Eddie Bonnemere

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward Valentine "Eddie" Bonnemere (born February 15, 1921 in New York City , † March 19, 1996 in Teaneck , New Jersey ) was an American jazz pianist as well as church musician and composer .

Live and act

Bonnemere already played as a church pianist in Harlem during his school days . After completing his military service in World War II, he played with Claude Hopkins , then did his master's degree at New York University and turned to Latin jazz : in 1953 he directed a combo with Ray Barretto in the Savoy Ballroom ; In 1955 he had a mambo band. He appeared in 1956 at the Detroit club Baker's Keyboard Lounge and released the 10-inch album Ti-Pi-Tin / Five O'Clock Whistle on the Royal Roost label ; In 1959 the LP Piano Bon-Bons, recorded with his trio, followed in 1960 and The Sound of Memory . In 1964 (with the participation of Kenny Burrell ) his album Jazz Orient-ed was created on Prestige Records .

In the mid-1960s Bonnemere was one of the protagonists of the Africanization of the Catholic liturgy around Clarence JR Rivers; In 1965 he wrote - influenced by Mary Lou Williams - the Missa Hodierna for jazz ensemble and choir, which was first presented in 1966 during a service in Harlem's St. Charles Borromeo Church ; this mass was also performed in Town Hall together with Howard McGhee's instrumental composition Bless You . In later years he worked as a church musician and composed the Missa Laetare and other liturgical chants. He was also the musical director of the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Manhattan.

Discographic notes

  • Missa Laetare (Mass of Joy) (Fortress 32-2153-74, 1969)
  • Mass for Every Season (Community of St. Thomas CSS 698)
  • O Happy the People (Fortress 32-2369-74)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bill Lee, William F. Lee: People in Jazz: Jazz Keyboard Improvisors of the 19th & 20th Centuries . Alfred Publishing Company, 1984
  2. ^ Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X , p. 41.
  3. Jet, March 17, 1955, p. 63
  4. ^ Concert database
  5. Eddie Bonnemere at Discogs (English)
  6. ^ Roost Records discography
  7. ^ Prestige Records Discography
  8. Gayraud S. Wilmore: African American Religious Studies: An Interdisciplinary Anthology , p. 233.
  9. Linda Dahl: Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams , p. 291, cf. also New York Magazine, March 30, 1970
  10. cf. Helen Dance Has Jazz a Place in the Church? Saturday Review July 15, 1967
  11. James Abbington: Readings in African American Church Music and Worship , p. 211
  12. ^ Robert W. Hovda: Strong, Loving and Wise: Presiding in Liturgy , p. 31
  13. ^ Donald Boccardi: The History of American Catholic Hymnals: Since Vatican II , p. 39