Home Archive by category "Jazz-EKR" (Page 9)

Category: Jazz-EKR

A Birthday for Gerry Mulligan (April 6) leads the Safari to his Music!!

So last Sunday April 6th was the day in 1927 that saxophonist Gerry Mulligan was born. Mulligan is another in what is becoming a long line of jazz musicians whose name I am familiar with, but whose music I never really listened to.  As I try to figure our why, the only explanation that I have is that I’ve always associated Mulligan with Dave Brubeck and since I really don’t care that much for Brubeck, I have never explored the music of Mulligan.- Mistake! So I in my usual style I started my exploration of Gerry Mulligan at Wikipedia where…

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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 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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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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2014 Jazz – Moment to Moment from Pianist Cava Menzies and Trumpeter Nick Phillips

So this morning at Me, Myself , Music and Mysteries I posted three songs that put me in a good mood, and tonight I am listening to an album that puts me in a mellow mood. I want to get home turn the lights out and drift to this wonderful album. Yes, drift to the fine piano of Cava Menzies and the “Chet Baker-esque trumpet of Nick Phillips on their album Moment to Moment. As a matter of fact, I was going to write to you readers if you want an album to settle back with put your feet up…

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That PI Day in Music 3.14.34 – “The Queen of the Organ” – Shirley Scott was born!!

So the other morning, after I woke up from the crash that was a result of having had virtually no sleep the night before, as we waited for the birth of grandson,Oliver, I was looking at the jazz birthdays. Now if you remember, the night before I had posted about saxophonist Jeff Hackworth, and how his sax sounds like Stanley Turrentine and how like Stanley, Jeff often plays in an organ trio setting and how I thought that was neat because Stanley had played so often with Jimmy Smith. Well what the un-jazz educated Edward didn’t know was that in…

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This Day in Music Happy Birthday to Austria’s “Chet Baker” Michaela Rabitsch!!

Today March 8th Austria’s only and top female jazz trumpet player Michaela Rabitsch celebrates her ?????? birthday, Michaela is a singer, composer and is called a modern-day female Chet Baker by the US magazine Jazzscene!! She calls Weyer, Oberosterreich, Austria her hometown and currently Vienna is home. She has started her musical journey at 7 studying classical violin, at 14 she moved to Vienna to continue her studies. She switched to trumpet and studies for jazz- and popular music at the Bruckner conservatory Linz (now Anton Bruckner private University) with Ingrid Jensen, Peter Tuscher and classical trumpet with Fritz Handlbaue….

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The Uptown Shuffle from Saxophonist Vincent Herring

Originally posted March 2014 updated Nov 2025 So the other day I wrote about the great Dexter Gordon, today I’ll move to a contemporary  saxophonist, but still a great one – Vincent Herring. I’ve been listening to Herring’s latest release The Uptown Shuffle for a couple of weeks now and I think I like it more and more each time I listen. About Vincent Herring Herring is considered to be one of the premier sax players of his generation. He was born in Kentucky in 1964 and raised in California. His musical journey began when he started touring with Lionel Hampton’s…

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