Ellery Eskelin - The Sun Died

Ellery Eskelin - Jazz Musician Ellery Eskelin, jazz musician, began playing tenor saxophone in 1969 at the age of ten. In interviews he claims his early influences as Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Lee Konitz, Stan Getz and John Coltrane. His mother, organist Bobbie Lee, learned to play music in the Pentecostal church as a teenager, the influence of which carried over into her playing of secular music and also provided a strong and lasting influence on Eskelin. Her playing was characterized by a strong rhythmic feel and a commanding delivery of American songs.

Eskelin's grandfather was the musical director of the church and played the pedal steel guitar in services while performing on the electric guitar professionally in Baltimore during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Baltimore had a rich musical legacy sustained by musicians such as saxophonists Mickey Fields and Gary Bartz. Musicians from New York often passed through Baltimore to perform on the weekly Sunday afternoon Left Bank Jazz Society concert series presented at the Famous Ballroom.

Eskelin had opportunities to sit in with locals such as Fields as well as internationally renowned artists such as Bartz, Pepper Adams and Woody Shaw.

Ellery Eskelin Music Reviews

Early performances as a leader took place at various jazz clubs such as "The Bandstand" and "The Closet" run by saxophonist and entrepreneur Henry Baker, who had a long history in the Baltimore music scene having known Lester Young, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Red Garland, John Coltrane, Clifford Brown and many others. Baker predicted that the young saxophonist would one day become "a great tenor saxophone player". At around this same time Eskelin met drummer Harold White (formerly with Horace Silver) and began performing regularly in White's quintet along with trumpeter Tom Williams.

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Strange Fruit-Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday - Female Jazz Singer

Billie Holiday, jazz singer, probably best known for the song, "Strange Fruit", was born in 1915. The world enjoyed her work, music, and rare talent for nearly thirty years. Her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, not common in the jazz world, was considered an evolution in the art of jazz composition. At the tender age of eighteen, she was already the headline singing in small clubs in Harlem.
In 1935, Billie Holiday began recording with pianist Teddy Wilson. They put together several small jazz groups that included some of the best musicians in New York like Lester Young, Benny Goodman, and Ben Webster.

In late 1937, Holiday had a brief stint as a big-band vocalist with Count Basie. The traveling conditions of the band were often poor; they performed many one-nighters in clubs, moving from city to city with little stability.

Holiday chose the songs she sang and had a hand in the arrangements, I Must Have That Man", "Tra…

John Coltrane: American Jazz Musicians Look To South Africa For Inspiration

John Coltrane, Jazz Saxophonist, Musician

John Coltrane, jazz saxophonist, musician: In the 1940s and 1950s, numerous American jazz musicians looked to South Africa for inspiration, but it was John Coltrane, in 1961, who made one of the most profound statements about what South Africa stood for (spiritually), among jazz musicians in the United States.The man's playing is in essence, lyrical - even when he is at his most demoniacally complex.

Because of the breadth of his work, his technical innovations as an instrumentalist, and the stimulating combination of discipline and experiment he brought to the groups he led, John Coltrane became the most influential saxophonist on the jazz of the last four decades of the twentieth century, overtaking Charlie Parker as a universal role model.

Coltrane's career began substantially earlier than that of Ornette Coleman, the other dominant innovator in jazz saxophone playing of the 1960s. Although Coleman outlived him and continued to de…

Damien Escobar | Violinist

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Damien Escobar | Violinist

Damien Escobar, also known as Dame Esco, is an American violinist. He was previously in the duo Nuttin' But Stringz with his brother Tourie, but has been a solo artist since 2012. His "crossover violin" musical style consists of a mix of classical, jazz, pop, R&B, and hip hop.

As kids Damien and Tourie worked as street musicians, playing at Grand Central Station and on the New York City subways. In 2003, they began playing professionally under the name Nuttin' But Stringz. In 2005, Nuttin' But Stringz won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater. In 2006, Escobar appeared in the film Step Up. Nuttin' But Stringz took third place in the 2008 season of America's Got Talent. They performed at the First inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009[2] and won two Emmys. In 2012, Nuttin' But Stringz separated. Escobar returned to school and got his real estate license…

Famous Jazz Musicians 1940s - 2017

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