Portal:Jazz/Did you know/14

... that jazz saxophonist John Coltrane's song "Ogunde" is based on the Afro-Brazilian folk song "Ogunde Varere", which translates to "Prayer of the Gods"?
... that hard bop jazz drummer Roy Brooks, who played with Horace Silver and Max Roach, was sentenced to four years in prison for assault at age 62?
... that jazz drummer Butch Ballard was hired by Duke Ellington as a backup drummer due to the excessive drinking of his regular drummer Sonny Greer?
... that Filipino jazz singer Katy de la Cruz was once a top-billed performer at the famed Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco?
... that the John Coltrane Home (pictured) is where the saxophonist composed many of his later works including the masterwork, A Love Supreme?

March/April 2008