steve habib

I am about Jazz Music. I write music, I am a multi-instrumentalist. I am a journalist/broadcaster/writer. I produce music,arrange music,I educate people about the American Art-Form Jazz. I have always been in the presence of Masters such as John Coltrane,Elvin Jones,Max Roach,Archie Shepp,Reggie Workman,Jimmy Garrison,Duke Ellington and so many,too many to mention here but in the present day,2012, I am involved with some of the LIVING LEGENDS such as Marvin Smith. We call him The Doctor as he is a Master Educator,performer,and lover of people and life. I have written much about Dr. Marvin Smith and we co=produced many,many projects together. My music is a part of my entire life experience in Jazz since I was 10 years old. I will write much more as my current work progresses throughout this year.Grew up as a kid in NYC. Lived as a teenager with Ruth Ellington,Steve and Michael James,Reggie Golson and with Elvin Ray Jones and his wife at the time, Shirley "DeFranco" Jones whose brother was from Elmont Queens where I grew up as a child. On Long Island, I also lived near Huntington where John Coltrane raised his family in Dix Hills and is buried in Huntington on route 110 in Pinelawn Cemetary. After spending years going to VanGelder's Studio in Englewood Cliffs, I met Lee Chester Marcus and Marvin Louis Smith,Buster Smith and so many others. Elvin was my first major influence on the drums and McCoy Tyner and Walter Bishop, Jr. on the piano. Jimmy Garrison was my mentor on bass and so the story goes that after being exposed to all these things and having the music planted inside of me, MARVIN BU GA LU SMITH, my friend since those early days, and I, started to go to FOCUS 2 on 73rd St. off Amsterdam Ave. in NYC and every Monday, we played with Walter Bishop Jr. Rodney Jones, George Coleman, Haasan Dawkins, Buster Williams,Herbie Hancock, Juan Quinones,Evelyn Blakey,Art Blakey's son young Art Jr. and so many others too numerous to mention. There are so many stories. Years ago, I played with Walter Booker Jr. and his wife Bertha Hope. Booker passed away several years ago and I miss him so much. He was also a major influence on my drumming and helped me channel my efforts into combining drumset and hand drums into one idea along with developing some compositions harmonically for drum only groups. One of my other influences was Bernard "Pretty" Purdie who I performed with on many occasions in his group and made a video with him,Mike Torrsone and Sal Giorgiani.