A Morning with Hammond Heroes leads the Safari to “Bag of Jewels” from Lou Donaldson!

So this morning started with a cold walk to my office. I left the car at the office yesterday and walked home during the snowstorm!  While that may have been a good idea yesterday, it didn’t seem that good this morning, when I faced a ten minute walk to work with single digit wind chill temperatures. But like I always say when I struggle through a run  “At least the music was good!” The music came from an album released back in November titled Hammond Heroes. The album somehow got accidentally downloaded on to the iPhone a while ago and…

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The Safari explores Doug Webb’s West Coast Jazz at Another Scene!

  Saxophonist Doug Webb was born in Chicago and raised from the age of three in California. He is a well-known West Coast jazz musician. Webb has appeared on over 500 recordings for a myriad of artists including:Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Sal Marquez, Stanley Clarke, Brian Bromberg, Quincy Jones, Mat Marucci, Bobby Caldwell, Kyle Eastwood, Rod Stewart, Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel, Queen Latifah, Cher and Vikki Carr.He played for fifteen years with the Doc Severinsen Tonight Show Big Band.. with whom he still tours. He also played with the house band for the Dennis Miller TV show, and the Jimmy Cleveland orchestra   Webb…

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The Safari finds Breather by Shlomi Cohen – a breathe of fresh world fusion!!

Yesterday, as I was reviewing the Jazz birthdays, I noticed one of the showcased albums on the sidebar. The album was Breather and the artist was Shlomi Cohen.Since the name sounded, and the album looked, interesting I thought I’d give it a listen. What I found was a very, very talented new musician.  Who has been nominated for a Grammy as part of the nominated album “Frutero Moderno” by Gonzalo Grau & La Clave Secreta. He is also collaborates with Colombian Harpist Edmar Castaneda, bringing his incredible and unique form of music to the world. Shlomi is also a member of the…

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A Night of Jazz starts with Walter Smith III and ends with Larry Goldings and I have a lot to listen to!!!

So last night I visit MOG and jumped around checking out jazz musicians,  it started with Walter Smith III Live in Paris which led to bassist Hans Glawischnig led to Antonio Sanchez, who actually appears in my library as he is part of Gary Burton’s Quartet and appears on his album Quartet Live. Antonio in turn led to Ari Hoenig.…Reading Hoenig’s biography at Wikipedia I saw that….. Since 2005 Ari has appeared with many of jazz’s finest up & coming guitarists such as Jonathan Kreisberg who’s a member of Ari’s Punk Bop Band and Israeli transplant Gilad Hekselman A trip to Gilad Hekselman revealed…

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Night Owl Music – Into the Morning with Coltrane and Burton and “Afro Blue”

This afternoon my daughter, Elizabeth  called and was having car problems. The check engine light came on, the battery was dead and the steering locked up. We decided to have the car towed back here to be looked at, at my local gas station, In doing so, she was left without a car, so tonight I drove the other car down to her. She drove me back to my son Andrew’s house, half way between here and the University of Delaware, then he drove me home! I was all set for the trip down there, I had two genres on…

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Today in Music – 1930 – “Saxophone Colossus” Sonny Rollins is born!!

  So while today is a sad day for the rock world, losing Keith Moon, it is a happy day for the jazz world, because on this day in 1930 Sonny Rollins, the “Saxophone Colossus” was born! From his biography page at his website: Theodore Walter Rollins was born on September 7, 1930 in New York City. He grew up in Harlem not far from the Savoy Ballroom, the Apollo Theatre, and the doorstep of his idol, Coleman Hawkins. After early discovery of Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, he started out on alto saxophone, inspired by Louis Jordan. At the…

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Today in Music – Happy 80th Birthday, Wayne Shorter (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, plays the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday of this week, he will have join that group! Wayne was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 25,1933. For some unknown reason, I know Wayne’s name, but have not really listened to any of his best albums. I know I have heard his sax before, I have some Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers,…

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The Cats (Coltrane, Burrell et al) leads to Jazz Poet Tommy Flannagan!

So the other night when I was looking at Kenny Burrell albums, one of his highest rated  albums   by AllMusic was a 1957 release The Cats, an album that featured not only Burrell but also John Coltrane, Tommy Flanagan and Idrees Sulieman. Here’s what AllMusic writes about the album: In 1957, the greatest year for recorded music including modern jazz, Detroit was a hot spot, a centerpiece to many hometown heroes as well as short-term residents like John Coltrane and Miles Davis. It was here that Trane connected with pianist Tommy Flanagan, subsequently headed for the East Coast, and…

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A Jazzy Night with Music from Blue, Wynton and Hank and friends!!

So tonight I turned the sound down on the Phillies game and turned up the stereo and spent a jazzy Saturday night listening to albums from  Blue Mitchell, Wynton Kelly, and Hank Mobley. Of the three Hank Mobley is the musician I know the least about, but his album Soul Station was my favorite of the evening. The link between the three albums is the piano artistry of Wynton Kelly. I first heard Blue Mitchell’s trumpet when he played on two John Mayall albums in the early 70s. The album I listened to tonight was Blue’s Moods released in 1960….

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Lunchtime Jazz – John Coltrane (1926-1967)

I mentioned this morning that today is the day that John Coltrane passed away in 1967 from Wikipedia: John William Coltrane (also known as “Trane”; September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967[1]) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious…

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