Nick BRIGNOLA 1984
NORTHERN LIGHTS - DISCOVERY RECORDSNick BRIGNOLA bs, Jim McNEELY p, John LOCKWOOD b, David CALARCO dr,
To be continued...
Showing posts with label BRIGNOLA Nick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BRIGNOLA Nick. Show all posts
NORTHERN LIGHTS - DISCOVERY RECORDS
BURN BRIGADE 1979
Three of the greatest baritone saxophonists of the post-1970 period teamed up for this jam-session date.
Recommended to fans of the bebop baritone sax.
Recommended to fans of the bebop baritone sax.
BURN BRIGADERecorded 1979 for BeeHive Records
Nick BRIGNOLA & Ronnie CUBER & Cecil PAYNE bs, Walter DAVIS Jr p, Walter BOOKER Jr b, Jimmy COBB dr,
Nick BRIGNOLA & Ronnie CUBER & Cecil PAYNE bs, Walter DAVIS Jr p, Walter BOOKER Jr b, Jimmy COBB dr,
Ronnie Cuber (1941) is a baritone sax player strong enough to bring out the lyricism of the weighty instrument. While he plays traditional jazz in the style of Pepper Adams and Nick Brignola, Cuber also has led Latin sessions and appeared on dozens of pop recordings as an in-demand sideman. Cuber was born on Christmas, 1941, in New York. When he was 18, he appeared in Marshall Brown's Newport Youth Band at the Newport Jazz Festival. Three years later he was in Slide Hampton's groups and spent the 1960s working with Maynard Ferguson, George Benson, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman and Lonnie Smith.During the next decade, Cuber performed on a slew of recordings and embraced distant ends of the woodwind family by playing flute and baritone sax on Eddie Palmieri's 1973 record, Sun Of Latin Music. While working with Lee Konitz in the late '70s, Cuber featured the clarinet and soprano sax alongside the baritone in his arsenal. He recorded his own Cuber Libre in 1976 and released a succession of traditional jazz records in the '80s and '90s, such as Live At The Blue Note and The Scene Is Clean (Milestone). In the 1980's he was a member of the Saturday Night Live Band for 5 years. The slew of pop musicians who have recruited easy-going Cuber for sessions include Chaka Kahn, Paul Simon. In 1998, Cuber played on and arranged The Three Baritone Saxophone tribute disc, Plays Mulligan on Dreyfus Records, and has arranged and recorded on 6 Mingus Big Band cd's for Dreyfus Records
Cecil Payne (1922) is a jazz baritone saxophonist born in Brooklyn, NY. Payne can also play the alto saxophone and flute. Payne recieved his first saxophone at age 13, asking his father for one after hearing Honeysuckle Rose by Count Basie, performed by Lester Young. Payne took lessons from a local alto sax player, Pete Brown. At age 19 Payne was in a high school band led by classmate Max Roach, occasionally joined by Charlie Parker doing gigs at Georgie Jay's Taproom on 78th & Broadway. Sometimes Payne would accompany Roach to Monroe's Uptown House in Harlem.
Following three years of service in the U.S. Army, Payne was introduced to Roy Eldridge by Clark Monroe, owner of Monroe's Uptown House. Eldridge was looking for someone to play alto sax for him during a 2 week gig at The Spotlite, another club owned by Monroe. But when Payne showed up for rehearsal, Eldridge had already hired someone for alto and was now looking for someone to do baritone. Payne had a baritone saxophone at home he had played during high school, and Eldridge told him to bring it the following day. Through Eldridge, Payne met the legendary bebop sensation Dizzy Gillespie, playing with him at the Savoy Ballroom. Payne spent the next two years with Gillespie playing baritone, with solos on Ow! and Stay On It.
Payne has also played with other jazz greats, such as Illinois Jacquet, Machito, Woody Herman, Randy Weston, Duke Jordan, Wynton Kelly, Kenny Dorham, Harold Mabern and Count Basie, in addition to some solo work as bandleader.
Following three years of service in the U.S. Army, Payne was introduced to Roy Eldridge by Clark Monroe, owner of Monroe's Uptown House. Eldridge was looking for someone to play alto sax for him during a 2 week gig at The Spotlite, another club owned by Monroe. But when Payne showed up for rehearsal, Eldridge had already hired someone for alto and was now looking for someone to do baritone. Payne had a baritone saxophone at home he had played during high school, and Eldridge told him to bring it the following day. Through Eldridge, Payne met the legendary bebop sensation Dizzy Gillespie, playing with him at the Savoy Ballroom. Payne spent the next two years with Gillespie playing baritone, with solos on Ow! and Stay On It.
Payne has also played with other jazz greats, such as Illinois Jacquet, Machito, Woody Herman, Randy Weston, Duke Jordan, Wynton Kelly, Kenny Dorham, Harold Mabern and Count Basie, in addition to some solo work as bandleader.
To be continued...
BARITONE MADNESS 1977
BARITONE MADNESSRecorded 1977 for BeeHive Records
Nick BRIGNOLA & Pepper ADAMS bs, Ted CURSON tp, flg, Derek SMITH p, Dave HOLLAND b, Roy HAYNES dr,
To be continued...
Nick BRIGNOLA 1996
Nick Brignola, an internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist and Rensselaer County resident, died Friday (February 2002) at Albany Medical Center Hospital after a yearlong illness. He was 65. The Troy native was one of the world's most accomplished players of the baritone sax, an instrument he picked up at age 20 after being loaned a baritone while his alto was being fixed. Though he was largely self-taught and employed an unorthodox playing style and fingering techniques, Brignola received the first scholarship ever given to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Over the 4 decades of his career, he played as a sideman and bandleader with most of the best-known jazz luminaries. A repeated winner of Jazz Times and Down Beat magazines' critics and readers polls, Brignola also earned a Grammy nomination for his 1979 album "L.A. Bound.''
After living in the late 1950s and early 1960s in New York City and on the West Coast, where he played with Woody Herman's orchestra, among others, Brignola moved back to Troy in 1964. Unlike some of the jazz greats with whom he performed -Chick Corea, Doc Severinsen, Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk- Brignola never became a household name. But fellow musicians describe him as universally liked and respected by the jazz world, and he enjoyed a busy career as a much-sought-after soloist. As his reputation as the pre-eminent baritone saxophonist solidified over the past dozen years, Brignola would fly off for U.S. college clinics, international jazz festivals, a weekend in Europe or a week in Asia, and return to his home in Eagle Mills in time for his monthly gig at Justin's restaurant in Albany. "We were very fortunate to have a musician of his ability, his talents and creativity living right here'' Dave Calarco of Schodack, Brignola's drummer for the past 27 years, said Friday. "There are maybe a handful of people on the planet who could do what Nick could as a player'' said Calarco.
Schooled in and inspired by bebop, Brignola was known for fiery playing and explosive solos that matched his intense personality. A fellow bari-sax player once said admiringly of him, "Nick doesn't just blow into his horn -he screams into it'.' His horn, a physically imposing, gleaming brass beast, could produce an awe-inspiring noise as Brignola explored -and pushed- the traditionally accepted limits of the instrument. A typical Brignola solo was melodic, fast, driving, full of ideas; he could fit more notes than seemed possible in very small spaces. But Brignola also had an extraordinary way with gentler, moodier music. "He played beautiful, beautiful ballads'' said jazz pianist Lee Shaw, who met Brignola when she moved the Capital Region in 1971 and played with him many times over the years. "Nick could squeeze all the sentiment out of a ballad".
Over the course of more than 21 albums as a bandleader and scores more as a sideman -he was an accomplished player of most members of the woodwind family- Brignola recorded many jazz standards. In recent years, his albums featured more and more of his own compositions. "He was a very, very good composer'' Shaw said. "His 'Flight of the Eagle" -the title track of a 1996 album- "is one of the most beautiful (songs) I've ever heard".
After living in the late 1950s and early 1960s in New York City and on the West Coast, where he played with Woody Herman's orchestra, among others, Brignola moved back to Troy in 1964. Unlike some of the jazz greats with whom he performed -Chick Corea, Doc Severinsen, Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk- Brignola never became a household name. But fellow musicians describe him as universally liked and respected by the jazz world, and he enjoyed a busy career as a much-sought-after soloist. As his reputation as the pre-eminent baritone saxophonist solidified over the past dozen years, Brignola would fly off for U.S. college clinics, international jazz festivals, a weekend in Europe or a week in Asia, and return to his home in Eagle Mills in time for his monthly gig at Justin's restaurant in Albany. "We were very fortunate to have a musician of his ability, his talents and creativity living right here'' Dave Calarco of Schodack, Brignola's drummer for the past 27 years, said Friday. "There are maybe a handful of people on the planet who could do what Nick could as a player'' said Calarco.
Schooled in and inspired by bebop, Brignola was known for fiery playing and explosive solos that matched his intense personality. A fellow bari-sax player once said admiringly of him, "Nick doesn't just blow into his horn -he screams into it'.' His horn, a physically imposing, gleaming brass beast, could produce an awe-inspiring noise as Brignola explored -and pushed- the traditionally accepted limits of the instrument. A typical Brignola solo was melodic, fast, driving, full of ideas; he could fit more notes than seemed possible in very small spaces. But Brignola also had an extraordinary way with gentler, moodier music. "He played beautiful, beautiful ballads'' said jazz pianist Lee Shaw, who met Brignola when she moved the Capital Region in 1971 and played with him many times over the years. "Nick could squeeze all the sentiment out of a ballad".
Over the course of more than 21 albums as a bandleader and scores more as a sideman -he was an accomplished player of most members of the woodwind family- Brignola recorded many jazz standards. In recent years, his albums featured more and more of his own compositions. "He was a very, very good composer'' Shaw said. "His 'Flight of the Eagle" -the title track of a 1996 album- "is one of the most beautiful (songs) I've ever heard".
FLIGHT OF THE EAGLENick BRIGNOLA bs, Kenny BARRON p, Rufus REID b, Victor LEWIS dr,
Brignola was also cherished for his sense of humor. Jazz trombonist Doug Sertl, a Clifton Park native whose big band featured Brignola, recalls a bus trip the band took across the Midwest in the late 1980s during which the haggard players stopped at a small-town diner. "We were looking pretty ratty'' Sertl said. "The guy behind the counter ... asks us, 'Are you fellas a professional baseball team?' and Nick, who looks the furthest thing from a baseball player, doesn't miss a beat. He says, 'As a matter of fact we are'. I think we kept that ruse up for an hour and a half. ... They probably still have our picture hanging on the wall". Sertl, like Calarco, described Brignola as both friend and mentor. The trombonist, who now lives in New Paltz, was 19 when he met Brignola; they played together often and recorded a half-dozen albums together over the next 24 years. "I got a real, irreplaceable education from him without ever taking a lesson, by watching him, playing with him" Sertl said. "He was tough -the first 10 years playing with him was terrifying- but he really helped me develop as a player''. In addition to the practical lessons Brignola passed on to younger players onstage and in rehearsals, he taught formally in the Capital Region, including at the University at Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the College of Saint Rose and Union College. Brignola is survived by his wife, Yvonne; three children, Jillian Haggerty, Kristin Walker and Nicholas Brignola; and one granddaughter.
The "flight of the eagle" is now complete, he leaves behind a wealth of inspiration.
The "flight of the eagle" is now complete, he leaves behind a wealth of inspiration.
By STEVE BARNES, First published: Saturday, February 9, 2002
To be continued...
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