mick laBriola

When did Orion become so flashy? This colorful rendition of part of the constellation of Orion comes from red light emitted by hydrogen and sulfur (SII), and blue-green light emitted by oxygen (OIII). Hues on the featured image were then digitally reassigned to be indicative of their elemental origins — but also striking to the human eye. The breathtaking composite was painstakingly composed from hundreds of images which took nearly 200 hours to collect. Pictured, Barnard’s Loop, across the image bottom, appears to cradle interstellar constructs including the intricate Orion Nebula seen just right of center. The Flame Nebula can also be quickly located, but it takes a careful eye to identify the slight indentation of the dark Horsehead Nebula. As to Orion’s flashiness — a leading explanation for the origin of Barnard’s Loop is a supernova blast that occurred about two million years ago.

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.

Justin David Hayward (born 14 October 1946) is an English musician best known as songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist for the rock band the Moody Blues. In 2018, Hayward was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside the Moody Blues.

In 1966, after answering another ad in Melody Maker, this time placed by Eric Burdon of The Animals, Hayward was contacted by Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues after Burdon had passed on Hayward’s letter and demo discs to Pinder. Within a few days, Hayward had replaced departing Moody Blues vocalist and guitarist Denny Laine. Bassist John Lodge replaced temporary deputy Rod Clarke, who had stood in for departed bassist Clint Warwick at the same time.

Jewell Stovall, better known as Babe Stovall (October 14, 1907 – September 21, 1974), was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist.

Stovall was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, United States, in 1907, the youngest of eleven children (thus his nickname “Babe”). He learned to play the guitar by the age of eight, and his guitar playing style was influenced by Tommy Johnson, whom he had met in Mississippi around 1930. In 1964, he relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he entertained on the streets, and in cafes and galleries of the French Quarter. Stovall frequently took young white musicians under his wing as apprentice performers, teaching them traditional country blues songs and guitar techniques. He variously played his guitar at the back of his neck, and hollered his song lyrics loudly for all in the vicinity to hear. In 1964 he recorded an album for Verve, titled Babe Stovall (which was re-released in 1990 on CD), and undertook more recordings in 1966, released as The Babe Stovall Story. His later work with Bob West resulted in The Old Ace: Mississippi Blues & Religious Songs, which was released on Arcola (2003). He was credited by some as the character inspiration behind Jerry Jeff Walker‘s, “Mr. Bojangles”.

Stovall played on the college circuit, in addition to being the regular musician at the Dream Castel Bar on Frenchman Street,^[2] and The Quarum club in New Orleans.

Jewell Stovall, better known as Babe Stovall (October 14, 1907 – September 21, 1974), was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist.

Stovall was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, United States, in 1907, the youngest of eleven children (thus his nickname “Babe”). He learned to play the guitar by the age of eight, and his guitar playing style was influenced by Tommy Johnson, whom he had met in Mississippi around 1930. In 1964, he relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he entertained on the streets, and in cafes and galleries of the French Quarter. Stovall frequently took young white musicians under his wing as apprentice performers, teaching them traditional country blues songs and guitar techniques. He variously played his guitar at the back of his neck, and hollered his song lyrics loudly for all in the vicinity to hear. In 1964 he recorded an album for Verve, titled Babe Stovall (which was re-released in 1990 on CD), and undertook more recordings in 1966, released as The Babe Stovall Story. His later work with Bob West resulted in The Old Ace: Mississippi Blues & Religious Songs, which was released on Arcola (2003). He was credited by some as the character inspiration behind Jerry Jeff Walker‘s, “Mr. Bojangles”.

Stovall played on the college circuit, in addition to being the regular musician at the Dream Castel Bar on Frenchman Street,^[2] and The Quarum club in New Orleans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYvkJk2ZWyk

NGC 1316 is in the Fornax galaxy cluster, and probably 60 million light-years away.

It contains a supermassive black hole at the center, helping to explain why it’s the 4th brightest radio source in the sky.

NGC 1317 is the smaller galaxy just to the north.

NGC 1316 (also known as Fornax A) is a lenticular galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax It is a radio galaxy and at 1400 MHz is the fourth-brightest radio source in the sky.

In the late 1970s, François Schweizer studied NGC 1316 extensively and found that the galaxy appeared to look like a small elliptical galaxy with some unusual dust lanes embedded within a much larger envelope of stars. The outer envelope contained many ripples, loops, and arcs. He also identified the presence of a compact disk of gas near the center that appeared inclined relative to the stars and that appeared to rotate faster than the stars. Based on these results, Schweizer considered that NGC 1316 was built up through the merger of several smaller galaxies.

Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Simon’s musical career has spanned seven decades, with his fame and commercial success beginning as half of the duo Simon & Garfunkel (originally known as Tom & Jerry), formed in 1956 with Art Garfunkel. Simon was responsible for writing nearly all of the pair’s songs, including three that reached number one on the U.S. singles charts: “The Sound of Silence“, “Mrs. Robinson“, and “Bridge over Troubled Water“.

The duo split up in 1970 at the height of their popularity and Simon began a successful solo career, recording three acclaimed albums over the next five years. In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music, which sold 14 million copies worldwide on its release and remains his most popular solo work. Simon also wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony (1980) and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman (1998) with the poet Derek Walcott. On June 3, 2016, Simon released his 13th solo album, Stranger to Stranger, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Album Chart and the UK charts.

Simon was born on October 13, 1941, in Newark, New Jersey, to Hungarian-Jewish parents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucT-2YJslt8

Pharoah Sanders (born Farrell Sanders, October 13, 1940) is an American jazz saxophonist.

Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as “probably the best tenor player in the world.” Emerging from John Coltrane‘s groups of the mid-1960s, Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of “sheets of sound“. Sanders is an important figure in the development of free jazz; Albert Ayler famously said: “Trane was the Father, Pharoah was the Son, I am the Holy Ghost”.

Pharoah Sanders was born on October 13, 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas. His mother worked as a cook in a school cafeteria, and his father worked for the City of Little Rock.

Sanders came to greater prominence playing with John Coltrane‘s band, starting in 1965, as Coltrane began adopting the avant-garde jazz of Albert Ayler, Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor. Sanders first performed with Coltrane on Ascension (recorded in June 1965), then on their dual-tenor recording Meditations (recorded in November 1965). After this Sanders joined Coltrane’s final quintet, usually performing very lengthy, dissonant solos. Coltrane’s later style was strongly influenced by Sanders.

Although Sanders’ voice developed differently from John Coltrane, Sanders was strongly influenced by their collaboration. Spiritual elements such as the chanting in Om would later show up in many of Sanders’ own works. Sanders would also go on to produce much free jazz, modified from Coltrane’s solo-centric conception. In 1968 he participated in Michael Mantler and Carla Bley‘s Jazz Composer’s Orchestra Association album The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, featuring Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Larry Coryell and Gato Barbieri.

Pharoah’s first album, Pharoah’s First, wasn’t what he expected. The musicians playing with him were much more straightforward than Sanders, which made the solos played by the other musicians a bit out of place. Starting in 1966 Sanders signed with Impulse! and recorded Tauhid that same year. His years with Impulse! caught the attention of jazz fans, critics, and musicians alike, including John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Albert Ayler.

In the 1970s, Sanders continued to produce his own recordings and also continued to work with the likes of Alice Coltrane on her Journey In Satchidananda album. Most of Sanders’ best-selling work was made in the late 1960s and early 1970s for Impulse Records, including the 30-minute wave-on-wave of free jazz “The Creator has a Master Plan” from the album Karma. This composition featured vocalist Leon Thomas‘s unique, “umbo weti” yodeling, and Sanders’ key musical partner, pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, who worked with Sanders from 1969-1971. Other members of his groups in this period include bassist Cecil McBee, on albums such as Jewels of Thought, Izipho Zam, Deaf Dumb Blind and Thembi.

Lee Konitz (born October 13, 1927) is an American composer and alto saxophonist.

He has performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz’s association with the cool jazz movement of the 1940s and 1950s includes participation in Miles Davis‘s Birth of the Cool  sessions and his work with pianist Lennie Tristano. He was notable during this era as one of relatively few alto saxophonists to retain a distinctive style when Charlie Parker exerted a massive influence.

Like other students of Tristano, Konitz was noted for improvising long, melodic lines with the rhythmic interest coming from odd accents, or odd note groupings suggestive of the imposition of one time signature over another. Other saxophonists were strongly influenced by Konitz, notably Paul Desmond and Art Pepper.

Konitz was born on October 13, 1927, in Chicago to Jewish parents of Austrian and Russian descent.

Arthur Tatum Jr. (/ˈteɪtəm/, October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist.

Tatum is considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. His performances were hailed for their technical proficiency and creativity, which set a new standard for jazz piano virtuosity. Critic Scott Yanow wrote, “Tatum’s quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries.”

Tatum was born in Toledo, Ohio, on October 13, 1909.

Tatum drew inspiration from the pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, who exemplified the stride piano style, and from the more modern Earl Hines, six years Tatum’s senior. Tatum identified Waller as his biggest influence, but according to pianist Teddy Wilson and saxophonist Eddie Barefield his favorite jazz pianist was Hines. He bought and listened to records by Hines and practiced improvising with them.

In 1927, Tatum began playing on Toledo radio station WSPD as ‘Arthur Tatum, Toledo’s Blind Pianist’, during interludes in Ellen Kay’s shopping chat program and soon had his own program. During 1928–29, his radio program was re-broadcast nationwide.

Lester summarized Tatum’s abilities and effect on others even from near the start of the pianist’s career: “his accomplishment, even at an early age, was of a different order from what most people, from what even musicians, had ever heard. It made musicians reconsider their definitions of excellence, of what was possible.” As word of Tatum spread, national performers passing through Toledo, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Joe Turner, and Fletcher Henderson dropped in to hear him play.

The men and women of Ensemble Tartit are Tuaregs residing in the Timbuktu and the Goundam region of the Niger River basin in Northern Mali.

Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth’s sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula’s central regions. In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light.

Ed Cherry (October 12, 1954 New Haven, CT) is an American jazz guitarist and studio musician. Cherry is perhaps best known for his long association with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, with whom he performed from 1978 until shortly before Gillespie’s death in 1993. Since that time, he has worked with Paquito D’Rivera, Jon Faddis, John Patton, Hamiet Bluiett, Henry Threadgill, and Paula West. He has recorded a number of albums as a leader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUVfV_2BZhI

Melvin Rhyne (October 12, 1936 – March 5, 2013, Indianapolis, Indiana), was a jazz organist best known for his work with Wes Montgomery.

Melvin Rhyne was born in Indianapolis in 1936 and started playing the piano shortly after. At 19 years old, Rhyne started playing piano with then-unknown tenor saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk but quickly switched over to the instrument that would make him famous: the Hammond B3 organ. Rhyne’s piano skills translated to the organ fluently and before long he was backing famous blues players like B.B. King and T-Bone Walker. In 1959 he was asked to join fellow Indianapolis musician Wes Montgomery‘s newly formed trio.

Rhyne then moved to Wisconsin and largely kept to himself for the next two decades. In 1991, however, he played on Herb Ellis‘s album Roll Call, Brian Lynch‘s At the Main Event, and his own album, The Legend. He continued to be prolific in the years to come, releasing eight more solo albums on the Criss Cross Jazz label. Rhyne also recorded with The Mark Ladley Trio for the 1992 release, Strictly Business and the 1994 release, Evidence. Both landed in the Jazz Charts at CMJ New Music Report and The Gavin Report. The group also appeared on a Jazziz Magazine sampler disc during that time. Altenburgh Records posthumously released, Final Call in 2013 by the same group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY9eso_YyDY

World Music on Flamenco Fridays with Agustin Carbonell ‘Bola’ performing Tangos.

In flamenco a tango (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtaŋɡo]) is one of the flamenco palos closely related in form and feeling to the rumba flamenca. It is often performed as a finale to a flamenco tiento. Its compás and llamada are the same as that of the farruca and share the farruca’s lively nature. However, the tango is normally performed in the A Phrygian mode. In some English sources the flamenco tango is written with an -s; “the tangos is…”

The flamenco tango is distinct from the flamenco rumba primarily through the guitar playing. In Rumba the guitar flows more freely, whereas in Tangos the accents on beats 2, 3 & 4 are marked clearly with heavy strumming.

Tangos is only vaguely related to Argentine tango, and objectively they only share compás binario or double stroke rhythm. The fact that Argentine tango is one of the first couple dances in America has led historians to believe that both could be based in a minuet-style European dance, therefore sharing a common ancestor, while those who compare the present day forms do not see them as related.

World Music on Flamenco Fridays with Agustin Carbonell ‘Bola’ performing Tangos.

In flamenco a tango (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtaŋɡo]) is one of the flamenco palos closely related in form and feeling to the rumba flamenca. It is often performed as a finale to a flamenco tiento. Its compás and llamada are the same as that of the farruca and share the farruca’s lively nature. However, the tango is normally performed in the A Phrygian mode. In some English sources the flamenco tango is written with an -s; “the tangos is…”

The flamenco tango is distinct from the flamenco rumba primarily through the guitar playing. In Rumba the guitar flows more freely, whereas in Tangos the accents on beats 2, 3 & 4 are marked clearly with heavy strumming.

Tangos is only vaguely related to Argentine tango, and objectively they only share compás binario or double stroke rhythm. The fact that Argentine tango is one of the first couple dances in America has led historians to believe that both could be based in a minuet-style European dance, therefore sharing a common ancestor, while those who compare the present day forms do not see them as related.