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Jazz Café Music by Price: $15.00 [[ Close This Window ]]
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Listen Up! Lorna Doin' L. M. New York Nights Big George Blues Hemoglobin Miradita Sandy Quiet Time |
Thomas Bacon Thomas Bacon Vincent Chancey Vincent Chancey Tom Varner Tom Varner John Clark John Clark Richard Todd |
Editor’s Notes Welcome to the Jazz Café – featuring the best jazz French horn players from New York and Los Angeles sharing some of their favorite pieces in versions complete for a horn and piano duo. Although we’ve included some written-out solos, improvisation is what jazz is all about, and freedom is what all jazz players seek. So you are encouraged to "play the changes" instead of the notes, make each performance of these pieces unique and special because it’s yours. And like a real life jazz café, if a bass player and drummer happen to stop by, you could invite them to sit in. For years I have heard the question from horn students "How can I learn to play jazz on the horn?" And more than a few times I’ve heard other young players say "My teacher told me the French horn can’t play jazz." Listen to any of these composers’ recordings and you’ll see that the French horn makes for a great jazz instrument. As for how you learn to play jazz horn: it’s the same way you learn to play any other kind of music – through lots of study and practice, and… hanging out in a jazz café. This book won’t make you a great jazz player, but it will give you something to study and practice on your way to becoming one. Not to mention some cool new pieces to enliven your next recital! The Composers VINCENT CHANCEY (b. 1950, Chicago), began playing horn in school at age twelve. He got his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Southern Illinois University in 1973 then moved to New York City to pursue a music career. With his interest in jazz, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, he was soon studying with Julius Watkins (1921- 1977), the legendary jazz horn pioneer who was one of the first horn players to prove that the French horn CAN play jazz. In 1976 Vincent was hired as hornist for a European tour with the Sun Ra Arkestra and was soon proving that he too was a French horn player who could play jazz. He hasn't stopped since. He is now one of the most in demand and active jazz horn players in New York and around the world. He has performed on tours to Europe every year since 1976, some years even 4 or 5 tours. He has also toured extensively in North and South America, Japan, Africa, and the Middle East and has worked with jazz and pop artists like The Gil Evans Orchestra, Carla Bley, Chick Corea, Lester Bowie, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Count Basie, The Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, Lionel Hampton, Cassandra Wilson, Carmen McRae, Shirley Horn, David Murray, The Charles Mingus Orchestra, Peggy Lee, Ashford and Simpson, Melba Moore, Aretha Franklin, Freddie Jackson, The Winans, Whitney Houston, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, Gal Costa, Arto Lindsay, and many more. He has over eighty-five recordings to his credit, including two great solo CDs, featuring his own original compositions:
JOHN CLARK (b. 1944, Brooklyn), grew up near Rochester, New York where he first studied horn in high school and later at the Eastman School of Music with Verne Reynolds. He continued horn study at the New England Conservatory under James Stagliano, Thomas Newell, & Paul Ingraham and also began jazz & jazz composition studies with Ran Blake, Jaki Byard and George Russell. John has become one of the leading horn players of the late 20th Century and his musical profile includes a diversity rare among hornists. Film, television, recording and concert venues are all "home" to him, and he has worked with McCoy Tyner, Gil Evans, Frank Sinatra, Isaac Hayes, Billy Joel, B.B.King, the Paul Winter Consort, Linda Ronstadt, Joe Lovano, LL Kool J, and nearly a "Who's Who" of other performing artists. He has regularly appeared with both the Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestras and his television and commercial work includes so many names that to list them would sound like "TV Guide meets the Dow 500." If you have ever turned on a television in the last ten years, you have probably heard John's playing. He is recipient of awards from the International Horn Society, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Downbeat Critics' Poll, and the National Endowment for the Arts, to name a few. John Clark has taught composition, arranging, master classes and workshops at a host of schools, brass, and horn conferences around the world. He plays the Conn 12D horn and is a UMI artist. John Clark has also written Jazz Exercises for French Horn (Hidden Meaning Music, 1993), and has made four solo recordings:
For more information on John Clark, visit his website: http://www.hmmusic.com/ TOM VARNER (b. 1957, New Jersey), has become one of the foremost jazz French horn players of his generation. He got a degree from the New England Conservatory, where he studied horn with Thomas Newell. He was also inspired on the horn by private study with the great Julius Watkins. While in Boston, Varner formed a group with saxophonist Ed Jackson, and they have worked together often since Varner moved to New York City in 1979. A highly creative composer/arranger Varner is breaking new ground in small-group jazz, and his compositions can partake of the serialism of Berg and Webern as well as Thelonious Monk's angular bop structures, Ornette Coleman's pantonal melodicism, and funky 12-bar blues. He has performed at the Parallel Worlds (Vienna Konzerthaus), Vancouver, Moers, and Groningen Jazz Festivals and is a regular at many clubs in New York City playing with Lee Konitz, Steve Wilson, Bobby Previte, Ellery Eskelin, Mark Feldman, Mark Dresser, Lindsey Horner, Drew Gress, Dave Tronzo, Tom Rainey and others. As a sideman he has performed and recorded with George Gruntz, Bobby Watson, and Miles Davis with Quincy Jones at Montreux '91. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and has won numerous polls in Down Beat and Jazz Times. Tom Varner has made over fifty recordings. As sideman he is on the Columbia, Warner Bros., Gramavision, Enja, Hat Hut, ECM, GM, Nonesuch, Elektra, Island, Extraplatte, Sound Aspects, CIMP, Hep, Mons, Shimmy Disc, Creative Works, Windham Hill, Opus One, Timescraper, Unit, Planisphare, and Accurate labels. And as composer/leader he has made nine discs:
For more information on Tom Varner, visit his web site at: http://www.tomvarnermusic.com/ RICHARD TODD (b. 1956, Salem, Oregon), went to school at the University of Southern California and is now one of the top Hollywood studio horn players, and one of the premier hornists of his generation. He has played on over 700 films - including Jurassic Park, Independence Day, 101 Dalmations, Men in Black, and Mission Impossible - in addition to being principal horn with the Santa Barbara Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has recorded with Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Manhattan Transfer, Celine Dion, Boys II Men, Natalie Cole, Andre Previn, Woody Herman, McCoy Tyner, Clark Terry and a host of other well known jazz and pop artists. He was Gold Medal winner at the 1980 Concours Internationale Toulon, is also a Pro Musicus Foundation Award winner and has performed under the batons of Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Carlo Maria Giulini, Klaus Tennstedt, Helmut Rilling, Sir Neville Marriner, and Gerard Schwarz. He has appeared as soloist with the New Orleans, Santa Barbara, Arkansas, Long Beach, Saarbrücken Radio, Los Angeles Chamber, St. John's London and many other orchestras, and in chamber music performances at countless festivals, like the Oregon Bach, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Casals, and Grand Tetons. Also deeply committed to arts education, he gives seminars and master classes throughout the United States, and is on the faculty at the University of Southern California. He has two solo recordings planned for release in 2000: Sonatas by Beethoven, Rheinberger and Schuller, and a jazz disc - Songs after Sundown, which includes Quiet Time (published in Jazz Café, Vol. 1). He has also made three other solo recordings:
THOMAS BACON (b. 1946, Chicago), has held principal positions with the Syracuse Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, and Houston Symphony. He is a member of Summit Brass, the Saint Louis Brass Quintet, The Golden Horn, and Opus 90; and tours all over the world as soloist, chamber musician and recording artist. Twentieth Century Brass Soloists by Michael Meckna (Greenwood Press, 1994), profiles Thomas Bacon as one of the 20th Century's most influential and prominent brass soloists, along with Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis, Maurice André, Dennis Brain, Philip Farkas, and Barry Tuckwell. At home with all styles of music, Mr. Bacon has worked with hundreds of the top performing groups and artists in all fields: The Chicago Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Yo-Yo Ma, Willie Nelson, and Frank Sinatra to name a few; and he has played on dozens of recordings for London, Pro Arte, RCA, Motown, CBS, Telarc, New World, Crystal, Centaur, Gasparo, Vanguard, A & M, and Summit Records. Thomas Bacon is a Yamaha Performing Artist, and has made these solo recordings:
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