mick’s blog

Dave Weckl

January 8, 2022

Dave Weckl (born January 8, 1960) is an American jazz fusion drummer and leader of the Dave Weckl Band. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2000.

Weckl started playing his first set of drums at age 8 in his spare room along to records. He later played in the living room, sometimes with his father on piano. Weckl studied at the University of Bridgeport. Starting out on the New York fusion scene in the early 1980s, Weckl soon began working with artists such as Paul Simon, George Benson, Michel Camilo, Robert Plant and Anthony Jackson.

He was with the Chick Corea Elektric Band from 1985 to 1991. During this time, he performed on many albums and also appeared with Corea’s Akoustic Band. He “augmented his work with Corea by continuing his session work and appearing often with the GRP All-Star Big Band“. Weckl has released a series of instructional videotapes. His first recording as leader was in 1990 – Master Plan, for GRP. This was followed by Heads Upin 1992, and Hard-Wired in 1994. Later on, Weckl recorded and toured with guitarist Mike Stern.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vg6jJ3nv4s

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Elvis Presley

January 8, 2022

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the “King of Rock and Roll“, he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley’s classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley’s first RCA Victor single, “Heartbreak Hotel“, was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. Within a year, RCA would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll.

In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.

Having sold over 500 million records worldwide, Presley is recognized as the best-selling solo music artist of all time by Guinness World Records. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, R&B, adult contemporary, and gospel. Presley won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He holds several records, including the most RIAA certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.

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Tampa Red

January 8, 2022

Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903 – March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was an American Chicago bluesmusician.

He is best remembered as a blues guitarist who had a distinctive single-string slide style. His songwriting and his bottleneck technique influenced other leading Chicago blues guitarists, such as Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Nighthawk and Muddy Waters, and many others, including Elmore James and Mose Allison. In a career spanning over 30 years, he also recorded pop, R&B and hokum songs. His best-known recordings include “Anna Lou Blues”, “Black Angel Blues“, “Crying Won’t Help You”, “It Hurts Me Too“, and “Love Her with a Feeling“.

Tampa Red was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia. His parents died when he was a child, and he moved to Tampa, Florida, where he was raised by his aunt and grandmother and adopted their surname, Whittaker. He emulated his older brother, Eddie, who played the guitar, and he was especially inspired by an old street musician called Piccolo Pete, who first taught him to play blues licks on the guitar.

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World Music with Sinan Cem Eroglu

January 8, 2022

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Daily Roots with Kailash

January 8, 2022

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Cosmos Abell 35

January 7, 2022

Abell 35 is a planetary nebula visible in the constellation of Hydra .

It is observed in the direction of the Corvo constellation , about 4.5 ° east of β Corvi , south of Virgo ; it can be imaged with medium power telescopes. The most propitious period for its observation falls in the months between March and July, even if from the northern hemisphere , due to the increase in the evening hours of light, its observation is penalized; on the contrary, from the southern hemisphere it is more visible.

It is a planetary nebula located at a distance of about 160  parsecs (522 light years ) from the solar system ; at its center is located a variable cataclysmic known as LW Hydrae , a binary star consisting of a white dwarf , responsible for the creation of the nebula, and a dwarf yellow-white of the main sequence of spectral class G, separated by about 13  UA .

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Kenny Loggins

January 7, 2022

Kenneth Clark Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American musician, singer and songwriter. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His early soundtrack contributions date back to A Star Is Born in 1976, and he is known as the King of the Movie Soundtrack. As a solo artist, Loggins experienced a string of soundtrack successes, including an Academy Award nomination for “Footloose” in 1985.Finally Home was released in 2013, shortly after Loggins formed the group Blue Sky Riders with Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman. He won a Daytime Emmy Award, two Grammy Awards, and was nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

Loggins was born in Everett, Washington, the youngest of three brothers. His father, Robert George Loggins, was a salesman of English and Irishancestry, while his mother, Lina (née Massie), was a homemaker of Italian descent, from Avezzano. They lived in Detroit and Seattle before settling in Alhambra, California. Loggins attended San Gabriel Mission High School, graduating in 1966. He formed a band, The Second Helping, that released three singles during 1968 and 1969 on Viva Records. Greg Shaw described the efforts as “excellent punky folk-pop records” that were written by Loggins who was likely to be the bandleader and singer as well; Shaw included “Let Me In” on both Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Volume 2 and the Pebbles, Volume 9 CD.

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Eldee Young

January 7, 2022

Eldee Young (January 7, 1936 – February 12, 2007) was a jazz double-bass and cello player who performed in the cool jazz, post bop and rhythm and blues mediums.

Born in 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, Young started playing upright bass at the age of 13. He was helped by his eldest brother who played guitar. He joined the Ramsey Lewis Trio in 1955. After a decade together he split along with bandmate, Isaac “Red” Holt to form the Young-Holt Trio. They changed their name to Young-Holt Unlimited in 1968. After they split in 1974, Young continued playing, mainly with small groups in Chicago.

He also played with pianist Jeremy Monteiro for more than 20 years. Young also appeared on the albums of James Moody and Eden Atwood, among others.

Young died in Bangkok, Thailand, from a heart attack at age 71.

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Sam Woodyard

January 7, 2022

Sam Woodyard (January 7, 1925 – September 20, 1988) was an American jazz drummer.

He was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States. Woodyard was largely an autodidact on drums and played locally in the Newark, New Jersey area in the 1940s. He performed with Paul Gayten in an R&B group, then played in the early 1950s with Joe Holiday, Roy Eldridge, and Milt Buckner. In 1955, he joined Duke Ellington‘s orchestra and remained until 1966.

After his time with Ellington, Woodyard worked with Ella Fitzgerald, then moved to Los Angeles. In the 1970s, he played less due to health problems, but he recorded with Buddy Rich, and toured with Claude Bolling. In 1983, he belonged to a band with Teddy Wilson, Buddy Tate, and Slam Stewart. His last recording was on Steve Lacy‘s 1988 album, The Door.

He died of cancer in Paris at the age of 63.

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Bobo Jenkins

January 7, 2022

Bobo Jenkins (January 7, 1916 – August 14, 1984) was an American Detroit blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He also built and set up his own recording studio and record label in Detroit. Jenkins is best known for his recordings of “Democrat Blues” and “Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night”.

He was born John Pickens Jenkins in Forkland, Alabama. His father, a sharecropper, died when John was not yet one year old, and the boy grew up with his mother and uncle. He left home before the age of 12, and arrived in Memphis, Tennessee. He had a wife at the age of 14, the first of ten marriages. Jenkins took casual work in the Mississippi Delta for several years and then enrolled in the United States Army. Following his 1944 military discharge, he relocated to Detroit, working for Packard and managing a garage, before spending twenty-seven years working for Chrysler.

In the late 1940s Jenkins learned to play the guitar and started writing songs. He wrote the politically themed “Democrat Blues”, about the U.S. Election Day in 1952, expressing his unease about Dwight D. Eisenhower becoming the first Republican in the White House in almost twenty years.

With assistance from John Lee Hooker, Jenkins recorded “Democrat Blues” in Chicago in 1954, which was released by Chess Records. Another recording was issued by Boxer Records, based in Chicago, and then “Ten Below Zero” (1957) was released by Fortune Records, based in Detroit. In 1959, Jenkins established his own record label,[5] Big Star Records, whose first release was his single “You”ll Never Understand” and “Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night”. He met and played alongside Sonny Boy Williamson II, before constructing his own recording studio. He recorded mainly local musicians, including James “Little Daddy” Walton, Little Junior Cannady, Chubby Martin and Syl Foreman.

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Red Allen

January 7, 2022

Henry James “Red” Allen (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been claimed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong.

Allen was born in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of the bandleader Henry Allen. He took early trumpet lessons from Peter Bocage and Manuel Manetta.

Allen’s career began in Sidney Desvigne‘s Southern Syncopators. He was playing professionally by 1924 with the Excelsior Brass Band and the jazz dance bands of Sam Morgan, George Lewis and John Casimir. After playing on riverboats on the Mississippi River, he went to Chicago in 1927 to join King Oliver‘s band. Around this time he made recordings on the side in the band of Clarence Williams. After returning briefly to New Orleans, where he worked with the bands of Fate Marable and Fats Pichon, he was offered a recording contract with Victor Records and went to New York City, where he joined the Luis Russell band, which was later fronted by Louis Armstrong in the late 1930s.

 

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Chano Pozo

January 7, 2022

Luciano Pozo González (January 7, 1915 – December 3, 1948), known professionally as Chano Pozo, was a Cuban jazz percussionist, singer, dancer, and composer. Despite only living to age 33, he played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz. He co-wrote some of Dizzy Gillespie‘s Latin-flavored compositions, such as “Manteca” and “Tin Tin Deo”, and was the first Latin percussionist in Gillespie’s band.

Luciano “Chano” Pozo González was born in Havana to Cecelio González and Carnación Pozo. Chano grew up with three sisters and a brother, as well as his older half brother, Félix Chappottín, who would later become one of the great Cuban soneros. The family struggled with poverty throughout his youth. His mother died when Chano was eleven, and Cecelio took his family to live with his long-time mistress, Natalia, who was Felix’s mother.

Chano showed an early interest in playing drums, and performed ably in Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies in which drumming was a key element. The family lived for many years at El África Solar (Africa neighborhood), a former slave quarters, by all accounts a foul and dangerous place, where it was said even the police were afraid to venture. In this environment criminal activities flourished, and Chano learned the ways of the street as means of survival. He dropped out of school after the third grade and earned a solid reputation as a rowdy tough guy, big for his age and exceptionally fit. He spent his days playing drums, fighting, drinking, and engaging in petty criminal activities, the latter of which landed him a stint in a youth reformatory. No official records document the crime he was sentenced for, though at least one account has him causing the accidental death of a foreign tourist, adding to a record of thievery, assault, and truancy. At the age of 13, Chano was sent to the reformatory in Guanajay, where he learned reading and writing, auto body repair, and honed his already exceptional skills playing a variety of drums. During this time he became a devotee of Santería. Also known as “La Regla de Ocha”, this is an Afro-Caribbean religion derived from traditional beliefs of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Developed among Afro-Cuban slaves, the religion began as a blending of these West African spiritual beliefs and Catholic doctrine. Yoruba deities were identified with Catholic saints to fool the slave owners, as the Spanish colonialists had forbidden the practice of African religions. Chano pledged allegiance to the Catholic Saint Barbara, identified widely with Shango, the Yoruba god of fire and thunder, and took him as his personal protector. Both Shango and St. Barbara had associations with the color red, and for the rest of his life Chano would often carry a red scarf signifying his allegiance.

Chano Pozo was shot and killed on December 2, 1948, in the El Rio Bar at 111th St and Lenox Avenue in Harlem.[1] The El Rio Bar no longer exists — even the small triangular block where it was located has been removed. Pozo’s killer was a local bookie named Eusebio “Cabito” Munoz. Pozo is buried in the Colón Cemetery, Havana.

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Flamenco Fridays with Pedro María Peña

January 7, 2022

Tarantas and Taranto are two related styles (palos) of Flamenco music, that originated in the Andalusian province of Almería. Each is characterized by a shared modality (F-sharp Phrygian) and harmonic progression (Bm–A7–G–F-sharp), but differ significantly with respect to rhythm and meter. Tarantas is a cante libre (or toque libre, if played as a solo), meaning that it lacks both a regular rhythmic pattern (compás, in flamenco terminology) and a regular rhythmic unit (or beat). It can be sung or played, but not danced. Taranto, conversely, has a regular 2/4-meter, and is danceable. When played on, or accompanied by, the guitar, both palos have a unique and characteristic sound that is created, in part, by dissonances that result from the use of the guitar’s first three open strings (E, B, and G, respectively), in combination with harmonies and melodies based on the F-sharp Phrygian mode.

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Daily Roots with Tabby Cat Kelly

January 7, 2022

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The Dragon Who Liked to Spit Fire 2020 production

January 6, 2022

Official Poster

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Epiphany Day 2022

January 6, 2022

On the anniversary of the 2020 Trump Sedition Day

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Cosmos VdB38 & Sh-2 263

January 6, 2022

VdB 38 , also known as Sh-2 263 , is a single- emission, fragmentary reflection nebula , visible in the Orion constellation .

It is easy to find about two degrees to NNW of the brilliant Bellatrix star (γ Orionis), which is the northwestern summit of the large rectangle that delimits the figure of Orion; The star of the nebula gas light is HD 34989 , a magnitude 5,78 magnitude -star blue-blue star , well visible to the naked eye on clearer nights. The cloud appears distinct in a shining part for reflection of the star light, and in fact shows a markedly blue color, and a part on the background that appears ionized and has a reddish light. Part of the gas cloud that is part of vdB 38 is not illuminated and looks like a dark nebula masking the light coming from the behind-the-scenes stars; This obscured part returns the abbreviation LDN 1588 ( B 223).  The distance between the cloud and the star would be approximately 736 light years according to parallax studies , which would place them in the most peripheral regions of the Orion Complex .

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Sandy Denny

January 6, 2022

Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978) was an English singer-songwriter who was lead singer of the British folk rockband Fairport Convention. She has been described as “the pre-eminent British folk rock singer”.

After briefly working with the Strawbs, Denny joined Fairport Convention in 1968, remaining with them until 1969. She formed the short-lived band Fotheringay in 1970, before focusing on a solo career. Between 1971 and 1977, Denny released four solo albums: The North Star Grassman and the Ravens, Sandy, Like an Old Fashioned Waltz and Rendezvous. She also duetted with Robert Plant on “The Battle of Evermore” for Led Zeppelin‘s album Led Zeppelin IV in 1971. Denny died in 1978 at the age of 31 due to injuries and health issues related to alcohol abuse.

Music publications Uncut and Mojo have described Denny as Britain’s finest female singer-songwriter. Her composition “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” has been recorded by Judy Collins, Eva Cassidy, Nina Simone, 10,000 Maniacs and Cat Power. Her recorded work has been the subject of numerous reissues, along with a wealth of previously unreleased material which has appeared over the more than 40 years since her death, including most notably a 19-CD box set released in November 2010.

On discovering Lucas’ departure, Denny went to stay at the home of her friend Miranda Ward. During this time, Denny apparently set up an appointment to speak with a doctor about her headaches, and also intended to get advice about her alcohol addiction. At some point after 8 am on 17 April, Denny fell into a coma. Ward was out of the house at the time, and had asked her friend Jon Cole (of the band The Movies) to check in on Denny. Cole entered the home at 3 pm, and found Denny unconscious at the foot of the staircase which led to the second floor of the house. She was rushed by ambulance to Queen Mary’s Hospital in nearby Roehampton.

On 19 April, she was transferred to Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon. After receiving news that Denny was in a coma, Lucas returned from Australia. Upon his arrival at the hospital, doctors informed him that Denny was effectively brain-dead and her condition would not improve. He granted their recommendation to turn off life-supportmachines; however, just ten minutes before this was to take place, at 7:50 pm on 21 April 1978, Sandy Denny died, without regaining consciousness. Her death was ruled to be the result of a traumatic mid-brain haemorrhage and blunt force trauma to her head. She was 31 years old.

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Paolo Conte

January 6, 2022

Paolo Conte (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpaːolo ˈkonte]; born 6 January 1937) is an Italian singer, pianist, songwriter and lawyer known for his distinctly grainy, resonant voice. His compositions fuse Italian and Mediterranean sounds with jazz, boogie and elements of the French chanson and Latin-American rhythms.

Paolo Conte was born in Asti, Piedmont. His parents were avid jazz fans and Conte and his younger brother Giorgio spent their formative years listening to a lot of early jazz and blues recordings. After obtaining a law degree at the University of Parma, Conte started working as an assistant solicitor with his father, simultaneously pursuing his musical studies. He learned to play the trombone, the vibraphone and the piano, and formed a jazz band with his brother on guitar. Conte’s skill for composing music and original arrangements was noted by music producer Lilli Greco, who paired Conte with lyricist Vito Pallavicini. They wrote songs for Adriano Celentano (“Azzurro“, 1968), Caterina Caselli (“Insieme a te non ci sto più”, 1968), Fausto Leali (“Deborah”, 1968) and Enzo Jannacci (“Messico e nuvole”, 1970). In 1974 Conte recorded his first album, Paolo Conte. The following year, he released another eponymous album. Following a series of well-received shows at Club Tenco in Sanremo in 1976 and the commercial success of his third album, ‘Un gelato al limon’, Conte concentrated almost exclusively on his solo career.

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Ebo Taylor

January 6, 2022

Ebo Taylor (born 1936) is a Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, record producer and arranger focusing on highlife and afrobeat music.

Ebo Taylor has been a pivotal figure on the Ghanaian music scene for over six decades. In the late 1950s he was active in the influential highlifebands the Stargazers and the Broadway Dance Band. In 1962, Taylor took his group, the Black Star Highlife Band, to London. In London, Taylor collaborated with Nigerian afrobeat star Fela Kuti as well as other African musicians in Britain at the time.

Returning to Ghana, Taylor worked as a producer, crafting recordings for Pat Thomas, C. K. Mann, and others, as well as exploring solo projects, combining traditional Ghanaian material with afrobeat, jazz, and funk rhythms to create his own recognizable sound in the 1970s. He was the inhouse guitar player, arranger, and producer for Essiebons, founded by Dick Essilfie-Bondzie.[4]

Taylor’s work became popular internationally with hip-hop producers in the 21st century. In 1992, Ghetto Concept included his afrobeats in their music. In 2008, Ebo Taylor met the Berlin-based musicians of the Afrobeat Academy band, including saxophonist Ben Abarbanel-Wolff, which led to the release of the album Love and Death with Strut Records (his first internationally distributed album). In 2010, Usher used a sample from Taylor’s song “Heaven” for “She Don’t Know” with Ludacris.

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Interviews