This Day in Music – May 20, 1975 – Tunisian Jazz Pianist Wajdi Cherif was born. Happy Belated Birthday, Wajdi!

So May 20th was a holiday in several nations including, Cambodia, East Timor and Cameroon. It was also the birthday of a Tunisian jazz piano player, Wajdi Cherif!! Knowing nothing about his music, other than that he played piano, I went to Spotify and listened to his 2009 release Fuzzy Colours and I didn’t have to listen long to become intrigued by and enjoy his music. Returning to All About Jazz, I discovered that at five years of age Wajdi was learning to play tunes he heard on the radio in his homeland of Tunisia on his little piano. Wajdi…

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This Day in Music – May 19, 1953 – Blues Guitarist Jimmy Thackery was born!!

I first discovered Jimmy Thackery &the Drivers in the late 90s, in the period where my sons and I visited Tunes Used CD store in Marlton every week. My introduction to his music was  his 1994 release Trouble Man that I picked up on cassette. I’m listening to it now remembering what a great album it is! Check it out!! I loved the album since then several of his albums are in my music library. I must say that over the last several years I’ve lost track of his career, hum, maybe his birthday is a good day to start…

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Progressivo Italiano from Italy’s Conqueror – Stems…no seeds

Conqueror – Rock Progressivo Italiano Italy So yesterday, I was trying to organize some of my stuff around the computer and my work desk. My that’s tall order!! Anyway, I went to progstreaming and looked over the albums and chose the album Stems by Conqueror. As usual, I knew nothing about the band, except that the album cover looked kind of interesting. It took a few minutes before I stopped and said, “Hey, this is pretty good”  And as I listened, the album proceeded to get better and better. About Conquueror Conqueror is an Italian progressive rock band whose music…

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New Jazz from NJ Saxophonist Tom Tallitsch – Ride!! (Video)

So this morning I loaded up two new jazz albums on the iPhone to serve as the soundtrack for my trip to Trader Joe’s, and then proceeded to listen to neither of the albums!! What I did listen to on the way over was Ride the great new release from New Jersey resident Tom Tallitsch!! The album has been on the iPhone for a week or more now and the more I listen to it, the more I like it!! Tom is another one of those busy busy people who seem to thrive on having a lot of irons in…

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The Old Runner Gets Going Again… with Music from Ontofield …Sleeping with Fractals!

So Tuesday was fairly hot here in New Jersey and then yesterday it cooled off a little, and the fair weather runner inside me said yes today is the day!!Checking Runmeter on the iPhone I see that with half the month gone this is my first run in May, My last run was April 28th, that sucks, I should be ashamed of myself! Anyway I did feel pretty good yesterday so I did some light yoga stretching and took off. I felt good through the first two miles and averaged 10:06 per mile, then I slowed down over the 3rd…

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Psychedelic/Space Rock from Canada’s Greylevel – Hypostatic Union

Again this weekend Thursday through Sunday was a blur….Thursday I worked both jobs from 8:30 am to 11:30 PM, then got back up to be on a site 30 minutes from my home at 8 am! I worked until 12:00 then ran around getting ready for a wedding, drove to Avalon NJ a one hour forty minute drive, went to a wedding on the beach, attended the reception and drove him arriving back home at 11 PM. Saturday was a few errands and then work again from 5:30 to 11:30! Sunday Mother’s Day found us at my son Andrew’s home…

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Yesterday in Music – May 10, 1935 – Julius Wechter leader of the Baja Marimba Band was born!!

How about a little musical analogy —— The Rolling Stones are to The Beatles as ______________ are to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass! If you said The Baja Marimba Band!! You would be correct and probably old!! On this date in 1935 the leader of the Band  Julius Wechter was born!! To explain the analogy The Beatles we re the clean-cut good  guys and the Stones the bad boys. And Jules says this about the Baja Marimba Band’s relationship to Herb and the Brass! They were…. “… like the Tijuana Brass’ bad little brothers. Herb [Alpert] and his group…

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Symphonic Prog from the USA’s Rocket Scientists – Supernatural Highways! (Video)

Many moons ago, when my on Andrew still was working part-time at Target, I have a vague recollection of him telling me about a band he had listened to and enjoyed – Rocket Scientists. I think that I gave the band a quick listen and really didn’t care for them. A week or so ago, the band released a new EP titled Supernatural Highways, so I went to Spotify to check it out. There are two tracks on this 30 minute EP- track one “Traveler on the Supernatural Highway” hogs 26 minutes of them, leaving 4 minutes plus for “On Her…

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This Day in Music – May 3rd – Happy Birthday Jazz Flutist Andrea Brachfeld!! (Video)

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 to play this music in the United States….

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This Day in Music – May 1, 1982 – Jazz Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire was born (Video)

On this day May 1st in 1982 Ambrose Akinmusire (ah-kin-MOO-sir-ee) was born in Oakland California.  His latest release The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint  has been in my listening rotation and I have enjoyed it! This was not my first meeting with Mr. Akinmusire, winner of the 2007 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, two of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world. No, I first listened to his trumpet back in August of last year when  I  spent A Night of Exploration – Contemporary Jazz Trumpeters! Since then I have listened to his second album…

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