Blog
enjamin Alexander Riley Jr. (July 17, 1933 – November 18, 2017) was an American jazz drummer known for his work with Thelonious Monk, as well as Alice Coltrane, Stan Getz, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Ahmad Jamal, and as a member of the group Sphere. During the 1970s and 1980s he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet.
Benjamin Alexander Riley Jr. was born in Savannah, Georgia, on July 17, 1933, and at the age of four moved with his family to New York City. “Riley performed with Randy Weston, Sonny Stitt, Stan Getz, Junior Mance, Kenny Burrell, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis–Johnny Griffin (1960–1962), Ahmad Jamal, Billy Taylor, and Ray Bryant. He then spent 1964 to 1967 in Thelonious Monk‘s quartet. After Monk, he played with Alice Coltrane(intermittently between 1968 and 1975), Ron Carter (1975–1977), Jim Hall (1981), and the bands the New York Jazz Quartet (1970s and 1980s) and Sphere. He also played frequently with pianist Abdullah Ibrahim.
Riley died in West Islip, New York on November 18, 2017, aged 84.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPnr2LFFlOk
more...Joseph Albert Morello (July 17, 1928 – March 12, 2011) was a jazz drummer best known for his work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. He was particularly noted for playing in the unusual time signatures employed by that group in such pieces as “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo à la Turk“. Popular for its work on college campuses during the 1950s, Brubeck’s group reached new heights with Morello. In June 1959, Morello participated in a recording session with the quartet—completed by the alto saxophonist Paul Desmond and the bassist Eugene Wright—that yielded “Kathy’s Waltz” and “Three to Get Ready”, both of which intermingled 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures.Morello suffered from partial vision from birth, and devoted himself to indoor activities. At six years old, he began studying the violin. Three years later, he was a featured soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, playing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and again three years later.
At the age of 15, Morello met the violinist Jascha Heifetz and decided that he would never be able to equal Heifetz’s “sound”. Therefore, he switched to drumming, first studying with a show drummer named Joe Sefcik and then George Lawrence Stone, author of the noted drum textbook Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. Stone was so impressed with Morello’s ideas that he incorporated them into his next book, Accents & Rebounds, which is dedicated to Morello. Later, Morello studied with Radio City Music Hall percussionist Billy Gladstone.
After moving to New York City, Morello worked with numerous notable jazz musicians including Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, Stan Kenton, Phil Woods, Sal Salvador, Marian McPartland, Jay McShann, Art Pepper, and Howard McGhee. After a period of playing in McPartland’s trio, Morello declined invitations to join both Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey‘s bands, favoring a temporary two-month tour with the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1955. Morello remained with Brubeck for well over a decade, departing in 1968. Morello later became an in-demand clinician, teacher and bandleader whose former students include Danny Gottlieb, TigerBill Meligari, Bruce Springsteen E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, Rich Galichon, Phish drummer Jon Fishman, Gary Feldman, Patrick Wante, Tony Woo, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons drummer Gerry Polci, Jerry Granelli, RIOT drummer Sandy Slavin, retired Army Blues drummer Steve Fidyk, Glenn Johnson, Pittsburgh drummer Bennett Carlise, Level System author and professional drummer Jeff W. Johnson, and Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kx1GVYPOos
more...Vincent Anthony Guaraldi /ɡəˈrældi/ (July 17, 1928 – February 6, 1976), born Vincent Anthony Dellaglio, was an American jazz pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated television adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip including their signature melody, “Linus and Lucy“. He is also known for his performances on piano as a member of Cal Tjader‘s 1950s ensembles and for his own solo career. His 1962 composition “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” became a radio hit and won a Grammy Award in 1963 for Best Original Jazz Composition.
Guaraldi was born in San Francisco’s North Beach area, a place that became very important to his blossoming musical career. His last name changed to “Guaraldi” after his mother, Carmella (née Marcellino), divorced his biological father (whose last name was Dellaglio) and married Tony Guaraldi, who adopted the boy. His maternal uncle was musician, singer, and whistler Muzzy Marcellino. He graduated from Lincoln High School, attended San Francisco State College, and served in the United States Army as a cook in the Korean War.
more...In flamenco a tango (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtaŋɡo]) is one of the flamenco palos closely related in form and feeling to the rumba flamenca. It is often performed as a finale to a flamenco tiento. Its compás and llamada are the same as that of the farruca and share the farruca’s lively nature. However, the tango is normally performed in the A Phrygian mode. In some English sources the flamenco tango is written with an -s; “the tangos is…”
The flamenco tango is distinct from the flamenco rumba primarily through the guitar playing. In Rumba the guitar flows more freely, whereas in Tangos the accents on beats 2, 3 & 4 are marked clearly with heavy strumming.
more...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LRlmCko58o
more...The Great Attractor is a gravitational anomaly in intergalactic space and the apparent central gravitational point of the Laniakea Supercluster. The observed anomalies suggest a localized concentration of mass thousands of times more massive than the Milky Way. However, it is inconveniently obscured by our own Milky Way‘s galactic plane, lying behind the so-called Zone of Avoidance (ZOA), so in visible wavelengths the Great Attractor is difficult to observe directly.
The anomaly is observable by its effect on the motion of galaxies and their associated clusters over a region hundreds of millions of light-yearsacross. These galaxies are observable above and below the ZOA; all are redshifted in accordance with the Hubble Flow, indicating that they are receding relative to us and to each other, but the variations in their redshifts are large enough and regular enough to reveal that they are slightly drawn towards the anomaly. The variations in their redshifts are known as peculiar velocities, and cover a range from about +700 km/s to −700 km/s, depending on the angular deviation from the direction to the Great Attractor.
more...Desmond Dekker (16 July 1941 – 25 May 2006) was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group The Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with “Israelites” (1968). Other hits include “007 (Shanty Town)” (1967), “It Mek” (1969) and “You Can Get It If You Really Want” (1970).
Desmond Adolphus Dacres was born in Saint Andrew Parish (Greater Kingston), Jamaica, on 16 July 1941. Dekker spent his formative years in Kingston. From a young age he regularly attended the local church with his grandmother and aunt. This early religious upbringing, as well as Dekker’s enjoyment of singing hymns, led to a lifelong religious commitment. Following his mother’s death, he moved to the parish of St. Mary and later to St. Thomas. While at St. Thomas, Dekker embarked on an apprenticeship as a tailor before returning to Kingston, where he became a welder. His workplace singing had drawn the attention of his co-workers, who encouraged him to pursue a career in music. In 1961 he auditioned for Coxsone Dodd (Studio One) and Duke Reid (Treasure Isle), though neither audition was successful. The unsigned vocalist then auditioned for Leslie Kong‘s Beverley’s record label and was awarded his first recording contract. Despite achieving a record deal, it was two years before Dekker saw his first record released. Meanwhile, Dekker spotted the talent of Bob Marley, a fellow welder, and brought the youth to Kong’s attention. In 1962 Judge Not and One Cup Of Coffee became the first recorded efforts of Marley, who retained gratitude, respect and admiration for Dekker for the rest of his life. Eventually in 1963 Kong chose “Honour Your Mother and Father” (written by Dekker and the song that Dekker had sung in his Kong audition two years earlier), which became a Jamaican hit and established Dekker’s musical career. This was followed by the release of the tracks “Sinners Come Home” and “Labour for Learning”. It was during this period that Desmond Dacres adopted the stage-name of Desmond Dekker. His fourth hit, “King of Ska” (backing vocals by The Cherrypies, also known as The Maytals), made him into one of the island’s biggest stars. Dekker then recruited four brothers, Carl, Patrick, Clive and Barry Howard, as his permanent backing vocalists to perform with him under the name Desmond Dekker and The Aces.
more...Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna (born July 16, 1948), known professionally as Rubén Blades (Spanish: [ruˈβem ˈblaðes], but [- ˈbleðz] in Panama and within the family), is a Panamanian musician, singer, composer, actor, activist, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban, salsa, and Latin jazz genres. As a songwriter, Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and politically inspired Son Cubano salsa to his music, creating “thinking persons’ (salsa) dance music”. Blades has written dozens of hit songs, including “Pedro Navaja” and “El Cantante” (which became Héctor Lavoe‘s signature song). He has won nine Grammy Awardsout of seventeen nominations and five Latin Grammy Awards.
His acting career began in 1983, and has continued, sometimes with several-year breaks to focus on other projects. He has prominent roles in films such as Crossover Dreams (1985), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), The Super (1991), Predator 2 (1992), Color of Night (1994), Safe House(2012), The Counselor (2013) and Hands of Stone (2016), along with three Emmy Award nominations for his performances in The Josephine Baker Story (1991), Crazy from the Heart (1992) and The Maldonado Miracle (2003). He portrayed Daniel Salazar, a main character on the TV series Fear the Walking Dead (2015–2017; 2019–present).
He is an icon in Panama and is much admired throughout Latin America and Spain, and managed to attract 17% of the vote in his failed attempt to win the Panamanian presidency in 1994. In September 2004, he was appointed minister of tourism by Panamanian president Martín Torrijos for a five-year term. He holds a Bachelor of Arts‘ Law degree from the University of Panama and an LL.M in International Law from Harvard University. He is married to singer Luba Mason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98MCSZo2DFM
more...Nathaniel Pierce Blish Jr., known professionally as Nat Pierce (July 16, 1925 – June 10, 1992) was an American jazz pianist and prolific composer and arranger, perhaps best known for being pianist and arranger for the Woody Herman band from 1951 to 1955. Pieces by Pierce were predominantly created for use in big bands.
Pierce was born in Somerville, Massachusetts. United States. Following schooling at the New England Conservatory and working as an amateur musician in the Boston area, Pierce then led his own band which featured Charlie Mariano from 1949 to 1951. After working with Woody Herman from 1951 to 1966 as chief arranger and assistant road manager, Pierce took residence in New York City and freelanced with musicians such as Pee Wee Russell, Lester Young, Emmett Berry and Ruby Braff.
From 1957 to 1959, Pierce led a band off and on which featured Buck Clayton, Gus Johnson and Paul Quinichette. He recorded with a number of other well-known musicians as well, including Quincy Jones, Coleman Hawkins and Pee Wee Russell. Pierce was noted for his ability to play piano in the Basie style and appeared on many releases by Basie sidemen. Pierce also arranged the music for The Sound of Jazz, a 1954 CBS television special hosted by John Crosby. Together with Frank Capp he founded the Capp/Pierce Juggernaut Band in 1975, which performed in to the 1990s.
more...Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. (/ˈdʒeɪdər/ JAY-dər; July 16, 1925 – May 5, 1982) was an American Latin jazz musician, known as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, even as he continued to perform the music of Cuba, the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America for the rest of his life.
Tjader played the vibraphone primarily. He was accomplished on the drums, bongos, congas, timpani, and the piano. He worked with many musicians from several cultures. He is often linked to the development of Latin rock and acid jazz. Although fusing jazz with Latin music is often categorized as “Latin jazz” (or, earlier, “Afro-Cuban jazz“), Tjader’s works swung freely between both styles. His Grammy award in 1980 for his album La Onda Va Bien capped off a career that spanned over forty years.
Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. was born 16 July 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri, to touring Swedish American vaudevillians. His father tap danced and his mother played piano, a husband-wife team going from city to city with their troupe to earn a living. When he was two, Tjader’s parents settled in San Mateo, California, and opened a dance studio. His mother (who dreamed of becoming a concert pianist) instructed him in classical piano and his father taught him to tap dance. He performed around the Bay Area as “Tjader Junior,” a tap-dancing wunderkind. He performed a brief non-speaking role dancing alongside Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in the film The White of the Dark Cloud of Joy.
more...Bola Sete (born Djalma de Andrade) (July 16, 1923 – February 14, 1987) was a Brazilian guitarist. Sete played jazz with Vince Guaraldi and Dizzy Gillespie.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Bola Sete’s name means “Seven Ball”. In snooker, which is fairly popular in Brazil, the seven ball is the only black ball on the table (like the eight ball in pool), and Bola got this nickname when he was the only black member of a small jazz group.
Sete studied guitar at the Conservatory of Rio. He started performing with his own sextet and local samba groups while he was a student. His early influences were guitarists Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, Barney Kessel, George Van Eps, and Oscar Moore of the Nat King Cole Trio. He admired the big bands that were touring South America at that time, led by Dizzy Gillespie, Tommy Dorsey, and Woody Herman.
more...Spectacular 3D maps of the universe have revealed one of the biggest cosmic structures ever found — an almost-inconceivable wall stretching 1.4 billion light-years across that contains hundreds of thousands of galaxies.
The South Pole Wall, as it’s been dubbed, has been hiding in plain sight, remaining undetected until now because large parts of it sit half a billion light-years away behind the bright Milky Way galaxy. The South Pole Wall rivals in size the Sloan Great Wall, the sixth largest cosmic structure discovered. (One light-year is roughly 6 trillion miles, or 9 trillion kilometers, so this “biggest cosmic structure” is mind-bendingly humongous.)
more...Joseph Satriani (born July 15, 1956) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and guitar teacher. Early in his career, Satriani worked as a guitar instructor, with many of his former students achieving fame, such as Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan, and Alex Skolnick; he then went on to have a successful solo music career. He is a 15-time Grammy Award nominee and has sold over 10 million albums, making him the best-selling instrumental rock guitarist of all time.
In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for his first solo tour. Satriani briefly toured with Deep Purple as the guitarist, joining shortly after the departure of Ritchie Blackmore in November 1993. He has worked with a range of guitarists during the G3 tour, which he founded in 1995. Satriani has been the guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot since joining the band in 2008.
Satriani was born in Westbury, New York of Italian descent. His paternal grandparents were from Piacenza and Bobbio, while his maternal grandparents were from Bari. He was inspired to play guitar at age 14, after hearing of the death of Jimi Hendrix. He has been said to have heard the news during football practice, where he then announced to his coach that he was quitting to become a guitarist.
In 1974, Satriani studied music with jazz guitarist Billy Bauer and with reclusive jazz pianist Lennie Tristano. The technically demanding Tristano greatly influenced Satriani’s playing. Satriani began teaching guitar, with his most notable student at the time being fellow Long Island native Steve Vai(both also went to the same high school). While he was teaching Vai, he was attending Five Towns College for studies in music. In 1978, Satriani moved to Berkeley, California, to pursue a music career. Soon after arriving in California, he resumed teaching. His students included Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, David Bryson of Counting Crows, Kevin Cadogan from Third Eye Blind, Larry LaLonde of Primus and Possessed, Alex Skolnickof Testament, Rick Hunolt (ex-Exodus), Phil Kettner of Lȧȧz Rockit, Geoff Tyson of T-Ride, Charlie Hunter and David Turin.
more...Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946 Tucson, AZ) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 10 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Ronstadt was among the five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements at the annual event on December 8, 2019, in Washington, D.C., at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one (“You’re No Good“). Her success did not translate to the UK, with only the single “Blue Bayou” reaching the UK Top 40. Ronstadt’s duet with Aaron Neville, “Don’t Know Much“, peaked at number 2 in December 1989. She has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart.
Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time. Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is “blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation.”
Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating, releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.
more...Julian Alexander Bream, CBE (born 15 July 1933), is an English virtuoso classical guitarist and lutenist. One of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century, he played a significant role in improving the public perception of the classical guitar as a respectable instrument.
Bream was born in Battersea, London, and brought up in a musical environment in Hampton. Bream described his parents as both “conventional suburban”, but in another way “very unusual”. His father was a commercial artist, with an “extraordinary talent for drawing” and a “natural musician” according to Bream. Bream would lie under the piano in “ecstasy” when his father played. His mother, of Scottish descent, was a very beautiful woman who was often, according to Bream, “not always there” mentally and did not like music, but was a warm-hearted person. His grandmother owned a pub in Battersea, and Bream spent much time there during his youth. His father played jazz guitar and the young Bream was impressed by the playing of Django Reinhardt; he would later call his dog “Django”.
Bream began his lifelong association with the guitar by strumming along on his father’s jazz guitar at an early age to dance music on the radio. He became frustrated with his lack of knowledge of harmony, so read instruction books by Eddie Lang to teach himself.[4] His father taught him the basics. The president of the Philharmonic Society of Guitars, Dr Boris Perott, gave Bream further lessons, while his father became the society librarian, giving young Bream access to a large collection of rare music.
On his 11th birthday, Bream was given a small gut-strung Spanish guitar by his father. He became something of a child prodigy, at 12 winning a junior exhibition award for his piano playing, enabling him to study piano and composition at the Royal College of Music. Aged 13, he made his debut guitar recital at Cheltenham on 17 February 1947; in 1951, he debuted at Wigmore Hall.
more...Joseph Rudolph “Philly Joe” Jones (July 15, 1923 – August 30, 1985) was an American jazz drummer, known as the drummer for the first “Great” Miles Davis Quintet. He should not be confused with “Papa” Jo Jones, another drummer who had a long tenure with Count Basie. The two men died only a few days apart.
As a child, Jones appeared as a featured tap dancer on The Kiddie Show on the Philadelphia radio Station WIP. He was in the US Army during World War II.
In 1947 he became the house drummer at Café Society in New York City, where he played with the leading bebop players of the day. Among them, the most important influence on Jones was Tadd Dameron. Jones toured and recorded with Miles Davis Quintet from 1955 to 1958—a band that became known as “The Quintet” (along with Red Garland on piano, John Coltrane on sax, and Paul Chambers on bass). Davis acknowledged that Jones was his favorite drummer, and stated in his autobiography that he would always listen for Jones in other drummers.
From 1958 Jones worked as a leader, but continued to work as a sideman with other musicians, including Bill Evans and Hank Mobley. Evans, like Davis, also openly stated that Jones was his all-time favorite drummer.
more...More Posts
- Daily Roots Keith Hudson
- Cosmos Barnard 33, IC434 & NGC 2023
- Donald Duck Dunn
- Wild Bill Davis
- Teddy Wilson
- Scott Joplin
- Flamenco Fridays Paco de Lucia
- Daily Roots Harry Mudie
- Happy Thanksgiving 2023
- National Day of Mourning 2023
- Cosmos NGC 1555 Sh2-239
- Johny Mandel
- Ray Drummond
- World Music Mashpee Wampanoag
- Daily Roots Robert Nesta Marley
- Cosmos Vela Supernova Remnant
- Jesse Colin Young
- Max Romeo
- Aston Barrett
- Ron McClure