The Safari heads to the Windy City and finds New Prog Rock from Oceanborn!

So earlier this week I created a new rule about the music I listen to during a run. The rule is the music should be more often than not Prog Rock! The reason many-sided.  First there’s a lot of music and fewer vocals, so I don’t have to listen and determine what the lyrics are, instead I can just let the music wash over me. Secondly, there are lots of tempo changes that allow me to speed up and slow down at varying points during the run!  Thursday night was the first night I implemented the rule, and the run…

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The Musical Safari travels to Finland and finds – Lars Eric Mattsson’s Epicentre!

A while back, 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 Mattsson 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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Musical Safari to Indonesia – simakDialog – The 6th Story

Yesterday as I was surfing around the Internet, I came across a review at Jazz Archives for a band named simak Dialog and their latest album The 6th Story. As I read the following, I thought wow! This band really fits this blog…a musical safari to the far reaches of Indonesia: More and more fusion fans around the world are beginning to realize that Indonesia has become a hotbed for fresh and original jazz fusion music. Along with the creativity and energy, there is also a lot of variety to the styles of these bands. Some Indonesian bands play in a…

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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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