#jack nimitz

Supersax – Live In '75 - The Japanese Tour : Scrapple From The Apple

Med Flory (as, lead), Joe Lopes (as), Jay Migliori, Warne Marsh (ts), Jack Nimitz (bs), Frank Rosolino (tb), Lou Levy (p), Buddy Clark (b), Jake Hanna (dr)

Supersax – Live In ‘75 - The Japanese Tour : Salt Peanuts

Jazz Magazine N°326 - SuperSax - Février 1984

Bud Shank & the Sax Section (1966) - On A Clear Day

Bud Shank & the Sax Section (1966) - The Sidewinder

Bud Shank (ss,as), Bill Perkins (as), Bob Cooper (ts), Bob Hardaway (ts), Jack Nimitz (bs), John Lowe (bass s), Dennis Budimir (g), Ray Brown (b), Larry Bunker (dr) Bob Florence (arr)

Bud Shank & the Sax Section (1966) - Take Five 

Bud Shank (ss,as), Bill Perkins (as), Bob Cooper (ts), Bob Hardaway (ts), Jack Nimitz (bs), John Lowe (bass s), Dennis Budimir (g), Ray Brown (b), Larry Bunker (dr) Bob Florence (arr)

Boo’s Bloos – Quincy Jones

One of Clark Terry’s mentees who is nothing short of a power house is Quincy Jones, or more fully “Quincy Delight Jones Jr”, but in short, and to his friends just “Q”. He is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, arranger, film and television producer, and one of the greatest record producers ever. 

It’s hard to know where to start to introduce you to Q. Named as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. He came to prominence in the 50s as a jazz performer, composer, arranger and conductor, but jazz was only his beginning. His career in entertainment spans over 60 years, and his 80 Grammy Award nominations, 28 Grammys, and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992, are not for his contributions to jazz.

We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving. That's when I discovered that there was music, and there was the music business. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two.

Even if you've never heard of him, you know his work. I’m just going to throw out a few of the things of his you possibly know but didn’t know he was behind.

Do you recall Old Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra’s Las Vegas years? Quincy Jones was his musical director, arranger and conductor. in fact, in the 60s, Jones worked as an arranger for Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn, Peggy Lee, Nana Mouskouri, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, and Dinah Washington.

You know that quirky flute driven theme song from the Austin Powers film that sticks in your head – It’s a Quincy Jones jazz composition from 1962 called Soul Bossa Nova. It has been used as a theme by dozens of films, radio programs and television shows.

You know those mildly successful pop albums by Michael Jackson - Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad – Quincy Jones produced them. He was the first African American to become a record label vice-president.

That’s only a start. There is an entire wikipedia page just to list the many, many awards and nominations received by Quincy Jones. Far more interesting than a list of accolades though, I can thoroughly recommend the documentary Quincy by Australian Director and Wollongong boy, Alan Hicks.

Boo’s Bloos is a Jones tune from his 1957 album This Is How I Feel About Jazz. On this track, 

Alto Saxophone – Phil Woods

Baritone Saxophone – Jack Nimitz

Bass – Charles Mingus

Drums – Charli Persip

Flute – Herbie Mann

Piano – Billy Taylor

Tenor Saxophone – Lucky Thompson

Trombone – Jimmy Cleveland

Trumpet – Art Farmer

Cal Massey- 1927-1972 :: was an American jazz trumpeter and composer.

Massey studied trumpet under Freddie Webster, and following this played in the big bands of Jay McShann, Jimmy Heath, and Billie Holiday. In the late 1950s he led an ensemble with Jimmy Garrison, McCoy Tyner, and Tootie Heath; John Coltrane and Donald Byrd occasionally played with them.

In the 1950s he gradually receded from active performance and concentrated on composition; his works were recorded by Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan, Philly Joe Jones, and Archie Shepp. Massey played with Shepp from 1969 until 1972. He also performed in The Romas Orchestra with Romulus Franceschini. His last composition was Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy.

Jack Nimitz (sax, baritone) - 1930-2009 :: was an American jazz baritone saxophonist.

He played in a variety of genres including jazz and rock. He appeared on many jazz albums as sideman and rock albums as session musician, including The Beach Boys singles “Sloop John B”, “Please Let Me Wonder, and “The Girl from New York City”.

He played in local bands in Washington D.C., and after specializing on baritone sax he found work in the territory bands of Willis Connover, Bob Astor, Johnny Bothwell, and Daryl Harpa. He played with Woody Herman (1953-55), Stan Kenton (1955-56, 1958-59), and Herbie Mann (1959); he also played in the house band for the Savoy Theater in the 1950s.

He then moved to Los Angeles and worked in film music in addition to playing with Bill Berry, Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson, Supersax, Frank Strazzeri, Thelonious Monk, Terry Gibbs, Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Bellson, Chuck Mangione, Shelly Manne, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, Gil Fuller, Gene Ammons Oliver Nelson, Kenny Burrell, Quincy Jones, Milt Jackson, Frank Capp and Joey DeFrancesco into the 1980s. Additionally he recorded with the vocalists Johnny Hartman, June Christy, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Anita O’Day and Diane Schuur. In the 1990s Nimitz recorded with Stewart Liebig, Bill Perkins, Bud Shank and Gerald Wilson.

In 1995 he released his first album under his own name. The Jack Nimitz Quintet played their final performance on May 10, 2009, in Northridge, California.

Lee Ritenour (guitar) - 1952 :: Birthday greetings to jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour. Lee has recorded over 42 albums, appeared on over 3000 sessions, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. One of his most popular songs was the smash hit, “Is It You” in 1981.

He played his first session when he was 16 with the Mamas & the Papas and given the moniker, “Captain Fingers”, because of his manual dexterity on the guitar. Ritenour was a sought-after session guitarist by the mid-1970s, and won Guitar Player magazine’s Best Studio Guitarist twice in the 1970s. He is noted for playing his red Gibson ES-335 and his Gibson L5 guitars.

One of his most notable influences is the pioneering jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery among others like Joe Pass, Kenny Burrell and John McLaughlin. His prolific career includes a Grammy Award for the collaborative work Harlequin (1985), and 19 other Grammy nominations. Ritenour also holds the distinction of having two of the promotional videos for his songs “Is It You” and “Mr. Briefcase” being played during MTV’s first day. Ritenour has been at the top of many guitar polls throughout the world.

In June 2010, in order to celebrate his fifty years as a guitarist, Lee Ritenour released the album 6 String Theory (in reference to 6 musical areas covered by the use of guitar). The album featured famous guitarists such as Steve Lukather, Neal Schon, John Scofield, Slash, Pat Martino, Mike Stern, George Benson and B.B.King, but also younger players such as Andy McKee, Joe Robinson and Guthrie Govan.

Ritenour is considered to be a pioneer in the Contemporary Jazz and jazz-funk genres of music.Guitar Player Magazine awarded him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for the year 2010. His highly acclaimed and popular 2010 hit album Lee Ritenour’s 6 String Theory had numerous awards in 2011 including, Guitar Album of the Year – Guitar International Magazine. UK’s Guitarist Magazine: The No. 1 Best 50 Guitar Albums of 2010. JAZZIZ Magazine Publisher’s Album of the Year. Top Albums of 2010 from Canada’s “The Guardian”. Lee was awarded at the 2011 Echo Awards in Germany (the German Grammy awards) for Best International Instrumentalist (Guitar) in conjunction with the album, 6 String Theory)

Wilbur DeParis - 1900-1973 :: was a trombone player and band leader, especially known for mixing New Orleans jazz style with Swing.

De Paris was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where his father, Sidney G. Paris, who came from West Virginia and who was a musician (trombone, banjo, guitar). By the autumn of 1906, when he was five, de Paris had started playing alto saxophone, and a year later was working for his father in one of his plantation shows.

These shows were small travelling theatrical-musical groups of singers, dancers, actors, comedians, and musicians who mainly worked for Theatre Owners and Bookers Association in the South. They performed in small tents and theatres with a mixture of drama, musical and comedy sketches, magic, etc., which would later be incorporated into vaudeville.

De Paris heard jazz first at age 16, circa 1917, as a member of a summer show that played at the Lyric Theatre. He also met Louis Armstrong whilst playing the saxophone at Tom Anderson’s Cafe, and with A. J. Piron.After high school, de Paris worked for his father for a time, then worked for more travelling shows in the east before he started playing in Philadelphia in the early 1920s. His first band was Wilbur de Paris and his Cottonpickers. After the Wall Street Crash in 1929 he disbanded his second group and went to New York to play for many years with the greats of jazz and to make records.

In the late 1940s, together with his brother, Sidney De Paris, he started a band called New New Orleans Jazz, featuring legendary jazzmen including the famed Jelly Roll Morton clarinetist Omer Simeon. Other band members included drummers Zutty Singleton & Freddie Moore. The banjo chair was filled first by Eddie Gibbs and later by Lee Blair also of Morton fame. Don Kirkpatrick was the band’s most consistent piano player. This band became an institution in New York City during the 1950s and toured the world in the late 1950s.

Wilton ‘Bogey’ Gaynair (sax, tenor) - 1927 -1995 :: was a jazz musician, whose primary instrument was the tenor saxophone. He was raised at Kingston’s famous Alpha Boys School, where fellow Jamaican musical legends Joe Harriott, Harold McNair and Don Drummond were also pupils of a similar age.

He began his professional career playing in the clubs of Kingston, backing such notable visitors as George Shearing and Carmen McRae before travelling to Europe in 1955, deciding to base himself in Germany because of the plentiful live work on offer. He recorded very seldom, only three times as a bandleader in his lifetime. Two of those recordings came during visits to England, 1959’s Blue Bogey on Tempo Records and 1960’s Africa Calling, also recorded for Tempo but unreleased until 2005 on account of that label’s demise.

Soon after recording these sessions, he returned to Germany, where he remained based for the rest of his life. He concentrated on live performance with such bands as the Kurt Edelhagen Radio Orchestra – including playing at the opening ceremony of the 1972 Munich Olympics, also taking much anonymous session work. He was regular guest artists of Ali Haurand's Third Eye (LP 1977) but only recorded one more jazz album under his own name, 1982’s Alpharian. Other artists he played with included Gil Evans, Freddie Hubbard, Shirley Bassey, Manhattan Transfer, Horace Parlan, Bob Brookmeyer, Mel Lewis and many others. In September 1983 he suffered a stroke during a concert, and from that time until his death in 1995 he was unable to play the saxophone.

Bornday shouts out to all you January 11th Jazzlings today. Make the most of the day and lay claim to the comin year as your own!

Thanks to AAJ & JBC for the guidance.

Respect to the YouTube Massive for the uploads,

Hey, Inspiration Crew, how you all doing? Thank you for following and doing all you do.

And thanks to You for jus' passin' thru'

Hey, remember the ending, Be water, my friends

Walk tall with giant steps,

Speak low,

Go placidly,