“Into the Night” – with the Jazz organ of Dr Lonnie Smith!

So I think that through the years I’ve heard of organist Lonnie Smith or Dr Lonnie Smith as he is known now, but until today I’ve never listened to his music. Big mistake! The album Too Damn Hot came up on my “Just for You” on MOG and I saw the organ and said that’s good for me and it was great! Smith’s career has spanned over 50 years and he’s played with a Who’s Who of greats in jazz, he started with  the George Benson Quartet and then more on to a solo career. From his website: Dr. Lonnie…

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New Jazz From Old Friends from the Princeton Record Exchange

So I took the day off from work yesterday because I didn’t have anything to do, but my wife had something in mind, and she knew just how to get me to go look for dead people! I guess I should tell you first that looking for dead people, is in fact, just going to the NJ State Archives and looking up birth, death and marriage certificates, but I think looking for dead people sounds more interesting! So how did she do it, well, all she really had to do was remind me that I still had gift certificates to…

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Prog Explorations: Shadow Circus – On a Dark and Stormy Night

Ok so maybe I have to reconsider my approach to music listening when it comes to Prog Rock. Typically, I listen to an album and then go and find out about the artist and their music. With Prog Rock I think it is most time wise to visit their site and read about the album BEFORE listening! You see many prog rock artist don’t create songs, they create albums many times concept albums and even when it’s not a concept album the tracks often are based on something!! This became clear with my latest listen, On a Dark and Stormy…

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Life’s Soundtrack – ARZ’s Turn of the Tide makes the miles go by!

  Wow, two runs in three days! A first for 2013! Tonight I decided that the run would be 4 miles, but I didn’t want it to a run that I usually do, because then I start comparing my times now, with past runs and start thinking, I am old and slow! Anyway, I laid out a 4 mile course slightly different then normal – hey how much can I change it up in a one square mile town!! While it wasn’t the easiest four mile run ever, it really wasn’t, too bad considering how little I’ve run this winter….

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A not so good day – but some good music from Progression by Failure

POk so obviously the problem I had yesterday i.e. no power to my computer has not been resolved. it is clear from the fact that I am writing my first post of the day at 11:20 pm! Of course it didn’t help that I somehow wiped out this website this morning and when it was restored this afternoon it was restored back to March 8th! Anyway the new site is socialstudious.us and will be the home for politics, and the rest of the social sciences! I will try to keep this site for mysteries, music and family! Because I spent much…

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Today in Music – Wes Montgomery’s Birthday – really!

So unlike the other day today IS the birthday of one of my favorite jazz musicians the incredible Wes Montgomery! I started listening to the guitar of Wes way back in the late 60s’ Unfortunately he passed away in 1968 and the age of 45. From Wikipedia: John Leslie “Wes” Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968)[1] was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Grant Green, Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily Remler, Kenny…

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Today In Music – Ron Carter’s Birthday – Not!

So my usual routine in the morning consists of reviewing several this day in history and music sites. Then I think about the events, birthday, etc, that catch my eye and decide while exercising and taking my shower what to write about and how the music may tie into my musical library. Today two things caught my eye. The first was the birthday of Ron Carter the jazz bassist and the second was that on today’s date the first Grammys were awarded!  So as I thought about Ron Carte I thought about how he was the bass player on probably…

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Edward Meets More ProgRock – Italy’s Elvenking – ERA

So now that I’ve listened to many prog-rock, metal albums on MOG, several albums usually appear on the list of albums “just for me”. So there right next to folk and blues albums are these prog rock albums. Well yesterday, I listened to one of the albums ERA by Elvenking and I really liked it! I’ve written before that it amazes me that prog-rock/metal music is such a world-wide music phenomena and Elvenking reflects that geographical diversity. The band hails from  Sacile, which is located in the northeast corner of Italy. From their biography at Allmusic: Following in the pixie…

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Morning Music – Ben Sidran does Dylan Different!

Ok so last night I was looking at the Roots Music Report Jazz charts and there at number 2 was a new album from Ben Sidran. Now, I knew Ben Sidran way back in the early 70s when he was a member of the Steve Miller Band. From allmusic:   Sidran contributed on the keys and as songwriter on several Miller albums beginning with Brave New World in 1969, co-writing the classic “Space Cowboy” and three other tunes on that LP. He also authored “Steve Miller’s Midnight Tango” on Number 5 and collaborated with Miller on several other tunes through…

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February 17, 1982 – Thelonious Monk joins heaven’s jazz band.

Yesterday marked the 31st anniversary of the death of one of the greats of jazz, On that date Thelonious Monk died of a stroke, at the age of 64. I really didn’t get into Monk’s music until the last few years. I do have one album Monk Plays Duke on vinyl, but I have Brilliant Corners and Alone in San Francisco on the iPod! I had the album Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall on an mp3 player as a download from Rhapsody, now that’s one great album. (Note to self get that album on the iPod!)….

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