mick laBriola

Nesbert “Stix” Hooper (born August 15, 1938) is an American drummer and founding member of The Crusaders.

Hooper developed an interest in music, drums, and percussion at an early age. Starting in middle school with band director George Magruder, he began devoting much of his time to the study of music. While he was a student at Phillis Wheatley High School, he formed the band the Swingsters, then the Modern Jazz Sextet. At Texas Southern University, he received coaching from members of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and other local professional musicians. After moving to the west coast, he studied music at California State University, Los Angeles and with private instructors and mentors. During the 1950s the Jazz Crusaders were formed.

He has worked with Arthur Fiedler, George Shearing, B.B. King, Grant Green, Grover Washington Jr., Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, Nancy Wilson, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, and the Rolling Stones. He was National Vice Chairman of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and president of its Los Angeles chapter.

Edward Gale Stevens Jr. (August 15, 1941 – July 10, 2020), known professionally as Eddie Gale, was an American trumpeter known for his work in free jazz, especially with the Sun RaArkestra.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Gale studied trumpet with Kenny Dorham. He recorded with Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Larry Young, and Elvin Jones, and performed with John Coltrane, Jackie McLean, Booker Ervin, and Illinois Jacquet. In the early 1960s he was introduced to Sun Ra by drummer Scoby Stroman. He spent many hours exposed to Sun Ra’s philosophy about music and life. Eddie explains, “Playing with Sun Ra is a great experience–from the known to the unknown. You play ideas on your instrument that you never imagine. His music provoked me to explore the use of trills, for instance, and the placement of whole tones and then a space chord–ideas you do not find in the exercise books.”

During the 1960s and 1970s, he toured and recorded extensively with Sun Ra, who influenced him greatly until Ra’s death in 1993. After a yearlong stint as artist in residence at Stanford University, Gale moved to San Jose, California in 1972.

Joseph Armand Castro (August 15, 1927 – December 13, 2009) was an American bebop jazz pianist, based primarily on the West Coast of the United States.

Castro was born in Miami, Arizona on August 15, 1927 to John L. Castro and Lucy Sanchez. Castro went to school in Pittsburg, California in the San Francisco Bay area, north of Oakland, where he began playing professionally at the age of 15. His enrollment at San Jose State University was interrupted twice—first by a stint in the army from 1946 to 1947 and then when he formed his first jazz trio working on both the West Coast and in Hawaii. In 1956 Castro moved to New York City, where his trio successfully appeared in the city’s top jazz clubs—Basin Street, The Embers, The Hickory House and Birdland. He was critically lauded by the likes of Leonard Feather who described his style as “assertively swinging,” and Dave Brubeck, who had known Castro since the early 1950s, as “an extremely talented individual, a fine musician, an excellent pianist and a tasteful performer.” In 1958, he moved to Los Angeles to be associated almost exclusively with Teddy Edwards, Billy Higgins and Leroy Vinnegar. “The group has been very important to me,” Castro says. “I had been working so long with piano trios, I had to learn how to play less and say more. Actually I have more freedom in this group without having to carry the load.” Castro recorded and performed extensively with The Teddy Edwards Quartet while also making two of his own recordings as a leader for Atlantic Records.

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC CQ OOnt (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist, virtuoso and composer. He was called the “Maharaja of the keyboard” by Duke Ellington, simply “O.P.” by his friends, and informally in the jazz community as “the King of inside swing”.He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He is considered one of history’s great jazz pianists, and played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years.

Peterson was born in Montreal, Quebec, to immigrants from the West Indies; his father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway. Peterson grew up in the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal. It was in this predominantly black neighbourhood that he encountered the jazz culture.At the age of five, Peterson began honing his skills on trumpet and piano, but a bout of tuberculosis when he was seven prevented him from playing the trumpet again, so he directed all his attention to the piano. His father, Daniel Peterson, an amateur trumpeter and pianist, was one of his first music teachers, and his sister Daisy taught him classical piano. Peterson was persistent at practising scales and classical études.

Edwin James Costa (August 14, 1930 – July 28, 1962) was an American jazz pianist, vibraphonist, composer and arranger. In 1957, he was chosen as DownBeat jazz critics’ new star on piano and vibes – the first time that one artist won two categories in the same year. He became known for his percussive, driving piano style that concentrated on the lower octaves of the keyboard.

Costa had an eight-year recording career, during which he appeared on more than 100 albums; five of these were under his own leadership. As a sideman, he appeared in orchestras led by Manny Albam, Gil Evans, Woody Herman and others; played in smaller groups led by musicians including Tal Farlow, Coleman Hawkins, Gunther Schuller, and Phil Woods; and accompanied vocalists including Tony Bennett and Chris Connor. Costa died, aged 31, in a car accident in New York City.

Eddie Costa was born in Atlas, Pennsylvania, near Mount Carmel, in Northumberland County. He was taught and influenced on piano by his older, musically trained brother, Bill, and a local piano teacher. Eddie took paid jobs as a pianist from the age of 15. In contrast to his piano training, he was self-taught on vibes. In 1949, Costa played and toured for a few months with violinist Joe Venuti. He then worked for his brother in New York until, in 1951, Costa was drafted into the army. During his time in the armed forces, Costa performed in Japan and Korea. Upon release after two years, Costa again worked around the New York area, including for bands led by Kai Winding, Johnny Smith, and Don Elliott.

Mulgrew Miller (August 13, 1955 – May 29, 2013) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. As a child he played in churches and was influenced on piano by Ramsey Lewis and then Oscar Peterson. Aspects of their styles remained in his playing, but he added the greater harmonic freedom of McCoy Tyner and others in developing as a hard bop player and then in creating his own style, which influenced others from the 1980s on.

Miller’s style evolved through playing with a series of major jazz figures. After leaving university he was pianist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for three years, then accompanied vocalist Betty Carter. Three-year stints with trumpeter Woody Shaw and with drummer Art Blakey‘s high-profile Jazz Messengers followed, by the end of which Miller had formed his own bands and begun recording under his own name. He was then part of drummer Tony Williams‘ quintet from its foundation, while continuing to play and record with numerous other leaders, mostly in small groups. Miller was Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University from 2005, and continued to play and tour internationally with other high-profile figures in the music until his death from a stroke at the age of 57.

Ernest Harold “Benny” Bailey (August 13, 1925 – April 14, 2005) was an American jazz trumpeter.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Bailey briefly studied flute and piano before turning to trumpet. He attended the Cleveland Conservatory of Music. He was influenced by Cleveland native Tadd Dameron and had a significant influence on other Cleveland musicians, such as Albert Ayler, Bob Cunningham, Bobby Few, Bill Hardman, and Frank Wright. Bailey played with Tony Lovano, father of Joe Lovano.

In the early 1940s he worked with Bull Moose Jackson and Scatman Crothers. He later worked with Dizzy Gillespie and toured with Lionel Hampton. During a European tour with Hampton he remained in Europe and spent time in Sweden, where he worked with Harry Arnold‘s big band.He preferred big bands over small groups, and he became associated with several big bands in Europe, including the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland B Band. His time with Quincy Jones led to a brief return to the United States in 1960. He was invited to the studio as part of Freddie Redd‘s sextet to record Redd’s Blues after meeting the pianist during a tour in Sweden, and played at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival. He returned to Europe, first to Germany, then the Netherlands, where he settled permanently.

Sir George Albert Shearing, OBE (13 August 1919 – 14 February 2011) was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. Shearing was the composer of over 300 titles, including the jazz standards “Lullaby of Birdland” and “Conception“, and had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s.^[2] He died of heart failure in New York City, at the age of 91.

The Petenera is a flamenco palo in a 12-beat metre, with strong beats distributed as follows: [12][1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. It is therefore identical with the 16th century Spanish dances zarabanda and the jácara.

The lyrics are in 4-line stanzas.

It is believed to be a very old style of song, as it was already mentioned by writer Serafín Estébanez Calderón in the mid 19th century, and the adherence to the rhythm of the old zarabanda seems to confirm its age. Several theories have been suggested as to its origin, although there is not enough evidence to sustain any of them unerringly:

• Theory of Paterna. This popular theory sustains that this palo originated in the town of Paterna de Rivera in the province of Cádiz. According to a legend, the name of the song refers to a cantaora (woman singer) called “La Petenera”, who was born there. She was reported to be, owing to her seduction power, the “damnation of men”. The name “Petenera” would be a phonetic corruption of “Paternera” (born in Paterna). This theory was sustained by folklorist Demófilo.
• Theory of the Jewish origin. According to this theory, suggested by flamencologist Hipólito Rossy, the petenera originated in the songs of Sephardi Jews. He even assured that Sephardi Jews in the Balkans still sang the lyrics that contain the verse of the Petenera as the “damnation of men”
• Some modern theories situate the origin of the Petenera in Petén, a department (administrative region) of Guatemala