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Louis Hayes

May 31, 2024

Louis Hayes (born May 31, 1937) is an American jazz drummer and band leader. He was with McCoy Tyner‘s trio for more than three years. Since 1989 he has led his own band, and together with Vincent Herring formed the Cannonball Legacy Band. He is part of the NEA Jazz Masters awards class of 2023.

Louis Sedell Hayes was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States, to a father, an automaker, who played drums and piano. His mother waited tables and played the piano. She was the sister of John Nelson, the father of the musician Prince. Hayes got his first drum set at age 10. The key influence in his early development was his cousin Clarence Stamps, an accomplished drummer who grounded his technical fundamentals and gave him lessons that stuck for life. He refers to the early influence of hearing jazz, especially big bands on the radio. His main influence was Philly Joe Jones  and he was mentored by Jo Jones. His three main associations were with Horace Silver‘s Quintet (1956–59), the Cannonball Adderley Quintet (1959–65), and the Oscar Peterson Trio (1965–67). Hayes often joined Sam Jones, both with Adderley and Peterson, and in freelance settings.

When he was a teenager, he led a band in Detroit clubs before he was 16. He worked with Yusef Lateefand Curtis Fuller from 1955 to 1956. He moved to New York in August 1956, to replace Art Taylor in the Horace Silver Quintet and, in 1959, joined the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, with which he remained until mid-1965, when he succeeded Ed Thigpen in the Oscar Peterson Trio. He left Peterson in 1967, and formed a series of groups, which he led alone or with others; among his sidemen were Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Kenny Barron, and James Spaulding. He returned to Peterson in 1971.

The Louis Hayes Sextet, formed in 1972, became, in 1975, the Louis Hayes-Junior Cook Quintet and the Woody Shaw-Louis Hayes Quintet (Cook remained as a sideman until Rene McLean joined); in its last form the quintet played successful engagements throughout Europe and (without McLean) acted as the host group when, in 1976, Dexter Gordon visited the U.S. for the first time in many years. After Shaw left the group in 1977, Hayes continued to lead it as a hard-bop quintet.

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Albert Tootie Heath

May 31, 2024

AlbertTootieHeath (May 31, 1935 – April 3, 2024) was an American jazz hard bop drummer, the brother of tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and the double-bassist Percy Heath. With Stanley Cowell, the Heaths formed the Heath Brothers jazz band in 1975.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States on May 31 1935, he first recorded in 1957 with John Coltrane. From 1958 to 1974, he worked with, among others, J. J. Johnson, Wes Montgomery, Art Farmer and Benny Golson‘s Jazztet, Cedar Walton, Bobby Timmons, Kenny Drew, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Herbie Hancock, Friedrich Gulda, Nina Simone, and Yusef Lateef. In 1975, he, Jimmy and Percy formed the Heath Brothers.[2] He remained with the group until 1978, then left to freelance. He recorded extensively throughout his career.

Among his many workshop and classroom teaching assignments, Heath was a regular instructor at the Stanford Jazz Workshop.

Heath was later the producer and leader of The Whole Drum Truth, a jazz drum ensemble featuring Ben Riley, Ed Thigpen, Jackie Williams, Billy Hart, Charlie Persip, Leroy Williams and Louis Hayes.

Albert Heath died of leukemia in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on April 3, 2024, at the age of 88.

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Flamenco Fridays Tomatito y Estrella Morente

May 31, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzXxKQPQ84U&list=PLF183036912DCA301&index=1

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Daily Roots Dennis Brown

May 31, 2024

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Fort Snelling State Park Wokkiksuye K’a Woyuonihan Remembering & Honoring Memorial

May 30, 2024
Fort Snelling State Park
Wokkiksuye K’a Woyuonihan Remembering & Honoring Memorial
I’m picking up a friend from the airport and the SA closed. That’s where I would wait for my arriving passengers. So I ventured down to to the park where the AIM Pow Wows used to take place. Cant believe I haven’t been here since those incredible days in late 80’s early 90’s. Performing with the Maroons, jamming with Floyd Westerman and I had a tee pee to sleep in over the weekend. The DNR claimed they were going to make a Pow Wow site but of course never did reminiscent of the treaty violations by the US government; promises promises! Had to visit the Pipestone Memorial where 1,600 Dakota were imprisioned after the 1862 US-Dakota Conflict and 38 Dakota men & teenagers were hung in Mankato, MN
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Wall of Sound

May 30, 2024
Elsewhere in the 60s and 70s, the most notable rock bands were forming. Live sound wasn’t exactly the kind of quality we have today. This caused a sound jumble that was not appreciated by bands anywhere, and one decided to take action.
Seen here, Jerry Garcia and his headlining band didn’t want you to just hear rock, they wanted you to feel it, too. Thus, the “Wall of Sound” was born. In total, the system was over three stories tall, 100 feet wide, and weighed in at 70 tons. Hundreds of separate equipment pieces, such as speakers and amps, were part of this monument to rock.
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Buddha Dream

May 30, 2024

There was once a poor man who made tea everyday on a fire. He didn’t realize that his hearthstones were made of gold. So everyday, he lived in poverty with unknown riches at his fingertips. We are like that. We have a limitless mind, yet we choose to not be okay. One of the most beneficial first steps we can take is to stop hating suffering…to actually be okay with it. Over time we work with our mind and exercise our “being okay” muscle. The essential point is that our mind is very flexible and its capacity is limitless. Therefore, how we relate to whatever is appearing, is a choice. Mind and that it is limitless, is our hearthstone of gold, our treasure. We should know this. – Khentrul Rinpoche

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Cosmos Lunar Corona

May 30, 2024

The effect, called a lunar corona, is created by the quantum mechanical diffraction of light around individual, similarly-sized water droplets in an intervening but mostly-transparent cloud. Since light of different colors has different wavelengths, each color diffracts differently. Lunar coronae are one of the few quantum mechanical color effects that can be easily seen with the unaided eye. Solar coronae are also sometimes evident. The featured image was taken last month from Paris, France. The blue beacon emanating from the Eiffel Tower did not affect the colorful lunar corona.

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Dave McKenna

May 30, 2024

Dave McKenna (May 30, 1930 – October 18, 2008) was an American jazz pianist known primarily as a solo pianist and for his “three-handed” swing style. He was a significant figure in the evolution of jazz piano.

He was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, United States. At age 15, McKenna worked in big bands with Charlie Ventura (1949) and Woody Herman’s Orchestra (1950–51). He then spent two years in the military, in the Korea War, before returning to Ventura (1953–54). During his career he worked in swing and dixieland settings with Al Cohn, Eddie Condon, Stan Getz, Gene Krupa, Zoot Sims, Joe Venuti, and often with Bob Wilber and Bobby Hackett. McKenna released his first solo album in 1955. During the 1980s, he worked as a pianist at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston.

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Clora Bryant

May 30, 2024

Clora Larea Bryant (May 30, 1927 – August 25, 2019 Denison, TX) was an American jazz trumpeter. She was the only female trumpeter to perform with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and was a member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

Bryant turned down scholarships from Oberlin Conservatory and Bennett College to attend Prairie View College in Houston starting in 1943, where she was a member of the Prairie View Co-eds jazz band. The band toured in Texas and performed at the Apollo Theater in New York City in 1944. Her father got a job in Los Angeles, and she transferred to UCLA in 1945. Bryant heard bebop for the first time on Central Avenue.

In 1946 she became a member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, an all-female jazz band, earned her union card and dropped out of school. Dizzy Gillespie became her mentor and provided her with work. She joined the black female jazz band the Queens of Swing as a drummer, and went on tour with the band.

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World Music Moktar Gania & Gnawa Soul

May 30, 2024

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Daily Roots Burning Spear

May 30, 2024

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Rhythm Roots Workshop Residency Ecumen Lakeview Commons Assisted Living and Memory Care in Maplewood

May 29, 2024
Rhythm Roots Workshop Residency Ecumen Lakeview Commons Assisted Living and Memory Care in Maplewood
Wednesday May 29th, 2024
The seventh in a series of teaching nine sessions of Rhythm Roots Workshop Residency at Ecumen Lakeview Commons Assisted Living and Memory Care in Maplewood on Wednesdays April 17th thru June 12th 2024 1-230pm. Rehearsing with “COMMON COMMOTION”  Celebrating world cultures through drumming and chanting.
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Cosmos Milky Way Portugal

May 29, 2024

Most eye-catching is the grand arch of the Milky Way Galaxy, the band that is the central disk of our galaxy which is straight but distorted by the wide-angle nature of this composite image. Many stars well in front of the Milk Way will be visible, with the bright white star just below the stellar arch being Altair, and the bright blue star above it being Vega. The air glows green on the left, just above the yellow cloud deck. The featured image was taken last month on Portugal‘s Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean. Oh, and what happens after you reach the top of these stairs and admire the amazing sky is, quite probably, that you then descend down the stairs on the other side.    

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Danny Elfman

May 29, 2024

Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953 LA, CA) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since scoring his first studio film in 1985, Elfman has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores, as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall.

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Freddie Redd

May 29, 2024

Freddie Redd (May 29, 1928 – March 17, 2021 Harlem, NY) was an American hard-bop pianist and composer. He is best known for writing music to accompany The Connection (1959), a play by Jack Gelber. According to Peter Watrous, writing in The New York Times: “Mr. Redd hung out at jam sessions in the 1950s and played with many of the major figures, Sonny Rollins to Art Blakey, and worked regularly with Charles Mingus. When things got tough, he just moved on, living in Guadalajara, Mexico, and in Paris and London.

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Eugene Wright

May 29, 2024

Eugene Joseph Wright (May 29, 1923 – December 30, 2020 Chicago) was an American jazz bassist who was a member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

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World Drumming Babatunde Olatunji

May 29, 2024

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Daily Roots Prince Far I

May 29, 2024

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Cosmos Chamaeleon I molecular cloud

May 28, 2024

Dark markings and bright nebulae in this telescopic southern sky view are telltale signs of young stars and active star formation. They lie a mere 650 light-years away, at the boundary of the local bubble and the Chamaeleon molecular cloud complex. Regions with young stars identified as dusty reflection nebulae from the 1946 Cederblad catalog include the C-shaped Ced 110 just above and right of center, and bluish Ced 111 below it. Also a standout in the frame, the orange tinted V-shape of the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula (Cha IRN) was carved by material streaming from a newly formed low-mass star. The well-composed image spans 1.5 degrees. That’s about 17 light-years at the estimated distance of the nearby Chamaeleon I molecular cloud.

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