Claire Daly
Claire Daly is a baritone saxophonist and composer.
Early life
Daly was born in Bronxville, New York.[1] She began playing the saxophone at the age of 12,[2] becoming interested in jazz when she attended a Buddy Rich performance at the Westchester County Center.[2] She attended Berklee College of Music,[3] mainly playing alto and tenor saxophones, and graduated in 1980.[1]
Later life and career
After graduating, Daly played alto and tenor saxophone in two rock bands while playing jazz around the Boston area.[1] She moved to New York City in 1985 and began her career as a freelance baritone saxophonist.[1] Beginning in the mid-1990s, she performed frequently with pianist Joel Forrester and together they released 6 CDs.
Daly's first album as a leader, Swing Low, was released in 1999.[4] Her album "Swing Low" produced in 2004 was installed in the William Jefferson Clinton Library, Little Rock, Arkansas as a CD significant to the President while in office.
She won the 2009, 2010, and 2011 DownBeat Critics' Poll for Baritone Saxophone Rising Star.[5][6][7] Daly was voted the Hothouse Magazine Baritonist of the year in 2016. She was Jazz Journalist Baritonist of the Year in 2005, 2017 and 2018. Between 2003-2020, she was a multiple time winner of both the JazzTimes and Downbeat Critic and Readers Polls for “Baritone Saxophonist of the Year.”
Her 2008 self-released album Rah! Rah!, a tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, was re-issued by Ride Symbol in 2020.[3] In 2009, she began co-leading Two Sisters, Inc,, featuring baritone saxophonist Dave Sewelson and bassist Dave Hofstra,[8] and recorded the album Scaribari.[9]
She was the original baritonist with the DIVA Jazz Orchestra[4] for seven years, touring the world. In 2000 she performed at the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival with her quartet. The next year she was guest soloist with the Billy Taylor Trio at the Kennedy Center. After releasing her third CD as band leader, Heaven Help Us All (on her own label, Daly Bread Records).[10] In 2012, her album Baritone Monk was produced by Doug Moody.[4]
Claire Daly teaches privately and at jazz camps as was well as having taught at MIT, UMASS Amherst; Valparaiso University, IN; Hall High School in Hartford, CT; College of St. Rose in Albany, NY; Chamber Street Music School in Manhattan, NY; Hoff Barthelson Music School, Scarsdale, NY; Towson University; Syracuse University; and many more.
Playing and composing style
A DownBeat reviewer in 2011 wrote that Daly's "saxophone work and hard-bop-tinged, conversational compositions recall Dexter Gordon or Vince Guaraldi".[9]
Discography
As leader
- Swing Low (Koch, 1999)
- Movin' On (Koch, 2002)
- Heaven Help Us All (Daly Bread, 2004)
- Baritone Monk (NCBC Music, 2012)
- 2648 West Grand Boulevard (Glass Beach, 2016)
- Rah! Rah! (Ride Symbol, 2020)
As guest
- Joe Fonda, Loaded Basses (CIMP, 2006)
- Joel Forrester, In Heaven (Koch, 1997)
- George Garzone, Moodiology (NYC, 1999)
- Giacomo Gates, The Revolution Will Be Jazz (Savant, 2011)
- J. C. Hopkins, Underneath a Brooklyn Moon (Tigerlily, 2005)
- J. C. Hopkins, Meet Me at Minton's (Harlem Jazz, 2016)
- Kit McClure, Some Like It Hot! (Red Hot, 1990)
- Taj Mahal, Like Never Before (Private Music, 1991)
- Tribecastan, New Deli (Evergreene Music, 2012)
- Warren Smith, Old News Borrowed (Blues Engine, 2009)
References
- ^ a b c d Suzuki, Yoko (2013). "Daly, Claire". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ a b Stewart 2007, p. 259.
- ^ a b McCree, Cree (November 2020). "The Claire Daly Band: Rah! Rah!". DownBeat. Vol. 87, no. 11. p. 48.
- ^ a b c Young, Zoe (April 2013). "Claire Daly's Baritone Monk Embraces 'Old-School Cool'". DownBeat. Vol. 80, no. 4. p. 18.
- ^ "57th Annual Critics Poll: Official Results". DownBeat. Vol. 76, no. 8. August 2009. p. 43.
- ^ "58th Annual Critics Poll: Complete Results". DownBeat. Vol. 77, no. 8. August 2010. p. 50.
- ^ "59th DownBeat Annual Critics Poll: Complete Results". DownBeat. Vol. 78, no. 8. August 2010. p. 49.
- ^ Daly, Claire (May 2009). "Master Class". DownBeat. Vol. 76, no. 5. p. 60.
- ^ a b Micallef, Ken (May 2011). "Claire Daly Brings Inspiration to Juneau Jazz & Classics Fest". DownBeat. Vol. 78, no. 5. p. 100.
- ^ Stewart 2007, p. 276.
Bibliography
- Stewart, Alex (2007). Making the Scene: Contemporary New York City Big Band Jazz. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24953-0.
External links
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
- Living people
- Jazz musicians from New York (state)
- People from Westchester County, New York
- 20th-century American women musicians
- 20th-century American saxophonists
- 21st-century American women musicians
- 21st-century American saxophonists
- American women composers
- American jazz baritone saxophonists
- American jazz composers
- Women jazz composers
- Women jazz saxophonists