mick laBriola

Peter Yarrow (born May 31, 1938) is an American singer and songwriter who found fame as a member of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow co-wrote (with Leonard Lipton) one of the group’s best known hits, “Puff, the Magic Dragon“. He is also a political activist and has supported causes that range from opposition to the Vietnam War to school anti-bullying programs. Yarrow was convicted in 1970 of molesting a 14-year-old girl, for which he was pardoned in 1981 by President Jimmy Carter.

Peter Yarrow was born in Manhattan, the son of Vera Wisebrode (née Vira Burtakoff) and Bernard Yarrow. His parents were educated Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, whose families had settled in Providence, Rhode Island.

John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician who was the drummer of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Noted for his speed, power, fast single-footed kick drumming, distinctive sound, and feel for groove, he is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential drummers in history.

Bonham was born in 1948 in Redditch, Worcestershire, and took up drums at age 5, receiving a snare drum at age 10 and a full drum set at age 15. He played with multiple local bands both at school and following school, eventually playing in two different bands with Robert Plant. Following the demise of the Yardbirds in 1968, Bonham joined Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bass guitarist John Paul Jones to form Led Zeppelin.

Bonham showcased a hard-hitting hard rock style, but also handled funk and Latin-influenced grooves in later Led Zeppelin releases. Like Keith Moon of the Who, Bonham’s drum set grew in size following the band’s 1969 concert tours, including congas or timpani and a gong. His drum solo “Moby Dick” was featured on the group’s second album and was a staple of their concerts, often lasting just over 20 minutes. Outside of Led Zeppelin, Bonham played drums for other artists, including the Family Dogg, Screaming Lord Sutch, Lulu, Jimmy Stevens and Wings. Bonham played with Led Zeppelin until his sudden death at age 32, in September 1980 following a day of heavy drinking. The surviving members disbanded the group out of respect for Bonham.

A mostly self-taught drummer, Bonham was influenced by Max Roach, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. He was close with Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice, who introduced him to Ludwig drums. While he was primarily known for his hard-rock style during his lifetime, his reputation as a drummer has grown beyond that genre following his death. He has influenced various drummers, including Dave Grohl, Neil Peart, Chad Smith and Dave Lombardo. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 as a member of Led Zeppelin. In 2016, Rolling Stone named him the greatest drummer of all time.

Jimmy Shirley (May 31, 1913 – December 3, 1989) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist who recorded from the 1940s to the 1970s. He was an early exponent of the electric guitar and was one of the first to use the Vibrola vibrato arm in recordings, such as on “Jimmy’s Blues” (1945).

While growing up in Cleveland, he was taught guitar by his father. In 1937, he moved to New York City and spent four years with the Clarence Profit Trio. In 1940, he recorded with Wingy Carpenter. He worked with Ella Fitzgerald from 1942 to 1943 and with Phil Moore and Herman Chittison. During the 1940s, he recorded with Clyde Bernhardt, Sid Catlett, Sidney De Paris, Edmond Hall, John Hardee, Coleman Hawkins, Art Hodes, Billie Holiday, James P. Johnson, Pete Johnson, Billy Kyle, and Ram Ramirez.

Beginning in the 1950s, Shirley played less swing guitar, more blues, jump blues, and rock and roll. He recorded or accompanied singers Wynonie Harris, Jimmy Rushing, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Little Willie John, Rose Murphy and Barbara Lea. He performed in Europe during the 1970s, recorded the album Steff and Slam with Stéphane Grappelli and Slam Stewart, and China Boy (Black and Blue, 1975), his only album as a leader.

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.

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.

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.

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.    

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.

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.

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