Shearing Dies at 91

George Shearing: Swing Era (Photo: Idem)

Jazz Great George Shearing Dies at 91
Monday, 14 February 2011

Legendary jazz pianist and composer George Shearing has died. He was 91.

Shearing succumbed to congestive heart failure in New York on Monday.

Born blind in London in 1919, he began playing the piano at the age of three. He was already popular in England when he decided to emigrate to the United States in 1947 where he embarked on an extraordinary career.

Shearing wrote more than 300 compositions. But he is probably best known for the 1952 classic Lullaby of Birdland .

Shearing received numerous awards during his six-decade career, including a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 for his contribution to music.