Lonnie blackman biography of christopher

American drummer

Musical artist

Cindy Blackman Santana (born November 18, 1959), sometimes known as Cindy Blackman, is an American jazz and rock drummer. Blackman has recorded several jazz albums as a bandleader and has performed with Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Simmons, Ron Carter, Sam Rivers, Cassandra Wilson, Angela Bofill, Buckethead, Bill Laswell, Lenny Kravitz, Joe Henderson and Joss Stone.

Early life and education

Blackman was born November 18, 1959, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Her mother and grandmother were classical musicians and her uncle was a vibist. As a child, her mother took her to classical concerts.

Blackman's introduction to the drums happened at the age of seven in Yellow Springs. At a pool party at a friend's house. she saw a drum set and began playing them. "Just looking at them struck something in my core, and it was completely right from the second I saw them," says Blackman. "And then, when I hit them, it was like, wow, that's me." Soon after, Blackman began playing in the school band and persuaded her parents to get her toy drums.

When Blackman was 11, she moved to Bristol, Connecticut, where she attended the Hartt School of Music in Hartford. Blackman began to have an interest in jazz at age 13 after listening to Max Roach and got her first professional drum set at 14.

Blackman then attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied with Alan Dawson, who had also taught Tony Williams, an inspiration for Blackman. While she was at Berklee, a friend recommended her for a gig with The Drifters, so Blackman left college after three semesters and moved to New York City in 1982.

Career

In New York City, Blackman worked as a performer but also attended shows to listen to masters play.Art Blakey beca

American jazz double bassist

Musical artist

Lonnie Plaxico (born September 4, 1960) is an American jazz double bassist.

Biography

Plaxico was born in Chicago, into a musical family, and started playing the bass at the age of twelve, turning professional at fourteen (playing both double bass and bass guitar). His first recording was with his family's band, and by the time he was twenty he had moved to New York City, where he had stints playing with Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Junior Cook, and Hank Jones. He won the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award in 1978.

Plaxico first came to public attention through his work with the Wynton Marsalis group in 1982, though his first regular attachment was with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (1983–86), with whom he recorded twelve albums.

In the mid-1980s Plaxico joined the M-Base collective and played on the debut-releases of Steve Coleman (Motherland Pulse, 1985), Cassandra Wilson (Point of View, 1986) and Greg Osby (Sound Theatre, 1987). On Wilson's recordings he appeared regularly ever since and is the musical director and first bassist of her tour band for more than 15 years.

In 1986 Jack DeJohnette reformed his Special Edition and engaged beside guitarist Mick Goodrick the M-Base saxophonists Greg Osby and Gary Thomas and Plaxico on bass. The band existed until 1993, after three albums with pianist Michael Cain replacing Goodrick on the last.

Plaxico has also performed and recorded with a wide range of artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, David Murray, Alice Coltrane, Stanley Turrentine, Andrew Hill, Joe Sample, Abbey Lincoln, Bill Cosby, Lonnie Liston Smith, Ravi Coltrane, Scott Tixier, Barb