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Red Mitchell

September 20, 2024

Keith MooreRedMitchell (September 20, 1927 – November 8, 1992 NY,NY)  was an American jazz double-bassist, composer, lyricist, and poet.

Mitchell performed and/or recorded with Mundell Lowe, Chubby Jackson, Charlie Ventura, Woody Herman, Red Norvo, Gerry Mulligan, and, after joining the West Coast jazz scene in the early 1950s, with André Previn, Shelly Manne, Hampton Hawes, Billie Holiday, Stan Seltzer, Ornette Coleman, and others such as Mahalia Jackson. He also worked as a bassist in television and film studios around Los Angeles, occasionally appearing on screen. Mitchell also appeared in documentaries about Tal Farlow and Zoot Sims.

Saxophonist Harold Land and Mitchell founded and co-led a quintet in the early 1960s.

Mitchell moved to Stockholm in 1968. He won Sweden’s Grammis Award in 1986 and again in 1991, for his recorded performances as a pianist, bassist, and vocalist, and for his compositions and poetic song lyrics.

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Vi Redd

September 20, 2024

Elvira Louise Redd (September 20, 1928 – February 6, 2022) was an American jazzalto saxophone player, vocalist and educator. She was active from the early 1950s and was known primarily for playing in the blues style. She was highly regarded as an accomplished veteran, and performed with Count Basie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Linda Hopkins, Marian McPartland and Dizzy Gillespie.

Redd was born on September 20, 1928, in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of New Orleans jazz drummer and Clef Club co-founder Alton Redd and Mattie Redd (née Thomas). Her mother played saxophone, although not professionally, and her brother was a percussionist. She was deeply influenced during her formative years by her father, who was one of the leading figures on the Central Avenue jazz scene. Another important musical mentor was her paternal great aunt Alma Hightower, who convinced the 10-year-old Redd to switch from piano to saxophone. During junior high school, Redd played alto saxophone in a band with Melba Liston and Dexter Gordon.

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Chico Hamilton

September 20, 2024

ForeststornChicoHamilton (September 20, 1921 – November 25, 2013 LA,CA) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He came to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne. Hamilton became a bandleader, first with a quintet featuring the cello as a lead instrument, an unusual choice for a jazz band in the 1950s, and subsequently leading bands that performed cool jazz, post bop, and jazz fusion.

Foreststorn Hamilton was born in Los Angeles, California, one of three brothers, one of whom was actor Bernie Hamilton.

Hamilton started his career in a band with Charles Mingus, Illinois Jacquet, Ernie Royal, Dexter Gordon, Buddy Collette and Jack Kelso before he had finished high school.Engagements with Lionel Hampton, Slim & Slam, T-Bone Walker, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan and Lena Horne established his career.

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Daily Roots Zion I Kings

September 20, 2024

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Flamenco Fridays Vicente Amigo

September 20, 2024

Zapateado as an instrumental flamenco music form is said to have the polyrhythm of 3/4, 2/4, 6/8… This reminds us of another polyrhythmic flamenco style: Tanguillos, ‘little tangos’ from Cadiz. One of the old Zapateado music pieces was actually called Zapateado de Cadiz, which was danced by historic Spanish dancers such as Josefa Varga in 1840’s. In that era, however, the dance style must have been rather close to ballet. How should Zapateado be danced now? Polyrhythm is a format of mixed rhythm, hence incites experiments with rhythms. Not having a singer, how can we make the instrumental music more interesting and decorative? By percussion. In this way, it was completely fine that Lucero Tena performed Zapateado with castanets. The important thing is, despite the name, the percussive sound is rather supplementary, not essential, for the music of Zapateado, because those music pieces are already beautiful without.

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Cosmos ESO 217-25

September 19, 2024

New stars are born from the remnants of dead stars. The gaseous remnant of the gravitational collapse and subsequent death of a very massive star in our Milky Way created the G296.5+10.0 supernova remnant, of which the featured Mermaid Nebula is part. Also known as the Betta Fish Nebula, the Mermaid Nebula makes up part of an unusual subclass of supernova remnants that are two-sided and nearly circular. Originally discovered in X-rays, the filamentary nebula is a frequently studied source also in radio and gamma-ray light. The blue color visible here originates from doubly ionized oxygen (OIII), while the deep red is emitted by hydrogen gas. The nebula’s mermaid-likeshape has proven to be useful for measurements of the interstellar magnetic field. 190,000ly

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David Bromberg

September 19, 2024

David Bromberg (born September 19, 1945 Philadelphia, PA) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. An eclectic artist, Bromberg plays bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock and roll. He is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics, and the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar at the same time.

Bromberg has played with many famous musicians, including Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Jorma Kaukonen, Jerry Garcia, Rusty Evans (The Deep) and Bob Dylan. He co-wrote the song “The Holdup” with George Harrison, who played on Bromberg’s self-titled 1972 album. In 2008, he was nominated for a Grammy Award. Bromberg is known for his fingerpicking style that he learned from Reverend Gary Davis.

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Mama Cass

September 19, 2024

Ellen Naomi Cohen (September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974 Baltimore, MD), known professionally as Cass Elliot, was an American singer. She was also known as “Mama Cass“, a name she reportedly disliked. Elliot was a member of the singing group the Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance for “Monday, Monday” (1967). In 1998, she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her work with the Mamas & the Papas.

Elliot left that party at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 28 1973 , saying she was tired and needed to get some sleep.

Elliot retired to an apartment in Mayfair at Flat 12, 9 Curzon Place (later Curzon Square), Shepherd Market, Mayfair, London, owned by singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson who allowed her to stay there. Several hours after Elliot left Jack Martin’s cocktail party, she died in her sleep at age 32. Her body was discovered by a close friend of hers who went to check on her. According to Keith Simpson, who conducted her autopsy, she died of a heart attack, and there were no drugs in her system. Four years later, Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, died in the same bedroom, also aged 32 years.

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Muhal Richard Abrams

September 19, 2024

Muhal Richard Abrams (born Richard Lewis Abrams; September 19, 1930 – October 29, 2017 Chicago) was an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the free jazz medium. He recorded and toured the United States, Canada and Europe with his orchestra, sextet, quartet, duo, and as a solo pianist.

Abrams started out “playing all kinds of gigs – blues, jazz, stage shows, rhythm and blues, and church socials.” His musical abilities earned him jobs working with “everyone from Dexter Gordon and Max Roach to Ruth Brown and Woody Shaw.”

In the mid-1950s, Abrams was becoming better known as both a pianist and a composer. A strong influence on his direction as a pianist at that time was King Fleming, for whom Abrams also composed and arranged. Another local man, William E. Jackson, helped Abrams develop his arranging and orchestration skills. Abrams co-founded a quintet named the MJT+3, and recorded with them in 1957, resulting in Daddy-O Presents MJT+3, which contained several of his compositions. Abrams also became more involved in investigating the “occult arts” around 1959 or 1960, and joined the Rosicrucians.

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Lovie Austin

September 19, 2024

CoraLovieAustin (September 19, 1887 – July 8, 1972) was an American Chicago bandleader, session musician, composer, singer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong are often ranked as two of the best female jazz blues piano players of the period.

She was born Cora Taylor in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Lovie grew up with eight brothers and sisters. She took the name Cora Calhoun in her teens from an early marriage; she was married for a short time to a movie house operator in Detroit and then later married a vaudeville performer, Phillip Austin. She studied music theory at Roger Williams University in Nashville, and Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee, which was uncommon for African American women and jazz musicians alike during the time.

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World Music Etran de L’Aïr

September 19, 2024

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Daily Roots I Roy

September 19, 2024

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Living in the Twilight Zone

September 18, 2024
Living in the Twilight Zone
“A sickness known as hate. Not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ — but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don’t look for it in the Twilight Zone — look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.”
~Rod Serling~
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Louis Myers

September 18, 2024

Louis Myers Born : September 18, 1929 in Byhalia, Mississippi.
Died : September 05, 1994 in Chicago, Illinois.

American blues guitarist, harmonicist, bassist, arranger and singer. Associated with the Chicago blues scene of the 1960’s and on, having backed and played with countless Chicago notables. Brother of guitarist/bassist Dave Myers.

 

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Cosmos IC 1805

September 18, 2024

Emission nebula IC 1805. The clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula’snewborn star cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars are scattered in this colorful skyscape, along with dark dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrowband and broadband telescopic images, the view spans about 15 light-years and includes emission from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms mapped to green, red, and blue hues in the popular Hubble Palette. Wider field images reveal that IC 1805’s simpler, overall outline suggests its popular name – the Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia.

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Teddi King

September 18, 2024

Teddi King (September 18, 1929 – November 18, 1977) was an American jazz and pop vocalist.

Born Theodora King in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, she won a singing competition hosted by Dinah Shore at Boston’s Tributary Theatre, later beginning work in a touring revue involved with “cheering up the military in the lull between the Second World War and the Korean conflict.” Improving her vocal and piano technique during this time, she first recorded with Nat Pierce in 1949, later recording with the Beryl Booker trio and with several other small groups from 1954 to 1955 (recordings which were available on three albums for Storyville). She then toured with George Shearingfor two years beginning in the summer of 1952, and for a time was managed by George Wein. King later began performing for a time in Las Vegas.

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Emily Remler

September 18, 2024

Emily Remler (September 18, 1957 – May 4, 1990) was an American jazz guitarist, active from the late 1970s until her death in 1990.

Born in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Remler began guitar at age ten. She listened to pop and rock guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter. At the Berklee College of Music in the 1970s, she listened to jazz guitarists Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Herb Ellis, Pat Martino, and Joe Pass.

Remler settled in New Orleans, where she played in blues and jazz clubs, working with bands such as Four Play and Little Queenie and the Percolators before beginning her recording career in 1981. She was praised by jazz guitarist Herb Ellis, who referred to her as “the new superstar of guitar” and introduced her at the Concord Jazz Festival in 1978. Remler bore the scars of her longstanding opioid use disorder, which is believed to have contributed to her death. In May, 1990, she died of heart failure at the age of 32 at the Connells Point home of musician Ed Gaston, while on tour in Australia.

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World Music Aleksandar Cupara

September 18, 2024

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Daily Roots Lady G

September 18, 2024

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Blind James Campbell

September 17, 2024

Blind James Campbell (September 17, 1906 – January 22, 1981) was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is mostly remembered for his 1962–63 recording for the Arhoolie label with his Nashville Street Band.

James Campbell was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 17, 1906. He later became known as Blind James Campbell after an accident at a fertilizer plant left him permanently blinded. In 1936 he formed a band and began playing folk, country, pop, jazz and blues music at parties, dances and for other local events. The Nashville Street Band consisted of fiddler Beauford Clay (born 1900) who was a great influence on Campbell’s playing, second guitarist Bell Ray (born 1909), bass horn player Ralph Robinson (born 1885), and trumpeter George Bell.

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