Duke Pearson
Columbus Calvin Jr. " Duke" Pearson ( born August 17, 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia; † August 4, 1980 ) was an American jazz pianist, producer and composer.
Life and work
Duke Pearson spoke five year playing the piano, also played Mellophone, tenor horn and trumpet with twelve. He first played in 1953-54 as a trumpeter in the U.S. Army (including with Wynton Kelly and Phineas Newborn ), 1954-57 piano in local orchestras. Pearson had his own trio and quintet played by Louis Smith 1957-58. In early 1959, Pearson came to New York City and played from the end of 1959 with Donald Byrd. During this time, his first solo LP profiles emerged. For Byrd, he wrote, inter alia, the pieces of Noah, March Children, Christo Redentor and Chant. In 1960 he played with Art Farmer and Benny Golson Jazztet in their and went in 1961 with Nancy Wilson on tour.
After he had initiated with Fred Norsworthy and Dave Bailey, the short-lived label Jazz Time Records, on which her albums reaching out and Hush with Donald Byrd and Johnny Coles appeared, he was from 1963 to 1970 also producer and musical director of the record label Blue Note as a successor of the late Ike Quebec. At Blue Note, he participated in the recordings of the plates by Hank Mobley, Dakota Staton, Lee Morgan, Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Hutcherson, Grant Green and Flora Purim as a pianist or composer. Even he took on Blue Note Album Sweet Honey Bee, to which, inter alia, Freddie Hubbard, James Spaulding, Joe Henderson, Ron Carter and Mickey Roker participated. In 1967 he got the opportunity to record a big band album with Randy Brecker, Jimmy Cleveland, Julian Priester, Garnett Brown, Pepper Adams and Jerry Dodgion for Blue Note. 1971 Pearson came back to Atlanta, where he worked as a teacher at Clark College and later received an honorary doctorate. A disease multiple sclerosis ended his musical activities.
Auswahldiskographie
As a leader
As a sideman
- Grant Green: Idle Moments ( Blue Note, 1963)
- Stanley Turrentine: The Spoiler ( Blue Note, 1966)
- Joe Henderson: The Blue Note Years 1963-1990 ( Blue Note, 1993)