New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Pianist/composer Loren Daniels brings a multiplicity of musical experiences to bear on every project he joins. As a player, he's performed with many notable jazz practitioners including Milt Jackson,
Rufus Reid, Makanda (Ken) McIntyre, Warren Smith, Eliot Zigmund and Jon Faddis. As a bandleader/musical director, Loren has nurtured and developed recording and performance projects for the Pittman/Daniels Quartet, vocalist Macy Chen, bassist August Riska, saxophonist Bradford Hayes and singer/songwriter Deborah Thurlow. Loren's compositions have been performed by large and small jazz ensembles, choral ensembles, in collaboration with choreographers, for theatrical pieces and educational musicals and for television soundtracks. As an educator, he taught music for many years in Teaneck, NJ public schools and continues to teach music privately. Loren created Jazz In The
Spirit (a jazz worship series) at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Teaneck, NJ and continues as its artist in residence and music coordinator. He studied music at Hofstra University, Berklee College of Music, SUNY at Old Westbury (B.S. in Music/Education) and NYU (M.A. in
Music Education). Loren is currently performing with the Reggie Pittman/Loren Daniels Quartet, the Bradford Hayes Quartet, One More Once Big Band, the August Riska Trio and vocalists Macy Chen, Cynthia Soriano and Deborah Thurlow.
Trumpeter Reggie Pittman continues to live the dream life of a professional in the music business in New York City. Being the soloist with the Duke Ellington Band at Carnegie Hall, playing with his idol Freddie Hubbard, and giving scholarships to students in his hometown of Cleveland Ohio are all dreams come true. This new cd culminates years of hard work and lots of practice. Reggie has played with Aretha Franklin,
Sarah Vaughan, the Temptations, the Allman Brothers,
Queen Latifa, Clay Aiken, Babyface, drummer Jaimoe and many others. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in
Music Education from Kent
State University and his Master's in
Music Technology from New York University. Reggie has taken students as far as China to further their education. Mr. Pittman has been nominated for a Tony award and a Grammy award. Reggie says, "The best is yet to come!"
Bassist Mike Richmond has accompanied stellar jazz musicians such as Miles Davis and Stan Getz and folk/blues singer/songwriter Richie Havens, the Philadelphia-born bass player has performed in concert with Indian sitar player
Ravi Shankar and the South Indian Orchestra, and has served as chief bass instructor for the
National German Jazz Orchestra. Richmond has been involved in some of jazz's most impressive projects. He participated in the Miles Davis and
Quincy Jones-collaborative concert in Montreux, Switzerland, which became Davis' final performance. He subsequently replaced Charles Mingus in the Mingus Dynasty. He received a Teacher of the Year award in 1994 for his teaching at New York University. His bass method book
Modern Walking Bass Technique (Ped Xing Music) is used in over 300 universities and school systems internationally. Richmond has won Grammy Awards with Miles and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has been a featured soloist with the Bratislava Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cologne
Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cologne
Radio Big Band, and the Hamburg
State Opera. He represented the United States as a guest lecturer at the "International Symposium on Jazz Pedagogy" (sponsored by the French Cultural Ministry). It would be tough to find a jazz icon Richmond has not performed with.
Drummer Jonathon Peretz is still one of the most in demand drummers in the New York City area. Originally from the
Detroit area, where he studied with Jimmy Allen, Gene Stewarts, and Gary Chaffe, Jonathon now is the percussive sound for many artists. He has honed his craft working closely with an impressive array of musical masters, including the trumpet giants Maynard Ferguson, Freddie Hubbard, vocalist Jean Carne, Bob James, Tim Reis,
David Mann, guitarist Jimi Tunnell, singer Ben E. King, bassist
Rufus Reid, Tower of Power, and The Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre. With his intense percussive energy, encyclopedic knowledge of grooves, deeply supportive hearing and unerring time, Jonathon Peretz enlivens and enriches every tune that he plays!
The greatly anticipated second release by the Reggie Pittman/Loren Daniels Quartet, Smilessence, is a deeply grooving session from beginning to end! Each member of the quartet (Reggie Pittman - trumpet/flugelhorn, Loren Daniels - piano/elec.piano/organ, Mike Richmond - bass, Jonathon Peretz - drums) shines throughout this recording. This "working band" of seasoned jazz performers digs in and delivers the "goods" on the great variety of rhythmic feels that comprise Smilessence. From up tempo burners to funk, reggae, calypso and ballads, the 11 original compositions and arrangements by Daniels and Pittman grab your ears and never let go! Let the music make you smile, live, thrive, and love. Smilessence is here!
Reggie Pittman - trumpet/flugelhorn
Loren Daniels - piano/elec. piano/organ
Mike Richmond - bass
Jonathon Peretz - drums
1. Knee Hi to a Bee (Bop!) 6:13
2. Sco-Ho-Ho 8:04
3. Consternation 4:45
4. There is No Greater Love 6:47
5. You Better Say Alice 7:53
6. Smilessence 6:02
7. Change 6:49
8. 2 Hip 2B 6:16
9. Straight Up 5:18
10. Shaky Leg (Pt. 2) 6:34
11. And It Goes…On 10:06
