Blog
Robert Lee McCollum (November 30, 1909 β November 5, 1967) was an American blues musician who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoyand Robert Nighthawk. He was the father of the blues musician Sam Carr. Nighthawk was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1983.
McCollum was born in Helena, Arkansas on November 30, 1909. He left home at an early age and became a busking musician. After a period traveling through southern Mississippi, he settled for a time in Memphis, Tennessee, where he played with local orchestras and musicians, such as the Memphis Jug Band. A particular influence during this period was Houston Stackhouse, from whom he learned to play slide guitar and with whom he performed on the radio in Jackson, Mississippi. He had a stroke followed by a heart attack and died of heart failure at his home in Helena, Arkansas on November 5, 1967, aged 57. He is buried in Magnolia Cemetery, in Helena
more...Friday November 29th 2024 6pm. Erev Shabbat Service with the Installation of Rabbi Rodich. Music with Inbal Sharett-Singer, Jayson Rodovsky, Jeff Bailey, Pete Whitman and mick laBriola.
more...Messier 4 can be found west of bright red-giant star Antares, alpha star of the constellation Scorpius. M4 itself is only just visible from dark sky locations, even though the globular cluster of 100,000 stars or so is a mere 5,500 light-years away. Still, its proximity to prying telescopic eyes makes it a prime target for astronomical explorations. Recent studies have included Hubble observations of M4’s pulsating cepheid variable stars, cooling white dwarf stars, and ancient, pulsar orbiting exoplanet PSR B1620-26 b. This sharp image was captured with a small telescope on planet Earth. At M4’s estimated distance it spans about 50 light-years across the core of the globular star cluster.
more...
Felix Cavaliere (born November 29, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the co-lead vocalist and keyboard player for The Young Rascals.
Although he was a member of Joey Dee and the Starliters, known for their hit “Peppermint Twist“, he is best known for his association with the Young Rascals during the 1960s. The other members of the Rascals were Eddie Brigati, Dino Danelliand Gene Cornish. Cavaliere sang vocals on six of their successful singles and played the Hammond B-3 organ.
more...John Brumwell Mayall OBE (29 November 1933 β 22 July 2024) was an English bluesand rock musician, songwriter and producer. In the 1960s, he formed John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among its members some of the most famous blues and blues rock musicians. A singer, guitarist, harmonica player, and keyboardist, he had a career that spanned nearly seven decades, remaining an active musician until his death aged 90. Mayall has often been referred to as the “godfather of the British blues“, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category in 2024.
more...John Lamb (born November 29, 1933) is an American jazz double bassist who was a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.Born in Vero Beach, Florida, Lamb as a child loved playing music, specializing in the tuba. He left high school to join the United States Air Force as a musician for their military band. He was stationed in Texas and then Montana, where the long winters left him ample time to practice. When the band’s usual string bass player was unavailable for a gig in 1951, the bandmaster asked Lamb if he could play the bass; Lamb immediately said yes, and before long became the band’s new string bassist. He credited his tuba experience for giving him the “feel” to pick up string bass quickly without any prior experience.
Lamb joined Duke Ellington’s orchestra in 1964, and toured with them for three years. Lamb was more of a fan of Miles Davis and Red Garland when he was with Ellington, later saying, βI was very young and very cocky. I thought I knew more than Duke at that time…I have more time today to reflect on the things that were accomplished back then, and the places we traveled to and all the wonderful people that we met. So one has to be careful what one does in his young years, because if theyβre fortunate to live long, it all comes back.β In 1966 Lamb performed with Ellington and Sam Woodyard for artist Joan MirΓ³ at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
more...illy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock‘s “Mwandishi” band in the early 1970s, as well as with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest, among many others.
Hart was born in Washington, D.C. He grew up in close proximity of the Spotlite Club, where he first heard the music of Lee Morgan, Ahmad Jamal, and Miles Davis, among others.
Early on in his career he performed with Otis Redding and Sam and Dave, then with Buck Hill. Although he studied mechanical engineering at Howard University, he left school early to tour with Shirley Horn, whom Hart credits with accelerating his musical development. He was a sideman with the Montgomery Brothers (1961), Jimmy Smith(1964β1966), and Wes Montgomery (1966β68). Following Montgomery’s death in 1968, Hart moved to New York City, where he recorded with McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, and Pharoah Sanders (playing on his famed recording Karma in 1969), in addition to playing with Eddie Harris, Joanne Brackeen, and Marian McPartland.
more...William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 β May 31, 1967 Dayton, OH) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include “Take the ‘A’ Train“, “Chelsea Bridge“, “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing”, and “Lush Life“. In 1964, Strayhorn was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which took his life in the early morning of May 31, 1967, when he was with his partner, Bill Grove, not in Lena Horne’s arms as has often been falsely reported. By her own account, she was touring in Europe when she received the news of Strayhorn’s death.
more...The large stellar association cataloged as NGC 206 is nestled within the dusty arms of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy along with the galaxy’s pinkish star-forming regions. Also known as M31, the spiral galaxy is a mere 2.5 million light-years away. NGC 206 is found at the center of this sharp and detailed close-up of the southwestern extent of Andromeda’s disk. The bright, blue stars of NGC 206 indicate its youth. In fact, its youngest massive stars are less than 10 million years old. Much larger than the open or galactic clusters of young stars in the disk of our Milky Way galaxy, NGC 206 spans about 4,000 light-years. That’s comparable in size to the giant stellar nurseries NGC 604in nearby spiral M33 and the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
more...Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, pianist, composer and conductor. He is known for his non-rhotic Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and various film scores. His hits as a recording artist include “Short People” (1977), “I Love L.A.” (1983), and “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” (1995) with Lyle Lovett, while other artists have enjoyed success with cover versions of his “Mama Told Me Not to Come” (1966), “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” (1968), and “You Can Leave Your Hat On” (1972).
Born in Los Angeles to an extended family of Hollywood film composers, Newman began his songwriting career at the age of 17, penning hits for acts such as the Fleetwoods, Cilla Black, Gene Pitney, and the Alan Price Set. In 1968, he made his formal debut as a solo artist with the album Randy Newman, produced by Lenny Waronker and Van Dyke Parks. Four of Newman’s non-soundtrack albums have charted in the US top 40: Sail Away (1972), Good Old Boys (1974), Little Criminals (1977), and Harps and Angels (2008).
Since the 1980s, Newman has worked mostly as a film composer. He has scored nine Disney–Pixar animated films, including all Toy Story films (1995βpresent), A Bug’s Life(1998), both Monsters, Inc. films (2001, 2013), and the first and third Cars films (2006, 2017), as well as Disney’s James and the Giant Peach (1996) and The Princess and the Frog (2009). His other film scores include Cold Turkey (1971), Ragtime (1981), The Natural (1984), Awakenings (1990), Cats Don’t Dance (1997), Pleasantville (1998), Meet the Parents (2000), Seabiscuit (2003), and Marriage Story (2019).
Newman has received twenty-two Academy Award nominations in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories and has won twice in the latter category, contributing to the Newmans being the most nominated Academy Award extended family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories. He has also won three Emmys, seven Grammy Awards and the Governor’s Award from the Recording Academy. In 2007, he was recognized by the Walt Disney Company as a Disney Legend. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.
more...More Posts
- World Music with Djelimady Tounkara
- Daily Roots with Horace Martin
- Happy Birthday Mario!
- Shabbat for the Soul at Mt Zion Temple
- The Cosmos with NGC 157
- Kenny Kirkland Day
- Koko Taylor Day
- John Gilmore Day
- World Music with Rafael Riqueni
- Daily Roots with George Allison
- The Cosmos with IC 434
- Red Rodney Day
- Bud Powell Day
- World Fusion with Nordic Raga
- Daily Roots with Tony Clarke
- “Second Chance” by zAmya Theater East Phillips Park
- Rhythm Roots Workshop PRI Minneapolis
- The Cosmos with NGC 1892
- Nicholas Payton Day
- George Gershwin Day