Artist: Steve Nelson

Description: Vibraphonist Steve Nelson was born in Wilkinsburg 1955 and began his career during the seventies, in Pittsburgh, His first major influence was Milt Jackson.

“I actually got into the vibes because a young guy that I used to hang around with in Pittsburgh, George Monroe, his father played the vibes.I heard him play and that’s how I fell in love with the instrument.I started with drums around age 15 within two years I was making my first jam sessions around town. After three or four years I started doing gigs around town with local cats. There was a guy that I met in Pittsburgh, Kenny Fisher, a saxophonist. I got into his band. Drummer J.C. Moses who’d played with Trane and Eric Dolphy came home; I did some playing with him. Tommy Turrentine had come back to Pittsburgh around that time, I met him and played with him, Eric Kloss, was around Pittsburgh around that time. I did quite a few jam sessions with him.”

He got a Masters in Music from Rutgers University. “At that time Rutgers was just starting their jazz program and I sat in with some Larry Ridley, Ted Dunbar, Kenny Barron— Eventually wound in Freddie Waits’ band—called Colors Revealed and with Kenny’s band, too. I met James Spaulding there and did a lot of things with him. There was a guy from Pittsburgh, Jerry Byrd who knew Grant Green very well and Grant always used vibes in his band around that period; and his vibes player had broken his leg, or something like that and Jerry recommended me for that gig with Grant. So, I went with Grant and that was kind of my first road experience.”

After a year with Green he was playing and recording with his Rutgers professors James Spaulding and Kenny Barron, before landing a spot in David “Fathead” Newman’s quintet. Throughout the eighties Nelson was the vibist of choice among up-and-comers, including Bobby Watson, Curtis Lundy, James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, Donald Brown, Geoffrey Keezer and Lewis Nash, Plus he playd with Also George Shearing and Jackie McLean. Later influenced by the innovations of Bobby Hutcherson, that led him to a spot in Dave Holland’s band.

These quotes and other info come from allaboutjazz.com.

Hear it: “Classics” with Gordon Spencer, Sundays at 3 p.m.

Playlist:
“Steve Nelson-Sound Effect” High Note HCD 7175
“One Thin Dime” w/Mulgrew Miller, p-Peter Washington, ba
“Dave Holland Quintet-Dream of the Elders” ECM CD 1572
“Equality” w/Holland, b-Eric Person, as
“Steve Nelson-Fuller Nelson” Sunnyside CD SSC 1134
“Easy to Love” w/ Kirk Lightsey, p
“Steve Davis-Portrait in Sound” Stretch CD SCD 9027-2
“Samba D” w/ Davis, tb-David Hazeltine,p

Artist: Jimmy Ponder

Description: “Jimmy Ponder, began playing at age 11 and is self-taught. He was playing clubs regularly by age 13. He began his musical life playing “doo-wop” music, and his earliest influences included The Temptations and early Stevie Wonder. He lived in Philadelphia then in early 1970’s (mid 20s) moved to New York leading his own groups. He considers Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell to be his two main early influences and Wes Montgomery later on.” (from Wikipedia)

Quotes from an interview with WRCT’s Gordon Spencer:
“I’ve had only one guitar lesson and that was around ’66 (age 20) from a guitarist that worked with Jimmy MacGriff named Thornell Schwartz. He had me come over to his place one afternoon and I sat and I listened and I learned a great deal. And that was the only lesson I have ever had. Other than that I’ve sat and I’ve listened and deciphered and I’ve taught myself. The more people you work with the more you’re exposed and you take that home.”

“Here were clubs on the North Side here in Pittsburgh, when I was 15 or 16, where I was told that if I didn’t play to the crowd’s satisfaction, I might get beat up. And I took the engagement anyway and I played. When I was a kid I would practice an average of six hours a day. And I continued that when I went on the road.”

“Charles Earland came through Pittsburgh in 1963 (age 17) He came to The Hurricane and the guitar player was asleep on the job and I had gotten a copy of Earland’s latest 45 Daily Dozen and I learned the guitar solo backwards and forwards. And Bertie Dunlap, the owner of The Hurricane, allowed me to play. And I told Earland ‘My mother is not gonna let me go out of town until I get my diploma. So 2 years later, he came back. He said ‘Are you ready to go?’ and I said ‘Yes, indeed’. And I never looked back until I moved back to Pittsburgh (ca. 2000).”

He has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Groove Holmes, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, Hank Crawford, Jimmy MacGriff, Jack McDuff, and Sonny Stitt, Lou Donaldson, Houston Person, Donald Byrd. He has played on approximately 80 albums so far.

He’s been teaching at several colleges and is an artist-in-residence at Duquesne University. “I teach basic fundamental reading, I teach guitarists how to teach themselves how to read.”

“I try to make a decent living playing the music and dealing with the performance side of it and then to teach and then writing and recording. It’s still not enough. I live below the poverty level. I persevere. I got into it loving it and you’re never paid for what you love. You’re never paid what you’re worth.”

Hear it: “Classics” with Gordon Spencer, Sundays at 3 p.m.

Playlist:
“Jimmy Ponder-What’s New” High Note HCD 7100
“Please Send Me Someone to Love” w/ Gene Ludwig, org-Cecil Brooks III, dms
“Hank Crawford-Down on the Deuce” Milestone LP M 9129
“Survival” Massive Music Weekend playlist for program Sunday February 17th 111:30- 12
pm. Featuring Belzehoover/Pittsburgh’s guitarist Jimmy Ponder born 1946. He solos on every
selection below.
“Jimmy Ponder-What’s New” High Note HCD 7100
“Please Send Me Someone to Love” w/ Gene Ludwig, org-Cecil Brooks III, dms
“Hank Crawford-Down on the Deuce” Milestone LP M 9129
“Survival” w/Crawford, as-Cedar Walton,p
“Jimmy Ponder-Somebody’s Child” High Note HCD 7165
Title & “Kickin’ Da Bobo” w/ Howard Alexander, p-Jeff Grubbs, b
“Jimmy McGriff-Skywalk” Milestone LP M 9126
Title w/ McGriff, org-Arnold Sterling, as
“Jimmy Ponder-Somebody’s Child” High Note HCD 7165
Title & “Kickin’ Da Bobo” w/ Howard Alexander, p-Jeff Grubbs, b
“Jimmy McGriff-Skywalk” Milestone LP M 9126
Title w/ McGriff, org-Arnold Sterling, as

Artist: Joe Thomas

Description: He was one of the stars of the great swing–era band of Jimmy Lunceford.

“Joe Thomas (June 19, 1909, Uniontown, Pennsylvania – August 3, 1986, Kansas City, Missouri) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.

As a boy Thomas first learned to play hymns on his sax, it was the only music his parents approved of. His first band job was with the Earl Hood Orchestra. After 8 months Horace Henderson offered him a job.

Thomas played alto sax under Horace Henderson, but played tenor from the time he joined Stuff Smith’s band onward. He played with Jimmie Lunceford’s band from 1933 until Lunceford’s death in 1947, where he soloed often and occasionally sang. After Lunceford died, Thomas and Ed Wilcox co-led his ghost band for a year. He played R&B in the early 1950s, but left the music industry to work in the family undertaking business in the middle of the 1950s. In the 1960s he started playing again occasionally, and recorded again under his own name in the late 1970s and early 1980s.” (from Wikipedia)

Hear it: “Classics” with Gordon Spencer, Sundays at 3 p.m.

Playlist:
“Best of Jazz-The Swing Era-Jimmie Lunceford”- Best of Jazz CD 4002
“Swingin’ Uptown” w/Willie Smith, as- Eddie Tompkins, tp
“Rhythm is Our Business” w/Smith, voc-, Tommy Stevenson, tp-Moses Allen, b-Jimmy Crawford,
dms
“Jimmy (sic) Lunceford and His Orchestra” Decca LP DL 8050: “Hi Spook”
“lunceford special” (sic) Columbia LP CL 634
“What’s Your Story Morning Glory?” (by Mary Lou Williams)
“White Heat” -w/Smith, cl-Paul Webster, tp-Eddie Durham, tb
Same Best of Jazz CD
“Annie Laurie” w/Trummy Young,tb-Webster, tp
“The Lonesome Road” w/Trummy, voc.-Smith, as
“Joe Thomas/Jay McShann-Blowin’ In from K.C” Uptown LP 27.12
“Dog Food” (by Thomas) w/McShann, p-Haywood Henry, bs-Johnny Grimes, tp-
George Duvivier, b