Stanton Moore – Conversations

with Conversations – Jazz/Rock Drummer Stanton Moore returns and reinvents! Drums – Born: July 9, 1972   Checking the birthdays at All About Jazz, yesterday I saw that it was drummer Stanton Moore’s 42nd birthday, and that he had released a new album Conversations this year. I first discovered Stanton’s drumming back in 2010, when he released Groove Alchemy, Anyway I enjoyed that album, additionally, when I looked back at the old post that I wrote I saw that I also heard Stanton’s drums on Anders Osborne’s album American Patchwork! So it didn’t take me long to head on over…

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Exploring the Dynamic Jazz Piano of Hiromi Uehara – Alive!!

Originally posted at Let’s Explore Jazz So while I did really enjoy all of the albums on the Jazz playlist that I created yesterday. There was one album though, that caught my attention very quickly and  that was Alive by Hiromi! The album was released on June 17th on the Telarc label and currently the album is No, 37 on the JazzWeek Chart and No 11 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Alive is Hiromi’s ninth studio release and her third release as Hiromi’s  Trio Project.  The current trio features: Simon Phillips on drums and Anthony Jackson on bass. Her first four…

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Exploring Neo Prog from the United States’ Roy Strattman – The Lie of the Beholder!

This morning I took a moment and gave a quick listen to a few of the albums now on progstreaming, I picked two, found the albums on Spotify, put them on the iPhone and listened today. The two albums were from Roy Strattman: The Lie of the Beholder and Mike Kershaw’s Ice Age. Of the two I listened to more of Strattman than Kershaw, so I guess I’ll begin there. The Lie of the Beholder is the first album produced by Roy Strattman under his own name, prior to this release Strattman has been, since 2002, the sole guitarist and joint…

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Which Artist’s Music Should I Explore?? Listen – Then Vote!

So this morning I sat down and made a list of five Jazz artists whose new albums I thought I would like to explore. Rather than listen to each of them fully today, I made the following playlist picking a few tracks from each of the albums. I figured I’d listen to the playlist and see what album stood out the most for me and then listen to that album. So here is the playlist give it a listen in full or one track from each artist and then vote for our favorite….. I already know mine ….all of them…

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Evening Thoughts – Pinetop Perkins to Victor Wainwright and Southern Hospitality!

Today way back in the year of 1913 on this date James William Perkins was born  in Belzoni, Mississippi. Ninety-seven (97) years later now know better by his stage named Pinetop Perkins, he won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album for Joined at the Hip, an album he recorded with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Perkins is the oldest-ever Grammy winner. In between he  had a fantastic career  that saw him play with many of the most influential blues and rock and roll performers in American history. Perkins received numerous honors during his lifetime, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and was…

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Exploring the Music of Joe Zawinul on His Birthday – July 7th

Joe Zawinul (July 7, 1932 – September 11, 2007) – Keyboards – Composer   Last week, when I wrote about the jazz fusion sub-genre, the name Joe Zawinul came up as a major force in the sub-genre. Today I have a reason to write about and listen to Joe’s music,  because on this date in 1932, Joe was born. Joe was born, raised, and classically trained on the piano in Austria. Around 1959 he knew that to grow in the jazz genre, he needed to come to the US, so he applied for a scholarship to Berklee School of Music through…

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Exploring the Music of Spain’s Kant, Freud, Kafka – No Tengas Miedo – Symphonic or Not!

After my run last night, I was pretty much physically drained, I took a shower, ate and then wrote a post at Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries. After that, I was going to write about my run and its soundtrack, which was the new album from The Royal Southern Brotherhood. While I was getting ready to write that post, I went to look up something about a prog band that I listened to earlier in the day Rite of Passage. wasn’t having much luck finding information, so I went to progstreaming, where I first saw their album. While I was…

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Exploring the Music of Mads Tolling

Mads Tolling – violin viola, and composer.Born July 5, 1980   Violinist Mads Tolling was born on this date July 5th in 1980 in Copenhagen,Denmark is violinist. If you think that I didn’t recognize his name on the list of jazz birthdays at All About Jazz this morning, you would be ……correct!! So   Mads Tolling (born July 5, 1980)[1] is a Danish-American violinist, violist, and composer. Tolling won Grammy Awards for “Best classical crossover album” as part of Turtle Island Quartet’s recordings 4+Four (2006)[2] and A Love Supreme – The Legacy of John Coltrane (2008).[2] Tolling also recorded on Stanley Clarke‘s The Toys of Men (2007).[3] He is currently first violinist with the Turtle Island Quartet,[4] soloist with…

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2014 Jazz Organ – from Jared Gold – JG3+3 = a great jazz sextet and album!

Somewhere a while back I became aware of jazz organist Jared Gold. I think I first saw Jared’s name when I was searching for Dave Stryker’s album 8-Track (which I still have not found). Anyway, over the last couple of months, I’ve watched Gold’s latest release JG3+3 climb the JazzWeek Charts and have gone to Spotify to check the album out and come away empty. This week I did the same thing and this time the album was available and it has been in my jazz rotation this week and I have a new jazz organist favorite to add to my…

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Exploring the Music of Ahmad Jamal on his birthday (July 2nd) Happy 84th Birthday, Ahmad!

On this date July 2nd in 1930  jazz, composer, pianist and educator Ahmad Jamal was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now, while I have seen his name on the JazzWeek charts over the last several months when his latest release Saturday Morning (No 29 on the 2013 Jazz Week Year End Chart)  was on the charts. His name sounded sort of familiar, but I admit I didn’t know much about the man and his music. So when I read at Wikipedia today, that American music critic Stanley Crouch places him second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 I was…

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