mick laBriola

The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region in the plane of our galaxy, the Trifid does illustrate three different types of astronomical nebulae; red emission nebulae dominated by light from hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust reflecting starlight, and dark nebulae where dense dust clouds appear in silhouette. But the red emission region roughly separated into three parts by obscuring dust lanes is what lends the Trifid its popular name. Pillars and jets sculpted by newborn stars, below and left of the emission nebula’s center, appear in famous Hubble Space Telescope close-up images of the region. The Trifid Nebula is about 40 light-years across. Just too faint to be seen by the unaided eye, it almost covers the area of a full moon in planet Earth’s sky.

Patrick Bruce Metheny (/məˈθiːni/ mə-THEE-nee; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer.

He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, Latin jazz, and jazz fusion. Metheny has three gold albums and 20 Grammy Awards and is the only person to win Grammys in 10 categories. He is the brother of jazz flugelhornist Mike Metheny.

Metheny was born in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. His father Dave played trumpet, his mother Lois sang, and his maternal grandfather Delmar was a professional trumpeter. Metheny’s first instrument was trumpet, which he was taught by his brother, Mike. His brother, father, and grandfather played trios together at home. His parents were fans of Glenn Miller and swing music. They took Metheny to concerts to hear Clark Terry and Doc Severinsen, but they had little respect for guitar. Metheny’s interest in guitar increased around 1964 when he saw the Beatles perform on TV. For his 12th birthday, his parents allowed him to buy a guitar, which was a Gibson ES-140 3/4.

Metheny’s life changed after hearing the album Four & More by Miles Davis. Soon after, he was captivated by Wes Montgomery‘s album Smokin’ at the Half Note which was released in 1965. He cites the Beatles, Miles Davis, and Wes Montgomery as having the biggest impact on his music.

When he was 15, he won a scholarship from Down Beat magazine to a one-week jazz camp where he was mentored by guitarist Attila Zoller, who then invited Metheny to New York City to see guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Ron Carter.

While playing at a club in Kansas City, he was approached by Bill Lee, a dean at the University of Miami, and offered a scholarship. After less than a week at college, Metheny realized that playing guitar all day during his teens had left him unprepared for classes. He admitted this to Lee, who offered him a job to teach instead, as the school had recently introduced electric guitar as a course of study. He moved to Boston to teach at the Berklee College of Music with jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton and established a reputation as a prodigy.

In 1974 he appeared on an album unofficially titled Jaco with pianist Paul Bley, bassist Jaco Pastorius, and drummer Bruce Ditmas for Carol Goss’s Improvising Artists label. But he was unaware that he was being recorded. During the next year, he joined Gary Burton’s band with guitarist Mick Goodrick.

Metheny released his debut album, Bright Size Life (ECM, 1976) with Jaco Pastorius on bass guitar and Bob Moses on drums. His next album, Watercolors (ECM, 1977), was the first time he recorded with pianist Lyle Mays, who became his most frequent collaborator. The album also featured Danny Gottlieb, who became the drummer for the first version of the Pat Metheny Group.With Metheny, Mays, and Gottlieb, the fourth member was bassist Mark Egan when the album Pat Metheny Group (ECM, 1978) was released.

Joseph Charles Jones (August 12, 1926 – November 27, 2005) was an American R&B singer, songwriter and arranger, who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jones is also generally credited with discovering the Dixie Cups. He also worked with B.B. King. As a singer, Jones had his biggest hit in the form of the Top Five 1960 R&B hit “You Talk Too Much“, which also reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Jones served in the U.S. Navy, where he played piano in a band, before studying music at the Juilliard Conservatory of Music. He formed a band, Joe Jones and his Atomic Rebops, in the late 1940s; band members played on Roy Brown‘s 1947 hit “Good Rocking Tonight“. He was expelled from the New Orleans local chapter of the American Federation of Musicians for attempting to set up a rival organization but was later reinstated.Jones became a valet, then pianist and arranger for B.B. King. He recorded his first solo single, “Adam Bit the Apple”, for Capitol Records in 1954. He also discovered Shirley and Lee, whose recording of “Let the Good Times Roll” became a hit in 1956. In 1960, a re-recording of a song he had first recorded in 1958 for Roulette Records, “You Talk Too Much,” became a national success, but his subsequent releases were less successful.

Jones claimed to have composed many songs, including the song “Iko Iko.” Although his assertions were originally successful, a federal jury and then Court of Appeals ruled that Jones did not write “Iko Iko,” that his claims were fraudulent, and that the true writers were the band he managed, the Dixie Cups (the true original recording of this song had been released as Checker 787 by New Orleans singer and pianist Sugar Boy Crawford and his Cane Cutters in late 1953). The band hired music attorney Oren Warshavsky, who had previously won a case demonstrating that Jones falsely professed ownership of another Mardi Gras classic song, “It Ain’t My Fault.” Jones also failed in his bid to declare title (though not as an author) to yet another Mardi Gras classic song, “Carnival Time.” He also recorded the original “California Sun” on Roulette Records in 1961, which was made a hit by the Rivieras in 1963.

He later moved into music publishing, and worked tirelessly for the rights of fellow R&B acts. In 1973 Jones set up a company in Los Angeles, California, making advertising jingles.

In 2021, the Dixie Cups’ Rosa Lee Hawkins revealed that she had been sexually abused by Jones but has not let the painful memory sour her love of singing with The Dixie Cups. “We love what we do and that’s coming from our heart. When we walk onstage to perform, we leave him behind. We leave his memory behind. The only time we talk about him is if somebody calls and says they want to do an interview. We know Joe is a so-and-so, but we have to realize it was him that, as they say, discovered us on that talent show, so that’s all he deserves. He stole from us. We got one royalty check. I think it was $423 apiece.”

The fourth is a series of Rhythm Roots Workshops at the MN VA Home Adult Day Center Memory Care Unit on the Fort Snelling campus in Minneapolis. Wednesdays 10am-noon.

Thornetta Davis (born August 11, 1963) is an American Detroit blues and rhythm and blues singer. She has opened for Bonnie Raitt, Gladys Knight, and Etta James, and sang backing vocals on Bob Seger‘s 1991 album, The Fire Inside. She also worked with Kid Rock and Alberta Adams, and has released two full-length solo albums. Davis was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States.

After entering a local talent contest at the age of 15, Davis went on to join the group Jas which disbanded in 1983 and then she, and another former member of Jas, and two of her high school friends formed Chanteuse, a vocal group covering old R&B hits. She was recruited as a backing vocalist by Lamonte Zodiac & the Love Signs, a local soul group based outfit, who later became the Chisel Brothers. By 1991, Davis had moved on to back up singing for Big Chief, who recorded a couple of albums for the Sub Pop label. Following the group disbanding, Davis was signed to a solo recording contract with the same label, and issued an EP, Shout out to the Dusthuffer (1995), and the following year she released her first solo album Sunday Morning Music. One reviewer commented “Davis’ singing is just wonderful – she’s got a rich, warm voice”. A song from the album, “Cry”, was used in the “Isabella” episode of the HBO television drama, The Sopranos.Earlier in 1992, Davis had appeared at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, and sang on stage with Bonnie Raitt and Katie Webster.

DWB 111, also known as the Propeller Nebula is a hydrogen-alpha emission nebula in Cygnus. The propeller shape is actually a small portion of a much larger emission nebula. The distance to the nebula is not known.

Charles H. Israels (born August 10, 1936) is a composer, arranger, and bassist who is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. He has also worked with Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, J. J. Johnson, John Coltrane, and Judy Collins.

Born in New York City, Chuck Israels was raised in a musical family which moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was 10. His stepfather Mordecai Bauman was a singer who performed extensively with composer Hanns Eisler. He, along with Israels’ mother, Irma Commanday, created a home environment in which music was a part of normal daily activity. Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, and The Weavers were visitors to the Bauman home. In 1948, the appearance of Louis Armstrong‘s All Stars in a concert series produced by his parents gave him his first opportunity to meet and hear jazz musicians.

In college, Israels had the opportunity to perform with Billie Holiday. His first professional job after college was working with pianist Bud Powell in Paris. His first professional recording was Stereo Drive (aka Coltrane Time) with John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Kenny Dorham, and Louis Hayes. The recording showcased Israels as a composer with his composition “Double Clutching”. Israels is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio from 1961 through 1966 and for the Jazz Repertory as Director of the National Jazz Ensemble from 1973 to 1981. He made recordings with Kronos Quartetand Rosemary Clooney in 1985. He was the Director of Jazz Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington until 2010. In 2011, he created the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra and recorded Second Wind: A Tribute to the Music of Bill Evans in 2013.

Humphrey Lyttelton, presenting Jazz 625 in 1965, said that Israels was “a superb technician who handles the double bass as easily as if it were a guitar…Chuck Israels is one of the reasons why musicians have come reeling away from performances by the Bill Evans Trio in a mood poised between elation and utter despair.”

Arnett Cleophus Cobb (August 10, 1918 – March 24, 1989) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, sometimes known as the “Wild Man of the Tenor Sax” because of his uninhibited stomping style. Cobb wrote the words and music for the jazz standard “Smooth Sailing” (1951), which Ella Fitzgerald recorded for Decca on her album Lullabies of Birdland.

Cobb then started his own seven-piece band, but suffered a serious illness in 1950, which necessitated spinal surgery. Although he re-formed the band on his recovery, in 1956 its success was again interrupted, this time by a car crash. This had long-term effects on his health, involving periods in the hospital, and making him permanently reliant on crutches. Nevertheless, Cobb worked as a soloist through the 1970s and 1980s in the U.S. and abroad. As late as 1988 he played with Jimmy Heath and Joe Henderson in Europe. He died in his hometown, at the age of 70 in 1989.