“Into the Night” with Latin Jazz Masters – Jane Bunnett and Hilario Duran

So on Monday while I was exploring new jazz artists, I read a forum thread about flutists and someone included Jane Bunnett among their favorites. I knew nothing about Jane, but here’s what I found about this accomplished musician at her website : Multiple Juno Award winner, Jane Bunnett has turned her bands into showcases for the finest talent from Canada, the U.S.and Cuba. She has been nominated for Grammy Awards, numerous Juno Awards, and most recently, was honoured with an appointment to the Order of Canada. An internationally acclaimed musician, Jane Bunnett is known for her creative integrity, improvisational…

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Lunchtime Music – Blues with a Jazz twist from John Mayall!

Blues and jazz have always been inter-woven, so it was only natural that a blues man would explore blues with a jazz twist. John Mayall did that in 1969 with his album The Turning Point. On that album…. Mayall tried a new format with lower volume, acoustic instruments, and no drummer. He recruited acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Jon Mark and flautist-saxophonist John Almond. Mark was best known as Marianne Faithfull’s accompanist for three years and for having been a member of the band Sweet Thursday (which included pianist Nicky Hopkins and future Cat Stevens collaborator Alun Davies, also a guitarist). Almond…

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New Age – “Into the Morning” with Peter Kater and Nawang Khechog

I first heard Peter Kater’s piano coupled with R Carlos Nakai’s Native American flute on the album Honorable Sky and the album quickly became a favorite. Several years later I picked up the album Karuna by Tibetan artist Nawang Khechog, which I admit to not listening to as often as I should, hum, does that sound familiar! From his website: Nawang Khechog is first Tibetan Grammy Nominee and the most renowned Tibetan Flutist in the world. He is one of the Tibet’s foremost world music & spiritual music composer and also one of the first Tibetan musicians to be able…

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2013 Blues – King King – Standing in the Shadows

So it’s always pretty neat when I listen to an album, like I did with Standing in the Shadows from the blues band King King, are blown away, and then go to their website and read that they were the winners of the Best Band & Best Album at the British Blues 2012 Awards!! They are also Winners of ‘Best Band’ & ‘Best Album’ – Blues Matters Writers Poll in 2011!! Hailing from Glasgow King King is fronted by guitarist Alan Nimmo, formerly of the award-winning Nimmo Brothers. As I listened to the album, I heard tracks that went from…

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Blues from 2004 – Dave Specter and Steve Freund – Is What It Is!

So I first became aware of blues guitarist Dave Specter a few years ago, when I listened to his album Live in Chicago. It’s been on the iPod and when songs come up on random shuffle, I’m always thinking about how much I like his work! Anyway, his guitar can be heard on a couple of albums that I’ve been listening to lately, one is a new one from harmonica player Al Miller ..In Between Time and the other Knockin’ Around These Blues with John Primer and Bob Corritore, both good albums. Well, somewhere in the last week or so, I…

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A Hectic Morning from Overthinking?? – Relaxation provided by Paul Adams’ Flute!

So this morning was hectic,  my wife needed a $300.00 gift card for a life-long friend who is retiring this years after 35 years of teaching! She told me to check with our bank but that she would call me later. When it got to be after 10 o’clock and she hadn’t called yet, I called she asked, “Why I hadn’t gone yet and that I needed to be back to pick her up at school at 10:45 fearing that I didn’t have enough time to look around I went on-line and typed in Visa gift card location and up…

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Today in Music – 1977 – Kenny Wayne Sheppard’s Birthday!

Ok this is the third time, I have tried to write this post today!! Today is the 36th birthday of blues guitar great Kenny Wayne Sheppard. I first heard Kenny Wayne’s name way back, well maybe not way back, but back in 1995, when as an 18 year-old he released his first album Ledbetter Heights. Like many in the blues and rock worlds, I was blown away by the album and Sheppard’s playing!! When his second album Trouble Is… came out, I went out and quickly picked it up! I didn’t like that album as much as the first one,…

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Climbing the “Cosmic Distance Ladder” with Sound of Contact!

So the other day, I wrote that Andrew told me that, along with The Winery Dogs, I should listen to Sound of Contact, and not to read about the band until after I listen. So I did as instructed and about mid-way through the album, the band started to remind me of Genesis. After listening , and enjoying the album I went to read about the band and I found out the reason that they sounded a like Genesis was their drummer…. his name is Simon Collins, yup he’s Phil’s son!!Collins has released three solo albums but he always wanted…

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Beware of the Winery Dogs…. Good rockin’ headed your way!

So two of my all-time favorite power trios, (guitar, bass and drums) are Cream (Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton) and The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Hendrix, Noel Redding(bass) and Mitch Mitchell (drums)). Saturday, Andrew told me to be on the look out for a new power trio, The Winery Dogs, composed of the ubiquitous drummer from Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy, guitarist Richie Kotzen, and bass player Billy Sheehan from Mr. Big. He says the advance press from the youtube videos that are on-line is pretty good! The Winery Dogs’ self-produced album is set for release on on Jul 23rd on Loud…

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2013 Jazz – Aaron Diehl’s – The Bespoke Man’s Narrative

So last night I had the television on and there were no games on the Phils played in the afternoon and the NBA playoffs start tonight so a surfed a little, and then switched to the Music Choice jazz channel. I listened for a bit and heard two artists that sounded interesting, so I turned off the TV and went to MOG to find them. The first was jazz pianist Aaron Diehl and the second was drummer Jordon Young. Both of their albums were very, very good. particularly  Diehl’s début album   The Bespoke Man’s Narrative, which was released by Mack…

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