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Cosmos NGC 2264

December 31, 2023

NGC 2264 is the designation number of the New General Catalogue that identifies two astronomical objects as a single object: the Cone Nebula, and the Christmas Tree Cluster. Two other objects are within this designation but not officially included, the Snowflake Cluster, and the Fox Fur Nebula. All of the objects are located in the Monoceros constellation and are located about 720 parsecs or 2,300 light-yearsfrom Earth.Due to its relative proximity and large size, it is extremely well studied. NGC 2264 is sometimes referred to as the Christmas Tree Cluster and the Cone Nebula. However, the designation of NGC 2264 in the New General Catalogue refers to both objects and not the cluster alone. In December 2023, NASA released Christmas holiday-related images by the James Webb Space Telescope, including the Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster and others.

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Jimmy Haslip

December 31, 2023

James Robert Haslip (born December 31, 1951) is an American bass guitarist who was a founding member of the jazz fusion group the Yellowjackets, which he left in 2012. He was also an early user of the five-string electric bass. Born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican immigrants, Spanish was Haslip’s first language and he learned to speak English in kindergarten. His father, James Joseph (Jaime) Haslip (1915–1999) served in the United States Customs Service, beginning as a Merchant Marine until moving to patrolman and eventually deputy commissioner, marrying Jimmy’s mother Virginia (Viera) Haslip (1912–2009) in 1937.

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Jonah Jones

December 31, 2023

Jonah Jones (born Robert Elliott Jones; December 31, 1909 – April 30, 2000) was a jazz trumpeter who created concise versions of jazz and swing and jazz standards that appealed to a mass audience. In the jazz community, he is known for his work with Stuff Smith. He was sometimes referred to as “King Louis II”, a reference to Louis Armstrong. Jones started playing alto saxophone at the age of 12 in the Booker T. Washington Community Center band in Louisville, Kentucky, before quickly transitioning to trumpet, where he excelled.

Jones was born in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. An early music instructor stuttered when stating Jones’ surname, and so Jones became known as ‘Jonah’. He began his career playing on a river boatnamed Island Queen, which traveled between Kentucky and Ohio. He began in the 1920s playing on Mississippi riverboats and then, in 1928, he joined with Horace Henderson.

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John Kirby

December 31, 2023

John Kirby (December 31, 1908 – June 14, 1952), was an American jazz double-bassist and bandleader. In addition to sideman work (prominently with Benny Goodman), Kirby is remembered for leading a successful chamber jazz sextet in the late 1930s and early 1940s, which scored several hit songs including “Loch Lomond” and the debut recording of “Undecided“, a jazz standard. He is perhaps the first musician in the chamber jazz genre. Earlier in his career he also played trombone and tuba. Kirby was born John Kirk in Winchester, Virginia, United States, on 31 December 1908. His mother, Dolly Kirk (died October 1925) gave him up for adoption in 1908 and he was raised by Reverend Washington Johnson and his wife, Nancy, at 442 North Kent Street in Winchester. (Kirby is listed as a household member in the 1920 United States Federal Census, but not in the 1910 census.)

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World Music Trio Mandili

December 31, 2023

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Daily Roots Bunny Wailer

December 31, 2023

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New Year Unfolding 2023/24

December 30, 2023
A new year is unfolding–like a blossom with petals curled tightly concealing the beauty within.
– Unknown
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Cosmos Sh2-92

December 30, 2023

S2-92 It is a large emission nebula visible in the constellation of the fox.

It is identified in the northern part of the constellation, on the border with the swan, on the southern edge of a very bright stretch of the Milky Way; It appears very extensive and weak, to the point that very sensitive tools are needed to be able to resume it. The best time for his observation in the evening sky goes from June to November; Its northern declination causes it to be more observable from the regions of the boreal hemisphere.

Sh2-92 is a very extensive H II region, whose diameter exceeds 200 light years; Perhaps it belongs to the outermost edge of the arm of Orion, at a distance of about 4400 parsec (14300 light years) from the Solar System. The source of the ionization of the gases of this cloud is a brilliant Wolf-rayet star, known with the abbreviation WR 127 (or HD 186943); this star, of apparent magnitude 10.18.

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Patti Smith

December 30, 2023

Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.

Called the “punk poet laureate”, Smith fused rock and poetry in her work. Her most widely known song, “Because the Night“, co-written with Bruce Springsteen, reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978 and number five on the UK Singles Chart. In 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In November 2010, Smith won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids. The book fulfilled a promise she made to her former long-time partner Robert Mapplethorpe. She is ranked 47th on Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, which was published in 2010 and was also a recipient of the 2011 Polar Music Prize.

Smith was born on December 30, 1946, at Grant Hospital in Chicago to Beverly Smith, a jazz singer turned waitress, and Grant Smith, a Honeywell machinist. The family was of part Irish ancestry and Patti was the eldest of four children, with siblings Linda, Kimberly, and Todd. When Smith was four, the family moved from Chicago to the Germantown section of Philadelphia, then to Pitman, New Jersey,and finally settled in the Woodbury Gardens section of Deptford Township, New Jersey

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John Hartford

December 30, 2023

John Cowan Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001) was an American folk, country, and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore. His most successful song is “Gentle on My Mind“, which won three Grammy Awards and was listed in “BMI’s Top 100 Songs of the Century”. Hartford performed with a variety of ensembles throughout his career, and is perhaps best known for his solo performances where he would interchange the guitar, banjo, and fiddle from song to song. He also invented his own shuffle tap dance move, and clogged on an amplified piece of plywood while he played and sang.

Harford (he changed his name to Hartford later in life at the behest of Chet Atkins) was born on December 30, 1937, in New York City to parents Carl and Mary Harford. He spent his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was exposed to the influence that shaped much of his career and music: the Mississippi River. From the time he got his first job on the river, at age 16, Hartford was on, around, or singing about the river.

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Bo Diddley

December 30, 2023

Ellas Otha Bates (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist and singer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, including Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, George Thorogood, Syd Barrett, and the Clash.

His use of African rhythms and a signature beat, a simple five-accent hambone rhythm, is a cornerstone of hip hop, rock, and pop music. In recognition of his achievements, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Famein 2017. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Diddley is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his use of tremolo and reverb effects to enhance the sound of his distinctive rectangular-shaped guitars. Bo Diddley was born in McComb, Mississippi, as Ellas Otha Bates (also stated as Otha Ellas Bates or Elias Otha Bates).

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Stan Tracey

December 30, 2023

Stanley William Tracey CBE (30 December 1926 – 6 December 2013) was a British jazz pianist and composer, whose most important influences were Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Tracey’s best known recording is the 1965 album Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas’s “Under Milk Wood”, which is based on the BBC radio drama Under Milk Wood, by Dylan Thomas.

The Second World War meant that Tracey had a disrupted formal education, and he became a professional musician at the age of sixteen as a member of an ENSA touring group playing the accordion, his first instrument. He joined Ralph Reader’s Gang Shows at the age of nineteen, while in the RAF and formed a brief acquaintance with the comedian Tony Hancock. Later, in the early 1950s, he worked in groups on the transatlantic liners Queen Mary and Caronia and toured the UK in 1951 with Cab Calloway. By the mid-1950s, he had also taken up the vibraphone, but later ceased playing it. At this time he worked widely with leading British modernists, including drummer Tony Crombie, clarinettist Vic Ash, the saxophonist-arranger Kenny Graham and trumpeter Dizzy Reece.

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World Music Mussa Diabaté

December 30, 2023

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Daily Roots Alton Ellis

December 30, 2023

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Temple Israel Erev Shabbat Service

December 29, 2023

Friday 12-29-23 6pm Accompanying Erev Shabbat Service at Temple Israel with cantor Inbal Sharett-Singer, Tobias Moss, Jayson Rodovsky, Jeff Bailey and mick laBriola.

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Cosmos Sh2-119

December 29, 2023

Sh2 -119 is a diffuse nebula observable in the constellation Cygnus. It is located about 2 degrees west of the North America Nebula , or 9 degrees west of the bright star Deneb ; it appears to envelop the star 68 Cygni , of fifth magnitude . It can be observed with a medium-power amateur telescope and shows itself very well in long exposure photographs.

 Its shape appears similar to two shells that are arranged to the east and west of 68 Cygni; the eastern part is the largest. In the southern part, thin filaments and cocoons of dark nebulae are visible , which contrast strongly both with the light of the nebula and with the rich background star field. The distance of Sh2-119 is estimated at 2200 light years from us.

 

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Joe Lovano

December 29, 2023

Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952) is an American jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. He has earned a Grammy Award and several mentions on Down Beatmagazine’s critics’ and readers’ polls. His wife, with whom he records and performs, is singer Judi Silvano. Lovano was a longtime member of drummer Paul Motian‘s trio with guitarist Bill Frisell.

Lovano was born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, to Sicilian-American parents; his father was the tenor saxophonist Tony (“Big T”) Lovano. His father’s family came from Alcara Li Fusi in Sicily, and his mother’s family came from Cesarò, also in Sicily. In Cleveland, Lovano’s father exposed him to jazz throughout his early life, teaching him the standards, as well as how to lead a gig, pace a set, and be versatile enough to find work. Lovano started on alto saxophone at age six and switched to tenor saxophone five years later. John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sonny Stitt were among his earlier influences. After graduating from Euclid High School in 1971, he went to Berklee College of Music, where he studied under Herb Pomeroy and Gary Burton. Lovano received an honorary doctorate of music from the college in 1998.

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Marianne Faithfull

December 29, 2023

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single “As Tears Go By” and became one of the lead female artists during the British Invasion in the United States.

Born in Hampstead, London, Faithfull began her career in 1964 after attending a party for Rolling Stones, where she was discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham. Her debut album Marianne Faithfull (1965, released simultaneously with her album Come My Way), was a commercial success followed by a number of albums on Decca Records. From 1966 to 1970, she had a highly publicised romantic relationship with Mick Jagger. Her popularity was enhanced by her film roles, such as those in I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967), The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) and Hamlet (1969). However, her popularity was overshadowed by personal problems in the 1970s. During this time, she was anorexic, homeless and addicted to heroin.

Noted for her distinctive voice, Faithfull’s previously melodic and higher-registered vocals (prevalent throughout her career in the 1960s) were affected by severe laryngitis, coupled with persistent drug abuse during the 1970s. This permanently altered her voice, leaving it raspy, cracked and lower in pitch. This new sound was praised as “whisky soaked” by some critics and seen as having helped to capture the raw emotions expressed in Faithfull’s music.[1]

After a long commercial absence, Faithfull made a comeback with the 1979 release of her critically acclaimed album Broken English. The album was a commercial success and marked a resurgence of her musical career. Broken English earned Faithfull a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and is often regarded as her “definitive recording”. She followed this with a series of albums, including Dangerous Acquaintances (1981), A Child’s Adventure (1983) and Strange Weather(1987). Faithfull wrote three books about her life: Faithfull: An Autobiography (1994), Memories, Dreams & Reflections (2007) and Marianne Faithfull: A Life on Record (2014).

Faithfull received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women’s World Awards, and she was made a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France.

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Rick Danko

December 29, 2023

Richard Clare Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician, bassist, songwriter, and singer, best known as a founding member of The Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

During the 1960s, Danko performed as a member of the Hawks, backing Ronnie Hawkins and then Bob Dylan. Then, between 1968 and 1977, Danko and the Hawks, now called The Band, released seven studio albums before breaking up. Beginning with the group’s reformation in 1983 and up until his death, Danko participated in the Band’s partial reunion. On December 10, 1999, days after the end of a brief tour of the Midwest that included two shows in the Chicago area and a final gig at the Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Danko died of heart failure in his sleep at his home in Marbletown, New York. He was 55.

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Matt Guitar Murphy

December 29, 2023

Matthew Tyler Murphy (December 29, 1929 – June 15, 2018), known as MattGuitarMurphy, was an American blues guitarist. He was associated with Memphis Slim, The Blues Brothers and Howlin’ Wolf.

Murphy was born in Sunflower, Mississippi, and was educated in Memphis, Tennessee, where his father worked at the Peabody Hotel. Murphy learned to play guitar when he was a child.

In 1948, Murphy moved to Chicago, where he joined the Howlin’ Wolf Band, which at the time featured Little Junior Parker. In 1952, Murphy recorded with Little Junior Parker and Ike Turner, resulting in the release, “You’re My Angel”/“Bad Women, Bad Whiskey”(Modern 864), credited to Little Junior Parker and the Blue Flames.

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