Allen Mezquida is an illustrator and jazz saxophonist.
Mezquida was a jazz alto saxophonist in the New York area for much of the 1980s and 1990s. [1] He recorded one album as leader – A Good Thing , which was released by Koch in 1996. [2] His quartet for the album was Bill Mays or Brad Mehldau on piano, bassist Sean Smith, and drummer Leon Parker. [2] In the late 1990s, Mezquida decided to try something else: he later commented that "I was feeling underappreciated, a lot of self-pity", [3] and "I was more frustrated with jazz's tiny place in the current cultural landscape than with my jazz career". [1]
He then drew cartoons and took up digital animation. [1] After moving to Los Angeles, he got work for major film studios. [1] He later described this as "executing the ideas of morons that I didn't respect", and started a YouTube channel for his animated creation, Smigly. [3]
Mezquida played saxophone on Molly Ringwald's Except Sometimes . [4]
With Cow Bop (Bruce Forman)
With Mark Murphy
With Molly Ringwald
With Sean Smith
Molly Kathleen Ringwald is an American actress, writer, and translator. She began her career as a child actress on the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life before being nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the drama film Tempest (1982). Ringwald became a teen idol following her appearances in filmmaker John Hughes' teen films Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Pretty in Pink (1986). These films led to the media referring to her as a member of the "Brat Pack." Her final teen roles were in For Keeps and Fresh Horses.
Cool jazz is a style of modern jazz music inspired by bebop and big band that arose in the United States after World War II. It is characterized by relaxed tempos and a lighter tone than that used in the fast and complex bebop style. Cool jazz often employs formal arrangements and incorporates elements of classical music. Broadly, the genre refers to a number of post-war jazz styles employing a more subdued approach than that of contemporaneous jazz idioms. As Paul Tanner, Maurice Gerow, and David Megill suggest, "the tonal sonorities of these conservative players could be compared to pastel colors, while the solos of [Dizzy] Gillespie and his followers could be compared to fiery red colors."
Matthew Shipp is an American avant-garde jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader.
West Coast jazz refers to styles of jazz that developed in Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a subgenre of cool jazz, which consisted of a calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music relied relatively more on composition and arrangement than on the individually improvised playing of other jazz styles. Although this style dominated, it was not the only form of jazz heard on the American West Coast.
Marion Brown was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, writer, visual artist, and ethnomusicologist. He was a member of the avant-garde jazz scene in New York City during the 1960s, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai. He performed on Coltrane's landmark 1965 album Ascension. AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow described him as "one of the brightest and most lyrical voices of the 1960s avant-garde."
Robert Michael Watson Jr., known professionally as Bobby Watson, is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator.
Straight-ahead jazz is a genre of jazz that developed in the 1960s, with roots in the prior two decades. It omits the rock music and free jazz influences that began to appear in jazz during this period, instead preferring acoustic instruments, conventional piano comping, walking bass patterns, and swing- and bop-based drum rhythms.
John Josephus Hicks Jr. was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He was leader of more than 30 recordings and played as a sideman on more than 300.
William Allen Mays, known professionally as Bill Mays, is an American jazz pianist from Sacramento, California.
Tim Hopkins, is an Australian jazz musician who won the Australian National Jazz Award at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz in 1993.
The George Benson Cookbook is the third studio album by jazz/soul guitarist George Benson, and the second to be produced by John Hammond.
Bruce Forman is an American jazz guitarist.
Bearcat is an album by jazz saxophonist Clifford Jordan which was recorded in late 1961 and early 1962 and released on the Jazzland label.
Frode Kjekstad is a Norwegian jazz guitarist and known from collaboration and recordings with jazz musicians Lonnie Smith, Eric Alexander, Mike LeDonne, Joe Farnsworth, Byron Landham, Alberto Marsico, Frank Foster, Johnny Griffin, Don Menza, James Morrison, Mark Nightingale, Claire Martin, Deborah Brown, and Wendell Brunious.
Except Sometimes is the debut studio album of American singer-songwriter Molly Ringwald released on April 9, 2013, through Concord Records. It is a jazz record that follows a tradition of the Ringwald family set by her father. "I grew up in a home filled with music and had an early appreciation of jazz since my dad was a jazz musician. Beginning at around age three I started singing with his band and jazz music has continued to be one of my three passions along with acting and writing. I like to say jazz music is my musical equivalent of comfort food. It's always where I go back to when I want to feel grounded," Ringwald said in a statement. The album received generally mixed to positive reviews, with many critics praising Ringwald's vocals. The closing track of the album is a cover version of Simple Minds' "Don't You " which was part of the soundtrack of the movie The Breakfast Club that starred Ringwald. Ringwald dedicated this track "to the memory of J.H." This refers to John Hughes, Ringwald's director in The Breakfast Club and many of her other films.
Viktor Tóth, alto saxophonist, composer and orchestra leader, has been awarded Jazz Musician of the Year several times. One of the top figures of the young generation of the contemporary Hungarian jazz scene, his performance style bridges styles, is improvisation-centred, "soaring" and filled with spirituality.
A Good Thing is an album by jazz alto saxophonist Allen Mezquida.
Knoel Scott is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. He plays baritone, tenor and alto saxophone in addition to flute, while his live performances often include singing and dancing. He is best known for his work with keyboardist/bandleader Sun Ra and is an original member of the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen.
Love Remains is an album by saxophonist Robert Watson which was recorded in 1986 and released on the Italian Red label.
Some Time Ago is the 37th album by American jazz vocalist Mark Murphy. It was recorded in 1999 when Murphy was 68 years old and released by the HighNote Records label in the United States in 2000. The album is a collection of jazz bebop tunes and standards with Murphy backed by a jazz quintet.