| The Good Life Jazz Entertainment Bob Ronnow, Business Manager, ronnow@taconic.net, 413-458-5022 |
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The Good Life provides quality jazz entertainment by Berkshire area jazz musicians for concerts & outdoor
performances, weddings & family events, restaurants & pubs, resorts & country clubs, museum & art show openings, business & nonprofit organization events, schools & colleges, town & community celebrations. |
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| Musician Bios/Contacts | |
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Allen Livermore, alto, tenor & soprano saxophone, clarinet Allen is a musician, composer, and music educator. He studied saxophone with Jackie McLean at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, CT, and has a graduate degree in music performance and composition from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, where he studied with Anthony Braxton and Alvin Lucier. He directs the Berkshire Community College Jazz Ensemble. Contact: allen.livermore@gmail.com; alivermo@berkshirecc.edu; 518-794-6196 |
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Ted Murray, alto & tenor saxophone, flute Ted grew up in the Berkshires during a time when many fine jazz musicians performed at various venues, creating for him a lifelong devotion to this style of music first as an avid listener and later as a saxophone player. He began playing saxophone at age 15 and flute at age 25. Ted has studied with many professionals in Berkshire County including Walt Lehmann of the Walt Lehmann Jazz Band, world music percussionist Royal Hartigan and the experienced saxophonist and educator Bruce Abbott. During his time at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Ted also participated in the Max Roach Jazz Workshop. Playing mostly small combo modern jazz, Ted has led his own group, The Freedom Jazz Quintet, on gigs in the Berkshires and up and down Cape Cod. He has also worked as a soloist with vocalists and Rhythm & Blues groups. In the mid-70s, he taught at the American Music Workshop in Pittsfield, MA. He currently leads the Ted Murray Quartet. Ted feels that the most valuable gift of the great jazz innovators is originality; that the audience deserves to hear music that, while rooted in tradition, has never been played before. Contact: 413-499-7782 |
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Andy Jaffe, piano Andy Jaffe, Composer/Arranger/Educator/Author, is the Lyell B.Clay Artist in Residence in Jazz and Director of Jazz Activities at Williams College, as well as Artistic Director of the Williamstown Jazz Festival . An active jazz composer, performer, and recording artist, Jaffe has been a leader in jazz pedagogy for over twenty-five years and has taught at Williams College (since 1988) where he directs the jazz ensembles and teaches courses in jazz theory/improvisation, arranging and composition, and on the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. In 2001 he led an ensemble including former Williamstown Jazz Festival performers Winard Harper (drums), Freddie Bryant (Guitar) and John Blake (violin), in a concert of his original music at the IAJE convention in New York, for which he was given an award for “Outstanding Service to Jazz Education”. In 2003 he premiered a three-movement double quartet entitled “Bridge” (for jazz Quartet and String Quartet) for saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his quartet, joined by The Ciompi Quartet and Tabla player Samir Chatterjee. His 1996 text, “Jazz Harmony” (Advance Music) is now entering its fourth printing and is widely recognized as one of the most influential in its field. His commercially available recordings include “Manhattan Projections” (original material for Jazz Sextet featuring former Berklee students Branford Marsalis, Wallace Roney and Marvin “Smitty” Smith, available on Playscape Recordings, “Double Helix” (a Piano Duo with Tom McClung on the Liscio label. His newest CD, entitled “An Imperfect Storm”, featuring his large ensemble compositions, came out on the MMC label in June of ’04. Contact: ajaffe@crocker.com; Andrew.W.Jaffe@williams.edu |
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Fran Curley, drums Originally from Waterbury CT, Fran started playing drums at age 13 and had his first paying gig at age 15. Over the span of 30-plus years, he has played professionally in rock, funk, jazz, blues and wedding bands in Connecticut as well as in Berkshire and Hampshire Counties in Massachusetts. Fran has studied with Buddy Rich taskmaster James Tansley from Bridgeport University and Ed Soph (jazz legend Clark Terry's drummer for many years) and Bob Weiner, a former faculty member at Berklee College of Music who toured extensively with Harry Belafonte. Fran has also performed percussion on premiers of a series of intergenerational works including Brothers and Sisters and Parents where he worked with world-renowned composer Neely Bruce (Chorus Master for the Connecticut Opera and Professor of Music at Wesleyan University) and Phyllis Bruce, co-author and Music Director at the South Church Music Program in Middletown, CT. He is on the faculty of the Young Musicians Workshop at Berkshire Community College. He currently leads The Fran Curley Jazz Ensemble. Contact: fcurley@francurleyjazz.com; 413-445-8825; 413-329-2231 (cell) |
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Bob Ronnow, trumpet/cornet Bob has played with the Berkshire Community College Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Allen Livermore and the Williams College Big Band under the direction of Andy Jaffe since 2003. He played with City Dance Theater and studied with Mark Harvey in Boston 1975-1977. His recordings include BCC Jazz Ensemble Plays Music by Thelonius Monk. Contact:. ronnow@taconic.net; 413-458-5022 |
| Bob Ronnow, Business Manager The Good Life 413-458-5022 ronnow@taconic.net Contact us for your next family, business or community event! |
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