Instrumentalist

(b Jirapa, Ghana, June 22, 1958). Ghanaian xylophone maker, player, and teacher. Born into a family of gyilli makers and players in northwest Ghana, Doozie began playing at six years of age. When he was 12 his father taught him to make his first gyilli and he was a practised maker by age 15. After secondary school Doozie moved to Accra to become a xylophonist with the Ghana Dance Ensemble. He was also an instructor at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. Among other appointments, he has performed with the National SO Ghana and has been associated with the Institute of African Studies and the music and performing arts departments of the University of Ghana. In 1990 he established a workshop to produce xylophones; he made the xylophones used in the Broadway production of The Lion King. He has also restored instruments in museum collections. He continues to teach and perform and is managing director of Dagarti Arts and Music in Accra and a member of the Arts Council of Ghana. He is also involved in promoting fair trade practices. Doozie’s xylophone bars—from eight to 18 for each instrument—are made of aged, fire-dried planks of wood from male shea trees. Gourd resonators are affixed under the bars, which are tied to the curved frame. The tips of the wooden beaters are padded with rubber recycled from tyres....

(b Uppsala, Sweden, Sept 27, 1936; d Uppsala, March 11, 2009). Swedish vibraphonist. He started on piano but soon, influenced by the recordings of Lionel Hampton, made the vibraphone his main instrument. In the mid-1960s he began collaborating with Ove Lind, whose group, modeled after Benny Goodman’s classic swing quartet, was a tremendous success at the jazz club Stampen (the Pawn Shop), which opened in Stockholm in 1968. He made numerous recordings with Lind and, later on, with his own groups and with the Goodman-styled quartet Swedish Swing Society (which included Antti Sarpila and Ulf Johansson). Hailed as a leading exponent of swing and mainstream jazz in Sweden, Erstrand found himself in demand as an accompanist for American soloists on their tours of Europe, among them Goodman himself (1972). He also played and recorded with Hampton and participated in all-star groups at concerts and festivals worldwide. He made dozens of albums as a leader in Sweden to ...

(Lee)

(b Indianapolis, Feb 17, 1926; d Anghiari, Toscana, Italy, May 24, 2004). American pianist, vibraphonist, singer, and bandleader. After serving in France during the war he studied music at the conservatory in Dijon, at the University of Washington, and elsewhere. He led a jump band, the Question Marks, in Seattle through the late 1940s, then formed a trio modeled after that of Nat “King” Cole. From 1952 to mid-1953 he toured the USA and Canada with Lionel Hampton and later traveled in Alaska and California with his own groups. Having settled on the Canadian west coast, Gill hosted jazz projects involving such guest stars as Wes Montgomery. From the mid-1980s he toured internationally.

(b Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany, Aug 31, 1937). German vibraphonist and composer. He studied music and architecture and formed his first group in 1958. In 1969 he established his own record company, Birth, which exclusively documents his own work. His involvement in forms of contemporary music besides jazz led to his working with the composer Krzysztof Penderecki, Don Cherry, and the New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra on the recording Actions (1971). In 1972 he formed the Galaxie Dream Band, an improvising collective. After working mainly with European musicians such as Manfred Schoof and Alex Schlippenbach, he formed lasting associations with several Americans, notably Perry Robinson and Jeanne Lee (whom he later married); Lee performed on many of his recordings and appeared regularly with the Galaxie Dream Band until her death in 2000. The saxophonist and flute player Thomas Keyserling was also a longstanding member of the group. Hampel toured widely in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America, often under the auspices of the Goethe Institute, and worked frequently in New York. He produced several videos of his performances, including ...

[Marjorie]

(b New York, Aug 9, 1920; d Arcadia, CA, June 14, 2012). American vibraphonist. She recorded with Flip Phillips (1944) and was a soloist with Woody Herman’s First Herd (September 1944 – June 1945), with which she recorded and appeared in the film Earl Carroll Vanities (1945). She then led her own trio (1945–8). In 1946 she made recordings with Mary Lou Williams and Charlie Ventura, and the following year she performed in a concert with Williams and Ventura at Carnegie Hall. In February 1949 she began working with George Shearing (for illustration see ) and performed and recorded with him until she married and retired from music in 1950. Hyams may well be the piano soloist heard on Shearing’s pairing Cherokee/Four Bars Short, on which he plays accordion.

(Sibay )

(b Datu Piang, Philippines, May 1, 1947). Master musician and teacher of kulintang, of Filipino birth. Kalanduyan is a respected artistic figure in Filipino communities around the United States and Canada for promoting Kulintang , an indigenous musical heritage predating Spanish and American colonization of the Philippines. Before settling in San Francisco, California, he was raised in the fishing village of Datu Piang, the artistic center of the Maguindanao people on the island of Mindanao, Philippines. As a young man, he won island-wide competitions on the gandingan (set of four large hanging knobbed gongs). As an undergraduate at Mindanao State University–Marawi, he toured the Far East with the Darangen Cultural Troupe. He was an artist-in-residence at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle under a Rockefeller Foundation grant in 1976, and graduated from UW with a MA in ethnomusicology in 1984. In 1995 Kalanduyan became the first artist of Filipino descent to be awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. Kalanduyan has taught and performed with nearly all of the ...

(b Osaka, Japan, Dec 17, 1960). Japanese vibraphonist, arranger, and leader. He learned organ from an early age, studied arranging at the age of 15, and took up piano and vibraphone to play in an extracurricular college big band, the High Society Orchestra, at Waseda University in Tokyo. After gaining his degree in electrical engineering (1984) he had private lessons on vibraphone, first in Japan and then in the USA with Gary Burton, the latter while majoring in composition at the Berklee College of Music. He graduated from Berklee in 1988 and returned to Japan. In 1990 he formed his own trio and orchestra, consisting mainly of younger musicians – including schoolmates from Berklee; the orchestra may be heard on Riverside Music Garden (1997, Tei. 28513). Katori also performed with Yosuke Yamashita (from 1998), appearing on Yamashita’s television show, and he recorded with Mal Waldron (the album ...

(Michael)

(b Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oct 16, 1965). British vibraphonist. He studied percussion at the City of Belfast School of Music (1981–4) and tuned percussion and composition with David Friedman and Kenny Werner at the New School for Social Research in New York (1986–8). Later he played with Tim Garland (from 1989), the singer and keyboard player Georgie Fame (from 1990), Mike Westbrook (from 1992), Norma Winstone (from 1993), Claire Martin (from 1993), Alan Barnes (from 1993), and Jacqui Dankworth (1993–4) and worked with John Taylor, Louis Stewart, the drummer Charlie Watts, Jim Mullen, and the English alto saxophonist Peter King. In 1997 he led and recorded with his own quartet at Ronnie Scott’s club in London. In 1998 he joined the BBC Big Band, appearing with the group in a broadcast from the Northsea Jazz Festival in ...

(b Grünstadt, Germany, June 8, 1919; d Stuttgart, Germany, March 20, 2010). German bandleader, arranger, and vibraphonist. He grew up in a musical family, played violin from the age of five and piano from the age of six, and took up clarinet about five years later; he studied clarinet and drums at the conservatory in Peine. His first professional engagement in big bands was as a saxophonist with Erhard Bauschke in Berlin in 1938–9, and he played piano and wrote arrangements for German radio bands from 1945. With Horst Kudritzki he led the Rundfunk Berlin Tanzorchester, with which he recorded in 1948. In the 1950s he began to play vibraphone, and from 1951 to 1991 he led the big band of Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR Big Band) in Stuttgart; he produced the jazz program “Treffpunkt Jazz” for the same station in 1955. Many famous guest artists performed with the SDR Big Band, and Wolfgang Dauner, Bill Holman, Manfred Schoof, Alex Schlippenbach, and Eberhard Weber are among those who wrote for it; bandmembers included Horst Jankowski (...

(Wilhelm)

(b Helsinki, May 29, 1922; d Helsinki, Aug 27, 2015). Finnish composer, double bass player, vibraphonist, and pianist. He played in amateur swing bands during World War II, and with the drummer Ossi Aalto (1945–8), the bandleader Onni Gideon (1948–52), and his own groups (from 1952). He frequently accompanied visiting musicians and recorded with Peanuts Holland (1950, 1959) and Benny Bailey (1959). His Main Road 7 was among the first Finnish jazz compositions to be recorded (by Manu Teittinen, 1954, HMV TF50). Lindström wrote several of the most popular Finnish songs of the 1950s, including Muistatko Monrepos’n (“do you remember Monrepos”), recorded by Annikki Tähti in 1955. With compositions like Ranskalaiset korot (“French heels”), recorded by Helena Siltala (1958), he created a jazz-influenced style that was widely imitated by other songwriters. In 1974 he recorded an LP of his jazz compositions, ...

(b Kauia, Territory of Hawaii, Feb 2, 1932; d Ewa, HI, Feb 24, 2002). Hawaiian bandleader, vibraphonist, and arranger. Arthur Lyman’s musical career began on a toy marimba; he taught himself to play along with Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton recordings. At age 14, he joined a jazz combo called the Gadabouts and a few years later, he began playing the four-mallet vibes at a hotel bar in Honolulu. In 1955 he joined the ensemble of Martin Denny, a group famous among the Hawaii hotel circuit for its style of exoticist jazz, sometimes referred to as “Polynesian” music. To this group, Lyman contributed not only on the vibes, guitar and percussion, but also with vocalized imitations of birdcalls. In 1957, Lyman split from Denny’s group to form his own four-piece jazz band, joined by John Kramer (bass), Alan Soares (piano), and Harold Chang (percussion). The Arthur Lyman Group recorded a number of albums on the HiFi label between ...

[Elliot ]

(b Sans Souci, Trinidad, Nov 5, 1927). American steel pan musician. Called the “father of the modern steel drum,” Mannette began playing music as a child, and by age 11 he was already performing with the New Town Calvary Tamboo Bamboo. When the colonial British government banned traditional instruments, locals began experimenting with alternatives. Mannette was among those to introduce new percussion instruments made of trash can lids and other found objects, and he and several friends started the Oval Boys, which eventually took the name the Woodbruck Invaders. As a talented machinist, Mannette took oil drums and their lids to produce musical instruments, and he spent decades honing these skills to develop sophisticated creations. By 1951 the Trinidadian government realized the importance of Mannette’s work, and formed an 11-person pan-band called the Trinidad All-Steel Percussion Orchestra that was organized by Lt. Joseph Griffith. Mannette continued to work with the Invaders, however, and in ...

Family of musicians.

Montgomery, Monk [William Howard] (b Indianapolis, Oct 10, 1921; d Las Vegas, NV, May 20, 1982)

Montgomery, Wes [John Leslie] (b Indianapolis, March 6, 1923; d Indianapolis, June 15, 1968)

Montgomery, Buddy [Charles F.] (b Indianapolis, Jan 30, 1930; d Palmdale, CA...

[Charles F.]

Member of Montgomery family

(b Indianapolis, Jan 30, 1930; d Palmdale, CA, May 14, 2009). American pianist and vibraphonist, brother of Monk and Wes Montgomery. He began playing piano in Indianapolis in a group with Slide Hampton, made his first tour as an accompanist to Joe Turner (ii), and during army service (1951–4) performed in a quartet with the double bass player Roy Johnson (1954). In 1955 he joined the Montgomery–Johnson Quintet with his brothers, then from 1957 to 1960 he played vibraphone with the Mastersounds. During the 1960s he worked with the Montgomery Brothers (1960 – spring 1962) and other groups, performing on both his instruments, but after settling in Milwaukee in 1969 he concentrated on piano. As a leading jazz musician in the city he worked regularly as a soloist and as the leader of bop and soul-jazz groups, and he founded the Milwaukee Jazz Alliance, which provided free concerts throughout the city’s metropolitan and outlying areas and gave lessons to young musicians. He appeared in the documentary film ...

(Charles)

(b Ilford, England, Feb 13, 1945; d London, Jan 21, 2021). English trombonist, pianist, vibraphonist, arranger, and bandleader. He took up piano at the age of five, played accordion, and formed his first band, in which he played trombone, while still at high school. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music from 1964 to 1967, and from July 1964 to January 1966 was a member of a group led by the trumpeter Mike Daniels, with whom he made his first recordings, on trombone. He performed and recorded as a member of Dick Sudhalter’s Anglo-American Alliance and worked with a vaudeville band, the Levity Lancers (1967–73). He also led such bands as the New Sedalia and a swing sextet in which he played variously piano, trombone, and vibraphone. During a visit to the USA (1974) he performed and recorded on trombone with the New Paul Whiteman Orchestra and wrote arrangements for the New York Jazz Repertory Company, the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, and Dick Hyman. He played in Sudhalter’s small groups, worked further with the New Paul Whiteman Orchestra from ...

[Osterwälder, Rolf]

(b Berne, Feb 18, 1922; d Lucerne, Switzerland, Feb 26, 2012). Swiss trumpeter, vibraphonist, and bandleader. He studied piano in Berne. At the age of 17 he wrote an arrangement of Rosetta for a recording by Fred Böhler, which was coupled with his own composition Fred’s Jump (1939, Col. ZZ1006). He performed as a trumpeter with Böhler (1941), Edmond Cohanier, Philippe Brun, and Teddy Stauffer’s Original Teddies. In 1944 he formed his own band, with which he made a large number of recordings (1946–78); among his soloists were Ernst Höllerhagen and Werner Dies. He also recorded as a sideman with the bandleader Bob Huber (1942), the Original Teddies under Eddie Brunner (1944), and Gil Cuppini (1949). Osterwald performed and recorded on vibraphone at the Paris Jazz Fair (1949) with various American musicians, including Sidney Bechet and Charlie Parker, and he toured Europe, Latin America, Israel, and the USA. His band’s recordings of modern jazz are well represented by ...

(Jean)

(b Detroit, Aug 15, 1931; d New York, Dec 16, 2009). American pianist and vibraphonist. Pollard took up piano at age 3. By her mid-teens she was sneaking out of the house to play in jazz clubs. She studied nursing, but at her graduation celebration in 1948, the pianist failed to appear. Pollard took over, earned $15, and realized that she could make more money as a musician than as a nurse. While working at Hudson’s department store, she began to play locally, most often at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge. She performed and recorded in Detroit alongside Thad and Elvin Jones in Billy Mitchell’s quintet (1952–3), playing both piano and vibraphone. From 1953 to 1957 she toured and made recordings (notably Terry Gibbs Quartet, 1953, Bruns. BL58055) as the pianist and second vibraphonist in Terry Gibbs’s groups. Her virtuoso playing is at the forefront of the video ...

(b Pori, Finland, Oct 18, 1967). Finnish vibraphonist. From the age of nine he studied classical music at the conservatory in Turku, and while there he became acquainted with the vibraphone. He made a sensational début at the Pori Jazz Festival at the age of 16 and in the same year, 1984, recorded his first album. From 1986, when he recorded as co-leader with the marimba player Riku Niemi, he studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and later he led a group, the Front, which gave an acclaimed performance at the Nordic Radio Jazz Days in 1989. In the 1990s he played mainly with the group Perko-Pyysalo Poppoo, which he formed with Jukka Perko. In 1995 Helsinki Festivals commissioned him to compose a classical piece for seven percussionists, and in 1996 he wrote two pieces, Devotion and What If, which featured him on vibraphone with the Finnish Radio Orchestra. He collaborated with Antti Sarpila on a Finnish Blue Note album which mainly featured Pyysalo’s compositions (...

[Radocchia, Emilio Joseph]

(b Hartford, CT, Sept 2, 1932; d Los Angeles, Dec 13/14, 2019). American vibraphonist and percussionist. He started on xylophone when he was six and became a percussionist with the Hartford Symphony at the age of 16. While attending the Hartford School of Music (1949–52) he played percussion in several local symphony orchestras (1950–54). During his military service he played in an army band in Japan (1954–5), where he worked with Toshiko Akiyoshi, and after being discharged he became a studio musician in Los Angeles (1956). He performed and recorded as a vibraphonist with George Shearing (1956–8) and Paul Horn (1960–64), with whom he was seen in the Paul Horn Quintet episode of the television series “Frankly Jazz” (1962), and then played with Don Ellis (1964–9) and led his own group, the Microtonal Blues Band (...

(b London, Jan 31, 1949). English vibraphonist. A member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra in his teens, he studied at Trinity College of Music, London (1967–70), and played with Neil Ardley (recording in 1968, 1969, and 1971) and the tenor saxophonist Dave Gelly. He formed his own quartet in the early 1970s, but also worked with Graham Collier, Mike Gibbs (recording in 1969–72), Stan Tracey (recording in 1970), Harry Beckett (recording in 1970–72), Norma Winstone (recording in 1971), and Gordon Beck’s Gyroscope (1973–4). In the 1980s he played with Chris Laurence and John Taylor in Paragonne (with whom he recorded Aspects of Paragonne, 1985, MMC 010), and also recorded with Beck (1984) and Guy Barker (the album Holly J, 1989, Miles Music 078).

Having appeared on film soundtracks occasionally in the 1970s, from the mid-1980s into the new century Ricotti concentrated on studio and freelance work, playing and composing music for films, television, and other media; in these settings he utilized a wide array of percussion instruments in addition to the vibraphone. Apart from contributing to the soundtracks of many popular films, early on in this work he composed and served as music director for the made-for-television serial “The Beiderbecke Trilogy” (1985–8), for which he produced music in the style of Bix Beiderbecke; in 1989 he won a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Award for original television music for ...