Home Archive by category "Jazz-EKR" (Page 6)

Category: Jazz-EKR

Today in Music – Happy 50th Birthday – Victor Wooten (September 11, 1964)

Originally posted at Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries….. So this morning as I was looking at the people born on this date, I thought how badly you must feel every year now as you celebrate your birthday on this tragic date. I think I’d celebrate either the day before or the day after, or maybe you just say, hey it was my day before you ruined it! Two names stood out Leo Kottke, born on this day in 1945 in Athens Ga. I didn’t know that Leo is one of those musicians whose music I should listen to more often!!…

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Orrin Evans – Live at Smoke – Liberation Blues – check it out!

I have heard Orrin Evans’ piano on a variety of albums over the last years but Liberation Blues on the Smoke Session label is really the first Evans album that his been in my rotation for any length of time. I can tell you it won’t be the last, and since his recording career includes 20 plus albums recorded as a leader since  it began in 1994, I have a lot more music to explore! Evans was born in Trenton, NJ and raised in the jazz rich city of Philadelphia, where he attended the Girard Academic Music Program. He continued…

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Today in Jazz – Wayne Shorter’s 81st Birthday! (Aug 25, 1933)

So you can probably count on you fingers how many musicians are still performing beyond the age of 80. Two that I can think of off the top of my head are  B.B. King and Tony Bennett, and when Wayne Shorter,  Wayne Shorter joined that group last year and this year Wayne will kick off a European Tour on October  16th in Croatia. Among the destinations are Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Portugl! Wayne was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 25,1933. For some unknown reason, I know Wayne’s name, but until last year, I had not really listened to any of his…

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Cyrus Chestnut’s – Midnight Melodies – Jazz piano at it’s best!

So if you were the pianist for your Baltimore church the ripe old age of nine, grew up in a house where Gospel music was heard side by side with Thelonious Monk and Jimmy Smith, there’s a good chance that when you grow up, the music you compose may just be tinged with Gospel! Such is the case with Cyrus Chestnut. Cyrus is the child of McDonald (a retired post office employee and church organist) and Flossie (a city social services worker and church choir director.) McDonald was the son of a church minister, and the official organist for the…

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“Into the Morning” with music from Hungary’s Söndörgö – “Jozo” from the album Tamburocket Hungarian Fireworks!

How about we go “into the morning” with the opening track “Jozo” from the album Tamburocket Hungarian Fireworks by the Hungarian band  Söndörgö From their website: Söndörgő is one of the most active and interesting world music groups in Hungary. They play a style of music that is hugely attractive, but little known and quite different to the traditional, fiddle-led hungarian repertoire. Their aim is to foster and preserve Southern Slavic traditions of the Serbs and Croats as found in various settlements in Hungary. Most of these communities are situated along the Danube, but quite isolated from each other. The…

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Exploring the Music of the Amazing Rashaan Roland Kirk on his birthday! (August 7, 1935)

Over the years I have heard the name Rashaan Roland Kirk and have listened briefly to his music. Since I was not really a big fan of  improvisational and avant-garde music, I most generally avoided his music! But last year, I discovered the album Kirk’s Work, when I was researching Jack McDuff‘s music and was really, really impressed by the album. So today, on the 79th anniversary of this inventive and influential musician, I thought that it was a good time to explore the man and his music. Kirk was born in Columbus, Ohio as James T Kirk, no just kidding,…

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Today in Music – August 6, 1957 – Harmonica and Vibes Virtuoso Hendrick Meurkens was born!!

On this day, August  6, 1957  vibraphonist and chromatic harmonica virtuoso Hedrick Meurkens was born to Dutch parents in Hamburg, Germany. Meurkens was listed on today’s birthday list at All About Jazz as a harmonica player . When I went to Spotify to listen to his music, I started with his new release Junity, which opens with a nice rendition of The Beatles “Blackbird”. I listened to a few more tracks and then went to the next album his 2011 release Live at Bird’s Eye. As I listened to the album, I thought. boy, he sure is nice to give that…

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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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Exploring the Jazz of Milt Buckner and Jo Jones! Hammond B3 and Drums, All Right!

Among the jazz musicians birthdays yesterday was Hammond B3 organist and pianist Milt Buckner. Buckner was an influential musician on both instruments. He started out playing piano in Detroit in the 1930s. By 1941 he had joined Lionel Hampton’s band and over the next 7 years he worked with the band as its pianist and staff arranger. Milt’s love of rocking rhythms and boogie-woogie messed nicely with Hampton;s style!.During this period, Buckner developed a uniquely percussive technique employing parallel tonal patterns, later referred to as “block chords.” Buckner’s locked hand technique would later be used by such greats as Red…

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