Exploring the Prog/Post-Rock Music of Tampa’s Tides of Man – Young and Courageous

So far this week  I have run two days, first on Sunday and then again yesterday. Sunday’s run was a struggle, and yesterday’s while only slightly faster was a bit easier! The soundtracks for each run was a progressive rock band. On Sunday  I listened to Tides of Man and their release Young and Courageous and yesterday, the soundtrack was Forest Field and their current release Onwards and Upwards. Tides of Man is currently an instrumental prog/post-rock band, I say currently because Young and Courageous is an instrumental album but earlier albums had vocals. The vocalist Tilian Pearson left the band…

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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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John Lee Hooker’s birthday!! (August 22, 1917)

Let’s Have One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer to Honor John Lee Hooker On this day – August 22 –  in 1917 in Coahoma County near Clarksdale, Mississippi John Lee Hooker was born. He was one of the most influential blues musicians across several generations. From Wikipedia John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was a highly influential American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally a unique brand of country blues. He developed…

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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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New Progressive Metal from the US’s Oceans of Night – Midnight Rising!

The latest album from the band Oceans of Night, Midnight Rising, has been in my listening rotation for a few weeks now,  it’s even been a soundtrack for one of my runs, and it is becoming one of my favorite prog albums! Oceans of Night is according to the band’s website….. ….  a modern rock band – equal parts progressive rock and modern heavy metal, wrapped around powerful vocal melodies and evocative guitar work served with a distinct ambient flavor. Conjuring epic and dynamic music with an cinematic twist, each Oceans of Night release is a dramatic musical experience that demands your…

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2013 Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) Award Winning NewAge Albums explored on my Safari!!

Over the last year, I have reviewed a several New Age albums. I was happy and surprised to see that several of them recently won Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) music awards! The awards were presented last May. Here are the albums that  I listened to enjoyed and wrote about, that won awards!!   Best Instrumental Album – Acoustic – The Safari listens to Tom Carleno’s Perfect Imperfection. (He’s from from Colorado!)       Best Electronic Album – 2013 – New Age Sounds from David Helpling and Jon Jenkins – Found –       Best Neo-Classical Album – An Essential for…

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