John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish musician, singer, songwriter and composer. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and bassist of rock band Cream. After the group disbanded in 1968, he pursued a solo career and also played with several bands.
In the early 1960s Bruce joined the Graham Bond Organisation (GBO), where he met future Cream bandmate Ginger Baker. After leaving the band, he briefly joined with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, where he met Eric Clapton. In 1966, he formed Cream with lead guitarist Clapton and drummer Baker. He co-wrote many of their songs (including “Sunshine of Your Love“, “White Room” and “I Feel Free“) with poet/lyricist Pete Brown. After the group disbanded in the late 1960s, he began recording solo albums. Bruce put together a band of his own to perform material live and subsequently formed the blues rock band West, Bruce and Laing in 1972, with ex-Mountain guitarist Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing. His solo career spanned several decades. From the 1970s to the 1990s he played with several bands as a touring member. He reunited with Cream in 2005 for concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Bruce is considered one of the most important and influential bassists of all time. Rolling Stone magazine readers ranked him number eight on their list of “10 Greatest Bassists Of All Time”. He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, both as a member of Cream.
see full post...Arthur James “Zutty” Singleton (May 14, 1898 – July 14, 1975) was an American jazz drummer.
Singleton was born in Bunkie, Louisiana, United States, and raised in New Orleans. According to his Jazz Profiles biography, his unusual nickname, acquired in infancy, is the Creole word for “cute”. He was working professionally with Steve Lewis by 1915. He served with the United States Navy in World War I. After returning to New Orleans he worked with Papa Celestin, Big Eye Louis Nelson, John Robichaux, and Fate Marable. He left for St. Louis, Missouri, to play in Charlie Creath‘s band, then moved to Chicago.
In Chicago, Singleton played with Doc Cook, Dave Peyton, Jimmie Noone, and theater bands, then joined Louis Armstrong‘s band with Earl Hines. In 1928 and 1929, he performed on landmark recordings with Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five. In 1929 he moved with Armstrong to New York City.
In addition to Armstrong in New York he played with Bubber Miley, Tommy Ladnier, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton and Otto Hardwick. He also played in the band backing Bill Robinson. In 1934, Singleton returned to Chicago. He returned to New York in 1937, working with Mezz Mezzrow and Sidney Bechet.
In 1943, he moved to Los Angeles, where he led his own band, played for motion pictures, and appeared on the radio program The Orson Welles Almanac (1944). He also worked with Slim Gaillard, Wingy Manone, Eddie Condon, Nappy Lamare, Art Hodes, Oran “Hot Lips” Page, and Max Kaminsky.
see full post...The third week of performances for The Defeat of Jesse James musical at the History Theater. Saturday May 13th 2023 @ 730pm show. Music by Raymond Berg, Kam Markworth. Christian Wheeler and mick LaBriola. https://www.historytheatre.com/2022-2023/defeat-jesse-james
The Medusa Nebula is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Gemini. It is also known as Abell 21 and Sharpless 2-274. It was originally discovered in 1955 by University of California, Los Angeles astronomer George O. Abell, who classified it as an old planetary nebula. Until the early 1970s, the nebula was thought to be a supernova remnant. With the computation of expansion velocities and the thermal character of the radio emission, Soviet astronomers in 1971 concluded that it was most likely a planetary nebula. As the nebula is so large, its surface brightness is very low, with surface magnitudes of between +15.99 and +25 reported. 1500 ly away
The central star of the planetary nebula is an PG 1159 star.
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Stevland Hardaway Morris (né Judkins; May 13, 1950 Saginaw, MI), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter. He is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder’s use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown‘s Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder.
Wonder’s single “Fingertips” was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963, at the age of 13, making him the youngest artist ever to top the chart. Wonder’s critical success was at its peak in the 1970s. His “classic period” began in 1972 with the releases of Music of My Mind and Talking Book, the latter featuring “Superstition“, which is one of the most distinctive and famous examples of the sound of the Hohner Clavinetkeyboard. His works Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life(1976) all won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making him the tied-record holder for the most Album of the Year wins, with three. He is also the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases. Wonder began his “commercial period” in the 1980s; he achieved his biggest hits and highest level of fame, had increased album sales, charity participation, high-profile collaborations (including Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson), political impact, and television appearances. Wonder has continued to remain active in music and political causes.
Wonder is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 100 million records worldwide. He has won 25 Grammy Awards (the most by a solo artist) and one Academy Award (Best Original Song, for the 1984 film The Woman in Red). Wonder has been inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King Jr.‘s birthday a federal holiday in the U.S. In 2009, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and in 2014, he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
see full post...William McKinley “Red” Garland Jr. (May 13, 1923 – April 23, 1984) was an American modern jazzpianist. Known for his work as a bandleader and during the 1950s with Miles Davis, Garland helped popularize the block chord style of playing in jazz piano.
William “Red” Garland was born in 1923 in Dallas, Texas. He began his musical studies on the clarinet and alto saxophone but, in 1941, switched to the piano. Less than five years later, Garland joined the trumpet player Hot Lips Page, well-known in the southwest, playing with him until a tour ended in New York in March 1946. With Garland having decided to stay in New York to find work, Art Blakey came across Garland playing at a small club, only to return the next night with his boss, Billy Eckstine.
see full post...Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazzpianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role in the development of cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, and jazz fusion. He is best known for his acclaimed collaborations with Miles Davis.
see full post...The third week of performances for The Defeat of Jesse James musical at the History Theater. Friday 730pm show. Music by Raymond Berg, Kam Markworth. Christian Wheeler and mick LaBriola. https://www.historytheatre.com/2022-2023/defeat-jesse-james
This 2 panel mosaic spans about 6 degrees across a widefield region in the constellation of Vela. The blue gas clouds are from the remnants of the Vela Supernova and one can see NGC 2736, or the Pencil Nebula glow brightly on the right of the frame. The nebula’s shape suggests that it is part of a supernova shock wave that has encountered a region of dense gas. It is this interaction that causes the nebula to glow and form ripples. RCW 38 dominates the center of the frame and is an HII region with dark clouds enshrouding recently formed stars. The gases and clouds come together to form a rich tapestry of glowing reds and dark blacks. Also seen in the image are RCW 39 and 40 amongst lots of other fine details…..
Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician, singer and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player and vocalist prominent for his distinctive, soulful high tenor voice, Winwood plays other instruments proficiently, including drums, mandolin, bass and saxophone.
Winwood was an integral member of three groups of the 1960s and 1970s: the Spencer Davis Group, Trafficand Blind Faith. Beginning in the 1980s, his solo career flourished and he had a number of hit singles, including “While You See a Chance” (1980) from the album Arc of a Diver and “Valerie” (1982) from Talking Back to the Night (“Valerie” became a hit when it was re-released with a remix from Winwood’s 1987 compilation album Chronicles). His 1986 album Back in the High Life marked his career zenith, with hit singles including “Back in the High Life Again“, “The Finer Things” and the US Billboard Hot 100 number one hit “Higher Love“. He found the top of the Hot 100 again with “Roll With It” (1988) from the album of the same name, with “Holding On” also charting highly the same year. While his hit singles ceased at the end of the 1980s, he continued to release new albums up to 2008, when Nine Lives, his latest album, was released.
Winwood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Traffic in 2004. In 2005, Winwood was honoured as a BMI Icon at the annual BMI London Awards for his “enduring influence on generations of music makers.” In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked Winwood No. 33 in its 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Winwood has won two Grammy Awards. He was nominated twice for a Brit Award for Best British Male Artist: 1988 and 1989. In 2011, he received the Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for Outstanding Song Collection.
see full post...Gary George Peacock (May 12, 1935 – September 4, 2020) was an American jazz double bassist. He recorded a dozen albums under his own name, and also performed and recorded with major jazz figures such as avant garde saxophonist Albert Ayler, pianists Bill Evans, Paul Bley and Marilyn Crispell, and as a part of Keith Jarrett’s “Standards Trio” with drummer Jack DeJohnette. The trio existed for over thirty years, and recorded over twenty albums together. DeJohnette once stated that he admired Peacock’s “sound, choice of notes, and, above all, the buoyancy of his playing.” Marilyn Crispell called Peacock a “sensitive musician with a great harmonic sense.”
Peacock was born in Burley, Idaho, on May 12, 1935; his father worked as a business consultant for grocery stores, and his mother was a homemaker. He grew up in Yakima, Washington, where he attended Yakima Senior High School, now called A.C. Davis High School. His earliest musical experiences involved playing piano, trumpet, and drums. When he was 15, he heard live jazz for the first time, attending a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert featuring Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown. Peacock graduated in 1953; while playing for his class, he had a profound experience, stating: “I was playing the drums, and had the experience of being played rather than playing… I realized that something transformative had happened… and there was this certainty. From the bottom of my feet to the top of my head, it was totally clear: ‘Oh, this is the direction to go.’
see full post...Gerald Foster Wiggins (May 12, 1922 – July 13, 2008) was an American jazz pianist and organist. Wiggins was born in New York City on May 12, 1922. He studied classical music, but switched to jazz in his teens.
Wiggins began as a professional career as a musician accompanying comedian Stepin Fetchit. Wiggins worked with Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter. He was in the military from 1944 to 1946. In the 1940s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he played music for television and film. He also worked with singers like Lena Horne (1950–51), Kay Starr, and Eartha Kitt. In 1960, his best recording as an organist appeared, Wiggin’ Out, known for the quality of its music and fresh, clear sound. He recorded another LP at the organ with saxophonist Teddy Edwards. “In the 1960s he worked as a music director and vocal coach in film studios,” including “a lengthy stint as vocal coach for Marilyn Monroe.” In the 1970s he often collaborated with vocalist Helen Humes.
see full post...Rumba Flamenca may be the most widely known and least understood of the flamenco forms. Most of the world first heard Rumba Flamenca via the Gypsy Kings in songs like Bamboleo and Volare. In Spain, Rumba Flamenca has come in and out of style since Niña de los Peines first recorded a Rumba in 1918. Since then, artists such as El Chaqueta, Chano Lobato and Miguel Vargas Jiménez (Bambino) have become closely associated with the form. Thanks to the Gypsy Kings and their countless imitators, and to recordings like Paco de Lucia’s Entre Dos Aguas, Rumba Flamenca has become essentially a two guitar form, with one guitar playing a solo melody while the other plays the harmony with the characteristic rumba rasgueado pattern, this often assisted with bass and percussion.
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The third week of performances for The Defeat of Jesse James musical at the History Theater. Two Thursday May 11th show with a 10am matinee and a 730pm show. Music by Raymond Berg, Kam Markworth. Christian Wheeler and mick LaBriola. https://www.historytheatre.com/2022-2023/defeat-jesse-james
IC 417 was discovered on 25 September 1892 by the German astronomer Max Wolf. It is an emission and reflection nebula with an embedded star cluster, which is part of an extensive H-II nebula complex and star formation region in the Auriga constellation. The age is estimated to be less than 3 million years.
