Dennis Irwin
Encyclopedia
Dennis Irwin was an American
jazz
double bass
ist. He toured and recorded with John Scofield
and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra among others, and played on over 500 albums.
."
After working with pianist Red Garland
in Dallas, Irwin moved to New York. There he played with Charles Brackeen, and later landed his first steady gig in trumpeter Ted Curson
's group in 1975. He accompanied such vocalists as Jackie Paris
, Betty Carter
, Annie Ross
, Ann Hampton Callaway
, Tania Maria
and Mose Allison
.
Influences include bassists Al Jackson, Sr. and Eddie Jones
. Irwin's first major recording session was with Brazilian pianist Dom Salvador
. go and get the Beginning in 1977, Irwin played with Art Blakey
for three years.
The Jazz Messengers recorded several of Irwin’s compositions including "Kamal". Irwin also worked with Chet Baker
, Mel Lewis
, Joe Lovano
, Stan Getz
, Johnny Griffin
and Horace Silver
as well as with Brazilian musicians Duduca Fonseca and Portinho
. Beginning in 1992, Irwin began playing with guitarist John Scofield
. He can be heard on such Blue Note
recordings as "What We Do", "Hand Jive" and "Groove Elation".
His battle with liver cancer
, which was ultimately fatal, raised awareness of jazz musicians without medical insurance. The Jazz Foundation of America
and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
created the Dennis Irwin Memorial Fund to pay for cancer screenings for uninsured jazz and blues musicians.
Irwin died in Manhattan on March 10, 2008, the same day as a Jazz at Lincoln Center benefit concert in his honor featuring performances by Wynton Marsalis
, Tony Bennett
, and Jon Hendricks
, in addition to Lovano and Scofield.
His partner was singer Aria Hendricks, daughter of Jon Hendricks
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
ist. He toured and recorded with John Scofield
John Scofield
John Scofield , often referred to as "Sco," is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham,...
and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra among others, and played on over 500 albums.
Biography
Irwin attended North Texas State University with Norman Wisdom, studying classical music. Although he started out playing alto sax and clarinet, he soon switched to the bass and joined the university's "Two O'Clock Lab BandTwo O'Clock Lab Band
The Two O'Clock Lab Band is the second highest level of nine big bands of the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas College of Music, a comprehensive music school with the largest enrollment of any music institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, and...
."
After working with pianist Red Garland
Red Garland
William "Red" Garland was an American hard bop jazz pianist whose block chord style, in part originated by Milt Buckner, influenced many forthcoming pianists in the jazz idiom.-Beginnings:...
in Dallas, Irwin moved to New York. There he played with Charles Brackeen, and later landed his first steady gig in trumpeter Ted Curson
Ted Curson
Theodore "Ted" Curson is a jazz trumpeter. He is perhaps best-known for recording and performing with Charles Mingus....
's group in 1975. He accompanied such vocalists as Jackie Paris
Jackie Paris
Jackie Paris was an American jazz singer and guitarist.He was born Carlo Jackie Paris in Nutley, New Jersey to his father Carlo, and mother Rose. He had a brother Gene. A vocalist, Paris toured with Charlie Parker. He also tap-danced from his youth and into his years in the US Army, entertaining...
, Betty Carter
Betty Carter
Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...
, Annie Ross
Annie Ross
Annie Ross is an English jazz singer, and actress, best known as a member of the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.-Early years:...
, Ann Hampton Callaway
Ann Hampton Callaway
Ann Hampton Callaway is a multiplatinum-selling singer, composer, lyricist, pianist, and actress. She is best known for writing and singing the theme to the TV series The Nanny, writing songs for Barbra Streisand and starring in the Broadway musical Swing!.-Career:Callaway was described by the New...
, Tania Maria
Tania Maria
Tania Maria is a Brazilian artist, singer, composer, bandleader and piano player, singing mostly in Portuguese or English. Her Brazilian-style music is mostly vocal, sometimes pop, often jazzy, and includes samba, bossa, Afro-Latin, Pop and Jazz fusion.-Biography:Born in São Luís, Maranhão,...
and Mose Allison
Mose Allison
Mose John Allison, Jr. is an American jazz blues pianist and singer.-Biography:...
.
Influences include bassists Al Jackson, Sr. and Eddie Jones
Eddie Jones (jazz musician)
Eddie Jones was an American jazz double bassist.Jones grew up in Red Bank, New Jersey, and played early in the 1950s with Sarah Vaughan and Lester Young. Jones taught music in South Carolina from 1951 to 1952, and became a member of Count Basie's orchestra in 1953, remaining there until 1962...
. Irwin's first major recording session was with Brazilian pianist Dom Salvador
Dom Salvador
Dom Salvador, born 1938 Salvador da Silva Filho, is a Brazilian jazz / Música Popular Brasileira pianist most notable for his Rio 65 Trio that featured the Brazilian jazz drummer Edison Machado and bassist Sérgio Barroso. He also did tours of Europe with musicians like Sylvia Telles...
. go and get the Beginning in 1977, Irwin played with Art Blakey
Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
for three years.
The Jazz Messengers recorded several of Irwin’s compositions including "Kamal". Irwin also worked with Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
, Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis was an American drummer, jazz musician and band leader. He was born Melvin Sokoloff in Buffalo, New York to Russian immigrant parents....
, Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Johnny Griffin
Johnny Griffin
John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...
and Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
as well as with Brazilian musicians Duduca Fonseca and Portinho
Portinho
Portinho is a town on São Tomé Island in the nation of São Tomé and Príncipe....
. Beginning in 1992, Irwin began playing with guitarist John Scofield
John Scofield
John Scofield , often referred to as "Sco," is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham,...
. He can be heard on such Blue Note
Blue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
recordings as "What We Do", "Hand Jive" and "Groove Elation".
His battle with liver cancer
Liver cancer
Liver tumors or hepatic tumors are tumors or growths on or in the liver . Several distinct types of tumors can develop in the liver because the liver is made up of various cell types. These growths can be benign or malignant...
, which was ultimately fatal, raised awareness of jazz musicians without medical insurance. The Jazz Foundation of America
Jazz Foundation of America
The Jazz Foundation of America is a non-profit organization based in Manhattan, New York founded in 1989. The JFA’s programs help jazz and blues musicians in need of emergency funds and connect them with performance opportunities in schools and the community...
and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center is an "acute care teaching hospital affiliated with Mount Sinai School of Medicine" in Englewood, New Jersey, United States....
created the Dennis Irwin Memorial Fund to pay for cancer screenings for uninsured jazz and blues musicians.
Irwin died in Manhattan on March 10, 2008, the same day as a Jazz at Lincoln Center benefit concert in his honor featuring performances by Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, and Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks is an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is considered one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists...
, in addition to Lovano and Scofield.
His partner was singer Aria Hendricks, daughter of Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks is an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is considered one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists...
.
With Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
- Heat Wave (Pony Canyon/After Beat, 1977)
- In this Korner (Concord Jazz, 1978)
- Night in Tunisia (Polygram, 1979)
- Works of Art (Recall, 2002)
With Johnny Griffin
- Take My Hand (Who's Who in Jazz, 1988)
- Woe Is Me (Jazz Hour, 1988)
- The Cat (Antilles, 1990)
With Scott Hamilton
- Radio City (Concord Jazz, 1990)
- Organic Duke (Concord Jazz, 1994)
- My Romance (Concord Jazz, 1995)
- Blues Bop & Ballads (Concord Jazz, 1999)
- Ballad Essentials (Concord Jazz, 2000)
With John Scofield
- What We Do (Blue Note, 1992)
- Hand Jive (Blue Note, 1993)
- Groove Elation (Blue Note, 1995)
With Joe Lovano
- Tones, Shapes & ColorsTones, Shapes & ColorsTones, Shapes & Colors is the debut album by the American jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano recorded in 1985 and released on the Italian Soul Note label.-Reception:...
(Soul Note, 1985) - 52nd Street52nd Street (Manhattan)52nd Street is a long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-Jazz center:The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue were renowned in the mid-20th century for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life...
Themes (Blue Note, 2000) - On This Day at the Vanguard (Blue Note, 2002)
- Streams of Expression (Blue Note, 2006)
External links
- Dennis Irwin's Website
- Dennis Irwin, 56, Bassist Popular in New York Jazz, Is Dead, New York Times, March 12, 2008