mick laBriola

Moses “Whispering” Smith (January 25, 1932 – April 28, 1984) was an American blues harmonicist and singer. He recorded tracks including “A Thousand Miles from Nowhere” and “Texas Flood” and worked with Lightnin’ Slim and with Silas Hogan. He was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame.

Smith was born in Union Church, Mississippi.

In the 1960s, Smith played harmonica on recordings by the swamp blues notables Lightnin’ Slim and Silas Hogan, before he was able to record some tracks of his own. At this time he worked with the record producer J. D. “Jay” Miller, based in Crowley, Louisiana, and his recordings were released by Excello Records. His singles included the songs “Mean Woman Blues”, and “Don’t Leave Me Baby” and the B-sideinstrumental tracks “Live Jive” and “Hound Dog Twist”.

Giorgos Zampetas (Pronounced ‘Zabetas’ sometimes romanized as George Zambetas / George Zabetas / Giorgos Zabetas; 25 January 1925 – 10 March 1992) was a Greek bouzouki musician. He was born in Athens, where he also died, but his origins were from the island of Kythnos.

Floyd George Smith (January 25, 1917 – March 29, 1982), sometimes credited as Floyd “Guitar” Smith, was an American jazz guitarist and record producer.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Smith studied music theory as a teenager and learned ukulele as a child before taking up guitar. He spent his early career in territory bands, playing in groups such as Eddie Johnson‘s Crackerjacks, the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra, the Sunset Royal Orchestra, the Brown Skin Models, and Andy Kirk‘s 12 Clouds Of Joy. His composition “Floyd’s Guitar Blues”, recorded with Andy Kirk’s orchestra in March 1939, has been claimed as the first hit record to feature a blues solo on electric guitar.

Benny Golson (January 25, 1929 – September 21, 2024 Philadelphia) was an American bebop and hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. Golson was known for co-founding and co-leading The Jazztet with trumpeter Art Farmer in 1959. From the late 1960s through the 1970s Golson was in demand as an arranger for film and television and thus was less active as a performer, but he and Farmer re-formed the Jazztet in 1982.

Many of Golson’s compositions have become jazz standards, including “I Remember Clifford“, “Blues March“, “Stablemates“, “Whisper Not“, “Along Came Betty”, and “Killer Joe”. He is regarded as “one of the most significant contributors” to the development of hard bop jazz, and was a recipient of a Grammy Trustees Award in 2021.

Friday January 24th 2025 6pm Nefesh Erev Shabbat Service with the congregational orchestra and weekly ensemble with Inbal Sharett-Singer, Jayson Rodovsky, Jeff Bailey, Pete Whitman and mick laBriola

Joe Albany (born Joseph Albani; January 24, 1924 – January 12, 1988) was an American modern jazz pianist who played bebop with Charlie Parker as well as being a leader on his own recordings.

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Albany studied piano as a child and, by 1943, was working on the West Coast in Benny Carter‘s orchestra. In 1946, Lester Youngrecorded with Albany as his pianist, for Aladdin Records. Also that year, he played at least once with Parker and then 20-year-old Miles Davis. He continued for a few years afterward, and in 1957 recorded an album for Riverside with an unusual trio line-up with saxophonist Warne Marsh and Bob Whitlock on bass, omitting a drummer. Despite that, most of the 1950s and 1960s saw him battling a heroin addiction, or living in seclusion in Europe. He also had several unsuccessful marriages in this period. He returned to jazz in the 1970s and played on more than ten albums. He died of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest in New York City at the age of 63.

James Robert Forrest Jr. (January 24, 1920 – August 26, 1980) was an American jazz musician who played tenor saxophone throughout his career.

Forrest is known for his first solo recording of “Night Train“. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart in March 1952, and stayed at the top for seven weeks. “Hey Mrs. Jones” (No. 3 R&B) and “Bolo Blues” were his other hits. All were made for United Records, for which he recorded between 1951 and 1953; he recorded frequently as both a sideman and a bandleader.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, Forrest played alongside Fate Marable as a young man. He was with Jay McShann in 1940-42 and with Andy Kirk from 1942 until 1948 when he joined Duke Ellington. During the early 1950s, Forrest led his own combos. He also played with Miles Davis, in early 1952 at The Barrel Club. After his solo career, he played in small combos with Harry “Sweets” Edison and Al Grey, as well as appearing with Count Basie.

“Milonga” is a flamenco style created by returnees, artists, settlers and soldiers who returned from the colonies in the late 19th century. In their songs, they evoke the American lands. “Milonga” from Argentina is a style that comes from the “payada de contrapunto” and has deep connections in the rhythmic-metric and harmonic plane with tango from Antilles and “habanera”. The evolution of “milonga” from Argentina, until it reached its final style, began probably with “Yarabi” and other styles or “tristes”. In 1860, “triste” turns into “milonga” and was very popular between 1880 and 1910. The first “milonga” with flamenco character and “tango-tiento” rhythm is the one that Pepa Oro (bullfighter Paco de Oro’s daughter) popularised when she arrived in Spain at the end of 19th century. It is a style that comes from the choreographic “milonga” to be singing while dancing. “Milonga” singing is syllabic. There are also some “milongas” recordings with some combinations, such as introducing a “fandango” or a “milonga with bulerías”. Rhythm is based on the “tangos–tientos” metric, but they are sometimes performed without it in order to be free.

Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated. He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years teaching at the Berklee College of Music.