Blog

Tal Farlow

June 7, 2024

Talmage Holt Farlow (June 7, 1921– July 25, 1998) was an American jazz guitarist. He was nicknamed “Octopus” because of how his large, quick hands spread over the fretboard.

Talmage Holt Farlow was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. He taught himself how to play guitar, which he started when he was 22 years old. He learned chord melodies by playing a mandolin tuned like a ukulele. He said playing the ukulele was the reason he used the higher four strings on the guitar for the melody and chord structure, with the two bottom strings for bass counterpoint, which he played with his thumb. His only professional training was as an apprentice sign painter. He requested the night shift so he could listen to big band standards on the shop radio. He listened to Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, and Eddie Lang. His career was influenced by hearing Charlie Christian playing electric guitar with the Benny Goodmanband. He said he made his own electric guitar because he could not afford to purchase one.

Farlow employed artificial harmonics and tapped his guitar for percussion, creating a flat, snare drum sound or a hollow backbeat like the bongos. His large, quick hands earned him the nickname “The Octopus”.

He caught the public’s attention in 1949 when he was in a trio with Red Norvo and Charles Mingus. In 1953, he was a member of the Gramercy Five led by Artie Shaw, and two years later he led his own trio with Vinnie Burke and Eddie Costa in New York City. After getting married in 1958, he partially retired and settled in Sea Bright, New Jersey, returning to a career as a sign painter.  He continued to play occasional dates in local clubs. In 1962 the Gibson Guitar Corporation, with Farlow’s participation, produced the “Tal Farlow” model. In 1976, Farlow started recording again. A documentary about him was released in 1981.

Later in his career Tal performed as a member of Great Guitars with a DVD released in 2005 after his death.

Farlow died of esophageal cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City on July 25, 1998, at the age of 77.

more...

Flamenco Fridays ANGELES TOLEDANO

June 7, 2024

Solea usually played por medio (on the sixth string in E phyrgian, relative to the capo) and at a slow tempo – commonly around 90 beats per minute. Solea performance also often involves rubato, the expressive speeding up and slowing down of tempo at the discretion of the performer.

The compas of solea emphasizes the 3, 6, 8, 10, and 12 beats:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Solea is sometimes called “mother of palos.” Though it is not the oldest (siguiriyas is older), there are a number of palos that derive their compas from solea include solea por buleria, the palos in the cantiñas group, like alegria, romera, mirabra, caracoles and, to a certain extent, buleria.

 

more...

Daily Roots Beres Hammond

June 7, 2024

more...

Busted!

June 6, 2024

more...

Cosmos NGC 4565

June 6, 2024

Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky, in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp, colorful image reveals the galaxy’s boxy, bulging central core cut by obscuring dust lanes that lace NGC 4565’s thin galactic plane. NGC 4565 itself lies about 40 million light-years distant and spans some 100,000 light-years. Easily spotted with small telescopes, sky enthusiasts consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier missed.

 

more...

Tony Levin

June 6, 2024

Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer specializing in electric bass guitars, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (1981–2021) and Peter Gabriel (since 1977). He is also a member of Liquid Tension Experiment (1997–1999, 2008–2009, 2020–present), Bruford Levin Upper Extremities(1998–2000) and HoBoLeMa (2008–2010). He has led his own band, Stick Men, since 2010.

A prolific session musician since the 1970s, Levin has played on over 500 albums. Some notable sessions include work with John Lennon, Herbie Mann, Sarah McLachlan, Paula Cole, Stevie Nicks, Pink Floyd, Robbie Robertson, Paul Simon, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Joan Armatrading, Tom Waits, Buddy Rich, The Roches, Todd Rundgren, Seal, Warren Zevon, Bryan Ferry, Laurie Anderson, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Gibonni, Chuck Mangione and Jean-Pierre Ferland. He has toured with artists including Paul Simon (with whom he appeared in the 1980 film One-Trick Pony), Gary Burton, James Taylor, Judy Collins, Carly Simon, Peter Frampton, Tim Finn, Richie Sambora, Ivano Fossati, Claudio Baglioni and Lawrence Gowan.

Levin helped to popularize the Chapman Stick and the NS electric upright bass. He also created “funk fingers“, modified drumsticks that attach to the fingers of the player in order to strike the bass strings, adding a distinctive percussive “slap” sound used in funk bass playing. In 2011, Levin ranked # 2 behind John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin in the “20 Most Underrated Bass Guitarists” in Paste magazine. In July 2020, Levin was ranked #42 on the “50 Greatest Bassists of All Time” list by Rolling Stone magazine.

more...

Monty Alexander

June 6, 2024

Montgomery Bernard “Monty” Alexander OJ CD (born 6 June 1944) is a Jamaican American jazz pianist. His playing has a Caribbean influence and bright swinging feeling, with a strong vocabulary of bebop jazz and blues rooted melodies. He was influenced by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Erroll Garner, Nat King Cole, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Les McCann, and Frank Sinatra. Alexander also sings and plays the melodica. He is known for his surprising musical twists, bright rhythmic sense, and intense dramatic musical climaxes. His recording career has covered many of the well-known American songbook standards, jazz standards, pop hits, and Jamaican songs from his original homeland. Alexander has resided in New York City for many years and performs frequently throughout the world at jazz festivals and clubs.

more...

Grant Green

June 6, 2024

Grant Green (June 6, 1935 – January 31, 1979) was an American jazz guitarist and composer.

Recording prolifically for Blue Note Records as both leader and sideman, Green performed in the hard bop, soul jazz, bebop, and Latin-tinged idioms throughout his career. Critic Michael Erlewine wrote, “A severely underrated player during his lifetime, Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of jazz guitar … Green’s playing is immediately recognizable – perhaps more than any other guitarist.”Critic Dave Hunter described his sound as “lithe, loose, slightly bluesy and righteously groovy”.

He often performed in an organ trio, a small group featuring a Hammond organ and drummer. Apart from fellow guitarist Charlie Christian, Green’s primary influences were saxophonists, particularly Charlie Parker, and his approach was almost exclusively linear rather than chordal. He rarely played rhythm guitar except as a sideman on albums led by other musicians.

The simplicity and immediacy of Green’s playing, which tended to avoid chromaticism, derived from his early work playing rhythm and blues and, although he achieved a synthesis of this style with bop, he was a skilled blues and funk guitarist and returned to this style in his later career.

Grant Green was born on June 6, 1935, in St. Louis, Missouri to John and Martha Green. His father was at various times a laborer and a Saint Louis policeman.

Green began studying guitar while he was in primary school. He received early instruction in guitar playing from his father, who played blues and folk music. He studied for a year with Forrest Alcorn, but he was mostly self-taught, learning from listening to records.

He first performed in a professional setting at the age of 13 as a member of a gospel music ensemble. Through his 20s, he was a member of jazz and R&B bands. His influences were Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and Jimmy Raney. Green’s style mimicked that of a saxophonist, playing single note rather than chords.

more...

World Music Nikadimus Experience

June 6, 2024

more...

Daily Roots Johnny Clarke

June 6, 2024

more...

Diego LaBriola Memorial 2024

June 5, 2024
Diego LaBriola Memorial 2024
Wednesday June 5, 2024
Diegos Memorial today @ 3932 Cedar Ave So in Minneapolis
born 9-23-1995 died 6-5-2002
or visit the Memorial Site today and leave a toy, flowers, incense or anything.
more...

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

June 5, 2024
Rhythm Roots Workshop Residency Ecumen Lakeview Commons Assisted Living and Memory Care in Maplewood
Wednesday June 5th, 2024
The eighth 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.
more...

Cosmos Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks

June 5, 2024

The most spectacular tail is the blue-glowing ion tail that is visible flowing down the image. The ion tail is pushed directly out from the Sun by the solar wind. On the upper right is the glowing central coma of Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks. Fanning out from the coma, mostly to the left, is the comet’s dust tail. Pushed out and slowed down by the pressure of sunlight, the dust tail tends to trail the comet along its orbit and, from some viewing angles, can appear opposite to the ion tail. The distant, bright star Alpha Leporis is seen at the bottom of the featured image captured last week from Namibia. Two days ago, the comet passed its closest to the Earth and is now best visible from southern skies as it dims and glides back to the outer Solar System.

more...

Peter Erskine

June 5, 2024

Peter Clark Erskine (born June 5, 1954) is an American jazz drummer who was a member of the jazz fusion groups Weather Report and Steps Ahead. Erskine was born in Somers Point, New Jersey, U.S. He began playing the drums at the age of four. He graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, then studied percussion at Indiana University. His professional music career started in 1972 when he joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra. After four years with Kenton, he joined Maynard Ferguson for two years. In 1978, he joined Weather Report, joining Jaco Pastorius in the rhythm section. After four years and five albums with Weather Report and the Jaco Pastorius big band’s Word of Mouth, he joined Steps Ahead. In 1983, he performed on the Antilles Records release Swingrass ’83. He toured the US in 1992 with Chick Corea.

more...

Jerry González

June 5, 2024

Jerry González (June 5, 1949 – October 1, 2018) was an American bandleader, trumpeter and percussionist of Puerto Rican descent. Geraldo, his father, was a singer in a band and worked for Las Villas, a chain of stores selling Latin American products. Jerry, who liked the trumpet and studied it carefully, but also the congas was a member of Cal Tjader Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. an American Jazz musician, known as the most successful non-Latino of Latin Jazz. Together Jerry Gonzalez with his brother, bassist Andy González, played an important role in the development of Latin Jazz during the late 20th century. During the 1970s, both played alongside Eddie Palmieri and in Manny Oquendo‘s Conjunto Libre, and from 1980 to 2018 they directed The Fort Apache Band. From 2000 to 2018, Jerry González resided in Madrid, where he fronted Los Piratas del Flamenco and El Comando de la Clave. In October 2018, he died of a heart attack after a fire in his home in Madrid.

more...

World Drumming Babatunde Olatunji

June 5, 2024

more...

Daily Roots mick laBriola

June 5, 2024

more...

Putins Secret Weapon

June 4, 2024

more...

Cosmos NGC 2403

June 4, 2024

Magnificent island universe NGC 2403 stands within the boundaries of the long-necked constellation Camelopardalis. Some 10 million light-years distant and about 50,000 light-years across, the spiral galaxy also seems to have more than its fair share of giant star forming HII regions, marked by the telltale reddish glow of atomic hydrogen gas. The giant HII regions are energized by clusters of hot, massive stars that explode as bright supernovae at the end of their short and furious lives. A member of the M81 group of galaxies, NGC 2403 closely resembles a galaxy in our own local galaxy group with an abundance of star forming regions, M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. Spiky in appearance, bright stars in this portrait of NGC 2403 are in the foreground, within our own Milky Way. Also in the foreground of the deep, wide-field, telescopic image are the Milky Way’s dim and dusty interstellar clouds also known as galactic cirrus or integrated flux nebulae. But faint features that seem to extend from NGC 2403 itself are likely tidal stellar streams drawn out by gravitational interactions with neighboring galaxies.

more...

Michelle Phillips

June 4, 2024

Michelle Gilliam Phillips (born Holly Michelle Gilliam; June 4, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to fame as a vocalist in the musical quartet the Mamas & the Papas in the mid-1960s. Her voice was described by Time magazine as the “purest soprano in pop music”. She later established a successful career as an actress in film and television beginning in the 1970s.

A native of Long Beach, California, she spent her early life in Los Angeles and Mexico City, raised by her widowed father. While working as a model in San Francisco, she met and married John Phillips in 1962 and went on to co-found the vocal group the Mamas & the Papas in 1965. The band rose to fame with their popular singles “California Dreamin’” and “Creeque Alley“, both of which she co-wrote. They released five studio albums before their dissolution in 1970. While married to John Phillips, she gave birth to their daughter, singer Chynna Phillips. Michelle Phillips is the last surviving original member of the band.

After the breakup of the Mamas & the Papas and her divorce from John Phillips, she transitioned into acting, appearing in a supporting part in The Last Movie (1971) before being cast as Billie Frechette in the critically acclaimed crime biopic Dillinger (1973), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Awardfor Most Promising Newcomer. In 1974, she had lead roles in two television films: the crime feature The Death Squad, and the teen drama The California Kid, in the latter of which she starred opposite Martin Sheen. She went on to appear in a number of films throughout the remainder of the 1970s, including Ken Russell‘s Valentino (1977), playing Natacha Rambova, and the thriller Bloodline (1979). She released her only solo album, Victim of Romance, in 1977.

Phillips’s first film of the 1980s was the comedy The Man with Bogart’s Face (1980). The next year she co-starred with Tom Skerritt in the nature-themed horror Savage Harvest (1981), followed by the television films Secrets of a Married Man (1984) and The Covenant (1985). In 1987, she joined the series Knots Landing, portraying Anne Matheson, the mother of Paige Matheson (portrayed by Nicollette Sheridan), until the series’s 1993 conclusion.

She later had supporting roles in the comedy film Let It Ride (1989) and the psychological thriller Scissors(1991). In 1998, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Mamas & the Papas. Phillips appeared in independent films in the 2000s, with supporting parts in Jane White Is Sick and Twisted (2002) and Kids in America (2005) and had recurring guest roles in the television series That’s Life(2001–2002) and 7th Heaven (2001–2004).

more...