mick laBriola

Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed “Pres” or “Prez”, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.

Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie‘s orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called “a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike”.

Known for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music.

Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi, on August 27, 1909. to Lizetta Young (née Johnson), and Willis Handy Young, originally from Louisiana. Lester had two siblings – Leonidas Raymond, who became a drummer, and Irma Cornelia. He grew up in a musical family. His father was a teacher and band leader, and several other relatives performed professionally.

The jazz world lost another titan the morning of August, 25th as Joey DeFrancesco passed away at the young age of 51. Generally considered the best Hammond B3 organ player in the world, Joey DeFrancesco, born and raised in Philadelphia, worked early in his career with Miles Davis and later with such diverse artists as Van Morrison, Pharoah Sanders, and Diana Krall.  His talents ran beyond just the organ; he was an engaging multi-instrumentalist known for his trumpet playing and occasional singing. Recent live performances, including one just this past Tuesday at Baltimore’s famed Keystone Korner, and his latest album, More Music (2021)  featured DeFrancesco on tenor saxophone. With a gregarious personality and forward-thinking musical approach, DeFrancesco was a major force that will be sorely missed. He was one of the few, for example, who could get Van Morrison animated and actually induce laughs as heard on the two albums he and his band recorded with the Belfast soul man, You’re Driving Me Crazy (2018) and the The Prophet Speaks (2018).

DeFrancesco hails from a musical family as both his father and grandfather were musicians. Joey even played his grandfather’s tenor saxophonist on his most recent release, More Music. His brother, John, is a well-respected blues guitarist. DeFrancesco. Joey DeFrancesco was a 9-time winner of the Down Beat Critics Poll (organ) and won the Down Beat Readers Poll every year since 2005. DeFrancesco was an inaugural member of the Hammond Hall of Fame, inducted in 2013 along with other musicians that included Brian Auger, Billy Preston, Steve Winwood, and his mentor Jimmy Smith. was a four-time Grammy Award-nominee, with nominations in 2004, 2010, and 2020.  The latter references 2019’s In the Key of the Universe with Pharoah Sanders, Troy Roberts, Billy Hart, and Sammy Figueroa. The album was hailed by many outlets including this one as one of the year’s best. Also in 2020, DeFrancesco recorded with his best friend, Christian McBride, both of whom attended Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. On the Grammy-nominated Christian McBride’s Big Band, For Jimmy, Wes, and Oliver, DeFrancesco also honors his mentor, Jimmy Smith.

DeFrancescoreleased more than 30 albums as a leader and recorded extensively as a side musician with such leading performers apart from those mentioned as Houston Person and John McLaughlin early in his career. He signed his first record deal at the age of 16 and over the years has recorded and toured internationally with David Sanborn, Arturo Sandoval, Larry Coryell, Frank Wess, Benny Golson, James Moody, Steve Gadd, Danny Gatton, Elvin Jones, Jimmy Cobb, George Benson, Pat Martino, Tony Monaco, John Scofield, Lee Ritenour, Joe Lovano, and done prominent session work with a wide variety of musicians including Ray Charles, Bette Midler, Janis Siegel, and Jimmy Smith.  He has left us way too soon.

Chris Curtis (born Christopher Crummey; 26 August 1941 – 28 February 2005) was an English drummer and singer who was best known for being with the 1960s beat band The Searchers. He originated the concept behind Deep Purple and formed the band in its original incarnation of ‘Roundabout’.

Born in Oldham, Lancashire in 1941, Curtis came to Liverpool when he was four and went to primary school where he met Mike Prendergast. He taught himself how to play the piano on the family instrument at 30 Florida Street in Bootle. He passed the 11-plus and went to St Mary’s College, Crosby, where he was taught violin although he wanted to play the double bass.

His father bought him a drum set during his late teens when he left school and he learned these in his spare time, when he was not selling prams at Swift’s Furniture store at Stanley Road, Liverpool. He developed a fascination for American music and particularly liked Fats Domino. He also grew the unusually long hair that would be his trademark in the early years.

In 1960 he met Prendergast soon after Norman McGarry, the Searcher’s second drummer, had left the band. He accepted an invitation to join the band for a gig at Wilson Hall, Garston and became the seventh member of The Searchers, replacing McGarry to join John McNally, Mike Prendergast and Tony Jackson. He adopted the name Chris Curtis after Jackson described him thus in a press interview, choosing the name from a Lee Curtis poster to avoid saying ‘crummey’.

Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque. From 1992 to 1995 he led the Tonight Show Band. Marsalis was born on August 26, 1960, in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, and raised in New Orleans. He is the son of Dolores (née Ferdinand), a jazz singer and substitute teacher, and Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr., a pianist and music professor. His brothers Jason Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, and Delfeayo Marsalis are also jazz musicians.

Leon Redbone (born Dickran Gobalian, August 26, 1949 – May 30, 2019) was a singer-songwriter and musician specializing in jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alleyclassics. Recognized by his hat (often a Panama hat), dark sunglasses, and black tie, Redbone was born in Cyprus of Armenian ancestry and first appeared on stage in Toronto, Canada, in the early 1970s. He also appeared on film and television in acting and voice-over roles.

In concert Redbone often employed comedy and demonstrated his skill in guitar playing. Recurrent gags involved the influence of alcohol and claiming to have written works originating well before he was born – Redbone favored material from the Tin Pan Alley era, circa 1890 to 1910. He sang the theme to the 1980s television series Mr. Belvedere and released eighteen albums.

Redbone was elusive about his origins, and he never explained the origin of his stage name. According to a Toronto Star report in the 1980s, he was once known as Dickran Gobalian, came to Canada in the mid-1960s, and changed his name via the Ontario Change of Name Act. Biographical research published in 2019 corroborated his birth name, and stated that his family was of Armenian origin. His parents lived in Jerusalem, but fled in 1948 to Nicosia, Cyprus, where Redbone was born. By 1961, the family had moved to London, England, and by 1965 to Toronto.

The form of the alegrías changes depending on whether it’s being performed by a dancer, a singer or a solo guitarist.

​When sung, alegrías consists of one to four letras, each with three or four 8-syllable lines. One distinguishing characteristic of the cante por alegrías is the familiar salida: ti ri ti ti tran tran tran refrain in which the singer imitates the sound of a guitar.

​When danced, alegrías can become much more complicated, particularly in a concert setting. Danced, an alegrías por baile would always include letras, whether or not there is a singer accompanying the dancer. It will also include one or more escobillas, sections that are devoted to footwork, and a silencio, a slow dramatic section in which the guitarist plays a traditional theme in a minor key. See Alegrías Baile below for a complete description of the dance form of the alegrías.

​A solo guitarist can imitate all or none of the forms alegrías takes when sung or danced. A solo guitar alegrías will, however, retain alegrías’ essential compás and harmony, and will often include the same falsetas and phrases the guitarist would play when accompanying singers or dancers.

Pat Martino (born Patrick Carmen Azzara; August 25, 1944 – November 1, 2021) was an American jazz guitarist and composer.

Martino was born Patrick Carmen Azzara in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, to father Carmen “Mickey” Azzara (d. 1990) and mother Jean (née Orlando, d. 1989). He was first exposed to jazz by his father, who sang in local clubs and briefly studied guitar. Martino began playing professionally at the age of 15 after moving to New York City. He lived for a period with Les Paul and began playing at jazz clubs such as Smalls Paradise. He later moved into a suite in the President Hotel on 48th Street. He played at Smalls for six months of the year, and played summers at the Club Harlem in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Leonard Gaskin (August 25, 1920 – January 24, 2009) was an American jazz bassist born in New York City.

Gaskin played on the early bebop scene at Minton’s and Monroe’s in New York in the early 1940s. In 1944 he took over Oscar Pettiford‘s spot in Dizzy Gillespie‘s band, and followed it with stints in bands led by Cootie Williams, Charlie Parker, Don Byas, Eddie South, Charlie Shavers, and Erroll Garner. In the 1950s, he played with Eddie Condon‘s Dixieland band, and played with Ruby Braff, Bud Freeman, Rex Stewart, Cootie Williams, Billie Holiday, Stan Getz, J.J. Johnson, and Miles Davis.

In the 1960s he became a studio musician, playing on numerous gospel and pop records. In the 1970s and 1980s he returned to jazz, playing with Sy Oliver, Panama Francis, and The International Art of Jazz.

Gaskin became involved in educating young people later in his life. He performed and shared his knowledge with elementary students with the Good Groove Band (Leonard Gaskin, Melissa Lovaglio, Bob Emry, Michael Howell) at Woodstock Elementary School in Woodstock, New York in 2003.

Gaskin died of natural causes on January 24, 2009.

Sharpless 129 is an H-alpha emission nebula commonly called the Flying Bat Nebula located in Cepheus very close to the famous IC 1396 (the nebula that contains the Elephant’s Trunk). The large blue/green nebula inside it, which is over a degree long, is formally known as Ou4 but is colloquially called the Squid (or Giant Squid) Nebula. Ou4 is remarkable for having been discovered very recently, in 2011, by amateur astronomer Nicolas Outters (hence the “Ou” in “Ou4”). It was originally called a planetary nebula but is now thought to be some kind of bipolar outflow from the bright blue star at its center (which is HR 8119).

Both Sharpless 129 and Ou4 take up a lot of sky so a large field of view is necessary to capture them. This image was captured with an Atik 460ex camera attached to a Borg 60ED f/4 refractor with a focal length of 240mm. This is a 10-hour image consisting of 5 hours of H-alpha, 4 hours of O-III binned 2×2, and 1 hour of RGB. At 60mm of aperture this may be the smallest scope ever used to capture Ou4 (which is extremely faint).