Transfers part II

Tom Coster is an American keyboardist and composer. Detroit-born and San Francisco-raised, Coster played piano and accordion as a youth, continuing his studies through college and a productive five-year stint as a musician in the U.S. Air Force Band.

Coster has played with and/or composed for many groups and musicians including The Loading Zone, Gabor Szabo, Carlos Santana, Billy Cobham, Third Eye Blind, Coryell/Coster/Smith, Claudio Baglioni, Stu Hamm, Boz Scaggs, Zucherro and Bobby Holiday, Joe Satriani, Frank Gambale, and Vital Information.

Gabor Szabo

Gabor Szabo, who died tragically young at the age of 46, escaped Hungary during the crushing of the 1956 revolution, and moved to the United States to attend the Berklee School of Music in Boston. In 1958, he was invited to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival. From 1961-1965, he performed with the Chico Hamilton quintet.

His playing incorporated elements of folk music from his native Hungary and modern electric rock. His composition "Gypsy Queen" became a hit for Santana in 1970. During his solo career, he performed with artists such as that gloriously melodic alto player Paul Desmond (best known for his work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet), and virtuso upright bassist and jazz theoretician Ron Carter.

Ron Carter

Ron Carter (born May 4, 1937, Ferndale, Michigan) is an American jazz bassist. He has occasionally doubled on cello. His unique sound and great swing have made him a sought after studio man — his appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history.

Carter came to fame via the most famous of the Miles Davis quintets of the early 1960s, which also included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. He also performed on some of Hancock and Shorter's solo projects. He has performed and recorded with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Eric Dolphy, McCoy Tyner, Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver, Kenny Burrell, Milt Jackson, and many other important jazz artists, and has recorded over 20 albums as a bandleader.

Stan Getz

Over a long and distinguished career, Stan Getz, the tenor player with one of the most enviable tones ever recorded, played with any number of notable musicians - but perhaps none of his recordings was more influential than Getz/Gilberto, with Astrud (vocals) and João (guitar) Gilberto, and Antonio Carlos Jobim (keyboards). This was the album that launched the bossa nova!

João Gilberto

A self-taught guitarist and singer, João Gilberto moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1950 and had a stint of moderate success singing with the chorus group Garotos da Lua (The Boys of the Moon). However, after being kicked out of the band for his lack of discipline, he spent the next several years of his life in a marginal existence, imposing on friends, using marijuana, but above all, obsessed with creating a new way to express himself on the guitar. His efforts eventually came to fruition, and upon meeting Antonio Carlos Jobim — a classically-trained pianist and composer who was influenced by the contemporary North American popular and jazz music of the time — and a group of middle-class university students and musicians, they launched the bossa nova movement.

Antonio Carlos Jobim

Antonio Carlos Jobim, the only pianist I know who has an airport named after him, was one of the most influential and innovative composers of the last century, and a giant of Latin music.

The man who wrote 'The Girl from Ipanema', Tom Jobim's songs and instrumental compositions have been recorded by many many artists over the years, notably Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Astrud Gilberto, Stan Getz, Sergio Mendes and the astonishing

Eumir Deodato

Eumir Deodato was born on 22 June 1943 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, of Italian and Portuguese parents. He is a musical autodidact, starting with the accordion at age 12 but rapidly learning instrumental and orchestral skills that culminated in his first recording session at age 17. Originally working as pianist and arranger in the Rio bossa nova scene, he rapidly outgrew this and, along with many other Brazilian musicians during the military dictatorship in their country, moved to New York, working with composer Luis Bonfa and later with producer Creed Taylor as an arranger. Additionally, he became keyboardist in Taylor's expanding group of backing artists

Luis Bonfa

Guitarist and composer Luís Bonfá studied classical guitar as a boy, but became involved in the Brazilian jazz scene in the '50s, making a major contribution to the music for the film Black Orpheus.

In the early '60s he moved to the USA, working with, and writing for, people as diverse as Quincy Jones, Elvis Presley, Stan Getz, George Benson and Frank Sinatra, before returning to Brazil and relative obscurity, recording his last album in 1997 before dying of cancer at the age of 78, in 2001.

George Benson

Though few people know it, George Benson's first recordings were as a 10-year old singing sensation. It wasn't until a few years later--as a member of a vocal group that needed a guitarist--that Benson shifted his focus. Following a featured stint in organist Jack McDuff's trio, Benson began releasing albums as a leader on the Prestige and Columbia labels that were mostly instrumental but dotted with occasional vocal numbers. His renown on guitar overshadowed his singing for many years as he released more jazz discs on Verve and CTI, also becoming a prolific first call sideman for everyone from Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Dexter Gordon to Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Minnie Riperton.

Minnie Riperton

Minnie Riperton, who died at 31 from breast cancer, had a remarkably extensive career for one who died so young.

She first recorded with The Gems at only 15 years old, moving on through Girls Three (a band with other names including Studio Three and The Starlets) to Rotary Connection, and then on to her solo career, working mainly with her songwriter husband Richard Rudolph.

Blessed with an extraordinary coloratura vocal range, Minne recorded with some distinguished collaborators, including Denice Williams, Judy Hauff, Mitch Aliotta and

Stevie Wonder

In 1962, at the age of eleven, Steveland Morris was brought to Motown by Ronnie White of The Miracles, and Berry Gordy signed Morris to Motown's Tamla label as Little Stevie Wonder.

At the age of 13, Little Stevie Wonder had his first major hit, "Fingertips", a 1963 single taken from a live recording of a Motortown Revue performance. The song, featuring Wonder on vocals, congas, and harmonica, and a young Marvin Gaye on drums, was a #1 hit on the US pop charts and launched him into the public consciousness. Dropping the "Little" from his moniker, Wonder went on to have a number of other hits during the mid-1960s, including "Uptight (Everything's Alright)", "With a Child's Heart", and "Blowin' In The Wind", a Bob Dylan cover which was one of the first songs to reflect Wonder's social consciousness. He also began to work in the Motown songwriting department, composing songs both for himself and his labelmates.

By 1970, Wonder had scored more major hits, including "My Cherie Amour" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)". Besides being one of the first songs on which Wonder serves as both songwriter and producer, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" is one of the main showcases for his backup group Wonderlove, a trio which included at various times Minnie Riperton, Deniece Williams, Lynda Laurence, and Syreeta Wright, whom Wonder married on September 14, 1970. Wonder and Wright divorced eighteen months later, but they continued to collaborate on musical projects.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye, whose ultimately tragic life was truly stranger than fiction (he was murdered by his father following two failed marriages, and countless problems with studios, drugs and money) was one of the foundational voices of Motown, and a musician whose influence extended far beyond the genre. Albums like What's Going On (1971) and Let's Get It On (1973) changed the face of black American music forever, and inspired people as apparently distant from Gaye's own milieu as Spandau Ballet and Mariah Carey.

Marvin Gaye's notable collaborators over the years included Tammi Terrell, Diana Ross, Mary Wells, Martha Reeves and Kim Weston.

Mary Wells

From an early age Mary Wells had a love of music and singing, and was a member of the Northwestern High School choir. She also sang at local clubs and competed in various talent contests. In 1959, she met Berry Gordy's assistant, Robert Bateman, telling him about a song she had written for artist Jackie Wilson. Bateman arranged an audition for Wells and her song with Gordy, and she sang the song for the record producer. Instead of buying the song for Wilson, Gordy offered Wells a contract as an artist. The song Wells had sang, "Bye Bye Baby," became her first single after some polishing and was released on the Tamla imprint. The song ended up a top ten R&B hit in 1960, and crossed over to pop radio where it peaked at #45.

With Mary Wells' debut success, Gordy immediately brought her back to the studio. Their work produced the follow-up hit, "I Don't Want to Take a Chance," which equaled her first single's success. Her third single, "Strange Love," met indifferent reception at radio and failed to chart. In 1962, Gordy decided to bring Wells and Motown's star songwriter, Smokey Robinson, together. Their teaming produced an entire album, "The One Who Really Loves You", that swept the nation by storm.

Jackie Wilson

Jackie Wilson replaced Clyde McPhatter with Billy Ward & the Dominos, before going on to a solo career with "Reet Petite", "To Be Loved", "Lonely Teardrops" and many other hits.

Surviving being shot by a female fan in 1961, Wilson finally died from the effects of a massive heart attack on stage in 1975; he lived till 1984, but never regained consciousness.

Wilson's collaborators and songwriters included Berry Gordy Jnr. and producer Carl Davis.

Berry Gordy Jnr.

In 1957 Berry Gordy, Jr. discovered Smokey Robinson and The Miracles and began building a portfolio of successful artists. In January 1959 Gordy founded a new R&B label called Tamla Records, which produced Marv Johnson's first hit, "Come To Me." At Robinson's encouragement, Gordy created Motown on December 14, 1959. Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)," besides appearing on Tamla, charted on Gordy's Anna label from February 1960. The Miracles' hit "Shop Around" peaked nationally at #1 on the R&B charts in late 1960 and at #2 on the pop charts in early 1961 and established Motown as an independent company worthy of notice.

Unlike most producers of the time, Gordy did not cultivate Caucasian artists, although right from the start some white artists were signed, such as Nick and the Jaguars, The Valadiers, Debbie Dean, and Connie Vandyke. He did however have several white employees at Hitsville USA. He promoted African-American artists— but carefully controlled their public image, managing dress, manners, and choreography for crossover appeal. His incredible gift for identifying musical talent, along with the careful management of his artists' public image, made Motown a national success. Over the next decade he signed such artists as Mary Wells, The Supremes led by Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Gladys Knight and The Pips, The Commodores, The Velvelettes, The Marvelettes, Martha & the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, and The Jackson Five.

Barrett Strong