Blog

Frank Butler Day

February 18, 2018

Frank Butler (February 18, 1928 – July 24, 1984) was an American jazz drummer.

Butler was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but later moved west and was associated in large part with the West Coast school. He played the drums in multiple high school bands (including one in Omaha, Nebraska), in local jazz combos, and in USO shows during World War II.

Butler never became well known, but was highly regarded by fellow musicians (in 1958, veteran drummer Jo Jones proclaimed him “the greatest drummer in the world”) and performed with numerous jazz notables. His big debut was as the drummer for the Dave Brubeck combo at a 1950 engagement in San Francisco. He went on to perform with Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Art Pepperin the 1950s and 1960s. He performed on several television series, including Stars of Jazz with bassist Curtis Counce. The Contemporary label noticed Butler and Counce, and, from 1956 through 1958, captured them together on several Curtis Counce Quintet albums. Sidelined for many years by an addiction to heroin, Butler did not record albums under his own name until the 1970s, when he released two highly regarded albums titled Wheelin’ and Dealin’ and The Stepper

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World Music with Bari Siddiqui

February 18, 2018

World Music from Bangladesh with Bari Siddiqui

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Daily Roots with Scientist & Roots Radics

February 18, 2018

Daily Roots with Scientist & Roots Radics

2-18-18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddwr7mRCXVc&list=PLEB3LPVcGcWZ0hsQ5_jgSMhawAnDzy1io&index=17&t=22s

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The Cosmos with NGC 3614

February 17, 2018

NGC 3614 (also PGC 34561 or UGC 6318 ) – a spiral galaxy (Sc), located in the constellation Ursa Major, about 115 million light years away . It was discovered by William Herschel on February 5, 1788

Distance: 115.2 million ly 

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Fred Frith Day

February 17, 2018

Jeremy WebsterFredFrith (born 17 February 1949)is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improvisor.

Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. He was also a member of the groups Art Bears, Massacre, and Skeleton Crew. He has collaborated with a number of prominent musicians, including Robert Wyatt, Derek Bailey, the Residents, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, Brian Eno, Mike Patton, Lars Hollmer, Bill Laswell, Iva Bittová, Jad Fair, Kramer, the ARTE Quartett, and Bob Ostertag. He has also composed several long works, including Traffic Continues (1996, performed 1998 by Frith and Ensemble Modern) and Freedom in Fragments (1993, performed 1999 by Rova Saxophone Quartet). Frith produces most of his own music, and has also produced many albums by other musicians, including Curlew, the Muffins, Etron Fou Leloublan, and Orthotonics.

Frith is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel’s award-winning 1990 documentary Step Across the Border. He also appears in the Canadian documentary Act of God, which is about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning. Frith has contributed to a number of music publications, including New Musical Express and Trouser Press, and has conducted improvising workshops across the world. Frith’s career spans over four decades and he appears on over 400 albums. He still performs actively throughout the world.

Currently Frith is Professor of Composition in the Music Department at Mills College in Oakland, California. He lives in the United States with his wife, German photographer Heike Liss, and their children, Finn Liss (born 1991) and Lucia Liss (born 1994).

Frith was awarded the 2008 Demetrio Stratos Prize for his career achievements in experimental music. The prize was established in 2005 in honour of experimental vocalist Demetrio Stratos, of the Italian group Area, who died in 1979. In 2010 Frith received an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England in recognition of his contribution to music.

Frith is the brother of Simon Frith, a music critic and sociologist, and Chris Frith, a psychologist at University College London.

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Noble “Thin Man” Watts Day

February 17, 2018

NobleThin ManWatts (February 17, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was an American blues, jump blues and rhythm and blues saxophonist. He primarily played tenor saxophone. The AllMusicjournalist, Bill Dahl, considered Watts “one of the most incendiary […] fire-breathing tenor sax honkers” of the 1950s.

Born in DeLand, Florida, Watts studied violin and trumpet in his youth, later switching to sax. He gained musical training at Florida A&M, where he played in the school’s marching band with future saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. Hired to play with The Griffin Brothers after college, Watts began his professional career. During the 1950s, he would work with Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, and others.[3] He also appeared on American Bandstand with Johnny Mathis in 1957, and performed in the house band at a Harlem club owned by boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.

 

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World Music with Brenda Fassie

February 17, 2018

World Music with Brenda Fassie from South Africa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayd0G5-XVIg

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Daily Roots with Rod Taylor

February 17, 2018

Daily Roots with Rod Taylor

2-17-18

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The Cosmos with Comet PanSTARRS C/2016R2

February 16, 2018

The comet PanSTARRS, also known as the blue comet (C/2016 R2), really is near the lower left edge of this stunning, wide field view recorded on January 13. Spanning nearly 20 degrees on the sky, the cosmic landscape is explored by well-exposed and processed frames from a sensitive digital camera. It consists of colorful clouds and dusty dark nebulae otherwise too faint for your eye to see, though. At top right, theCalifornia Nebula (aka NGC 1499) does have a familiar shape. Its coastline is over 60 light-years long and lies some 1,500 light-years away. The nebula’s pronounced reddish glow is from hydrogen atoms ionized by luminous blue star Xi Persei just below it. Near bottom center, the famous Pleiades star cluster is some 400 light-years distant and around 15 light-years across. Its spectacular blue color is due to the reflection of starlight by interstellar dust. In between are hot stars of the Perseus OB2 association and dusty, dark nebulae along the edge of the nearby, massive Taurus and Perseus molecular clouds. Emission from unusually abundant ionized carbon monoxide (CO+) molecules fluorescing in sunlight is largely responsible for the telltale blue tint of the remarkable comet’s tail. The comet was about 17 light minutes from Earth.

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Otis Blackwell Day

February 16, 2018

Otis Blackwell (February 16, 1931 – May 6, 2002) was an African-American songwriter, singer, and pianist, whose work significantly influenced rock and roll. His compositions include “Fever“, recorded by Little Willie John; “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless“, recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis; “Don’t Be Cruel“, “All Shook Up” and “Return to Sender” (with Winfield Scott), recorded by Elvis Presley; and “Handy Man“, recorded by Jimmy Jones. He is not to be confused with the songwriter and record producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell.

Blackwell was born in Brooklyn, New York. He learned to play the piano as a child and grew up listening to both R&B and country music.

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Bill Doggett Day

February 16, 2018

William Ballard Doggett (February 16, 1916 – November 13, 1996) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist. He is best known for his compositions “Honky Tonk” and “Hippy Dippy”, and variously working with the Ink Spots, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Jordan.

Doggett was born in Philadelphia.His mother, a church pianist, introduced him to music when he was nine years old. By the time he was fifteen, he had joined a Philadelphia area combo, playing local theaters and clubs while attending high school.

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World Music with Javier Conde

February 16, 2018

World Music with Javier Conde on Flamenco Fridays performing Grannies.

Granaína (pronunciación española: [ɡɾanaina]) es un estilo flamenco de canto y guitarra de Granada. Es una variante de los fandangos de Granada. Originalmente era bailable, pero ahora ha perdido su ritmo, es mucho más lento, y normalmente solo se canta o se toca como solo de guitarra, lo que refleja su herencia árabe-morisca con más fuerza que otros fandangos.

El famoso cantante Don Antonio Chacón (1869-1929) se atribuye a liberar la granaína de sus ataduras rítmicas y hacerla popular. Los cantantes usualmente terminan su interpretación de la granaína con una media granaína, una canción similar pero que aumenta a un tono más alto. Manuel Vallejo (1891-1960) fue un famoso exponente de este último cante.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EvcL4hc4Jc

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Daily Roots with Big Youth

February 16, 2018

Daily Roots with Big Youth

2-16-18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHGqPe2QzcQ

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RHYTHM ROOTS WORKSHOP 2-13 & 15-18

February 15, 2018

RHYTHM ROOTS WORKSHOP

Tuesday February 13th noon-2pm Partnership Resources Inc St Louis Park

Thursday February 15th noon-2pm Partnership Resources Inc Minneapolis

Celebrating Mardi Gras songs and rhythms with the Developmentally Disabled

community putting on the Hey Pocky Way

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The Cosmos with NGC 521

February 15, 2018

NGC 521, also occasionally referred to as PGC 5190 or UGC 962, is a spiral galaxy located approximately 224 million light-years from the Solar System in the constellation Cetus. It was discovered on 8 October 1785 by astronomer William Herschel.

Herschel described his discovery as “faint, pretty large, irregular round, brighter middle”. Further observations were made by both his son, John Herschel, who simply noted “big” on his first and “very faint” on his second observation, as well as R. J. Mitchell, who noted “pretty big, spiral galaxy, disc enveloped in faint outlying neby and looks like an unresolved cluster.” NGC 521 was later catalogued by John Louis Emil Dreyer in the New General Catalogue, where the galaxy was described as “faint, pretty large, round, gradually brighter middle”.

A total of three supernovae have been assigned to NGC 521, with SN 1966G being the first to be observed in 1966, followed by SN 1982O in 1982 and the most recent being SN 2006G in 2006.

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Melissa Manchester Day

February 15, 2018

Melissa Manchester (born February 15, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Since the 1970s, her songs have been carried by adult contemporary radio stations. She has also appeared on television, in films, and on stage.

Manchester was born in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, to a musical family. Her father was a bassoonist for the New York Metropolitan Opera. Her mother was one of the first women to design and found her own clothing firm, Ruth Manchester Ltd. Manchester hails from a Jewish background. Manchester started a singing career at an early age. She learned the piano and harpsichord at the Manhattan School of Music, began singing commercial jingles at age 15, and became a staff writer for Chappell Music while attending Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts. 

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Henry Threadgill Day

February 15, 2018

Henry Threadgill (born February 15, 1944) is an American composer, saxophonist, and flautist, who came to prominence in the 1970s leading jazz ensembles with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating genres other than jazz. He has performed and recorded with several ensembles: Air, Aggregation Orb, Make a Move, the seven-piece Henry Threadgill Sextett, the twenty-piece Society Situation Dance Band, Very Very Circus, X-75, and Zooid.

He was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his album In for a Penny, In for a Pound,[2] which premiered at Roulette Intermedium on December 4, 201

Threadgill performed as a percussionist in his high-school marching band before taking up baritone saxophone, alto saxophone, and flute. He studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, majoring in piano, flute, and composition. He studied piano with Gail Quillman and composition with Stella Roberts. He was an original member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in his hometown of Chicago and worked under the guidance of Muhal Richard Abrams before leaving to tour with a gospel band.

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Harold Arlen Day

February 15, 2018

Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music who composed over five-hundred songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz (lyrics by E.Y. Harburg), including the classic “Over the Rainbow“, Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. “Over the Rainbow” was voted the twentieth century’s No. 1 song by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, United States, the child of a cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned to play the piano as a youth, and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer before moving to New York City in his early twenties, where he worked as an accompanist in vaudeville and changed his name to Harold Arlen. Between 1926 and about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe Venuti, Leo Reisman, and Eddie Duchin, usually singing his own compositions.

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World Music with Wu Man

February 15, 2018

World Music with Chinese Pipa player Wu Man

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Daily Roots with the Paragons

February 15, 2018

Daily Roots with the Paragons & Roslyn Sweat

2-15-18

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