Al Schackman

Last updated
Al Schackman
Birth nameAlvin Schackman
Born (1933-10-05) October 5, 1933 (age 88)
New York, United States
Occupation(s)Guitarist, musical director, arranger
Years active1950s –present
Associated acts Nina Simone

Alvin Schackman (born October 5, 1933) is an American jazz guitarist and arranger, most noted for his long association with Nina Simone as her accompanist from 1957 to 2000.

Biography

Born in New York, Schackman grew up in the Catskills before moving with his family to Brooklyn. He learned the guitar under teacher Rector Bailey, who had previously worked with Nat King Cole, and in his teens began touring with mixed race bands in the South. [1]

By 1957, he was working as a session musician in New York as well as performing with his own jazz group in Greenwich Village. One night, when Nina Simone was performing at the Playhouse Inn in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where Schackman lived, she agreed to him joining her on stage. According to Schackman, "Some people heard me playing and thought it would be great if the two of us would play together, so they asked her, and she said okay..." [2] The pairing was successful, Schackman later commenting: "I had never felt such freedom in knowing that someone knew exactly where I was going, and that she knew that I knew exactly where she was going... It was like telepathy....I think we saw, in each other's playing, a reflection of the way we approached music, which was to tell a story beyond the notes and with color..." [3] Schackman remained Simone's collaborator, accompanist, musical director and arranger, touring and recording with her for almost the whole of her career, from 1957 to 2000. [1] He is close to her daughter Lisa Simone Kelly, and sometimes cared for her for extended periods in her youth due to Nina's tempestuous marriage to manager Andrew Stroud and the singer's occasional mental health issues. [4]

Schackman also continued to work as a session musician, featuring on albums by Babatunde Olatunji, Harry Belafonte, Pearls Before Swine, Lee Konitz, and others. As well as guitar, he occasionally contributed on other instruments including piano, sitar, congas, vibraphone and marimba. [5]

Related Research Articles

Count Basie American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer

William James "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, plunger trombonist Al Grey, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams.

Nina Simone American singer and songwriter (1933–2003)

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel and pop.

Wynton Kelly American jazz pianist, born 1931

Wynton Charles Kelly was an American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began playing professionally at the age of 12 and was pianist on a No. 1 R&B hit at the age of 16. His recording debut as a leader occurred three years later, around the time he started to become better known as an accompanist to singer Dinah Washington, and as a member of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's band. This progress was interrupted by two years in the United States Army, after which Kelly worked again with Washington and Gillespie, and played with other leaders. Over the next few years, these included instrumentalists Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Wes Montgomery, and Sonny Rollins, and vocalists Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, and Abbey Lincoln.

Wild Is the Wind (song) 1957 song written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington

"Wild Is the Wind" is a song written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington for the 1957 film Wild Is the Wind. Johnny Mathis recorded the song for the film and released it as a single in November 1957. Mathis' version reached No. 22 on the Billboard chart. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song in 1958, but lost to "All the Way" by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn from The Joker is Wild.

Ted Greene Musical artist

Theodore Greene was an American fingerstyle jazz guitarist, columnist, session musician and educator in Encino, California.

Lisa Simone American singer, composer and actress (born 1962)

Lisa Simone Kelly is an American singer, composer and actress, known for her work on and off Broadway, in Rent, The Lion King, Aida, and Les Miserables. She is the only child of the late musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone and is the executive producer of the Netflix documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? Simone's albums include Simone on Simone, All is Well, My World, and Live at the Edge.

<i>Pastel Blues</i> 1965 studio album by Nina Simone

Pastel Blues is a studio album by American jazz singer, songwriter, and pianist Nina Simone. Recorded in 1964 and 1965 in New York City, it was released by Philips Records in 1965. It peaked at number 139 on the Billboard 200 chart, as well as number 8 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Baltimore is the fourteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter and pianist Nina Simone, released in January 1978 by CTI Records.

<i>Silk & Soul</i> 1967 studio album by Nina Simone

Silk & Soul is the thirteenth studio album by American musician Nina Simone released in October 1967 by RCA Victor. It features the cuts "Go to Hell" and a cover of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free".

<i>Nina Simone at Newport</i> 1960 live album by Nina Simone

Nina Simone at Newport is an album by jazz singer and musician Nina Simone. It was her second live album for Colpix, recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival on June 30, 1960. All arrangements were written by Nina Simone, and it was produced by Stu Phillips.

<i>Nina at the Village Gate</i> 1962 live album by Nina Simone

Nina Simone at the Village Gate is an album by singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone. It was her third live album for Colpix recorded at The Village Gate, a nightclub in Greenwich Village, New York. It is particularly notable for the number of folk songs and African related songs on the album early in Simone's career. Richard Pryor had one of his first nights as a comedian opening for her.

<i>Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall</i> 1963 live album by Nina Simone

Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall is a 1963 album by jazz singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone. It is a live album recorded at Simone's first solo appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City, on April 12, 1963, and was released on Colpix Records.

Hal Mooney, born Harold Mooney, was an American composer and arranger.

"Ain't Got No, I Got Life" is a 1968 single by American singer-songwriter Nina Simone, from her album 'Nuff Said. It is a medley of two songs, "Ain't Got No" and "I Got Life", from the musical Hair, with lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. The combination of the two songs was rewritten by Simone to suit her purpose.

"Four Women" is a song written by jazz singer, composer, pianist and arranger Nina Simone, released on the 1966 album Wild Is the Wind. It tells the story of four African American women. Each of the four characters represents an African-American stereotype in society. Thulani Davis of The Village Voice called the song "an instantly accessible analysis of the damning legacy of slavery, that made iconographic the real women we knew and would become."

Trouble in Mind (song) Early blues standard written by Richard M. Jones

"Trouble in Mind" is a vaudeville blues-style song written by jazz pianist Richard M. Jones. Singer Thelma La Vizzo with Jones on piano first recorded it in 1924 and in 1926, Bertha "Chippie" Hill popularized the tune with her recording with Jones and trumpeter Louis Armstrong. The song became an early blues standard, with numerous renditions by a variety of musicians in a variety of styles.

Arthur Adams (singer) American blues guitarist

Arthur Adams is an American blues guitarist from Medon, Tennessee. Inspired by B.B. King and other 1950s artists, he played gospel music before attending college. He moved to Los Angeles, and during the 1960s and 1970s he released solo albums and worked as a session musician. In 1985 he was tapped to tour on bass guitar with Nina Simone, and he staged a comeback in the 1990s when he released Back on Track, and became a respected Chicago blues player and bandleader in B.B. King's clubs.

James Edward Bond Jr., known as Jimmy Bond, was an American double bass player, arranger and composer who performed and recorded with many leading jazz, blues, folk and rock musicians between the 1950s and 1980s.

Vladimir Sokoloff (pianist) Musical artist

Vladimir Sokoloff was an American pianist and accompanist on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. In addition to his teaching work with the accompanying, piano and chamber music students, he was an active performer.

<i>The Amazing Nina Simone</i> (film) 2015 American film

The Amazing Nina Simone is a 2015 American documentary film by director Jeff L. Lieberman. The film details the life, legacy and musical accomplishments of singer, musician, pianist, songwriter and Civil Rights activist, Nina Simone through interviews with over 50 of her friends, family, band members, lovers and fellow activists. The film has been called the best of the three Nina Simone films by The New Yorker Magazine, and "The Nina Simone film we should all be watching" by Blavity.

References

  1. 1 2 Remy Tumin, "Still Keeping the Beat for Nina Simone", August 24, 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2019
  2. ↑ Denise Sullivan, "Nina Simone Would've Been 80 Today", February 21, 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2019
  3. ↑ Alan Light, What Happened, Miss Simone?, Canongate Books, 2016, ISBN   978-1-78211-871-8, pp.49-52
  4. ↑ Alan Light (2016). What Happened, Miss Simone? A Biography. Crown Archetype, ISBN   978-1-101-90487-9
  5. ↑ Al Schackman Credits, Discogs.com. Retrieved 22 January 2019
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.