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A UFO was seen just outside of Minneapolis this morning searching for musicians out of work due to the pandemic!
IC 410, more commonly known as the tadpole nebula, is an emission nebula located in the constellation Auriga. The nebulous system of IC 410 represents a classic example of a star-forming region of stars of great mass. At its center it has a sort of cavity in which the open cluster NGC 1893 is located, whose stars are responsible for the ionization of its gases. NGC 1893 is made up of numerous scattered young stars, obscured by some dense molecular clouds. Two shots were made on two different nights, Tuesday 22 February and Friday 25 February, at Valle degli Ulivi (Manduria).
James Chambers OM (born 31 May 1946), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievements in the arts and sciences.
Cliff is best known among mainstream audiences for songs such as “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”, “Many Rivers to Cross“, “You Can Get It If You Really Want“, “The Harder They Come“, “Reggae Night“, and “Hakuna Matata“, and his covers of Cat Stevens‘s “Wild World” and Johnny Nash‘s “I Can See Clearly Now” from the film Cool Runnings. He starred in the film The Harder They Come, which helped popularize reggae around the world, and Club Paradise. Cliff was one of five performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
Jimmy Cliff was born James Chambers on 30 July 1944 in Saint James, Colony of Jamaica. He began writing songs while still at primary school in St. James, listening to a neighbour’s sound system. When Chambers was 14, his father took him to Kingston, where he would take up the stage name Jimmy Cliff.
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Gilbert Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011 Chicago) was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. His own term for himself was “bluesologist”, which he defined as “a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues”. His poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised“, delivered over a jazz-soul beat, is considered a major influence on hip hop music.
His music, most notably on the albums Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and foreshadowed later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. His recording work received much critical acclaim, especially for The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. AllMusic‘s John Bush called him “one of the most important progenitors of rap music“, stating that “his aggressive, no-nonsense street poetry inspired a legion of intelligent rappers while his engaging songwriting skills placed him square in the R&B charts later in his career.”
Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I’m New Here. A memoir he had been working on for years up to the time of his death, The Last Holiday, was published posthumously in January 2012. Scott-Heron received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He also is included in the exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) that officially opened on September 24, 2016, on the National Mall, and in an NMAAHC publication, Dream a World Anew. In 2021, Scott-Heron was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a recipient of the Early Influence Award.
more...Irving Sidney “Duke” Jordan (April 1, 1922 – August 8, 2006) was an American jazz pianist.
Jordan was born in New York and raised in Brooklyn where he attended Boys High School. An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regular member of Charlie Parker‘s quintet during 1947–48, which also featured Miles Davis. He participated in Parker’s Dial sessions in late 1947 that produced “Dewey Square”, “Bongo Bop”, “Bird of Paradise”, and the ballad “Embraceable You“. These performances are featured on Charlie Parker on Dial.
Jordan had a long solo career from the mid-1950s onwards, although for a period in the mid-1960s he drove a taxi in New York. After periods accompanying Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz, he performed and recorded in the trio format. His composition, “Jordu“, became a jazz standard when trumpeter Clifford Brown adopted it into his repertoire.
more...Harry Howell Carney (April 1, 1910 – October 8, 1974) was a jazz saxophonist and clarinettist who spent over four decades as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He played a variety of instruments but primarily used the baritone saxophone, being a critical influence on the instrument in jazz.
Carney was born on April 1, 1910, in Boston, Massachusetts. In Boston, he grew up close to future bandmate Johnny Hodges. Carney began by playing the piano at age seven, moved to the clarinet at 14, and added the alto saxophone a year later. He first played professionally in clubs in Boston.
Early influences on Carney’s playing included Buster Bailey, Sidney Bechet, and Don Murray. Carney also reported that, for his baritone saxophone playing, he “tried to make the upper register sound like Coleman Hawkins and the lower register like Adrian Rollini“.
After playing a variety of gigs in New York City at the age of 17, Carney was invited to join the Duke Ellington band for its performances in Boston in 1927. He soon recorded with Ellington too, with a first session in October that year. Having established himself in the Ellington band, he stayed with it for the rest of his life. The band began a residency at the Cotton Club in New York at the end of the year.
more...TONIGHT! Thursday 3-31-22 8pm
Samuel Torjman Thomas oud-vocals-ney-bendir, Jeremy Brown violin, mick laBriola percussion
Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly constellation Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, very rarely collide in the course of the ponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of millions of years. But the galaxies’ large clouds of molecular gas and dust often do, triggering furious episodes of star formation near the center of the cosmic wreckage. Spanning over 500 thousand light-years, this stunning view also reveals new star clusters and matter flung far from the scene of the accident by gravitational tidal forces. The remarkably sharp ground-based image, an accumulation of 88 hours of exposure captured during 2012-2021, follows the faint tidal tails and distant background galaxies in the field of view. The suggestive overall visual appearance of the extended arcing structures gives the galaxy pair, also known as Arp 244, its popular name – The Antennae.
Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss.
His career highlights as a musician include recording five No. 1 albums among 28 albums on the Billboard chart; achieving 14 platinum albums and 15 gold albums; and earning nine Grammy Awards. He has sold 72 million records worldwide. Alpert is one of two musicians to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist (“This Guy’s in Love with You“, 1968) and an instrumentalist (“Rise“, 1979); the other is Barry White (“Love’s Theme“, a 1973 instrumental with The Love Unlimited Orchestra and 1974’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe“).
Herb Alpert was born and raised in the Boyle Heights section of Eastside Los Angeles, California, the son of Tillie (née Goldberg) and Louis Leib Alpert. His parents were Jewish immigrants to the U.S. from Radomyshl (in present-day Ukraine) and Romania.
more...Frederick William Green (March 31, 1911 – March 1, 1987) was an American swing jazz guitarist who played rhythm guitar with the Count Basie Orchestra for almost fifty years.
Green was born in Charleston, South Carolina on March 31, 1911. He was exposed to music from an early age, and learned the banjo before picking up the guitar in his early teenage years. A friend of his father by the name of Sam Walker taught a young Freddie to read music, and keenly encouraged him to keep up his guitar playing. Walker gave Freddie what was perhaps his first gig, playing with a local community group of which Walker was an organizer. Another member of the group was William “Cat” Anderson, who went on to become an established trumpeter, working with notable figures such as Duke Ellington.
more...Red Norvo (born Kenneth Norville, March 31, 1908 – April 6, 1999) was an American musician, one of jazz‘s early vibraphonists, known as “Mr. Swing”. He helped establish the xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone as jazz instruments. His recordings included “Dance of the Octopus”, “Bughouse”, “Knockin’ on Wood”, “Congo Blues”, and “Hole in the Wall”.
Red Norvo was born in Beardstown, Illinois, United States. His career began in Chicago with a band called “The Collegians” in 1925. He played with many other bands, including an all-marimba band on the vaudeville circuit, and the bands of Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, and Woody Herman. He recorded with Mildred Bailey (his wife from 1933 to 1942), Billie Holiday, Dinah Shore and Frank Sinatra. Norvo and his wife were known as “Mr. and Mrs. Swing.” He appeared as himself in the film Screaming Mimi (1958) and in Ocean’s 11, accompanying Dean Martinwhile he sang “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?“.
more...Major Merriweather (March 31, 1905 – February 23, 1953), better known as Big Maceo Merriweather, was an American pianist and blues singer. He was mainly active in Chicago through the 1940s.
Born in Newnan, Georgia, he was a self-taught pianist. In the 1920s, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, to begin his music career. He moved to Chicago in 1941, where he made the acquaintance of Tampa Red. Red introduced him to Lester Melrose of RCA Victor and its subsidiary label Bluebird Records, who signed Merriweather to a recording contract.
His first record was “Worried Life Blues” (1941), which became a blues hit and remained his signature piece. The song had elements derived from Sleepy John Estes‘ “Someday, Baby”. Other classic piano blues recordings followed, such as “Chicago Breakdown”, “Texas Stomp”, and “Detroit Jump“. His piano style was developed from players like Leroy Carr and Roosevelt Sykes and from the boogie-woogie style of Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons. He in turn influenced other musicians, such as Little Johnny Jones and Henry Gray, the latter of whom credited Merriweather with helping him launch his career as a blues pianist.
more...Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schubler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.
The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach. After being orphaned at the age of 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph, after which he continued his musical formation in Lüneburg. From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and, for longer stretches of time, at courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory, and Köthen, where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. From 1723 he was employed as Thomaskantor (cantor at St. Thomas) in Leipzig. He composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city, and for its university’s student ensemble Collegium Musicum. From 1726 he published some of his keyboard and organ music. In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his earlier positions, he had difficult relations with his employer, a situation that was little remedied when he was granted the title of court composer by his sovereign, Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in 1736. In the last decades of his life he reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died of complications after eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65.
Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach’s compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both sacred and secular. He composed Latin church music, Passions, oratorios, and motets. He often adopted Lutheran hymns, not only in his larger vocal works, but for instance also in his four-part chorales and his sacred songs. He wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard instruments. He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, and suites, as chamber music as well as for orchestra. Many of his works employ the genres of canon and fugue.
Throughout the 18th century, Bach was primarily valued as an organist, while his keyboard music, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, was appreciated for its didactic qualities. The 19th century saw the publication of some major Bach biographies, and by the end of that century all of his known music had been printed. Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued through periodicals (and later also websites) exclusively devoted to him, and other publications such as the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV, a numbered catalogue of his works) and new critical editions of his compositions. His music was further popularised through a multitude of arrangements, including, the Air on the G String and “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring“, and of recordings, such as three different box sets with complete performances of the composer’s oeuvre marking the 250th anniversary of his death.
more...RIP TABBY DIAMOND – MIGHTY DIAMONDS’ LEAD SINGER KILLED
REST IN POWER TABBY DIAMOND [October 7, 1955 – March 29, 2022]
Sad news reached us from Jamaica today: Donald Orlando Shawaka Tabby Diamond of legendary group The Mighty Diamonds was shot dead last night in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Jamaica Gleaner (Andre Williams/Staff Reporter) reported this morning: “Reggae musician ‘Tabby Diamond’ of the legendary trio Mighty Diamonds is among two people shot dead on McKinley Crescent in the St Andrew South Police Division. Three other people were shot in the drive-by attack. The musician, whose real name is Donald Orlando Shaw, 67, was among a group seated on the roadway when they came under attack about 9:45 p.m. They were rushed to hospital by residents where Shaw and another man were pronounced dead and three other people admitted with gunshot injuries.”
Our social media feeds are overflowing with tributes from fans and colleagues:
DENNIS ALCAPONE:
“R I P Tabby Diamond.. May your Soul Forever Rest in Perfect Peace My Brother. You said When the Right Time Come But This is not the Right Time. This is very untimely and the way that These Heartless people took your life is Totally unacceptable. You spend your whole life making people Happy and This is the Reward you Get. Still can’t believe that this is the end. We Had some nice times on the Road I will Cherish Those Times .Travel Good My Brother. Mankind Mankind. Man is not Kind Anymore.”
UPDATE: “Just Got an update on the Shooting of Tabby Diamond. They said that Tabby was standing with Two other Persons at His Gate and all three of them Got Shot and Tabby is the only one that Died. Can you Believe it Family.”
PERFECT GIDDIMANI:
“Oh Jamaica, why ???? U give us Legends and take them away. Rise In Power Tabby. Diamonds are forever!”
WARRIOR KING
“Jah kno!!! My friend, my brother, icon, mentor!! We have lost a great soul!! When will all this violence stop?! Im sick and I’m tired…am I supposed to be afraid to live in my own country? to sit at my own gate?
May his soul rest in peace. My condolences to his family. We have lost a great soul. I will always remember all your great advice Tabby.”
MIKEY GENERAL:
“EGZIO TESEHALENE. LORD HAVE MERCY!!!One the great voices of reggae music, The legend Tabby Diamond was killed last night in a drive by shooting. He was one of the humblest artist and person l know. Recently l did some dubs for a sound with him. Soft spoken, kind, humility was his trademark. JAH blessed him him a sweet unique voice.Reggae has lost a real giant. Condolences to the family and friends. Dis yah one hot!!! RIP GREAT ICON.”
MR VEGAS:
“Walk in peace great one! Jamaica is not a real place! They killed your flesh, not your spirit! Swallowfield the battle field; Natty Dread will never run away! Hail King Tubby! You are indeed a Mighty Diamond!”
UPPSALA REGGAE FESTIVAL:
“Rest In Eternal Peace Tabby Diamond. What a sad day in life and a huge loss for Reggae in general. One of the humblest and most pleasant people to be around with, one will ever meet gets shot to death on a senseless drive-by shooting, while sitting and minding his own on a roadway with friends. Our deepest condolences to his family.”
BRIAN JAHN (Photographer):
“So sad to hear of the tragic death one of my favorite singers. I’ll miss that golden voice and big smile. Walk good Tabby”
IN THE PRESS
GRANGE CONDEMNS KILLING OF ‘TABBY’ SHAW OF THE MIGHTY DIAMONDS
[Jamaica Observer – March 30, 2022]
“The news about Tabby’s death has left me in shock. I have had a special and close relationship with the Mighty Diamonds over the years. I feel the pain of the other two Diamonds, ‘Bunny’ and ‘Judge’, who I know will never get over the loss of Tabby. I pray for strength for them always.”
MIGHTY DIAMONDS LEAD SINGER KILLED IN DRIVE-BY SHOOTING
[Jamaica Observer – March 30, 2022]
“Lead singer of stalwart reggae group Mighty Diamonds, Tabby Diamond was among two people killed in a drive-by shooting on McKinley Crescent in Kingston minutes before 10 on Tuesday night.”
REGGAE ICON, TABBY DIAMOND – OF THE MIGHTY DIAMONDS – KILLED IN MCKINLEY CRESCENT SHOOTING
[Nationwide 90FM – March 30, 2022]
“Sources believe Shaw may have been the target of the attack. According to Nationwide sources, one of Shaw’s close relatives has reportedly been involved in several recent shooting incidents in the community.”
MIGHTY DIAMONDS LEAD VOCALIST, ‘TABBY’, KILLED IN DRIVE-BY SHOOTING
[Loop News – March 30, 2022]
“Speaking to Loop News on Wednesday Lloyd ‘Judge’ Ferguson, one of the remaining members of the Mighty Diamonds, said Shaw will be missed. Fitzroy ‘Bunny’ Simpson is the other member of the group, which was formed in 1969. “Tabby was one of the great soul singers, I knew him from 1969, we did 46 albums and a whole heap of singles together; we toured the world. He will be greatly missed,” Ferguson told Loop News”
MIGHTY DIAMONDS LEAD SINGER SHOT DEAD
[Voice Online – March 30, 2022]
“IT’S BEEN reported that ‘Tabby Diamond’ real name Donald Shaw, lead singer of the Mighty Diamonds has been shot dead in Jamaica. Tabby, 67, one of three members of the legendary music group formed in 1969, is one of two people said to have been caught up in a drive-by shooting on McKinley Crescent in the St Andrew South Police Division.”
‘MIGHTY DIAMONDS’ LEAD SINGER AMONG TWO KILLED IN DRIVE-BY SHOOTING
[Jamaica Gleaner – March 30, 2022]
“They were rushed to hospital by residents where Shaw and another man were pronounced dead and three other people admitted with gunshot injuries.”
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