Blog
Lowell Fillmore “Sly” Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie.
Dunbar began playing at 15 in a band called The Yardbrooms. His first appearance on a recording was on the Dave and Ansell Collins album Double Barrel. Dunbar joined a band Ansell Collins called Skin, Flesh and Bones.
Speaking on his influences, Sly explains “My mentor was the drummer for the Skatalites, Lloyd Knibb. And I used to listen a lot to the drummer for Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Al Jackson Jr., and a lot of Philadelphia. And there are other drummers in Jamaica, like Santa and Carly from the Wailers Band, Winston Bennett, Paul Douglas, Mikey Boo. I respect all these drummers and have learnt a lot from them. From them, I listened and created my own style. They played some things I copied, other things I recreated.”
In 1972, Dunbar met and became friends with Robbie Shakespeare, who was then bass guitarist for the Hippy Boys. Shakespeare recommended Dunbar to Bunny Lee as a possible session drummer for the Aggrovators. Dunbar and Shakespeare decided to continue performing together. They worked with Peter Tosh and his band until 1981, recording five albums.
Dunbar noted about the Mighty Diamonds‘ song “Right Time”: “When that tune first come out, because of that double tap on the rim nobody believe it was me on the drums, they thought it was some sort of sound effect we was using. Then when it go to number 1 and stay there, everybody started trying for that style and it soon become established.” According to The Independent, the entire album Right Time was “revolutionary”, the breakthrough album of “masters of groove and propulsion” Dunbar and Shakespeare, with “Sly’s radical drumming matching the singers’ insurrectionary lyrics blow-for-blow.”
Dunbar and Shakespeare formed their Taxi Records label in 1980. It has seen releases from many international successful artists, including Black Uhuru, Chaka Demus and Pliers, Ini Kamoze, Beenie Man and Red Dragon.
more...Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965, and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles and albums during the late 1960s. His work became emblematic of the flower power era with its blend of folk, pop, psychedelic rock, and jazz stylings.
Donovan first achieved recognition with live performances on the pop TV series Ready Steady Go! in 1965. Having signed with Pye Records that year, he recorded singles and two albums in the folk vein for Hickory Records, scoring three UK hit singles: “Catch the Wind“, “Colours” and “Universal Soldier“, the last written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. He then signed to CBS/Epic in the US and became more successful internationally, beginning a long collaboration with British record producer Mickie Most. In September 1966, “Sunshine Superman” topped America’s Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week and went to No. 2 in Britain, followed by “Mellow Yellow” at US No. 2 in December 1966, then 1968’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” in the top 5 in both countries, and then “Atlantis“, which reached US No. 7 in May 1969. The compilation Donovan’s Greatest Hits was released in March 1969 and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.
Donovan became a friend of other prominent musicians such as Joan Baez, Brian Jones, and the Beatles. He taught John Lennon a finger-picking guitar style in 1968 that Lennon employed in “Dear Prudence“, “Julia“, “Happiness Is a Warm Gun“, and other songs. His backing musicians included the Jeff Beck Group, and John Bonham, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, who later rose to fame as members of Led Zeppelin. Donovan’s commercial fortunes waned after parting with Most in 1969, and he left the industry for a time.
Donovan continued to perform and record intermittently in the 1970s and 1980s. His musical style and hippie image were scorned by critics, especially after the rise of punk rock. His performing and recording became sporadic until a revival in the 1990s with the emergence of Britain’s rave scene and in 1994, he moved permanently to Ireland where he still lives.[3] In 1996 he recorded the album Sutras with producer Rick Rubin and in 2004 made the album Beat Cafe. Donovan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014.
more...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 considered 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 cited as influences George Benson, Kenny Burrell, and Rene Thomas, though none surpassed the impact of seeing Wes Montgomery
more...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 Awardnominations.
Lewis was born in Buffalo, New York, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents Samuel and Mildred Sokoloff. He started playing professionally as a teen, eventually joining Stan Kenton in 1954. His musical career brought him to Los Angeles in 1957 and New York City in 1963.
In 1966 in New York, he teamed up with Thad Jones to lead the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. The group started as informal jam sessions with the top studio and jazz musicians of the city, but eventually began performing regularly on Monday nights at the famed venue, the Village Vanguard. In 1979, the band won a Grammy for their album Live in Munich.[2] Like all of the musicians in the band, it was only a sideline. In 1976, he released an album titled Mel Lewis and Friends that featured him leading a smaller sextet that allowed freedom and improvisation.
When Jones moved to Denmark in 1978, the band became known as Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra. Lewis continued to lead the band, recording and performing every Monday night at the Village Vanguard until shortly before his death from cancer at age 60. The band still performs on most Monday nights at the club. Today, it is known as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and has released several CDs
more...“Seguiriya” is one of the oldest flamenco styles. It is one of the most important with the “bulería” and “soleá”. Etymologically, its name is supposed to derive from the “seguidilla”. A phonetic corruption has deformed it in different terms: “seguiriya”, “siguiriya”, “seguirilla” or “siguerilla”. The oldest evidence of this flamenco style is found in the late 18th century, even though its origin is still uncertain. “Seguiriya” derived from primitive “tonás”, being created between Seville and Cadiz, los Puertos, Jerez and Triana neighborhood. “Livianas” and “serranas” belong to the same group as this style. Both styles follow “segiriya” rhythm. Another variety is the “cabales”, which are very similar to “seguiriyas” but in a higher tone. As singing, it has a tragic and gloomy character, enclosing main values of what is known as “cante hondo”. Lyrics are painful, tragic, about human relationships, love and death. “Seguiriya” has few lyrics and many “quejíos”. Musical aesthetic of “seguiriya” is taken from styles such “malagueñas” or a capella (without guitar). The term “Seguiriya” appears in many literary works. Furthermore, music in some “tonadillas”appear as “seguidilla gitana”, which doesn’t match with “seguidilla flamenca”.
It is known today that its metric is based on an order inversion of the “soleá” rhythm (3 × 4 + 6 × 8). Oldest forms of this style were interpreted in the same way as “tonás”, without music accompaniment. Currently, it is accompanied by guitar. In addition, continuous tone changes and nuances make this singing as one of the most difficult to perform. Dance was introduced for the first time thanks to Vicente Escudero in 1940. It is a slow, solemn, ceremonious, unornamented dance, whose structure is composed by four hexasyllabic verses, unless the third which is hendecasyllabic. This syllabic model is related with “jarchas”. The second line rhymes to the fourth, both consonant and assonance. In this flamenco style feeling is more important than structure. It is not strange to find “seguiriya” with other metrics. There are different types of “seguiriyas” which are associated to a particular singer. In Cadiz, El Planeta; in Jerez, La Niña de los Peines; in Triana el de Frasco el Colorao; etc.
121212312312 compas
more...Heart of the Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula or Eta Carinae Nebula (catalogued as NGC 3372; also known as the Great Carina Nebula) is a large, complex area of bright and dark nebulosity in the constellation Carina, located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The nebula is approximately 8,500 light-years (2,600 pc) from Earth.
The nebula has within its boundaries the large Carina OB1 association and several related open clusters, including numerous O-type stars and several Wolf–Rayet stars. Carina OB1 encompasses the star clusters Trumpler 14 and Trumpler 16. Trumpler 14 is one of the youngest known star clusters at half a million years old and contains stars like the O2 supergiant HD 93129A. Trumpler 16is the home of many extremely luminous stars, such as WR 25 and the Eta Carinae star system. Trumpler 15, Collinder 228, Collinder 232, NGC 3324, and NGC 3293 are also considered members of the association. NGC 3293 is the oldest and furthest from Trumpler 14, indicating sequential and ongoing star formation.
more...Paul Richard Furay (born May 9, 1944) is an American musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield). He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin, and Poco with Jim Messina, Timothy B. Schmit, Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner. His best known song (originally written during his tenure in Buffalo Springfield, but eventually performed by Poco as well) was “Kind Woman,” which he wrote for his wife, Nancy. Before joining Buffalo Springfield, Furay performed with Stills in the nine-member group, the Au Go Go Singers (Furay, Roy Michaels, Rick Geiger, Jean Gurney, Michael Scott, Kathy King, Nels Gustafson, Bob Harmelink, and Stills), the house band of the Cafe Au Go Go in New York City.
more...Sonny Curtis (born May 9, 1937) is an American singer and songwriter. Known for his collaborations with Buddy Holly, he was a member of the Crickets and continued with the band after Holly’s death. Curtis’s best known compositions include “Walk Right Back“, a major hit in 1961 for the Everly Brothers; “I Fought the Law“, notably covered by the Bobby Fuller Four and the Clash; and “Love is All Around,” the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Curtis was born in Meadow, Texas, United States. As a guitarist, he played on some of Buddy Holly’s earlier 1956 Decca sessions, including the minor hit “Blue Days Black Nights” and a song he wrote, “Rock Around With Ollie Vee”. In 1955 and 1956 he, along with Buddy Holly, opened concerts for rising new star Elvis Presley. Although he had gone on the road with other musicians by the time Buddy Holly put together the Crickets in 1957, Curtis joined the Crickets in late 1958, shortly before Holly’s death in 1959, and soon took over the lead vocalist role in addition to lead guitar. The Crickets’ post-Holly recordings were put on hold after Holly’s death, and Curtis was drafted in late 1959. During basic training, he was given a three-day pass and met the Crickets’ drummer, Jerry Allison, who was then playing with the Everly Brothers, in Los Angeles. Curtis played him the song “Walk Right Back“, which Allison had him immediately take to the Everlys; they recorded the song that weekend and were later rewarded with a Billboard top 10 hit. The song was also a hit in 1978 for Anne Murray.
more...Tania Maria (born May 9, 1948) is a Brazilian artist, singer, composer, bandleader and piano player, singing mostly in Portuguese or English. Her Brazilian-style music is mostly vocal, sometimes pop, often jazzy, and includes samba, bossa, Afro-Latin, pop and jazz fusion.
Born in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil, Tania Maria began playing the piano at the age of seven, became a leader at the age of 13, when her band of professional musicians, organized by her father, won first prize in a local music contest and went on to play for dances, in clubs and on the radio. Her father, a metal worker and a gifted guitarist and singer, had encouraged her to study piano so that she could play in his weekend jam sessions, where she first absorbed the rhythms and melodies of samba, jazz, pop music and Brazilian chorinho. Since then, she has never worked in anyone else’s group. She has a degree in law, married early and had children.
more...Nole Floyd “Nokie” Edwards (May 9, 1935 – March 12, 2018) was an American musician and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was primarily a guitarist, best known for his work with The Ventures,and was known in Japan as the ‘King of Guitars’. Edwards was also an actor, who appeared briefly on Deadwood, an American Western drama television series.
Edwards was born in Lahoma, Oklahoma, the son of Elbert Edwards and Nannie Mae Quinton Edwards,an original enrollee of the Western Cherokee. Edwards came from a family of accomplished musicians, so that by age five he began playing a variety of string instruments, including the steel guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, and bass. His family relocated from Oklahoma to Puyallup, Washington.
During Edwards’ late teen years he joined the United States Army Reserve. After traveling to Texas and California for training, he returned home and began playing regularly for pay in numerous country bands in the area.
more...Dennis Milton Chambers (born May 9, 1959) is an American jazz fusion and funk drummer. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2001.
Chambers was born on May 9, 1959, in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. 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. Contrary to popular belief, he did not play on “Rapper’s Delight” which was revealed in an interview with Drumeo on August 16, 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.
more...Trumpler 16 is an open star cluster within the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372 or the Eta Carinae Nebula), located about 7,500 light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Carina (the Keel). It is slowly moving toward us at roughly 25 kilometers per hour.
This young cluster contains over 560 stars, including a significant population of very young stars, and three of the biggest and most impressive stars from our galaxy: Eta Carinae (not visible in this image), WR 25 and Tr16-244. Although intermediate-mass stars have been forming continuously over the last 10 million years, the high-mass stars formed within the last 3 million years.
What seems to be a single bright star might actually turn out to be several stars close together. Eta Carinae, with a mass of 100 to 150 times the mass of our Sun, probably coexists in a binary state with another massive supergiant; WR 25, the brightest object in the above image, consists of at least two separate stars of which the brightest star appears to be about 50 times the mass of our Sun. Additionally, Tr16 -244 (the third brightest, just to the upper left of WR 25) consists of at least three individual stars. The second brightest in this image, to the left of WR 25, is a low-mass star located much closer to Earth than the Carina Nebula.
more...Mahmoud Ahmed (Amharic: ማሕሙድ አሕመድ; born 8 May 1941) is an Ethiopian singer. 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 as a shoeshiner before becoming a handyman at the Arizona Club, which was the after hours hangout of Emperor Haile Selassie I‘s Imperial Bodyguard 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.
more...Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also been a group leader and solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. His improvisations draw from the traditions of jazz and other genres, including Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music.
His album, The Köln Concert, released in 1975, is the best-selling piano recording in history. In 2008, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in the magazine’s 73rd Annual Readers’ Poll.
In 2003, Jarrett received the Polar Music Prize and was the first recipient to be recognized with prizes for both contemporary and classical music. In 2004, he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize.
In February 2018, Jarrett suffered a stroke and has been unable to perform since. A second stroke in May 2018 left him partially paralyzed and unable to play with his left hand.
Jarrett was born on May 8, 1945, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to a mother of Slovenian descent. Jarrett’s grandmother was born in Segovci, near Apače in Slovenia. Jarrett’s father was of mostly Germandescent. He grew up in suburban Allentown with significant early exposure to music.
more...Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazzpianist, 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.
She has been noted for her 1954 conversion to Catholicism, which led to a musical hiatus and a later transformation in the nature of her music. She continued to perform and work as a philanthropist, educator, and youth mentor until her death from bladder cancer in 1981.
In 1927, Williams married saxophonist John Overton Williams. She met him at a performance in Cleveland where he was leading his group, the Syncopators, and moved with him to Memphis, Tennessee. He assembled a band in Memphis, which included Williams on piano. In 1929, 19-year-old Williams assumed leadership of the Memphis band when her husband accepted an invitation to join Andy Kirk‘s band in Oklahoma City. Williams joined her husband in Oklahoma City but did not play with the band. The group, Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy, moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Williams, when she wasn’t working as a musician, was employed transporting bodies for an undertaker. When the Clouds of Joy accepted a longstanding engagement in Kansas City, Missouri, Williams joined her husband and began sitting in with the band, as well as serving as its arranger and composer. She provided Kirk with such songs as “Froggy Bottom”, “Walkin’ and Swingin'”, “Little Joe from Chicago”, “Roll ‘Em”, and “Mary’s Idea”.
Williams was the arranger and pianist for recordings in Kansas City (1929) Chicago (1930), and New York City (1930). During a trip to Chicago, she recorded “Drag ‘Em” and “Night Life” as piano solos. She used the name “Mary Lou” at the suggestion of Jack Kapp at Brunswick Records. The records sold quickly, raising Williams to national prominence. Soon after the recording session she became Kirk’s permanent second pianist, playing solo gigs and working as a freelance arranger for Earl Hines, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. In 1937, she produced In the Groove (Brunswick), a collaboration with Dick Wilson, and Benny Goodman asked her to write a blues song for his band. The result was “Roll ‘Em”, a boogie-woogie piece based on the blues, which followed her successful “Camel Hop”, named for Goodman’s radio show sponsor, Camel cigarettes. Goodman tried to put Williams under contract to write for him exclusively, but she refused, preferring to freelance instead.
more...More Posts
- World Music with Debashish & Anandi Bhattacharya
- Daily Roots with Gregory Isaacs
- The Cosmos with M42
- Justin Hayward Day
- Jewell “Babe” Stovall Day
- Jewell "Babe" Stovall Day
- World Music with Minyeshu
- Daily Roots with Joe Higgs
- The Cosmos with NGC 1316
- Paul Simon Day
- Pharaoh Sanders Day
- Lee Konitz Day
- Art Tatum Day
- World Music with Tartit
- Daily Roots with Israel Vibration
- The Cosmos with NGC 1579
- Ed Cherry Day
- Melvin Rhyne Day
- World Music with Agustin Carbonell ‘Bola’
- World Music with Agustin Carbonell 'Bola'