Keeping up with the Jazz world, Leander Young, carries out authentic conversions with and about musicians. Make sure to subscribe, leave a comment, and rating. Connect with us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @improvexchange #improvexchange www.improvexchange.com
Episodes
Monday Dec 06, 2021
Monday Dec 06, 2021
Nick Di Maria is a trumpeter, composer, podcaster, activist, and educator based in New Haven, Connecticut.
A graduate of Western Connecticut State University, Nick holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Performance. Nick has been a student Dr. Eddie Henderson since 2003. Other musical mentors include Dave Scott, Jeremy Pelt, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Rich Clymer. Nick also holds a Masters of Science in Music Education.
Nick is also Director of the Outer Space Jazz Series, a local, weekly jazz showcase at the Outer Space club in Hamden, CT. Nick has worked with musicians of the highest caliber. In the 2012-2013 season Jeremy Pelt, Wayne Escoffery, Peter Bernstein, and Jimmy Greene have performed at the series. Nick also directed the now annual O.S. Jazz Festival which consists of bands from all over the state performing originally composed jazz. In this episode, Nick shares his background, education, and musical journey.
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Monday Nov 29, 2021
Monday Nov 29, 2021
Drummer, composer and bandleader Mareike Wiening has distinguished herself bringing “a planar modulating harmonic language and a propulsive drift” (Giovanni Russonello, New York Times) to the most compelling jazz music of today. Ms. Wiening’s music was described as “thoroughly modern, progressive jazz, Mareike Wiening’s album Crosswalk has many layers that unfold with each repeated hearing; she will most definitely become a leading part of the jazz scene in the years to come.” (All About Jazz)
Her new album Future Memories, which follows her critically acclaimed debut album Metropolis Paradise.
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Sunday Nov 21, 2021
Sunday Nov 21, 2021
For more than forty years, drummer Louis Hayes has been a catalyst for energetic, unrelenting swing in his self-led bands, as well as in those whose respective leaders reads like an encyclopedia of straight-ahead post-bop modern jazz.
Hayes himself an authentic architect of post-bop swing, began his professional activities at the tender age of 18. He started with tenor saxophonist, flutist and oboist Yusef Lateef who like Hayes is a Detroit native (other jazz luminaries hailing from the "motor city" include the Jones brothers, Elvin, Hank and Thad, guitarist Kenny Burrell, pianist Tommy Flanagan, and many others). After the stint with Lateef, Hayes went on to rhythmically propel groups led by pianist Horace Silver, legendary saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, and pianist Oscar Peterson. These positions were augmented by countless recordings on the Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside and other labels with the likes of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson, Jackie McLean, Wes Montgomery, Cedar Walton, Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, George Benson, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, and the list goes on. In this episode, Louis shares his background, education, and musical journey.
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Sunday Oct 31, 2021
Sunday Oct 31, 2021
Eric Wyatt is a saxophonist who plays tenor, alto, and soprano sax. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Eric was taught music by his dad, Charles Jolly Wyatt, who played in the army band in Germany. His dad moved to Harlem in the early 50’s just in time to play with many of the world’s greatest players. Eric can recall stories of his dad taking him to concerts where he would sometimes drive the band members in the family station wagon. Eric at 11 years old drove with his father in 1972 to Storrs, CT with bassist Larry Ridley and pianist Albert Dailey.
The band leader was Eric’s godfather Sonny Rollins. Jim Hall was on the gig as well. This inspired Eric at a young age to hear his first live concert. Some of his dad’s friends were Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Gary Bartz, Big Nick Nicholas, Gilley Coggins, Wilber Ware, and Dizzy Gillespie. Eric went with his dad to see Miles Davis at the Bottom Line club and went backstage after the gig.
Eric began on alto and studied at Kingsborough Community College. He also went to Lehman college where he studied with pianist Stanley Cowell. He had some opportunities early in his career to write and license an original song to channel 5 in NY for a tv news show called Black News with host Bill McCreary in 1985.
He went on to switch to tenor after his dad passed in July 1989. He met and studied with a Brooklyn legend named Arthur Rhames who inspired him. The lessons he learned from Arthur helped to put Eric on the right track. Eric started playing in Europe as a leader in Sept 1996 performing in Paris, France at the La Villa Jazz Club. Dany Michel brought him there 2 times and Eric made connections in Europe and took his quintet to the Half Note Jazz Club in 1998 and 1999. He has played as a leader in Moscow, Russia, as well as in Slovakia, Prague, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Athens in Greece, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.
He has 5 recordings as a leader and has played as a sideman on CDs with Kenny Garrett, Jeff Tain Watts, Bob Crenshaw, Al Foster, Rufus Reid, Warren Wolf, Wallace Roney, and Steve Jordan. His Cds currently out today are Borough Of Kings, Positone, Look to the Sky, and The Golden Rule 4 Sonny, and A Song of Hope. In this episode, Eric shares his background, education, and musical journey.
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Sunday Oct 24, 2021
Sunday Oct 24, 2021
Trumpeter, composer, and educator Jared Hall hails from Spokane, Washington. He studied at Whitworth University, the Indiana University Jacobs School Of Music, and The University Of Miami’s Frost School Of Music, where he received the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in 2015. His primary teachers include Terence Blanchard, Joey Tartell, Dan Keberle, Whit Sidener, David Baker, and Brian Lynch, under whom he pursued his doctoral studies. Hall is the winner of the 2013 National Trumpet Competition - Jazz Division, and has performed and recorded with Paquito D'Rivera, Bob Hurst, John Daversa, Arturo Sandoval, Maria Schneider, Vincent Herring, Peter Erskine, Dave Liebman, Alan Pasqua, Brian Lynch, Ira Sullivan, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Terence Blanchard, Rick Margitza, Wycliffe Gordon, David Binney, George Benson, Gloria Estefan, Fred Hersch, Shelly Berg, the South Florida Jazz Orchestra, the Frost Concert Jazz Band and the Henry Mancini Jazz Septet directed by Terence Blanchard, among many others. In this episode, Jaded shares his background, education, and musical journey.
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Sunday Oct 17, 2021
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
Latin Grammy-winning producer, composer, percussionist, and writer, Barrett Martin, has been playing music professionally for over 30 years, including work on over 120 albums and film soundtracks worldwide. His work can be heard on albums by R.E.M., Queens Of The Stone Age, Mad Season, Screaming Trees, Tuatara, Blues legend CeDell Davis, and recording sessions that range from the Peruvian Amazon, to Brazil, Cuba, the Palestinian West Bank, the Mississippi Delta, and the Alaskan Arctic. Barrett also holds a master’s degree in ethnomusicology and linguistics, and has practiced Zen for over 25 years.
He has guest lectured at several universities across the United States, and has written essays for The Huffington Post and Riot Material (links below). In 2014 he was awarded the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thompson Award for excellence in writing, and in 2017 he received two Latin Grammy nominations, winning a Grammy for producing Nando Reis’ Best Brazilian Rock Album, “Jardim-Pomar”. In this episode, Jane shares his background, education, and musical journey.
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Sunday Oct 10, 2021
Sunday Oct 10, 2021
CONRAD KORSCH is a New York City based acoustic and electric bassist / multi-instrumentalist / vocalist / musical director / bandleader / composer / producer, and educator. After attending the prestigious Settlement Music School throughout his grade school and high school years in Philadelphia, he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Jazz Bass Performance from Temple University, where he attended on scholarship and graduated Magna Cum Laude and with other honors. Widely known for his tenure with Rod Stewart from 2002 - 2018 as bassist and eventually Musical Director / Bandleader, and as a member of The Faces since their R&R Hall Of Fame Induction in 2012, he has accumulated a long and varied list of other notable recordings, performance, production and TV / Film / Theater. In this episode, Jane shares her background, education, and musical journey.
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Sunday Oct 03, 2021
Sunday Oct 03, 2021
Soaring, poetic, quicksilver, spontaneous, and instantly identifiable are words used to describe the soprano sound of saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. She's been steadfastly developing her singular voice on the soprano saxophone for over 40 years creating a body of music that marks her as an American original. She is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, as well as the possessor of "one of the most gorgeous tones and hauntingly lyrical ballad conceptions of any soprano saxophonist - Pulse." She is the winner of the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album for her trio album "Early Americans." In this episode, Jane shares her background, education, and musical journey.
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Sunday Sep 26, 2021
Sunday Sep 26, 2021
As a virtuoso bassist, versatile composer, and acclaimed bandleader, Marc Johnson has been a major innovator on the jazz scene for the past two decades.
Born in Nebraska in 1953, Johnson took up bass at the age of 16, having already studied piano and cello. While completing his formal education in the celebrated music program at the University of North Texas, at age19, Johnson began performing professionally with the Fort Worth Symphony. In 1977, he was on the road with the Woody Herman Band. A stop with Herman in New York City marked a major turning point for Johnson, where he was invited to sit in with Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard. In 1978, he joined Evans' trio, remaining with him until the pianist's death two years later. Johnson appears on numerous albums recorded with Evans, including the Grammy-winning We Will Meet Again and released in 1997, a six-CD box set of live recordings, Turn Out the Stars, weaving his distinctively warm tones and melodic lines into the complex harmonies of the Trio.
Over the past 20 years, Johnson has performed on more than 100 albums. Many have been with pianists, including Eliane Elias, Lyle Mays, and Enrico Pieranunzi, although Johnson has also recorded with saxophonists Stan Getz, Joe Lovano, and Michael Brecker, drummers Peter Erskine and Paul Motian, and Jack DeJohnette, vibist Gary Burton, and bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi. And many of his most notable recordings have been with guitarists. In addition to his long membership in guitarist John Abercrombie's trio, Johnson formed two guitar-oriented bands that rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Overpass, recorded in January and February 2018 at Nacena Studios, in São Paulo, was produced by Marc Johnson and Eliane Elias. In this episode, Marc shares his background, education, and musical journey.
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Sunday Sep 19, 2021
Sunday Sep 19, 2021
Pianist Benito Gonzalez “Two times Grammy nominee” is an internationally beloved artist who combines a long lineage of American jazz traditions with rhythms from around the world. He’s worked with dozens of the greats, and he always brings some of the best rhythm section players in the world.
Today a rising tide of young jazz pianists are attempting to find their distinct voices by taking cues from their elders. But only a few take their artistry beyond their predecessors to make bold 88-key statements on their journeys to new vistas, fresh sounds, inspired expressions. That personal-touch devotion to the wonders of the instrument brings with it a certitude of intuitive creativity. In this episode, Benito shares his background, education, and musical journey.
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