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Junior Mance
Junior Mance, born Julian Clifford Mance, Jr., in Chicago, Illinois on October 10, 1928 is a jazz pianist, composer, and recording artist of thirty plus albums as a leader and numerous recordings as a sideman. Junior began playing the piano at the age of five, but did not begin formal training until the age of eight. He started playing professionally during his early teens. He attended Roosevelt College in Chicago as music major.
In 1947 Junior left Roosevelt College to join Gene Ammons' band and began his recording career with Gene. He joined Lester Young in 1949 for almost two years, and rejoined Ammons several months in 1951 before being drafted into the U. S. Army. He served in the 36th Army Band at Fort Knox, Kentucky along with Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.
After his discharge from the Army in 1953, Junior became part of the house rhythm section at the Bee Hive Jazz Club in Chicago for a year, and accompanied jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Sonny Stitt, and many others.
In 1954 Junior joined and toured with Dinah Washington. Among the numerous recordings he made with her, there are two that really stand out in his memory: "Dinah Jams" and "Jam Session". They are two live albums featuring Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson, Herb Geller, Harold Land, Keter Betts, George Morrow, Richie Powell and Junior.
In 1956 Junior reunited with Cannonball Adderley, becoming a member of Cannonball's first organized working band. The band did a series of recordings on Mercury Records.
Junior joined Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1958, a period Junior considers one of the highlights of his career. Besides the joy and fun of playing with Dizzy, he remembers this period as a great learning experience in musicianship, showmanship, and just about everything related to the business of music.
In 1961 Junior decided to form his own trio, following the release of his first recording as a leader. ("Junior", Verve) In between gigs with his trio he played and recorded with the Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis/Johnny Griffin Quintet. With his trio he also accompanied singer Joe Williams in l963/64
In 1988 Junior became a member of the faculty of the Jazz and Contemporary Music Program at the New School University in New York City. He teaches classes in Blues, Blues Ensembles, and private individual lessons and instruction on piano and helping students in the development of their career in playing jazz.
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Junior Mance: Jubilation
by Hrayr Attarian
Pianist Junior Mance has a bop-based facility with improvisation and a bluesy, no- nonsense" candid style. Mance debuted his career with this unique blend of traits and his singular voice has changed little over the course of his prolific career that spans over half a century. The Delmark reissue of Jubilation, originally on the, now defunct, Canadian label Sackville, is a live solo recording from September of 1994 in Toronto's Montreal Bistro. On it Mance demonstrates a more crystalized and ...
read moreJunior Mance: Eighty Years Young
by Ken Dryden
Chicago native Junior Mance doesn't sound like a man approaching his 80th birthday. The pianist, who credits Gene Ammons, Cannonball Adderley and Dizzy Gillespie with helping him grow as a musician, has led over 30 recordings of his own and made numerous appearances as a sideman during a lengthy career. An enthusiastic conversationalist with a great sense of humor, it's hard not to feel quickly at home chatting with the veteran artist. All About Jazz: Was yours ...
read moreJunior Mance: Groovin' with Junior
by Stuart Broomer
Nearing 80, Junior Mance is among the last still-vigorous performers of his generation, the master of a blues-drenched piano style that fuses bop harmony and block chords with tremolos and funky pentatonics. His biography is also his tradition, including stints with Gene Ammons, Cannonball Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie and Dinah Washington. Mance has visited Toronto for decades, frequently performing at jazz piano bars like Café des Copains and its successor, the recently closed Montreal Bistro. Since 1995 his Toronto ...
read moreJunior Mance: Sweet and Lovely
by Derek Taylor
Junior Mance Sweet and Lovely Milestone 2004
The heyday of hard bop was a boon for jazz piano enthusiasts. New names on the ivories surfaced continuously like seedlings after a fresh rain. Along with the acknowledged masters like Powell and Monk were their second generation acolytes: Bobby Timmons, Cedar Walton, Harold Mabern and Junior Mance among them. Like their forbearers these fellows paid their dues as sidemen. A Chicagoan by birth, Mance ...
read moreJunior Mance: Sweet and Lovely
by C. Michael Bailey
Bobby Timmons, Gene Harris, Junior Mance - these men comprise the Holy Trinity of soul/blues jazz pianists. All three have a complete command of the blues, along with gospel, which makes up the subatomic particles of soul jazz piano. Why is Horace Silver not here? Because he is one of the founding fathers of hard bop, and we have to draw the line somewhere. The three pianists above were making music late ?50s-?60s that corresponded to the popular music soul ...
read moreJunior Mance: Music of Thelonious Monk
by Riel Lazarus
In November of 2000 aboard a ship adrift on the Atlantic Ocean, reedman Joe Temperley joined pianist Junior Mance's Floating Jazz Festival Trio in what proved to be a perfect setting for a tribute to the music of Thelonious Monk. Like Monk, the waters beneath them were capable of powerful swings and torrents, and also like Monk, their music was pronounced amid a shroud of relative isolation.Throughout this live set, Temperley and Mance--joined by the gifted rhythm section ...
read moreJunior Mance Trio & Orchestra: That Lovin' Feelin'
by C. Andrew Hovan
Along with stylists such as Gene Harris and Bobby Timmons, pianist Junior Mance is too frequently thrown into a category of players put down for using the blues and other implicit forms that speak directly with their audience. The fact is, Mance can be a deftly imaginative artist whose best work can be heard on a series of excellent albums he cut for the Riverside/Jazzland logos in the ‘60s. The most unusual of the bunch would be 1962’s The Soul ...
read moreJunior Mance (1928-2021)
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Junior Mance, a pianist and early proponent of church-infused soul-jazz who played and recorded with nearly all of jazz's post-war greats before beginning a leadership career in 1959, died on January 16. He was 92. Junior's playing channeled both urban gospel and rural spirituals and hymns, resulting in a style that exuded introspective soul. Junior's brand of sensitive bop and jazz was honed under the tutelage of spectacular soloists and blues singers. Even as a trio leader in the '60s ...
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Interview: Junior Mance (Part 3)
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Pianist Junior Mance has a lot of church in his playing. But it's not purely the church of stomping gospel or frenzied revivals. Rather, Junior's playing channels both urban gospel and rural spirituals and hymns. What interesting about his quiet soul is that it garners both a physical reaction in listeners as well as self-reflection. Junior's more sensitive funk was honed under the tutelage of singers and soloists. Ever since, Junior's goal has been never to eclipse but to enhance ...
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Interview: Junior Mance (Part 2)
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Many great jazz pianists of the '40s started out as accompanists. The process of backing a singer or instrumentalist forces you to anticipate space, experiment with harmony and keep swinging time. As a young, confident, sensitive pianist, Junior Mance understood this supporting role perfectly. After he left the Army in 1953, Junior was the house pianist at the Bee Hive in Chicago and toured with Dinah Washington before joining Cannonball Adderley's group. With Washington, Junior provided the brassy singer with ...
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Interview: Junior Mance (Part 1)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Pianist Junior Mance has always been a natural. While still in his teens, he played and recorded with some of the most exceptional jazz stars of the late 1940s. What jazz greats admired most about Junior was his fearless confidence and fast hands. Back then, jazz pianists had to do triple duty. They had to be able to play fast and strong. They had to be able to solo brilliantly. And they had to be able to accompany the band's ...
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Where Jazz Meets Blues
Source:
All About Jazz
The essential relationship between jazz and blues seems so well understood that it's not discussed much. Junior Mance explored this relationship not through words but through his piano, when he led his trio through Junior's Blues (OJC).
You don't need to be a Mance fan, just a fan of fine and powerful blues-based piano, to enjoy his impeccable program: Three of Junior's own blues swingers as mileposts in a survey that encompasses historic piano styles from stride to bop. Everything ...
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World Piano Summit Presents Jazz Piano Titan Junior Mance
Source:
Michael Ricci
"Junior Mance is something else... So complete is his psychological command over his instrument that very few of his fellows approach him in this area." --DownBeat Magazine worldpianosummit.com proudly presents Junior Mance at 81 in a rare solo concert at Boston's Church of the Covenant, [67 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116] on Thursday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. At age 81, Junior Mance can look back on an amazing life in jazz. Mance was born on October 10, 1928 and ...
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River to River Festival 2009: Junior Mance, King Britt, Chuck Brown, Emmet Cohen, and Flix Lajk
Source:
PKPR
June 01, 2009 7:30pm Summer Stars: Flix Lajk with Antal Brasny 3 Spruce Street Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts Pace University Hungarian violinist Flix Lajk fuses folk, jazz, Gypsy, and Jewish klezmer music to create a unique and energetic musical style. Known for his charismatic performances, Lajk has collaborated with everyone from Japanese Butoh dancer Min Tanaka to the French rock band Noir Dsir. Here he will perform with violist Antal ...
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Test of Time Releases "Holy Mama" by Junior Mance
Source:
All About Jazz
Test of Time Records proudly announces the release of the remastered Holy Mama by the Junior Mance. This album was originally released in 1976 and is now available on CD for the first time here in the U.S. This work by the Junior Mance-led trio, with Martin Rivera on bass and Salvatore LaRocca on drums, was recorded on May 3rd and 4th, 1976 at New York’s Vanguard Studios. It is being released on CD for the ...
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Harlem Speaks Features Pianist Junior Mance September 6th 6:30PM-8:30PM
Source:
All About Jazz
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem 104 East 126th Street New York, NY 10035 212 348-8300 Junior Mance, Piano September 6, 2007 at the Harlem School of the Arts (645 St. Nicholas Avenue For reservations: 212-348-8300 6:30pm-8:30pm FREE This series is free and open to the public The first guest of Harlem Speaks in September 2007, JUNIOR MANCE, was born Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. ...
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