The Safari Starts with Anke Helfrich’s Birthday and my ADD Leads Me to New Jazz!!

   Ok so the Safari tonight started with a search for some jazz musicians born on the. The first name that caught my eye was right at the top of the list at the birthday list at All About Jazz – Anke Helfrich  a German pianist and, composer of modern jazz .  Helfrich grew up in Windhoek ( Namibia ) and Weinheim , where she took piano lessons. After initial successes as a national award winner at ” Youth jazzes “(1987) she studied in Freiburg and from 1989 on the” Amsterdamse Hooge School voor de Kunsten “inHilversum at Elkerbout Henk and Rob Madna . Due to their excellent statements she received a scholarship that her additional…

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Afternoon Explorations – “Willow Weep For Me” – Chad & Jeremy??

As I sit here inspecting the installation of a new pipe under Tuckerton Road in Medford Lakes NJ. My thoughts are on music, I thought about how last week I investigated the song “Afro Blue”. Thinking about that song, another song popped into my head, that one was “Willow Weep for Me” While there may be another cover of the song in my library, the one I really know is Wes Montgomery’ cover that is the title track on one of his albums! So let’s find out a little about the song. From Wikipedia: “Willow Weep for Me” is a popular…

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Today in Music – Oct 22, 1957 – Happy Birthday – Canadian Jazz Artist Jane Bunnett

A while back I discovered the music of Canadian jazz musician Jane Bunnett, like usual it was on a night that I was looking for new music and boy did I listened to Cuban Rhapsody  featuring both Jane and pianist Hilario Durán. and if you’ve never heard it give it a listen it’s great! Anyway, today I get to wish her a Happy Birthday Jane was  born on October 22, 1956 and is a Canadian soprano saxophonist, flautist and bandleader known for her Afro-Cuban jazz melodies. In addition to her primary instruments, Bunnett also plays the trompeta china, a Cuban wind instrument of Chinese origin. Born and educated in Toronto, she trained…

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Today in Music – 1953, 1963 – Garrison Fewell and Chris Thomas King – New Musicians – Oh Joy!!

This morning I was thinking about how reviewing the birthdays everyday has given me another avenue for discovering new artists, Over the last week, I have discovered Terry Gibbs, “Sweets” Edison, Dave Robinson and Mark Whitfield to name a few, which to me is pretty cool! With that being said, it seems that a review of today;’s birthday’s has yielded possibly two more artist and if additional listening confirms what I heard this morning that possible will turn into a definite!! The first artist that caught my eye was a jazz guitarist born on October 14, 1953 Garrison Fewell. From his biography…

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Today in Music – 1961 – Dave Robinson (vibraphonist) is born!!

This morning as I was looking down the list of jazz musicians born on October 12th, the day remembered by all the indigenous people of the Americas as the day all hell broke loose and us as Columbus day, I stopped very early in the list, actually at the third name right after Chris Botti -Dave Robinson It was a name I recognized, but only as a Hall of Fame football player with the Packers, not as a vibraphonist. But I thought, hey, let’s discovery something new this Saturday morning and I did!! At AllMusic I read: A percussionist from…

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Today in Music – 1974 – Happy Birthday – jazz/blues organist Mauri Sanchis – Part 1!

As I looked down a list of musicians  that were born on this date there were no names that I recognized. So I just picked one that was interesting to investigate, the pick was Mauri Sanchis born in Alcoy, Spain on this date in 1974 (a quick geography lesson for the geography geek in me.) Alcoy (Spanish: [alˈkoi]) or Alcoi (Valencian: [aɫˈkɔj]) is a city and municipality located in the province of Alicante, Spain. The Serpisriver crosses the municipal boundary of Alcoi. The local authority reported 61,417 residents in 2010,[1] of whom 5,334 were of non-Spanish origin.[2] Read More  Back to Mauri Sanchis at All About Jazz I discovered that Mauri has played or recorded…

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Today in Music – 1948 – Happy Birthday, Duke Robillard!!

After reviewing a couple of the birthday lists, that I usually check in the morning, I didn’t see any names that really caught my attention, so I decided that I’d search for any “today in jazz’” birthday sites. I found a list at All About Jazz and as I scrolled down the list there weren’t many names that I recognized (Can anyone tell me if there’s someone I should check out on the list) until I arrived at the Ds and there I saw blues guitarist Duke Robillard‘s name! Now you may say what’s a blues artist doing on 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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