An excellent veteran tenor saxophonist inspired by Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins, RICKY FORD was playing creative hard bop several years before Wynton Marsalis. He studied at the New England Conservatory, with, among others, Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake; then, while still in his early 20s, he toured with both the Duke Ellington Orchestra (under Mercer Ellington's leadership) and Charles Mingus. By the 1980s, he was considered one of the leading tenor saxophonists of his generation. He worked with Dannie Richmond's Quintet, Lionel Hampton, Mal Waldron, Beaver Harris, and Abdullah Ibrahim’s Ekaya, and also recorded an excellent string of over a dozen albums as a leader for the Muse and Candid labels. Since the 1990s he has been living in France. He taught at Istanbul Bilgi University, as well, in 2000- 2007. He has become a leader among the community of expatriot jazz musicians living in France. He has done a considerable amount of writing for big band, performing with the Paris-based Ze Big Band, while continuing to perform and record with small groups as well. ...
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An excellent veteran tenor saxophonist inspired by Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins, RICKY FORD was playing creative hard bop several years before Wynton Marsalis. He studied at the New England Conservatory, with, among others, Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake; then, while still in his early 20s, he toured with both the Duke Ellington Orchestra (under Mercer Ellington's leadership) and Charles Mingus. By the 1980s, he was considered one of the leading tenor saxophonists of his generation. He worked with Dannie Richmond's Quintet, Lionel Hampton, Mal Waldron, Beaver Harris, and Abdullah Ibrahim’s Ekaya, and also recorded an excellent string of over a dozen albums as a leader for the Muse and Candid labels. Since the 1990s he has been living in France. He taught at Istanbul Bilgi University, as well, in 2000- 2007. He has become a leader among the community of expatriot jazz musicians living in France. He has done a considerable amount of writing for big band, performing with the Paris-based Ze Big Band, while continuing to perform and record with small groups as well.
BARRY ALTSCHUL first became well known in the 1970s as the drummer for Circle – a cooperative band that also included Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Anthony Braxton). While that group tended toward “free jazz,” Mr. Altschul is equally adept in more traditional “straight ahead” styles as well. According to allmusic.com, “He inevitably manages to generate an enormous momentum without overpowering the ensemble. Much of his power as a rhythm player stems from the subtlety of his touch; Altschul's sound is very tight and exceedingly well-defined. A strict attention to rhythmic and tonal detail has always characterized his playing.”
From 1964 until 1970, Mr. Altschul played regularly with pianist Paul Bley; their relationship continued intermittently through the '70s and '80s. Altschul was a member of the Jazz Composer's Guild and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra Association from 1964-1968. He spent a portion of the '60s playing mainstream jazz in Europe. In the '70s, he recorded extensively with each of the other individual members of Circle. In 1972, under Holland's leadership, he recorded the classic album Conference of the Birds with Braxton and saxophonist Sam Rivers. He also made records with Bley, Rivers, bassist Alan Silva, saxophonist Lee Konitz and pianist Andrew Hill, among others. He has recorded over a dozen albums as a leader during his career. Into the new millennium, he has proven to be as innovative as ever as a member of the FAB Trio with violinist Billy Bang and bassist Joe Fonda (up until the violinist's death in April 2011) and other collaborative outfits such as the Gebhard Ullman-Steve Swell Quartet.
JEROME HARRIS (acoustic bass guitar) is best known for his work as a sideman with Sonny Rollins, and for his later work in groups led by drummer Bobby Previte and by trombonist Ray Anderson, among others. He has also worked with Oliver Lake, Bill Frisell, Marty Ehrlich, Don , Ned Rothenberg, Kenny Werner, and Jay Hoggard. He has made many albums with the aforementioned musicians and others, and also led several recording dates of his own, including Algorithms (Minor Music, 1986), Hidden in Plain View (New World, 1995) and Rendezvous (Stereophile, 1999). In 1999, he also played a large role in a July concert in New York City that was a tribute to Joni Mitchell, in which he wrote many of the transcriptions and arrangements, in addition to performing.
JOHN KORDALEWSKI, a resident of Boston, MA, is the leader, arranger, and pianist for the Makanda Project, a 13 piece group performing his arrangements of previously unrecorded Makanda Ken McIntyre compositions; the group has maintained an active performance schedule since 2005. He has arranged over 50 of Dr. McIntyre's compositions, and guided the band through a continually evolving series of collaborations with diverse musicians as well as artists from other disciplines. He has performed with musicians such as Charlie Rouse, Cab Calloway, Julius Hemphill, Odean Pope, Ricky Ford, Carl Grubbs, Webster Young, Byard Lancaster, and Oliver Lake. He has been musical director for projects including tributes to vocalist Abbey Lincoln (2011-2015) and performances of Duke Ellington's Sacred Music (1985-2003). For many years he led a trio featuring legendary Boston drummer Bobby Ward. He has conducted clinics and workshops at many colleges and universities, most recently at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban, South Africa, where his arrangements of compositions by pianist Ndikho Xaba and trumpeter Feya Faku have been performed. He is also currently collaborating with saxophonist Chico Freeman, writing first-ever big band arrangements of Mr. Freeman’s compositions.
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