Today in Music – 1924 – Jazz Pianist Bud Powell was born!

  On this date in 1924 “Bud” Powell was born. I wrote the other day about pianist Benny Green whose style has been compared to Bud Powell, but I don’t know that much about Bud. I image that the reason is because he died 1966. Additionally, he spent the years between 1958 and 1963 in Paris. In 1963, he returned to the US, and on July 31, 1966, he died of tuberculosis, malnutrition, and alcoholism. Some background from Wikipedia: Earl Rudolph “Bud” Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was a jazz pianist who was born and raised in Harlem, New…

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Bud Powell – Jazz Piano

  Bud Powell – Jazz Piano born September 27, 1924   On this date in 1924 “Bud” Powell was born. In a post the other day about pianist Benny Green‘, I stated that his sytle has been compared to Bud Powell’s style. I wouldn’t know because, I know hardly anything about Bud Powell. with the exception that he was a great pianist. I image that he main reason I don’t remember Bud, is that  he died 1966. Another reason is that he spent the years between 1958 and 1963 in Paris. He returned to the US in 1963 and on July 31, 1966, he…

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Late Night Jazz from Russell Malone, Christian McBride and Benny Green

Ok so after writing about Christian McBride tonight, I was looking around YouTube and I saw this video of a performance of one of my favorite Wes Montgomery tunes, “Jingles”! The trio performing it was composed of Christian McBride on bass, Benny Green on piano and Russell Malone on guitar. I have recently learned a little about Christian McBride but I don’t know much about Malone or Green. Anyway,I watched the video and I was floored! Malone is outstanding on guitar as is Green on piano, but the driving force behind the whole 14 minutes on the tune is the…

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Life’s Soundtrack – Another encouraging run aided by Thought Chamber’s Angular Perceptions

So I am considering a new rule that all run soundtracks should be progressive rock albums! Well maybe not each run, but at least the tempo runs! I was going to run last night, but I spent most of the day trudging around farm fields and woods in Mansfield Township looking for wetland flags and when I came home I just didn’t feel up to it. I went back to the same site today and finished up, but I was able to move the truck a little closer to where I needed to locate the wetland flags and as a…

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Life’s Soundtrack – 2013 Prog Rock From Finland’s Lars Eric Mattsson!

So this morning I was checking the new progressive rock album released in September. What usually catches my attention is the country of origin of the artist. There were several bands from Italy, as well as The Netherlands, the UK, the US and one from Finland Lars Eric Mattson When I saw that Lion Music released the album, I thought, hey, I know that company! They released another album that I listened to recently, Marcus Jidell’s Pictures from a Time Traveller. When I went back to their website, there was Lars Eric, looking at me from right above Marcus… When…

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Life’s Soundtrack – Another Strong Run with Prog Rock from Sweden’s Cloudscape!

Cloudscape – Progressive Metal – Sweden So while I’m not where I want to be yet, tonight’s run was the first time in a long while that I felt strong through the whole run. The four miles seemed to fly by pretty quickly!! The splits went like this: Mile 1 – 10:01, 2- 10:17, 3, 10:15, 4 10:20 not bad at all! Early in the month, the last two miles were like a 1 minute or so per mile slower than the first two miles. Overall, I was about 1:38 faster than the last time I ran this course!! The…

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Lunchtime Music – Some Native American Flute from Douglas Spotted Eagle!

So this morning I was  doing a lot of calculations and trying to interpret NJDEP regulations. Therefore, I needed music to keep me focused and calm so that I didn’t pull out what little remaining hair I have!! I turned to the New Age genre and heard music from R Carlos Nakai, Mary Youngblood, illy McLaughlin, and Adrian Legg to name a few. Among the artist was another artist whose specialty is Native American Flute Douglas Spotted Eagle From Wikipedia: Douglas Spotted Eagle, is a Grammy-winning musician, noted for his live and recorded performances on the traditional Native American flute,…

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Today in Music – 1926 – “Brother” Jack McDuff was born – jazz organ – who knew!

So this morning the first name that I saw on the list was “Brother” Jack McDuff”, who was born on this date in 1926. It wasn’t until the third site that I checked in the morning that I read the following” Jack McDuff… with his trio, which over the years featured guitarists like Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, and George Benson, McDuff made many of the first so-called “acid jazz” recordings. Woo Hoo!…. a jazz organist that worked with three guitar great!!! I have to check him out. So I headed over to Wikipedia and found this: “Brother” Jack McDuff (September…

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Life’s Soundtrack (that could have been) – Pictures from a Time Traveler – Marcus Jidell

Evergrey  and Dragonforce are two of my son Andrew’s favorite bands and over the last few years they have been in my music library. Music from both bands often becomes my running music, Dragonforce by choice and Evergrey by happenstance. Many times a track from Evergre4y will come on when the iPod is on random shuffle.When that happens, I usually catch myself thinking this sounds good, then after checking  who the and is, and I discover it’s Evergrey!!  Now the question you may be asking about now is – why are you telling me this?? .The answer lies in the…

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Today in Music – 1930 – “Saxophone Colossus” Sonny Rollins is born!!

  So while today is a sad day for the rock world, losing Keith Moon, it is a happy day for the jazz world, because on this day in 1930 Sonny Rollins, the “Saxophone Colossus” was born! From his biography page at his website: Theodore Walter Rollins was born on September 7, 1930 in New York City. He grew up in Harlem not far from the Savoy Ballroom, the Apollo Theatre, and the doorstep of his idol, Coleman Hawkins. After early discovery of Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, he started out on alto saxophone, inspired by Louis Jordan. At the…

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