Bud Shank, Alto Sax, 1926, Dayton, Oh
As a youth, Bud Shank studied the clarinet, the saxophones, and flute. He continued his musical studies ar the University of North Carolina from 1944 to 1946. Bud decided to gave up the tenor sax and concentrated on alto while playing with Charlie Barnet's band from 1947 to1948. For several years in the early '50s Shank concentrated on alto and flute while playing for Stan Kenton. During most of the 1950s he much in demand with the West Coast group. He performed and recorded frequently with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars, and with Laurindo Almeida in a style that combined bop and Brazilian music (considered early bossa nova). During the 1960s Bud toured extensively in Europe and South America, recording and performing in clubs and at jazz festivals. He did much work with bossa nova musicians such as Sergio Mendes before bossa nova became popular in this country. From around 1965 Bud worked principally as a studio musician, but during the bop revival of the mid '70s he toured extensively with his own quartet. By the mid '80s Bud had abandoned his work as a studio musician, gave up the flute, and and began performing bop on alto sax. Today Bud Shank is as popular as ever, settled in Arizona, and is in great demand in clubs and at festivals.
Dee Dee Bridgewater, Singer, 1950, Memphis, Tn
Dee Dee began her professional career in Michigan in the 1960s, and in 1969 she toured the USSR with the big band of the University of Illinois. She and trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater married in 1970 and they moved to New York. Their marriage lasted only until the mid '70s. During the early '70s Dee Dee was the principal vocalist with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra at The Village Vanguard. She next performed on Broadway in the musical, "The Wiz", for which she received a Tony Award. In 1976 she studied with the pianist Roland Hanna before she decided to move to the West Coast to work as a pop singer. Thereafter she lived in Europe for several yearsa and while in Paris and London appeared in "Lady Day", a play about the life and music of Billy Holiday. Bridgewater is probably best known in jazz circles for her sometimes mournful, sometimes jubilant wordless improvisations in the styleof gospel music. "The Great One on Suite For Pops", that she recorded with the Jones-Lewis orchestra in 1972 is a wonderful example of her work in this style. Today, Dee Dee continues to work in clubs and at festivals in this country and abroad.
Ramsey Lewis, Piano, 1935, Chicago, IL
Ramsey gained his music education at the Chicago Musical College and then at DePaul University. In 1956 he formed his first trio with Eldee Young on bass and Redd Holt on drums. The trio recorded it's first album (The In Crowd) in 1956, and it became a big hit, selling over a million copies and receiving a Grammy Award as the best jazz recording by a small group. Lewis said "In June, 1965, we were eaening $1,500 to $2,000 a week. By September we were earning something like $15,000 to $20,000 a week." In 1958 Ramsey made a series of recordings with Max Roach and Lem Winchester that sold rather well. In 1959 he played the Randall's Island Jazz Festival, New York, followed by a residency at Birdland. He has worked with the double bass player Cleveland Eaton, and the drummers Maurice White and Morris Jennings from the mid '60s. In the 1970s Ramsey began working with electronic keyboards and with larger ensembles and also began to play soul music and funk, though he performed again on piano during the late '70s. He is technically competent but his playing tends to be repetitive at times, and has been critcized as being commercially oriented. Lewis was originally influenced by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Bud Powell. Ramsey is currently launching a jazz television series to be shown nationally.
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Piano/Keyboards, 1963, Havana, Cuba
When only five years old, Gonzalo was joining in on percussion with his father Guilbhermo, pianist with the Enrique Jorrin dance orchestra that was very popular in Cuba. He soon became aware of jazz on record, and began to study (classical) music from 1971-83, and graduated from the conservatory and from Havana's Institute of Fine Arts. As a teenager he played in jam sessions with some of the finest musicians in Cuba. In 1983 he toured France and Africa with the Orchestra Aragon, and during the latter part of the decade returned with his own group, Groupo Proyecto. It was bassist Charlie Haden who arranged for Gonzalo to appear at the Montreal and Montreux festivals in 1989 and 1990 respectively. The latter performance was recorded and issued worldwide, as were subsequent trio performances in Toronto and Japan with groups of his own. Still living and based in Cuba, Gonzalo spends a great deal of his time performing and touring abroad. His classical studies have given him a phenomenal technique, and, whether he is working on jazz standards or creating his own music, he uses it to interesting ends.
