mick laBriola

Born 5-11-1916 Died march 21 2016

After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he became a musician. He was a studio musician and played with many famous artists such as Connie Smith, Pee Wee King and the Osborne Brothers. He also produced many of his own recordings. He won the Champion of Champions Thumb Picking Contest in Central City Kentucky and was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame, and performed regularly at The Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Ark. with Sassafras Moon.

He is survived by his wife, Theda Mullins of Vicksburg; son, Mark Mullins of North Carolina; five brothers; five sisters; and one grandchild. In 1985, he won the National Merle Travis Tribute thumbpicking contest at the Ozark Folk Center in Arkansas.
He captured top honors in 1991 at the International Thumbpicking Contest in Central City, Ky.
Then, in a special 1996 contest allowing only the former international champions to compete, Mullins won first place as the “Champion of Champions.”
On a recent morning, Mullins scoots a kitchen chair into the living room and grabs his favorite guitar, made by master builder Dumitru Manea of Nashville, Tenn.
“I won this in a contest, by the way, and it’s an incredible instrument,” Mullins says.
He soon inserts his right thumb into a pick and launches into “Hello, My Baby,” which has a simple ragtime quality to it.
His thumb beats out the bass rhythm, and those fingers with the fake nails seem to make a sound of several instruments in harmony.

The spiral galaxy D100, on the far right of this Hubble Space Telescope image, is being stripped of its gas as it plunges toward the center of the giant Coma galaxy cluster.

The dark brown streaks near D100’s central region are silhouettes of dust escaping from the galaxy. The dust is part of a long, thin tail, also composed of hydrogen gas, that stretches like taffy from the galaxy’s core. Hubble, however, sees only the dust. The telescope’s sharp vision also uncovered the blue glow of clumps of young stars in the tail. The brightest clump in the middle of the tail (the blue feature) contains at least 200,000 stars, fueled by the ongoing loss of hydrogen gas from D100.

The gas-loss process occurs when D100, due to the pull of gravity, begins falling toward the dense center of the massive Coma cluster, consisting of thousands of galaxies. During its plunge, D100 plows through intergalactic material like a boat plowing through water. This material pushes gas and dust out of the galaxy. Once D100 loses all of its hydrogen gas, its star-making fuel, it can no longer create new stars. The gas-stripping process in the beleaguered galaxy began roughly 300 million years ago.

The reddish galaxies in the image contain older stars between the ages of 500 million to 13 billion years old. One of those galaxies is D99, just below and to the left of D100. It was stripped of its gas by the same process as the one that is siphoning gas from D100. The blue galaxies contain a mixture of young and old stars. Some of the stars are less than 500 million years old. The Coma cluster is located 330 million light-years from Earth.

David Thomas Mason (born 10 May 1946) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic. Over the course of his career, Mason has played and recorded with many notable pop and rock musicians, including Paul McCartney, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Steve Winwood, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell and Cass Elliot. One of Mason’s best known songs is “Feelin’ Alright“, recorded by Traffic in 1968 and later by many other performers, including Joe Cocker, whose version of the song was a hit in 1969. For Traffic, he also wrote “Hole in My Shoe“, a psychedelic pop song that became a hit in its own right. “We Just Disagree“, Mason’s 1977 solo US hit, written by Jim Krueger, has become a staple of US classic hits and adult contemporary radio playlists.

In 2004, Mason was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a founding member of Traffic.

Jimmy Ponder (May 10, 1946 – September 16, 2013) was an American jazz guitarist.

When Ponder’s brother entered the military, he left his guitar, and Ponder picked it up. In his early teens he received lessons from the guitarist in a band for which he sang doo-wop. He was drawn to the jazz guitar he heard on the radio. While playing in a rhythm and blues band, he occasionally inserted a jazz solo. He considers hearing guitarist Thornel Schwartz an important part of his life, when Schwartz was playing with organist Jimmy McGriff. He was impressed by Pat Martino when he saw Martino in the Jack McDuff band. He also cites as influences George Benson, Kenny Burrell, and Rene Thomas, though none surpassed the impact of seeing Wes Montgomery.

He learned the guitar solo from “Daily Double” (Choice), the only 45 rpm single released by Charles Earland. When Earland performed in Pittsburgh, he invited Ponder to sit-in with the band and liked what he heard. Earland promised Ponder he could become a member of the band after he finished high school. Six months after graduating, he was hired by Earland.

He began playing with Earland at 17 and in the following years with Lou Donaldson, Houston Person, Donald Byrd, Stanley Turrentine, and Jimmy McGriff. He moved to Philadelphia and later New York City in the 1970s and recorded extensively as a leader. Since the late 1980s, he frequently returned to his hometown to perform with his trio of two other Pittsburgh musicians, Gene Ludwig and Roger Humphries. Ponder’s highest charting release was Somebody’s Child, which reached No. 3 on the JazzWeek airplay chart in 2007.

Melvin Sokoloff (May 10, 1929 – February 2, 1990), known professionally as Mel Lewis, was an American jazz drummer, session musician, professor, and author. He received fourteen Grammy Award nominations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VstVan4XhyE

Flamenco Fridays with Rumba.

Rumba flamenca was primarily influenced by guaracha, an uptempo style of vocal music which originated in Havana‘s musical theatre. Some elements from Cuban rumba were also incorporated, although minor, despite the name. Although unlikely, both guaracha and Cuban rumba might have been influenced by flamenco earlier in the 19th century. Guarachas can be traced back to the Spanish jácaras, thus justifying the classification of rumba flamenca as a cante de ida y vuelta.

The first rumba flamenca recordings were made by La Niña de los Peines in the 1910s. During the late 20th century, Paco de Lucía, together with percussionist Rubem Dantas, incorporated Afro-Peruvian musical elements such as the cajón (wooden box) and certain rhythms.

Dotted across the sky in the constellation of Pictor (The Painter’s Easel) is the galaxy cluster highlighted here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope: SPT-CL J0615-5746, or SPT0615 for short. First discovered by the South Pole Telescope less than a decade ago, SPT0615 is exceptional among the myriad clusters so far catalogued in our map of the Universe — it is the highest-redshift cluster for which a full, strong lens model is published.

SPT0615 is a massive cluster of galaxies, one of the farthest observed to cause gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a background object is deflected around mass between the object and the observer. Among the identified background objects, there is SPT0615-JD, a galaxy that is thought to have emerged just 500 million years after the Big Bang. This puts it among the very earliest structures to form in the Universe. It is also the farthest galaxy ever imaged by means of gravitational lensing.

Just as ancient paintings can tell us about the period of history in which they were painted, so too can ancient galaxies tell us about the era of the Universe in which they existed. To learn about cosmological history, astronomers explore the most distant reaches of the Universe, probing ever further out into the cosmos. The light from distant objects travels to us from so far away that it takes an immensely long time to reach us, meaning that it carries information from the past — information about the time at which it was emitted.

By studying such distant objects, astronomers are continuing to fill the gaps in our picture of what the very early Universe looked like, and uncover more about how it evolved into its current state.

Anthony Wilson (born May 9, 1968) is a jazz guitarist, arranger and composer. He is the son of bandleader Gerald Wilson. Born in Los Angeles on May 9, 1968, Wilson received his degree in music composition from Bennington College. His first major breakthrough was as lead guitarist of the group, Storm in 1980. He counts Duke Ellington, Gil Evans, Wes Montgomery, Ry Cooder, and T-Bone Walker among his influences. His first album Anthony Wilson was nominated for a Grammy Award and his second album, Goat Hill Junket (1998) also received praise. Albums with his nine-piece band include Adult Themes (MAMA, 1999) and Power of Nine (Groove Note, 2006). Diana Krall and mandolinist Eva Scow appear on the latter.

He has also recorded two trio albums with Hammond organist Joe Bagg and drummer Mark Ferber, Our Gang in 2001 and Savivity in 2005 (both on Groove Note). In 2009 he recorded more organ trio music with Jack of Hearts (again for Groove Note) featuring Larry Goldings on Hammond organ, and alternating drummers Jim Keltner and Jeff Hamilton.

As a composer, he has received commissions from the International Association for Jazz Education, the Henry Mancini Institute, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and luthier John Monteleone. His guitar quartet song cycle “Seasons” was composed as a vehicle for Monteleone’s quartet of guitars called “The Four Seasons” which were included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2011 exhibition “Guitar Heroes.” “Seasons” was released as an audio CD and live performance film DVD set on Wilson’s label Goat Hill Recordings in November 2011. Another 2011 album, recorded in Brazil, was “Campo Belo” (Goat Hill Recordings), featuring rising Brazilian music stars André Mehmari (piano and accordion), Edu Ribeiro (drums), and Guto Wirtti (bass).

Dennis Milton Chambers (born May 9, 1959) is an American drummer. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2001. Chambers was born on May 9, 1959. He began drumming at the age of four years, and was gigging in Baltimore-area nightclubs by the age of six. He was recruited in 1981 by the Sugar Hill Label to be their “house drummer.” Chambers played on many Sugar Hill releases — sounds like Keith LeBlanc [not Chambers], who was the Original Sugar Hill Rhythm Section drummer [“White Lines,” “The Message,” “8th Wonder,” and so on], with Skip McDonald (guitar) and Doug Wimbish (bass)]. Contrary to popular belief he did not play on “Rapper’s Delight” which was revealed in a recent interview on Drumeo.com on 6/8/2017.

In an interview by Bonedo in 2011, Chambers was asked who some of his influences and favorite drummers were and he mentioned Clyde Stubblefield, Al Jackson Jr., Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta, Gary Husband, Jack Dejohnette, Billy Cobham, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, and Tony Williams.

In 1978 (at 18 years old) he joined Parliament/Funkadelic, and stayed with them until 1985. In 1986 he joined the John Scofield band. Since then he has played with most of the major figures in jazz fusion music.

He has recorded and performed with Tommy Coster, John Scofield, George Duke, Victor Wooten, Brecker Brothers, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, John McLaughlin, Niacin, Mike Stern, CAB, Greg Howe, and many others.

He has toured extensively with Carlos Santana and makes appearances with his band Niacin.

Aaron Corthen, better known as A.C. Reed (May 9, 1926 – February 24, 2004) was an American blues saxophonist, closely associated with the Chicago blues scene from the 1940s into the 2000s. Reed was born in Wardell, Missouri, and grew up in southern Illinois. He took his stage name from his friend Jimmy Reed. He moved to Chicago during World War II, playing with Earl Hooker and Willie Mabon in the 1940s. He toured with Dennis “Long Man” Binder in 1956 and worked extensively as a sideman for Mel London‘s blues record labels Chief/Profile/Age in the 1960s, with Lillian Offitt and Ricky Allen, among others. He had a regionally popular single in 1961, “This Little Voice” (Age 29101), and cut several more singles over the course of the decade.

He became a member of Buddy Guy‘s band in 1967, playing with him on his tour of Africa in 1969 and, with Junior Wells, opening for the Rolling Stones in 1970. He remained with Guy until 1977. He then played with Son Seals and Albert Collins in the late 1970s and 1980s. He began recording solo material for Alligator Records in the 1980s. His 1987 album, I’m in the Wrong Business, includes cameo appearances by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bonnie Raitt.

The delicate nebula NGC 1788, located in a dark and often neglected corner of the Orion constellation, is revealed in this finely nuanced image. Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion’s bright stars, their powerful winds and light have a strong impact on the nebula, forging its shape and making it a home to a multitude of infant suns.

This image has been obtained using the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. It combines images taken through blue, green and red filters, as well as a special filter designed to let through the light of glowing hydrogen. The field is about 30 arcminutes across; North is up, and East to the left.

Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American jazz and classical music pianist and composer.

Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success as a group leader and a solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. His improvisations draw from the traditions of jazz and other genres, especially Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music.

In 2003, Jarrett received the Polar Music Prize, the first recipient of both the contemporary and classical musician prizes, and in 2004 he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. His album The Köln Concert (1975) became the best-selling piano recording in history.

In 2008, he was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in the magazine’s 73rd Annual Readers’ Poll.

Keith Jarrett was born on May 8, 1945, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to a mother of Hungarian descent and a father of either French or Scots-Irish descent. He grew up in suburban Allentown with significant early exposure to music. Jarrett possesses absolute pitch, and he displayed prodigious musical talents as a young child. He began piano lessons before his third birthday, and at age five he appeared on a TV talent program hosted by the swing bandleader Paul Whiteman. He gave his first formal piano recital at the age of seven, playing works by composers such as Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Saint-Saëns, and ending with two of his own compositions. Encouraged by his mother, he took classical piano lessons with a series of teachers, including Eleanor Sokoloff of the Curtis Institute.

Mahmoud Ahmed (Amharic: ማሀሙድ አህመድ; born May 18, 1941) is an Ethiopian singer of Gurage ancestry. He gained great popularity in Ethiopia in the 1970s and among the Ethiopian diaspora in the 1980s, before rising to international fame with African music fans in Europe and the Americas. Born in Addis Ababa, Mercato district, Mahmoud was enthralled with the music he heard on Ethiopian radio from an early age. Having poorly learned in school, he worked shoeshinerbefore becoming a handyman at the Arizona Club, which was the after hours hangout of Emperor Haile Selassie I‘s Imperial Body Guard Band. One night in 1962 when the band’s singer didn’t show up, Mahmoud asked to sing a few songs. He soon became part of the band’s regular lineup, where he remained until 1974.

After cutting his first single with Venus Band “Nafqot New Yegodagn” and “Yasdestal” in 1971, Mahmoud continued to record with several bands for the Amha and Kaifa record labels throughout the 1970s. The overthrow of Emperor Selassie and the suspension of musical nightlife under the military government created shifts in the Ethiopian music industry—the Imperial Body Guard Band were no more, and Mahmoud continued to make hit records and cassettes with many musicians who remained in the country, including the Dahlak Band, and the Ibex Band. He also began to release solo cassettes, accompanying himself on the krar, guitar or mandolin.

By 1978, censorship laws prevented Mahmoud from releasing his music on vinyl and so he switched to releasing cassettes. In the 1980s, Mahmoud operated his own music store in Addis Ababa’s Piazza district while continuing his singing career. With many Ethiopian refugees living abroad, Mahmoud became one of the first modern Ethiopian music makers to perform in the United States on a 1980-1981 tour with the Walias Band, Getatchew Kassa, and Webeshet Fisseha. Mahmoud soon began releasing records with the Roha Band and became popular in diaspora communities.

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938 Hazlehurst, MS) was an American blues singer, songwriter and musician. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson’s poorly documented life and death have given rise to much legend. The one most closely associated with his life is that he sold his soul to the devil at a local crossroads to achieve musical success. He is now recognized as a master of the blues, particularly as a progenitor of the Delta blues style.

As an itinerant performer who played mostly on street corners, in juke joints, and at Saturday night dances, Johnson had little commercial success or public recognition in his lifetime. He only participated in two recording sessions, one in San Antonio in 1936, and one in Dallas in 1937, that produced recordings of 29 distinct songs (with some alternate takes). These songs, recorded at low fidelity in improvised studios, were the totality of his recorded output. About half of these were released as 10-inch, 78 rpm singles from 1937–1939, many after his death at the age of 27. Other than these recordings, very little was known of him during his life outside of the small musical circuit in the Mississippi Delta where he spent most of his life; much of his story has been reconstructed after his death by researchers.

His music had only a small, but influential, following during his life and in the years after his death. As early as 1938, his music was being sought by influential producers such as John Hammond, who tried to recruit him to record and tour without even knowing of his death. Brunswick Records, which owned the original recordings, was eventually bought by Hammond’s Columbia Records, which would later release the recordings to a wider audience. Musicologist Alan Lomax went to Mississippi in 1941 to record Johnson, also not knowing of his death. A compilation album, titled King of the Delta Blues Singers, was released by Columbia in 1961, which finally brought his work to a wider audience. The album would become an influential record, especially on the nascent British blues movement which was just getting started at the time; Eric Clapton has called Johnson “the most important blues singer that ever lived.”Musicians as diverse as Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Robert Plant have cited both Johnson’s lyricism and musicianship has key influences on their own work. Many of Johnson’s songs have been covered over the years, becoming hits for other artists, and his guitar licks and lyrics have been borrowed and repurposed by a many later musicians.

Renewed interest in Johnson’s work and life led to a burst of scholarship starting in the 1960s. Much of what we know about him today was reconstructed by researchers such as Gayle Dean Wardlow. The 1991 documentary The Search for Robert Johnson by John Hammond, Jr. was another attempt to document his life, and demonstrated the difficulties arising from the scant historical record and conflicting oral accounts.

Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions). Williams wrote and arranged for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie.

The second of eleven children, Williams was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A young musical prodigy, at the age of three, she taught herself to play the piano.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YlKehLOhqQ