Wallace Roney – Jazz Trumpet from Philadelphia!

Wallace Roney – Trumpet – Born May 25, 1960 – In Philadelphia.   Tomorrow May 26th is the great Miles Davis‘ birthday. Today is the  birthday of  the only trumpet player that he ever mentored Wallace Roney. Wallace was born in Philadelphia in 1960 So he is too young to have experienced 1960, which was the year that former Whiz Kids manager re Eddie Sawyer resigned as the hapless Phillies’ manager after a 9-4 opening day loss to the Reds and said.: “I’m 49 years old and I want to live to be 50.”  But I digress so it’s back to Wallace…

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Charles Earland – Jazz Organist

Charles Earland– Hammond B3 -(May 24, 1941 – December 11, 1999)   I browse the daily listing of jazz birthdays each day not only for whose birthday it is that particular day, but also to discover new music. Many times I select who I read about by the instrument they play. Other times I select someone with a foreign sounding name, figuring that will lead me to explorations of jazz music beyond America’s shores. Tunisian born Wajdi Cherif is a perfect example of this type of choice. I read about, and spent time listening to Charles Earland’s music this morning,…

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Intents and Purposes – Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet

Intents and Purposes – Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet meets 80s Jazz Fusion   One  of the albums that has been in my music rotation is Intents and Purposes for the Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet Rez Abassi is a jazz guitarist and rising star on the jazz scene.  He was voted #2 “Rising Star” guitarist in DownBeat magazine’s 2012’s esteemed Critic’s Poll, and #1 in 2013’s poll, Intents and Purposes is Abbasi tenth album and throughout  his career he has become best known for music that blends jazz with Indian music. On his first eight albums he has been both a…

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Spiritual Haven – Russell Suereth

Spiritual Haven – Relaxing ethnic instruments and rhythms blended with modern sounds This morning I was looking for music to serve as the soundtrack for my morning yoga routine. (routine 3 from Richard Hittleman) I made a stop at the Zone Music Reporter‘s Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart The album that caught my eye was the number 31 album Spiritual Haven by Russell Suereth. It sounded like an album that would make a good soundtrack for my yoga set, so  I gave it a quick listen,I liked what I heard, but for some reason I didn’t use it, I come back…

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Running with the Empirical Ghost of Lis er Stille

The Run…. So while Elizabeth conquered the Broad Street 10 miler yesterday, I conquered the RG Riverside half a ten miler on Saturday, running five miles for the first time this year!! I had set out to run a 4.2 mile course I call the Harper Loop. I have not run that course yet this year mainly because it has a long ascent up Pancoast Avenue and then another shorter ascent up Fairview to Harper. Followed by a descent and short ascent along Harper followed by a longer descent down Cranberry Lane.  I did well keeping a slower and steady…

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Andrea Brachfeld – Flutist, Composer, Educator

Andrea Brachfeld – Flute – Born May 3rd On this day May 3rd in the year ??? (Hum, we don’t really need to know that) flutist Andrea Brachfeld was born! From All About Jazz…. Flutist Andrea Brachfeld, is a graduate of The High School of Music and Art and Manhattan School of Music. Over these past 20 years she has recorded more than a dozen CD’s with many artists including, Africando, Noel Pointer, and Timbalaye. Her breakthrough performance as the flutist for the popular Latin band Charanga ’76, catapulted her into Salsa history and fame as the first female flutist…

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Randy Raine-Reusch: World Multi-Instrumentalist

Randy Raine-Reusch – Plays an Amazing Array of World Instruments         Born : May 2, 1952  As I looked down the list of jazz musicians who are celebrating their birthdays today (May 2nd), I saw the name Randy Raine-Reusch a multi-instrumentalist. Since I am always interested in multi-instrumentalists I clicked on his name to find out more about him and I saw several pictures of Randy playing some very strange-looking instruments.One of them that interested me was this one… hum?? What instrument is that?  As I explored more I discovered that….. Randy Raine-Reusch was born on May…

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Tangentially Running with A Spark in the Aether

Running Soundtrack: The Tangent A Spark in the Aether: The Music that Died Alone Volume Two Today’s run showed me the value of running at LEAST twice a week. Last week was busy, making it was very easy to put off running. As a result, I have not run in almost 2 weeks. My last run was on Tuesday the 14th. The lack running was not a problem on the first mile, which was run at a pace of 10:24 min/mile. I started to feel it on the second mile, but I made it through that mile at 10:51 min/mile. I…

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Anekdoten Provides the Music for My First Four Mile Run of the Year!!

Anekdoten’s Album Until All The Ghosts are Gone is the soundtrack for a good run!   This afternoon I ran for the third time this week! Yeah me! This is the first time that I have done that in a long, long time! In doing such. I achieved one of my April goals which was to run three times per week, duh! Now I have to match that feat for the rest of the month and beyond! My first two runs of the week were both 3.1 miles and I felt good at the end of both runs, so I thought…

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Midwinter – Jon Richards

After Winter Ends I Discover Midwinter by Jon Richards   One of the New Age albums that has been in my music rotation for the last week or so is Midwinter from Jon Richards. The album has been the soundtrack for a run As while as being played while I was reading and doing my morning yoga routine and it has been enjoyed in all those. Jon Richards is a New Age artist whose hometown is Minehead, Somerset in the United Kingdom. Time for a favorite digression of mine – finding out where towns are!! A quick googling of maps…

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