[Dixielandjazz] Jonathan Russell & Latin Jazz Master Manny Duran

[Steve Barbone]

Jonathan Russell is progressing. Hopefully, the Dixieland Scene will get
this kid some paying gigs before the rest of the jazz world steals him.
Way to go "J" you're playing with the big kids now. Break a leg.

What now, after you have mastered Cherokee in all 12 keys?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


MANNY DURAN featuring JONATHAN RUSSELL
October 8, 2006  BLUE NOTE 131 W. 3rd St New York, NY 10012 212-475-8592
12:30PM  RESERVATIONS   TABLE $19.50

Manny Duran trumpet featuring 11 year old violin sensation: Jonathan Russell

Nearly five decades after setting New York's Latin scene ablaze with his
dynamic trumpet playing, Manny Duran continues to perform with Afro Bop, a
Latin jazz septet that he formed in the late 1990s. Although not as active
as in the past, the group continues to reflect the trumpet, tenor sax,
conga, piano and bass tradition of Latin jazz.

Duran's playing was essential to the development of Latin jazz in the 1950s
and '60s. He recorded with jazz instrumentalists, including Dizzy Gillespie
and Kai Winding, and worked with such Latin artists as Ray Barretto and
Mario Bauza & His Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. He spent a decade with
Cuban-born vocalist/maracas player Machito's band.

Born, in Alamogordo, New Mexico, of Mexican heritage, Duran has been drawn
to music from earliest memory. A street singer as a child, he received his
first trumpet, at the age of ten, as a gift from his mother. Moving to New
York in 1956 to pursue a career in music, Duran knew what he faced from the
beginning. On his first day in the Big Apple, his horn and clothes were
stolen. 

Although he briefly worked with jazz pianist Al Haig, Duran had to seek
other ways to supplement his income as a musician. A job as a waiter at jazz
club, Café Behemia, became an outlet for his talent as a musician. The first
week that he worked at the club, he was invited to sit in with Cannonball
Adderley and Miles Davis.

Seeking work as a musician, Duran spent hours at the local musician's union
hall, hoping that someone would be in need of a trumpet player. When Puerto
Rico-born Noro Morales hired him to play with his band in 1957, his career
as a Latin musician had begun.


Jonathan Russell 

Romantics would say it was love at first sight. Or in this case, maybe first
listen. Jonathan Russell saw a picture of a violin at the age of 18 months
and repeated the word every time he saw one. Soon after that he began
picking out the sound of the violin on recordings. And when he held one on
his shoulder for the first time, it was definitely a done deal. Jonathan and
the violin were a dynamic duo called to destiny. But his beginnings in jazz
are a bit hazier in his parents' recollections. It started with Bei Mir Bist
du Shein for sure, and his early spontaneous improvisations on the rhythm.
Shortly after, he began to pick out the notes to Ain't Misbehavin¹ and
everything seemed to take off from there like wildfire.

As a Suzuki-trained musician, Jonathan learns easily by ear but also reads
and writes music. While he is skillful at adapting any of the jazz standards
he plays for other styles, his heart is in the Traditional, Dixieland and
Swing genres -- the true roots of jazz. Currently, he is studying Suzuki
violin at the School for Strings in Manhattan with Allen Lieb, while his
jazz studies are with Grammy Award winner Andy Stein, formerly of Prairie
Home Companion's Shoe Band and Commander Cody and The Lost Planet Airmen. He
also takes Old Time fiddle lessons with Grammy Award nominee Bruce Molsky
and has studied classical composition with Sam Zyman from Julliard. Jonathan
was awarded the Alternative Styles Award in the under 13 category for Best
Improvisation by the American String Teachers Association at their annual
conference in Reno, Nevada. In 2006, Jonathan had the honor of being the
youngest jazz musician ever invited to play in a master class at Jazz at
Lincoln Center taught by Regina Carter. And every gig is a learning
experience as well as a blast as he puts out the music and also soaks it in,
learning from great band leaders such as Ed Polcer.

Jonathan has performed at major jazz festivals including the New Orleans
Jazz & Heritage Festival, the Suncoast Dixieland Jazz Festival in Florida,
the Hot Steamed Jazz Festival and The Great Connecticut Traditional Jazz
festival in Connecticut. He has also performed at SUNY Purchase and the
Harvard Club. In the past he has played with Paris Washboard, Titan Hot 7,
Pearl Django, Blue Street Jazz Band, Fryer/Barnhart International All-Stars,
Les Paul and Chicago 6. Jonathan regularly performs with the Grove Street
Stompers and Ed Polcer in New York and Barbone Street in Pennsylvania in
addition to a variety of solo and trio gigs around the New York City area.
He has released his first CD entitled The Sheik of Araby featuring eleven
standards from the jazz age. Joining Jonathan on the cd are Ed Polcer, Mark
Shane, Mike Weatherly and Kevin Dorn.