Home Articles posted by Ekreader (Page 23)

The Safari Discovers Sahrawi singer Aziza Brahim and her No 1 album Soutak!

The No 1 album on the April 2014 World Music Europe Chart is Soutak from Aziza Brahim, Aziza  is a Sahrawi singer and actress. From Wikipedia She was born in 1976 in the Sahrawi refugee camps, where her mother had settled in late 1975, fleeing from the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. Her father remained in El Aaiun where he later died. Due to the Western Sahara War, Aziza never met him. At the age of 11, she received scholarships to study in Cuba, as many Sahrawi students at the time. She wanted to study music, but was rejected. She left school and returned to the refugee camps in 1995, pursuing…

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This Day in Music – Jazz Organist – Jimmy McGriff was born!!

Jiimmy McGriff  born on April 3,1936 in the Germantown section of Philadelphia!   On this date April 3rd in 1936 James Harrell McGriff was born in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.His musical journey started at the age of five when he started to learn to play the piano. By the time he reached his teen years he had expanded the group of instruments that he could play to include:  vibes, alto sax, drums and upright bass. Growing up Jimmy Smith was a childhood friend. After a stint as an Army MP during the Korean War, McGriff returned to Philly and became a police officer. During that…

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The Safari goes “Down Under” and finds Hibernal’s Progressive Rock “Audio Movie” Replacements

The other day I was reviewing the latest albums on Progstreaming and the sci-fi looking album art for Replacements from Hibernal caught my eye…. So I made it available offline at Spotify, put it on the iPhone and it became the soundtrack for some work around the house. The album was to say the least very different. it surprised me, when I first heard the narration about “The synths”,. I figured it was just a part of the opening of the album, but then on the second track “The City Ebbs Away”, came the voice of Artemis and  I soon realized…

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The Safari Visits RPWL (for real this time) – Wanted!!

RPWL is s neo prog rock band from Germany that was formed in 1997 as a Pink Floyd cover band. Three years after the band formed they started to make their own music. While their music was still rooted in the that  70s and 80s Pink Floyd Prog era their debut release God Has Failed met with positive reviews in most major progressive rock magazines. Since then the band has released five studio albums, three live albums and two DVDs! Their most recent release Wanted has been in my music rotation now for the last couple of weeks. I first came…

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The Safari Discovers the Jazz Piano of Helen Sung – Anthem for a New Day – and is happy!

Some people are born to play jazz and then others find jazz – at a Harry Connick, Jr concert?? Well at least one did! The one that did would be classically trained pianist Helen Sung!! Helen began her classical piano training in her hometown of Houston Texas at the age of five under the watchful eye of a teacher who did it her way and encouraged Helen to only listen to classical music. Helen walked the straight and narrow until that fateful day a friend took her to that Harry Connick, Jr. concert. It was there that Harry played a…

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Promises to Burn – Great Jazz Vocals and Music from The Janice Borla Group!

One of the jazz albums that has been in my rotation over the last week or so is Promises to Burn from the Janice Borla Group. Yes another jazz vocalist but Ms Borla is really a special vocalist Neil Tesser of the Chicago Reader sums up Janice’s vocalizations well…. “She shatters the stereotype of the jazz vocalist as a poseur or wannabe, infatuated with the idea of improvisation but lacking the mettle to carry it off: she’s a musician who happens to play voice…” “…A triumph of vocal improvisation.” From the opening number “Funkallero” which is a Bill Evans tune with words…

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The Date in Music – March 27, 1937 -Texas Blues Guitarist Johnny Copeland was born!!!

On this date, March 27, 1937 Texas blues guitarist and singer and father of Shemekia – Johnny Copeland was born. in Haynesville, Louisiana, about 15 miles south of Magnolia, Arkansas (formerly Texarkana) After his father died, his remaining family moved to Houston.  As a teenager he played at two of the biggest blues venues in Houston – Shay’s Playhouse, where his band The Dukes of Rhythm (formed with Joe “Guitar” Hughes) and the El Dorado ballroom. His recording career started at Mercury Records in 1958 and he recorded and toured around the Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, area until he moved to New…

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Yesterday in Music – March 22, 19??? – Happy Birthday, Jazz Vocalist Darden Purcell – Easy Living!

Most times I don’t like jazz vocalists.I am fine with just the music! So when I went to MOG to check out Darden Purcell’s 2009 release Easy Living, I was already to listen for a couple of seconds and then move on. The reason that I was exploring the album at all was that yesterday was Ms Purcell’s birthday! So the negative minded me found the album and hit play. The album started with Darden doing a little scatting accompanied by some nifty drumming from Stockton Helbing, then I heard her great voice backed by a fine piano, finally a…

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Dave Pike – Vibraphonist – Born March 23, 1938!! –

Let’s Listen to “Mather” to Celebrate Dave Pike’s Birthday!!   On this date in 1938 jazz vibraphonist Dave Pike was born in Detroit, Michigan. He is best known for his association with Herbie Mann in the early 1960s. I discovered his music within the last few years and several of his albums are included in my music library.  I always wondered why I never really heard of this guy. The reason is that most of his American recordings were made in the 1960s and 70s and he went to Europe in the late 1960′ Here’s what I read at All…

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“Into the Night” with thoughts about those “Statesboro Blues”…. music by David Bromberg!

So if nothing else blues songs have staying power! Who would have thought that a song written by a blind blues singer born in 1898 would end up as the 9th rank song on the Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitar songs of All time! Which is exactly what happened to Blind Willie McTell’s song “Statesboro Blues”! The version that made it to the list was the cover from the Allman Brothers! And in 2005, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ranked “Statesboro Blues” number 57 on its list of 100 Songs of the South. McTell recorded and released the…

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