Okay, so this is an old album, but it only came into my possession recently so it’s new to me.

Originally released in 2001, The Things I See is drummer/pianist Gary Husband’s interpretations of Allan Holdsworth tunes. It’s a solo piano album and it’s so good that it was re-released in 2004.

I’ve been listening to this album recently while writing. This very good writing music. Something about it captures my imagination. I recommend checking it out.

Here’s a video of Husband playing the piano.

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David “Fathead” Newman was born in Corsicana, Texas on February 24, 1933. Soon after his birth his family moved to Dallas. Once he graduated from high school, he started playing with local bands. He attended Jarvis Christian College where he studied music and theology.

After two years in college, Newman started touring with Buster Smith. They toured Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and sometimes California playing dance halls. It was on one of those tours that he met Ray Charles. They hit it off immediately and Newman started playing in Charles’ band in 1954. He played with Charles for 12 years.

Newman recorded his first solo album with Atlantic Records in 1959. It was called Fathead: Ray Charles Presents. After recording that album, he moved to New York were his career took off. He recorded many other albums with Atlantic Records. He also recorded with Prestige and Warner Brothers. He gigged with Lee Morgan, Billy Higgins, and Kenny Drew, Sr. Soon he was touring the East coat, Europe and Japan with his own band.

He played as a studio musician for a while and in the 80’s recorded several mainstream jazz albums. Newman had a successful and active career throughout his life. He died on January 20, 2009 from complications of pancreatic cancer. When I heard this news I was quite sad. I met him a couple years ago and he was a really nice man.

Here is a performance with The David Leonhardt Jazz Group playing Goldfinger.

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I’m always interested in bringing exciting bands to your attention and this is one. Grand Pianoramax is a drum and piano duo that combines jazz, funk, and hip hop influences with spoken word. Swiss born, Leo Tardin is the mastermind behind the group. He won the first Montreux solo piano competition in 1999.

If you live in the New York area, check them out tonight at the Canal Room. The drummer Tardin uses changes from time to time so tonight he’ll be playing with Jojo Mayer. Spoken word will be preformed by Mike Ladd and Celena Glenn.

Here’s a video of Grand Pianoramax featuring Celena Glenn.

Grand Pianoramax
“Nikola Tesla” (mp3)
from “The Biggest Piano in Town”
(Backdrop/ObliqSound)

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Kenny Drew was born in New York City on August 28, 1928. He started studying classical piano when he was 5. He was introduced to jazz at 12. His influences include Bud Powell, Art Tatum, Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson. Drew attended the High Schools of Music and Art in New York.

Drew’s first professional job was at Pearl Primus’ dance school. During that time, he also played in a local band with Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, and Art Taylor. He also played in local jam sessions.

Drew first appeared on a Blue Note recording in January 1950. The album included Howard McGhee, Brew Moore, and J.J. Johnson. In 1953, he made his first album as a band leader. That album included Curly Russell and Art Blakey.

Drew moved to Los Angeles and formed a quartet with Joe Maini, Leroy Vinnegar and Lawrence Marable in 1955. They recorded together that same year with Pacific Jazz. In December of that same year, they recorded another album, this time with Jazz West. The album was called Talkin’ & Walkin’. In 1956, Drew played on Chambers’ Music with Paul Chambers, John Coltrane and Philly Joe Jones.

In 1957, Drew moved back to New York for a few years before moving to Europe. He settled in Copenhagen where he ran a publishing company and continued to play gigs and record.

Drew died died on August 4, 1993.

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LaRue Nickelson’s first solo CD, Dark Water, has nothing to do with the horror movie. I’ve seen the movie and listened to the CD. Trust me, they have no similarities.

Dark Water features LaRue Nickelson on guitar, Steve Davis on drums, Joe Porter on bass, Jermey Powell on sax, and Patrick Bettison on piano. Track 5, Robert and Rhoda also features Kirk Adams on slide guitar. All of the music on the CD was written by Nickelson.

This CD has an introspective quality that sends the listener into a reflective mood. From the first few musical phases you’re completely immersed in fluid harmonies. The melodies splash pleasantly around in your head long after your done listening to the CD. The instrumentation meshes well together. None of the musician seem to be fighting for center stage. This is a good CD for chilling out on a Sunday afternoon or listening to on your iPod as you take a walk on a beautiful spring morning.

I especially like the first track, Dark Water and the sixth track, Hey Mr. Porter. Check out LaRue Nickelson’s website or his My Space page. Dark Water is available on CD Baby and true most digital distributors.

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Meshell Ndegeocello was born Michelle Johnson on August 29, 1968 in Berlin, Germany. Her father was in the military and her mother was a health care worker. She spent her early years in Germany, then her family relocated to the Washington DC area. Her father played the tenor saxophone, and while he wasn’t a full time musician, he played occasional gigs. His gigging introduced Ndegeocello to jazz at an early age.

Ndegeocello attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Oxon Hill High School. She was greatly influenced by the funk and soul music her brother listened to. When she was 16, she started writing music. When she was a teenager she changed her name several times. The surname that she ended up adopting means “free like bird” in Swahili.

Ndegeocello studied music history at Howard University. She worked with local bands in the DC area. Upon leaving college, she moved to New York City to hone her musical skills.

In 1993, she played a showcase gig in Los Angeles. The co-head of Madonna’s new record label, Maverick Records, was in the audience. He signed Ndegeocello to the label. She released her first album, Plantation Lullabies, that same year.

Since that debut album, Ndegeocello has continued to explore funk, R & B, and jazz music. Here is a live performance from 2004.

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Gregoire Maret was born in Geneva, Switzerland on May 13, 1975 to a Swiss father and American mother. He started playing harmonica professionally at 17. When he graduated from high school, he began attending the Collège de Saussure and the Superior Conservatory of Music.

In 1995, Maret moved to New York City to pursue a career as a professional jazz musician and study jazz at the New School for Social Research. He earned his BA in music in 1998.

Since graduating, Maret has performed with many great musicians, including Cassandra Wilson, Charlie Hunter, Steve Coleman, Me’Shell Ndegeocello, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ravi Coltrane, the Pat Metheny Group, Marcus Miller, and Herbie Hancock.

There’s a documentary that shows Maret’s life in 2001 and 2002. It’s called “Sideman.” If you can find a copy of it, I recommend it.

Here’s a 2003 performance with Dapp Theory.

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John Lenwood (Jackie) McLean was born in New York City on May 17, 1931 or 32 according to some sources. His father, John Sr., was a guitarist for Tiny Bradshaw’s orchestra. He died in 1939. McLean grew up in Harlem around notable jazz musicians. When he was 15, he started playing the saxophone. He took music lessons from Bud Powell. He’s listed Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Rahsaan Roland Kirk among his early musical influences. During high school he played with Sonny Rollins, Kenny Drew and Andy Kirk Jr.

When he was 19, McLean played on the Miles Davis album Dig along with Sonny Rollins. By 1955, he was playing with Paul Bley and Charles Mingus. Mingus was famous for his temper and after a volatile argument with Mingus ended with McLean pulling a knife, he left Mingus’s band to play with the Jazz Messengers.

In 1956, he started recording for the Prestige label. He signed a contact with Blue Note in 1959 because they gave him more creative freedom and higher pay.

McLean struggled with a heroin addiction early in his career. His addiction caused him many problems including loosing his cabaret license.  In 1964, he served six months in prison on drug charges.

After McLean started experimenting with acid and modal jazz, Blue Note terminated his contract. The follow year, 1968, he began teaching at the University of Hartford.

McLean became very ill in 2006 and died that year on March 31.

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Woody Shaw Jr., was born on December 24, 1944 in Laurinburg, North Carolina. Shaw grew up in Newark, New Jersey. He started playing bugle when he was 9 with  the Washington Carver Drum and Bugle Corps. When he was 11 he started playing trumpet. He attended the Arts High School in Newark. While in high school he started going into New York to see famous jazz musicians at the time play. Shaw’s early musical influences were Clifford Brown, Harry James and Louis Armstrong. When he graduated, he went on the road with Rufus Jones.

While playing in New York with a band that included Chick Corea, Shaw met Eric Dolphy. In 1963 Shaw played on Dolphy’s Iron Man album. The following year Dolphy paid for Shaw to fly out to Paris to perform with him. Dolphy died before Shaw made it to Paris, but Shaw went ahead with the trip. While in Paris, he played with Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, and Johnny Griffin.

When he returned to the States, Shaw started playing with Horace Silver. He played with Silver for a year before playing with Max Roach for a year. He also played briefly with the Jazz Messengers. During the 60’s, Shaw appeared on many recordings, but didn’t make his recording debut as a band leader until the 70’s. He continued to record throughout the 70’s.

In the 80’s, Shaw moved to Bern, Switzerland, where he taught music in jazz schools and toured Europe with a few jazz bands.

On February 27, 1989, Shaw fell onto the tracks in the DeKalb subway station in Brooklyn, New York. He was struck by a train and his arm was severed. He stayed in the hospital until May 10 of that year when he died of kidney failure.

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Jimmy Smith was born on December 8, 1925 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. His parents taught him to play the piano. In 1935, he won the Major Bowes contest. He started playing professional gigs at an early age and even did some nightclub work with his father.

Smith served in the Navy during the end of World War II. After leaving the Navy, he went back to Pennsylvania and started studying music formally. He attended the Hamilton School of Music in 1948, and Ornstein School of Music in 1949 and 1950 in Philadelphia. During this time, Smith played with Don Gardner’s rhythm-and-blues comb.

In the early 50’s, he saw Wild Bill Davis perform and he became interested in playing the organ. He bought an B-3 organ and rented a warehouse to practice in. Three months later he emerged from his intensive practicing ready to make his debut on the organ.

In 1955, he started playing the organ as a single at a club in Atlantic City. By September, he had a trio. He signed a recording contract with Blue Note in 1956. He did a lot of recording with Blue Note. In the 8 years he was with the label he recorded 40 sessions. One of the most famous recording from that period was The Sermon (1958 Digital Remaster).

In 1962, Smith signed with Verve Records. His first album with the label, Bashin, sold very well. This was the first of a series of big band collaborations for Smith. He continued to play with many famous musicians through the 1960’s. In the 1970s, Smith opened his own supperclub in Los Angeles. He played there regularly. His career slumped briefly, but in the 80’s and 90’s, he had a career revival.

Smith died on February 8, 2005.

Here is a performance of Laura recorded in 1988 in Germany.

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