Fall deeper into the entrancing NGC 4303, a spiral galaxy located approximately 55 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. This image combines data taken at radio and visible wavelengths, and is helping astronomers understand how stars form in galaxies. The hypnotising golden glow drawing you into the image corresponds to clouds of molecular gas, the raw material out of which stars form. The data was taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), co-operated by ESO in the Chilean Andes. The blueish regions in the background, on the other hand, were imaged with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), also in Chile, and they reveal already formed stars. By comparing the distribution of gas and stars astronomers are able to study what triggers, enhances or hampers the birth of new stars. This image is part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) project, which is using ground-based and space telescopes to make detailed observations of nearby galaxies across the electromagnetic spectrum
Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to success in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the hits “This Will Be“, “Inseparable” (1975), and “Our Love” (1977). She returned as a pop singer on the 1987 album Everlasting and her cover of Bruce Springsteen‘s “Pink Cadillac“. In the 1990s, she sang traditional pop by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable… with Love, which sold over seven million copies and won her seven Grammy Awards. She sold over 30 million records worldwide.
Natalie Cole was born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole and former Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Hawkins Ellington, and raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles. Regarding her childhood, Cole referred to her family as “the black Kennedys” and was exposed to many great singers of jazz, soul and blues. At the age of 6, Natalie sang on her father’s Christmas album The Magic of Christmas and later started performing at age 11.
see full post...Calvin Keys (born February 6, 1943) is an American jazz guitarist, known for the several albums he released for Black Jazz Records.
Keys has performed and recorded with Ray Charles, Ahmad Jamal, John Handy, Bobby Hutcherson, Eddie Marshall, Sonny Stitt, Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson and Leon Williams.
see full post...John Pisano (born February 6, 1931) is a jazz guitarist born in Staten Island, New York.
Pisano has worked with Herb Alpert, Billy Bean, Chico Hamilton, Peggy Lee, and Joe Pass.
see full post...Robert Nesta Marley OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements of reggae, ska, and rocksteady, as well as his distinctive vocal and songwriting style. Marley’s contributions to music increased the visibility of Jamaican music worldwide, and made him a global figure in popular culture to this day. Over the course of his career, Marley became known as a Rastafari icon, and he infused his music with a sense of spirituality. He is also considered a global symbol of Jamaican music and culture and identity, and was controversial in his outspoken support for democratic social reforms. In 1976, Marley survived an assassination attempt in his home, which was thought to be politically motivated. He also supported legalisation of marijuana, and advocated for Pan-Africanism.
Born in Nine Mile, Jamaica, Marley began his professional musical career in 1963, after forming the Teenagers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, which after several name changes would become the Wailers. The group released its debut studio album The Wailing Wailers in 1965, which contained the single “One Love“, a reworking of “People Get Ready“; the song was popular worldwide, and established the group as a rising figure in reggae. The Wailers released a further eleven studio albums, and after signing to Island Records the band’s name became Bob Marley and the Wailers. While initially employing louder instrumentation and singing, the group began engaging in rhythmic-based song construction in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which coincided with Marley’s conversion to Rastafari. Around this time, Marley relocated to London, and the group embodied their musical shift with the release of the album The Best of The Wailers (1971).
The group started to gain international attention after signing to Island, and touring in support of the albums Catch a Fire and Burnin’ (both 1973). Following the disbandment of the Wailers a year later, Marley carried on under the band’s name. The album Natty Dread (1974) received positive reception. In 1975, following the global popularity of Eric Clapton‘s version of Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff“, Marley had his international breakthrough with his first hit outside Jamaica, with a live version of “No Woman, No Cry“, from the Live!album. This was followed by his breakthrough album in the United States, Rastaman Vibration (1976), which reached the Top 50 of the Billboard Soul Charts. A few months after the album’s release Marley survived an assassination attempt at his home in Jamaica, which prompted him to permanently relocate to London. During his time in London he recorded the album Exodus (1977); it incorporated elements of blues, soul, and British rock and enjoyed widespread commercial and critical success. In 1977, Marley was diagnosed with acral lentiginous melanoma; he died as a result of the illness in 1981, shortly after baptism into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. His fans around the world expressed their grief, and he received a state funeral in Jamaica.
The greatest hits album Legend was released in 1984, and became the best-selling reggae album of all time. Marley also ranks as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of more than 75 million records worldwide. He was posthumously honoured by Jamaica soon after his death with a designated Order of Merit by his nation. In 1994, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone ranked him No. 11 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. His other achievements include a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and induction into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.
see full post...In its third performance at the Gremlin Theater by Theatre 55 and its only matinee at 2pm on Sunday February 5th 2023. Remainder shows February 8th thru the 11th. Music with Shirley Mier, Jamie Carter, Lyra Olson and mick laBriola.
IC 410, sometimes known as the Tadpole Nebula because of its northeastern filaments, is a large emission nebula visible in the constellation Auriga; linked to it is the open cluster NGC 1893, formed by young, rather dispersed, massive stars. The region is home to important star formation processes generating massive stars.
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Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity. Throughout much of the 1960s and 1970s he was a prolific studio musician, playing organ on the Bob Dylan song “Like a Rolling Stone“, French horn and piano on the Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want“, and lead guitar on Rita Coolidge‘s “The Lady’s Not for Sale“, among many other appearances. Kooper also produced a number of one-off collaboration albums, such as the Super Session album that saw him work separately with guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. In the 1970s Kooper was a successful manager and producer, recording Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s first three albums. He has also had a successful solo career, writing music for film soundtracks, and has lectured in musical composition.
Al Kooper was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Sam and Natalie Kuperschmidt (who were Jewish),and grew up in Hollis Hills, Queens, New York.
see full post...Richard Quentin Laird (February 5, 1941 – July 4, 2021) was an Irish musician, photographer, teacher, and author best known as the bassist and a founding member of the jazz fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra, with which he performed from 1971 to 1973.
Laird was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 5 February 1941, to a musical family. His mother played the piano in a variety of styles and his father played the ukulele; Laird started playing both instruments when he was three. At around five years of age, Laird started formal tuition in the guitar and piano, and he had already started to read sheet music. He soon quit the piano as he did not perform well, which led him to take up painting and drawing. At twelve, Laird began lessons in Spanish guitar, but his teacher used books that he felt were too difficult, so he quit. He then discovered jazz from his mother, who bought her son a pair of drum brushes and made him play along to records.
see full post...Barrett Strong Jr. (February 5, 1941 – January 28, 2023) was an American singer and songwriter known for his recording of “Money (That’s What I Want)“, which was the first hit single for the Motown record label. He is also known for his songwriting work in association with producer Norman Whitfield; together, they penned such songs as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine“, “War“, “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)“, and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone“.
In 2004, Strong was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Whitfield.
Strong was born in West Point, Mississippi, on February 5, 1941, the only boy in a family of six children born to Barrett Strong Sr., a minister. His family moved to Detroit, Michigan, when he was four years old, and his father bought him a piano soon after. Strong began singing at Hutchins Middle School in Detroit, where his classmates included Aretha Franklin and Lamont Dozier.
see full post...Tonight Saturday February 4th 2023 7pm. RENT the musical’s second performance by Theatre 55 at the Gremlin Theater in St Paul Cretin/Vandalia warehouse district with free parking. The sold out house last night was amazing and they stayed through the 2.5 hour performance including the 15 minute intermission. Congratulations to the cast for a wonderful show. Music featuring Shirley Mier, Jamie Carter, Lyra Olson and mick laBriola.
NGC 2626 is a beautiful, bright, blue reflection nebula in the southern Milky Way. Next to an obscuring dust cloud and surrounded by reddish hydrogen emission from large H II region RCW 27 it lies within a complex of dusty molecular clouds known as the Vela Molecular Ridge. NGC 2626 is itself a cloud of interstellar dust reflecting blue light from the young hot embedded star visible within the nebula. But astronomical explorations reveal many other young stars and associated nebulae in the star-forming region. NGC 2626 is about 3,200 light-years away. At that distance this telescopic field of view would span about 30 light-years along the Vela Molecular Ridge.
February 4th 1938 85 years old. Born and raised in Ashland, MS, guitarist Joe Beard grew up with the Murphy brothers, one of whom later found an international following as Matt “Guitar” Murphy. Beard moved to Rochester, NY, and from time to time would visit one of his brothers in Chicago. He quickly became enamored of the blues being played in clubs there by people like Jimmy Reed and Sonny Boy Williamson. Beard sat in with John Lee Hooker one night and received encouraging words from Hooker.
Beard befriended classic blues guitarist Son House, who was a neighbor in Rochester.. Beard worked as an electrician by day and would occasionally play out at night and on weekends for most of the ’60s on through to the ’80s. At Rochester’s famed BK Lounge, Beard and his backing bands opened for Bobby Bland, Albert King, and others.
Joe has played many major festivals in the US and Europe and was inducted to the Rochester Music Hall Of Fame in 2017. He has released 4 albums to great critical acclaim. One album featured Ronnie Earl and two others featured Duke Robillard.
see full post...John Stubblefield (February 4, 1945 – July 4, 2005) was an American jazz saxophonist, flautist, and oboist.
Stubblefield was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. He studied music at the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians with Muhal Richard Abrams in Chicago before moving to New York Cityin 1971.
After moving to New York, Stubblefield played with the Mingus Big Band for 13 years. During his career, Stubblefield played with the World Saxophone Quartet (1986–1988), Reggie Workman (1989–1993), McCoy Tyner (1984), Freddie Hubbard (1985), and George Russell (1985). Stubblefield also served for a time as a jazz ensemble director at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, following the departure of Paul Jeffrey in 1983.
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