Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

TOLLIVER, Charles

(b 6 March 1942, Jacksonville FL) Trumpet; composer, leader. Self-taught; influenced by Clifford Brown, later Freddie Hubbard; came to prominence with Jackie McLean (whose LP It's Time included Tolliver tunes). With Art Blakey briefly '65; also gigs and records with Gerald Wilson, Booker Ervin, Roy Ayers, Horace Silver, Max Roach, McCoy Tyner. Formed group Music, Inc. '69; co-founder of StrataEast label '71, owned by artists. His Collection Suite was played by the New York Jazz Repertory Orchestra in Carnegie Hall '74.

His own LPs included several on Polydor, Grand Max '72 on Black Lion, Paper Man on Arista; on StrataEast: Compassion, two volumes of Live At Slugs', Live At Loosdrecht Jazz Festival, Live In Tokyo, Music, Inc., many including the big-band Impact (also an album of that title) with pianist/composer Stanley Cowell (b 5 May 1941, Toledo OH; own LPs on Polydor, Byg, ECM; solo Musa/Ancestral Dreams on StrataEast; with own sextet Brilliant Circles on Arista; more with Clifford Jordan, Bobby Hutcherson, Jack DeJohnette, Keith Copeland etc).