Home Articles posted by Ekreader (Page 31)

2013 Jazz – The Music of Omar Sosa – Eggun: The Afri-Lectric Experience

So the other day MOG by way of their Just for You section introduced me to the music of Omar Sosa, and I’m glad they did!!  Sosa is a Cuban born composer, bandleader, and jazz pianist. His newest band  Afreecanos, combines Afro Pop, jazz, and a variety of European instruments. The band, which includes musicians from Africa, Cuba, Brazil, and France, released a CD in 2009 and went on a world tour in early 2010. The album that was recommended bby MOG was his latest release Eggun: The Afri-Lectric Experience. I gave it a quick listen and decided that I wanted to learn more about Omar and…

Continue reading

Today in Music – Nov 18, 1959 – Jazz/Rock Drummer Cindy Blackman is Born! Happy Birthday Mrs. Santana!!

The first jazz artist that caught my eye when I reviewed the birthday list this morning at All About Jazz was Cindy Blackman and the reason was simple she is a drummer!!  I do believe that there are not that many of them around!!  What I didn’t know at the time, aside from who the hell she is, was that in the spring of 2010 Cindy sat in with Carlos Santana when the band’s drummer  Dennis Chambers had a previous commitment. Cindy and Carlos had first met several years earlier at a festival in Europe when Cindy was touring with Lenny Kravitz….

Continue reading

Jazz Trumpet from Chicago – Sounds of the City – Marquis Hill!

So the other day when I was visiting All About Jazz to check on jazz birthdays I noticed an interesting name in the showcase sidebar – Marquis Hill and his new album The Poet. Since I didn’t recognize the name I thought I’d take a little trip to MOG to check it out. MOG only had two out of Marquis’ three albums – New Gospel and Sounds of the City. I decided that I’d check out Sounds of the City first. It’s a great album at times sounding a little avant-garde and at other times it sounds like classic jazz….

Continue reading

Derek Gripper and The Strings of Mali!

The November 14th Birthday of Derek Gripper leads to the Music of Mali originally posted November 15, 2013 So tonight I was reviewing the list of jazz musician birthdays on November 14th and a name that caught my attention was guitarist Derek Gripper, who was born on today’s date in 1977. I read in his biography at All About Jazz that…. Derek Gripper is a composer and guitarist from the Western Cape of South Africa, merging “the imagery and mystery of the rural areas of the Cape” with the techniques of classical guitar and the string music of Africa (uhadi…

Continue reading

Today in Music – Nov 12, 1944 – Booker T. Jones was born – “Happy Birthday Booker T!

So on this date in 1944 Mr Booker T Jones was born! For those of you too young to remember Booker T & The MGs here’s a little background on Booker… Booker T. Jones (born November 12, 1944) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.’s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. Full Biography Now this is usually the part where I say Booker T. YES! it’s…

Continue reading

The Safari Starts with Anke Helfrich’s Birthday and my ADD Leads Me to New Jazz!!

   Ok so the Safari tonight started with a search for some jazz musicians born on the. The first name that caught my eye was right at the top of the list at the birthday list at All About Jazz – Anke Helfrich  a German pianist and, composer of modern jazz .  Helfrich grew up in Windhoek ( Namibia ) and Weinheim , where she took piano lessons. After initial successes as a national award winner at ” Youth jazzes “(1987) she studied in Freiburg and from 1989 on the” Amsterdamse Hooge School voor de Kunsten “inHilversum at Elkerbout Henk and Rob Madna . Due to their excellent statements she received a scholarship that her additional…

Continue reading

Exploring the Music of Russell Malone – finding Dianne Reeves – together they perform “You’ve Got a Friend”

Ok so to honor Russell Malone on his birthday today, I said I would listen to his 2010 release Triple Play. But when I went to MOG, there was a 2013 release listed at the top of his discography, so I downloaded that and listened to it! It was great! I came home tonight and discovered that, the album I listened to was Playground which was actually released in 2004! I don’t know why it’s listed as 2013 unless it has been re-released??? The last song on Playground  is Carol King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” a song that won both James Taylor…

Continue reading

Today in Music – November 8, 1963 – Happy 50th Birthday Russell Malone!!

The first time I really heard the guitar of Russell Malone was one night a while back when I stumbled upon this video of Malone, Christian McBride and Benn Green performing Wes Montgomery;s “Jingles” and I was blown away by his talent!!  (and McBride and Green’s talent too!!) Anyway, today I get to say Happy Birthday to Mr Malone! Russell Malone was born on this date in 1963 in Albany Georgia…and is  is an essentially self-taught[1] swing and bebop jazz guitarist. He began working with Jimmy Smith in 1988, and went on to work with Harry Connick, Jr. and Diana…

Continue reading

People Music – from Christian McBride and Inside Straight

This morning I was in jazz mode and listened to the Christian McBride & Inside Straights release People Music. The album was released in May of this year. Inside Straight has everything I enjoy in jazz, lively vibes from Warren Wolf, piano from Peter Martin and smooth saxophone from Steve Wilson, All supported by the solid bass lines of Christian’s bass and Carl Allen;s drums.on the majority of the songs. On a few of the songs the piano duties are manned by Christian Sands and Ulysses Owens, Jr. handles the drums. Both are considered members of the Inside Straight family….

Continue reading

Music Safari runs with Norway’s Kerrs Pink – Mystic Spirit

There’s good news and bad news from last night’s run. The good news is the headlamp that I bought the other day works great. It makes the road visible to me and me visible to drivers! The bad news is that now I have no excuse for not running when it gets dark at five o’clock!! Last night’s run was pretty good. The first mile was 9:30 and the rest were around 9:50 minutes plus! The soundtrack for the run was a new to me Prog Rock band from Norway Kerrs Pink. I listened to their latest release Mystic Storm….

Continue reading