Home Articles posted by Ekreader (Page 17)

New Progressive Metal from the US’s Oceans of Night – Midnight Rising!

The latest album from the band Oceans of Night, Midnight Rising, has been in my listening rotation for a few weeks now,  it’s even been a soundtrack for one of my runs, and it is becoming one of my favorite prog albums! Oceans of Night is according to the band’s website….. ….  a modern rock band – equal parts progressive rock and modern heavy metal, wrapped around powerful vocal melodies and evocative guitar work served with a distinct ambient flavor. Conjuring epic and dynamic music with an cinematic twist, each Oceans of Night release is a dramatic musical experience that demands your…

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2013 Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) Award Winning NewAge Albums explored on my Safari!!

Over the last year, I have reviewed a several New Age albums. I was happy and surprised to see that several of them recently won Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) music awards! The awards were presented last May. Here are the albums that  I listened to enjoyed and wrote about, that won awards!!   Best Instrumental Album – Acoustic – The Safari listens to Tom Carleno’s Perfect Imperfection. (He’s from from Colorado!)       Best Electronic Album – 2013 – New Age Sounds from David Helpling and Jon Jenkins – Found –       Best Neo-Classical Album – An Essential for…

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Happy 78th Birthday to Buddy Guy! It’s been a year since he released Rhythm & Blues?

Originally posted on July 30, 2013…… Last year on his birthday Buddy Guy released he album Rhythm and Blues. Boy, could another year have flown by so quickly! (I must be having lots of fun because they keep flying by more quickly-right!)  Yes it has and on this date in 1936, Buddy Guy was born. For those of you non-blues fans here some background on Buddy from Wikipedia: George “Buddy” Guy (born July 30, 1936[1]) is an American blues guitarist and singer. Critically acclaimed, he is a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound and has served as an influence to some…

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Exploring the Crossover Prog Rock of Finland’s The Chant – New Haven!

The album that was the soundtrack for my run on Thursday was New Haven, the latest release from the Finnish crossover prog. band The Chant. The album has been in my rotation for about a week now and it’s one of those albums, that get better with each repeated listen! The Chant has been around since 1999. First, there were three Jussi Hämäläinen(guitar/vocals), Mari Jämbäck (keyboards) and Ilpo Paasela (vocals), then four when  Kimmo Tukiainen(guitar) joined the group. The final count which has been fairly stable over the life of the band was six, after Markus Forsström (bass) and Roope Sivén(drums) came…

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Exploring the Symphonic Progressive Rock of Netherland’s – Minor Giant – On the Road

One of the albums that has been in my listening rotation for a while now is the debut album of a symphonic rock/progressive rock band from the Netherlands Minor Giant, and with each listen I like the album more and more. The first seeds of the band were sown in 2010 when at 16 years old the founder of the band Rindert Lammers composed and recorded several instrumental symphonic progressive rock tracks. Then in 2011 Rindert posted an instrumntal demo to Soundcloud, soon thereafter vocals from Christiaan Bruin (Sky Architect, Chris) were added to the track. The second seeds were…

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Exploring the Bebop Classic – “Donna Lee” – Charlie Parker & Miles Davis and others!

Last week when I went to the library, one of the books that I checked out on jazz was Hard Bop: Jazz & black music 1955-1965.  by David H. Rosenthal. Rosenthal is a free-lance jazz critic whose articles on music have appeared in Down Beat, Jazz-Times, Keyboard,the Village Voice and other publications. Hard Bop is his first book about jazz. Rosenthal starts his look at hard bop with a look at its immediate precursor BeBop. One of the first songs that he discusses is Charlie Parker’s composition “Donna Lee”. Rosenthal uses the song as an example of BeBop’s use of…

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Morning Explorations: Charlie Haden, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Kenny Dorham and Theo Croker!

So on this beautiful Sunday morning, let’s explore the jazz that has been playing on the iPhone this week. I’ve listened to mainly four albums this week. Here’s a twelve track playlist with tracks from each of the albums and some comments….. Nocturne – Charlie Haden – the jazz world is still mourning the loss one of its bright lights in bassist Charlie Haden. Charlie passed away on July 11th. Last week on a visit to the library, I picked up three books on Jazz. Among the ones I check ed out was The New York Time Essential Library: Jazz…

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Into the Morning with Ruf Record’s – Thorbjorn Risager “Precious Time”

One of the albums that has been on the iPhone for the last day or so is the new album from Thorbjorn Risager Too Many Roads. I have only given it a couple of listens, but so far I like what I hear. I hope to listen in a little more detail tomorrow and maybe even get to write a little more about Thorbjorn and the album, but for this early morning let’s just get a little taste of his music! Here’s a performance of the song “Precious Time”, Gotta love the band, sax, trumpet, organ ….and more….

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Exploring the Nominees for British Blues Music Awards – Blues Album of the Year!

On August 14, 2014, the British Blues Awards presentation will be held at the The Great British Blues Festival in Colne. The other day I traveled to the website for the awards and reviewed the nominees for the award for Blues Album of the Year, and the nominees are: Big City Blues – The Hoax Home – Aynsley Lister Band Independence – Trevor Sewell Band Shake The Walls – Marcus Bonfanti Standing In  The Shadows – King King The Storytellers Daughter – Northsyde I have heard and reviewed two of the five nominees, Anysley Lister’s Home and King King’s Standing…

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Blues with New Orleans Flavor from the Royal Southern Brotherhood – HeartSoulBlood

One of the albums that has been in my music rotation this week is the new album HeartSoulBlood from the Royal Southern Brotherhood. This is the second release from the Brotherhood following their 2012 self-titled debut album. The Royal Southern Brotherhood is composed of Devon Allman, Cyril Neville, Mike Zito, Charlie Wooten,and Yonrico Scott. Of the five both Devon Allman and Mike Zito’s solo work, appear in my music library.Both of these albums and their 2013 release a live album titled Songs from the Road have been released on Ruf Records with the legendary Jim Gaines serving as the producer….

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