Happy 78th Birthday to Buddy Guy! It’s been a year since he released Rhythm & Blues?

Originally posted on July 30, 2013…… Last year on his birthday Buddy Guy released he album Rhythm and Blues. Boy, could another year have flown by so quickly! (I must be having lots of fun because they keep flying by more quickly-right!)  Yes it has and on this date in 1936, Buddy Guy was born. For those of you non-blues fans here some background on Buddy from Wikipedia: George “Buddy” Guy (born July 30, 1936[1]) is an American blues guitarist and singer. Critically acclaimed, he is a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound and has served as an influence to some…

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Exploring the Symphonic Prog of Germany’s Traumhaus – Ausgeliefert and Das Geheimnis!

So one of the things that I really like about Prog Rock is that the genre is global in nature, and the bands can virtually come from anywhere in the world!! Typically, most of the vocals are in English making it harder to pinpoint the homeland of the band. That is not a problem with Traumhaus, whose vocals are in their native language – German!! I discovered the band on progstreaming, where I saw their latest release Das Geheimnis (The Secret) I listened for a bit and then went to Spotify to find the album so that I could download it,…

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Exploring the Crossover Prog Rock of Finland’s The Chant – New Haven!

The album that was the soundtrack for my run on Thursday was New Haven, the latest release from the Finnish crossover prog. band The Chant. The album has been in my rotation for about a week now and it’s one of those albums, that get better with each repeated listen! The Chant has been around since 1999. First, there were three Jussi Hämäläinen(guitar/vocals), Mari Jämbäck (keyboards) and Ilpo Paasela (vocals), then four when  Kimmo Tukiainen(guitar) joined the group. The final count which has been fairly stable over the life of the band was six, after Markus Forsström (bass) and Roope Sivén(drums) came…

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Exploring the Symphonic Progressive Rock of Netherland’s – Minor Giant – On the Road

One of the albums that has been in my listening rotation for a while now is the debut album of a symphonic rock/progressive rock band from the Netherlands Minor Giant, and with each listen I like the album more and more. The first seeds of the band were sown in 2010 when at 16 years old the founder of the band Rindert Lammers composed and recorded several instrumental symphonic progressive rock tracks. Then in 2011 Rindert posted an instrumntal demo to Soundcloud, soon thereafter vocals from Christiaan Bruin (Sky Architect, Chris) were added to the track. The second seeds were…

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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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Into the Morning with Ruf Record’s – Thorbjorn Risager “Precious Time”

One of the albums that has been on the iPhone for the last day or so is the new album from Thorbjorn Risager Too Many Roads. I have only given it a couple of listens, but so far I like what I hear. I hope to listen in a little more detail tomorrow and maybe even get to write a little more about Thorbjorn and the album, but for this early morning let’s just get a little taste of his music! Here’s a performance of the song “Precious Time”, Gotta love the band, sax, trumpet, organ ….and more….

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Exploring the Nominees for British Blues Music Awards – Blues Album of the Year!

On August 14, 2014, the British Blues Awards presentation will be held at the The Great British Blues Festival in Colne. The other day I traveled to the website for the awards and reviewed the nominees for the award for Blues Album of the Year, and the nominees are: Big City Blues – The Hoax Home – Aynsley Lister Band Independence – Trevor Sewell Band Shake The Walls – Marcus Bonfanti Standing In  The Shadows – King King The Storytellers Daughter – Northsyde I have heard and reviewed two of the five nominees, Anysley Lister’s Home and King King’s Standing…

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Blues with New Orleans Flavor from the Royal Southern Brotherhood – HeartSoulBlood

One of the albums that has been in my music rotation this week is the new album HeartSoulBlood from the Royal Southern Brotherhood. This is the second release from the Brotherhood following their 2012 self-titled debut album. The Royal Southern Brotherhood is composed of Devon Allman, Cyril Neville, Mike Zito, Charlie Wooten,and Yonrico Scott. Of the five both Devon Allman and Mike Zito’s solo work, appear in my music library.Both of these albums and their 2013 release a live album titled Songs from the Road have been released on Ruf Records with the legendary Jim Gaines serving as the producer….

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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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