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First discovered in 1798 by German-English astronomer William Hershel, NGC 613 is a galaxy which lies in the southern constellation of Sculptor 67 million light-years away.
Featured here in a new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 613 is a lovely example of a barred spiral galaxy. It is easily distinguishable as such because of its well defined central bar and long arms, which spiral loosely around its nucleus. As revealed by surveys, about two thirds of spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy, contain a bar.
Recent studies have shown that bars are more common in galaxies now than they were in the past, which gives us important clues about galaxy formation and evolution.
more...Lee Mack Ritenour (born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s.
Ritenour was born on January 11, 1952 in Los Angeles, California, United States. At the age of eight he started playing guitar and four years later decided on a career in music. When he was 16 he played on his first recording session with the Mamas & the Papas. He developed a love for jazz and was influenced by guitarist Wes Montgomery. At the age of 17 he worked with Lena Horne and Tony Bennett. He studied classical guitar at the University of Southern California. In 1979, he “was brought in to beef up” one of Pink Floyd’s The Wall‘s heaviest rock numbers, “Run Like Hell“. He played “uncredited rhythm guitar” on “One of My Turns“.As the 1980s began, Ritenour began to add stronger elements of pop to his music, beginning with Rit (1981). Rit became his only release to chart in Australia, peaking at number 98. “Is It You” with vocals by Eric Tagg reached No. 15 on the Billboard pop chart and No. 27 on the Soul chart. The track peaked at number fifteen on Hot Adult Contemporary chart. He continued with the pop-oriented music for Rit/2 (1982) and Banded Together (1984), while releasing a Direct-Disk instrumental album in 1983 called On the Line. He also provided rhythm guitar on Tom Browne‘s album Funkin’ for Jamaica. He recorded Harlequin (1985) with Dave Grusin and vocals by Ivan Lins. His next album, Earth Run, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. The album’s title track was also Grammy nominated in the category of Best Instrumental Composition.Portrait (GRP, 1987) included guest performances by The Yellowjackets, Djavan, and Kenny G.
more...Calvin “Cal” Massey (January 11, 1928 – October 25, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Massey studied trumpet under Freddie Webster, and following this played in the big bands of Jay McShann, Jimmy Heath, and Billie Holiday. After that he mainly worked as a composer.
In the late 1950s he led an ensemble with Jimmy Garrison, McCoy Tyner, and Tootie Heath. On occasion, guests including John Coltrane and Donald Byrd played with Massey’s group. In the 1950s he gradually receded from active performance and concentrated on composition; his works were recorded by Coltrane, Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan, Philly Joe Jones, Horace Tapscott and Archie Shepp. Massey played and toured with Shepp from 1969 until 1972. He also performed in The Romas Orchestra with Romulus Franceschini.
Massey died from a heart attack at the age of 44 in New York City, New York.[1][3] His son, Zane Massey (born 1957), is also a jazz musician.
more...Wilton “Bogey” Gaynair (11 January 1927 – 13 February 1995) was a Jamaican-born jazz musician, whose primary instrument was the tenor saxophone. “Blue Bogey”, “Kingston Bypass” “Debra”, and “Wilton Mood” are among his better known songs.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Gaynair was raised at Kingston’s Alpha Boys School, where fellow Jamaican musicians Joe Harriott, Harold McNair and Don Drummond were also pupils of a similar age.
Gaynair began his professional career playing in the clubs of Kingston, backing such visitors as George Shearing and Carmen McRae, before travelling to Europe in 1955, deciding to base himself in Germany because of the plentiful live work on offer. He recorded very seldom, only three times as a bandleader. Two of those recordings came during visits to England, 1959’s Blue Bogey (1959) on Tempo Records and Africa Calling (1960), also recorded for Tempo but unreleased until 2005 on account of that label’s demise.
Soon after recording these sessions, he returned to Germany, where he remained based for the rest of his life. He concentrated on live performance with such bands as the Kurt Edelhagen Radio Orchestra – including playing at the opening ceremony of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, also being involved in extensive session work. He was a guest artist on Alfred Haurand‘s Third Eye(LP 1977) but only recorded one more jazz album under his own name, Alpharian (1982). Among the many artists he played performed with include Gil Evans, Freddie Hubbard, Shirley Bassey, Manhattan Transfer, Horace Parlan, Bob Brookmeyer, and Mel Lewis.
more...Slim Harpo (born James Isaac Moore, January 11, 1924 – January 31, 1970), was an American blues musician, a leading exponent of the swamp blues style, and “one of the most commercially successful blues artists of his day”. His most successful and influential recordings included “I’m a King Bee” (1957), “Rainin’ in My Heart” (1961), and “Baby Scratch My Back” (1966) which reached number one on Billboard‘s R&B chart and number 16 on its broader Hot 100 singles chart. He was a master of the blues harmonica, known in blues circles as a “harp”. Moore was born in Lobdell, Louisiana, the eldest child in his family. After his parents died he worked as a longshoreman and construction worker in New Orleans in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Influenced in style by Jimmy Reed, he began performing in Baton Rouge bars using the name “Harmonica Slim”, and also accompanied his brother-in-law Lightnin’ Slim in live performances.
He started his recording career in March 1957, working with the A&R man and record producer J. D. “Jay” Miller in Crowley, Louisiana. To differentiate himself from another performer called Harmonica Slim he took his wife’s suggestion and adopted the name Slim Harpo. His first solo release, for Excello Records, based in Nashville, Tennessee, was “I’m a King Bee“, backed with “I Got Love If You Want It” in 1957. Harpo played guitar in his live shows, but he usually used other guitarists when recording. The record was a regional hit, but failed to make the national charts. He followed up with several more singles for Excello before having his first chart hit, “Rainin’ in My Heart”, in early 1961. The record reached number 17 on Billboard‘s R&B chart and number 34 on its Hot 100, and it was followed soon after with an album of the same name and additional singles. Many of his songs were co-written with his wife, Lovelle Moore, although she never received credit.
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In the center of nearby star-forming region lies a huge cluster containing some of the largest, hottest, and most massive stars known. These stars, known collectively as star cluster R136, part of the Tarantula Nebula, were captured in the featured image in visible light in 2009 through the Hubble Space Telescope. Gas and dust clouds in the Tarantula Nebula, have been sculpted into elongated shapes by powerful winds andultraviolet radiation from these hot cluster stars. The Tarantula Nebula lies within a neighboring galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud and is located a mere 170,000 light-years away.
more...Sir Roderick David Stewart CBE (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer, songwriter and record producer. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 250 million records worldwide. He has had ten number-one albums and 31 top ten singles in the UK, six of which reached number one. Stewart has had 16 top ten singles in the US, with four reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. He was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to music and charity.
Stewart’s music career began in 1962 when he took up busking with a harmonica. In October 1963, he joined The Dimensions as harmonica player and vocalist. In 1964, Stewart joined Long John Baldry and the All Stars before joining The Jeff Beck Group in 1967. Becoming the singer for the Faces in 1969, he also maintained a solo career releasing his debut solo album that same year. Stewart’s early albums were a fusion of rock, folk music, soul music, and R&B. His third solo album, 1971’s Every Picture Tells a Story was his breakthrough, topping the charts in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. The ballad “Maggie May” off of it went to number one for multiple weeks in those same countries. His 1972 follow-up album, Never a Dull Moment, was another UK and Australian chart-topper while reaching the top three in the US and Canada. Its lead single, “You Wear It Well“, also topped the chart in the UK while being a moderate hit elsewhere.
After a handful more UK top ten hits, Stewart announced the breakup of the Faces in 1975. His next few singles were ballads with “Sailing“, off the 1975 UK and Australian number-one album, Atlantic Crossing, becoming a hit in the UK and the Netherlands (number one), Germany (number four) and other countries, but barely charting in North America. A Night on the Town (1976), his fifth straight chart-topper in the UK, began a three-album run of going number one or top three in North America, the UK and Australia with each release. That album’s “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” spent almost two months at number one in the US and Canada, and made the top five in other countries. Foot Loose & Fancy Free (1977) featured the major hit “You’re In My Heart (The Final Acclaim) as well as the rocker “Hot Legs”. Blondes Have More Fun (1978) and its disco-tinged “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” both went to number one in Canada, Australia and the US with “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” also hitting number one in the UK and the top ten in other countries. Stewart’s albums regularly hit the upper rungs of the charts in the Netherlands throughout the 70s and in Sweden from 1975 onward.
After a disco and new wave period in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stewart’s music turned to a soft rock/middle-of-the-road style, with most of his albums reaching the top ten in the UK, Germany and Sweden, but faring less well in the US. The single “Rhythm of My Heart” was a top five hit in the UK, US and other countries, with its source album, 1990’s Vagabond Heart, becoming, at number ten in the US and number two in the UK, his highest charting album in a decade. In 1993, he collaborated with Bryan Adams and Sting on the power ballad “All for Love“, which went number one in many countries. In the early 2000s, he released a series of successful albums interpreting the Great American Songbook.
In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him the 17th most successful artist on the “Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists”. A Grammy and Brit Awardrecipient, he was voted at No. 33 in Q Magazine‘s list of the Top 100 Greatest Singers of all time As a solo artist, Stewart was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, and he was inducted a second time into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 as a member of Faces.
more...James Joseph Croce (/ˈkroʊtʃi/; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973 Philadelphia. PA) was an American folk and rock singer-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, Croce released five studio albums and numerous singles.
His first two albums were commercially unsuccessful, failing to chart or produce any hit singles. During this period, Croce took a series of odd jobs to pay bills while he continued to write, record, and perform concerts. After forming a partnership with songwriter and guitarist Maury Muehleisen his fortunes turned in the early 1970s. His breakthrough came in 1972; his third album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim produced three charting singles, including “Time in a Bottle“, which reached No. 1 after his death. The follow-up album, Life and Times, contained the song “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown“, which was the only No. 1 hit he had during his lifetime.
On September 20, 1973, the day before the lead single to his fifth album, I Got a Name, was released, Croce, along with five others, was killed in a plane crash, at the height of his popularity. Croce’s music continued to chart throughout the 1970s following his death. His wife, Ingrid Croce, was his early songwriting partner and she continued to write and record after his death, and his son A. J. Croce himself became a singer-songwriter in the 1990s. On Thursday night, September 20, 1973, during Croce’s Life and Times tour and the day before his ABC single “I Got a Name” was released, Croce and all five others on board were killed when their chartered Beechcraft E18S crashed into a tree during takeoff from the Natchitoches Regional Airport in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Croce was 30 years old. Others killed in the crash were pilot Robert N. Elliott, Croce’s bandmate Maury Muehleisen, comedian George Stevens, manager and booking agent Kenneth D. Cortese, and road manager Dennis Rast.
more...Born Jan. 10, 1930 died Jan. 30, 1994 Gipson played with many music legends in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll. He began writing and recording songs for Specialty Records in Los Angeles as Slick Gipson and the Sliders. In 1955, he toured with Little Richard as road manager, bodyguard and sometimes guitar player. He wrote such songs as, “Baby, Please Come Home, “Keep Knocking,” “O’ My Soul,” and “Uncle John,” which he based on Little Richard himself, according to an article that appeared in the Journal Star in 1989. In 1960, Gipson made his way to Peoria. He signed with Chess Records in 1963, but the songs he recorded were never released. By 1967, after returning to school to learn how to read and write music, Gipson started his career as a one-man band, performing often in the Peoria area. Gipson, who in a 1991 interview said he took the name “Wild Child” as a gag to draw people to his music, led local funk groups like the Funk Machine, Wild Child Gipson and His Soul Merchants, and the Violators. He played at Harold’s Club, Tony’s Fairway and the Candy Cane, all in Peoria, and the College Inn in Bloomington. He last performed at the Judge’s Chambers, Olde Parkway Inn and the Alligator Grill and Lounge. He was nominated to the Musicians Hall of Fame. He was a board member of Musicians Locals 26, 10 and 137 and a member of the River City Blues Society.
more...Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, and Booker Little. He was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1992. Roach also co-led a pioneering quintet along with trumpeter Clifford Brown and the percussion ensemble M’Boom. He made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement. Max Roach was born to Alphonse and Cressie Roach in the Township of Newland, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, which borders the southern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp. The Township of Newland is sometimes mistaken for Newland Town in Avery County, North Carolina. Although his birth certificate lists his date of birth as January 10, 1924, Roach has been quoted by Phil Schaap, saying that his family believed he was actually born on January 8, 1925.
Roach’s family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, when he was four years old. He grew up in a musical home with his gospel singer mother. He started to play bugle in parades at a young age. At the age of 10, he was already playing drums in some gospel bands.
In 1942, as an 18-year-old recently graduated from Boys High School, he was called to fill in for Sonny Greer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra performing at the Paramount Theater in Manhattan. He starting going to the jazz clubs on 52nd Street and at 78th Street & Broadway for Georgie Jay’s Taproom, where he played with schoolmate Cecil Payne. His first professional recording took place in December 1943, backing Coleman Hawkins.
He was one of the first drummers, along with Kenny Clarke, to play in the bebop style. Roach performed in bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis. He played on many of Parker’s most important records, including the Savoy Records November 1945 session, which marked a turning point in recorded jazz. His early brush work with Powell’s trio, especially at fast tempos, has been highly praised.
more...The Milky Way glitters brightly over ALMA antennas, in this image taken by the ESO Ultra High Definition Expedition team as they capture the site in 4K quality. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths.
more...David John Matthews (born January 9, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actor and record label owner, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band (DMB). Matthews was born in Johannesburg, and moved frequently between South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States while growing up. Matthews started playing acoustic guitar at the age of nine.
From 1991 to 2003, Matthews predominantly focused on songwriting and performing with the Dave Matthews Band, which he started in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. Since then, he has also done various solo performances and produced other records. During the period from 2000 to 2010, his band sold more tickets and earned more money than any other act in North America. The band’s 2012 album Away from the World made them the only group to have six consecutive studio albums debut at number one on the Billboard charts. This record was extended to seven consecutive number one albums with the 2018 release, Come Tomorrow.
In addition to music, Matthews has had multiple acting roles.[5] He has also won two Grammy Awards: one with the Dave Matthews Band in 1997 for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group (“So Much to Say“) and one in 2004 for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance (“Gravedigger“) from his solo album.
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