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Night Owl Music – Into the Morning with Coltrane and Burton and “Afro Blue”

Coltrane Afro BlueThis afternoon my daughter, Elizabeth  called and was having car problems. The check engine light came on, the battery was dead and the steering locked up. We decided to have the car towed back here to be looked at, at my local gas station, In doing so, she was left without a car, so tonight I drove the other car down to her. She drove me back to my son Andrew’s house, half way between here and the University of Delaware, then he drove me home! I was all set for the trip down there, I had two genres on the iPhone jazz from vibist Arthur Lipner and guitarist Garrison Fewell and progressive rock from Six Minute Century. What! I forgot was to make sure the iPhone was charged or that there was a charger in the car – not good – no charger  + no charge = no music!! So I tuned into WRTI and listened to some jazz! When I came back, I started to look for some videos from Arthur Lipner, but my ADD kicked in and soon I started watching Gary Burton and Chick Correa playing “Eleanor Rigby”, Oh, wait on the sidebar, there;s Gary Buton & Makoto Ozone performing “Afro Blue” I love “Afro Blue”!! Soon I was watching and listening to that song! Then I thought let’s go to Wikipedia and read about Afro Blue…… Read More

Today in History October 16, 1937 – Barry McGuire is born!!

Barry McGuire Eve of DestructionAmong today’s  birthdays is singer-songwriter Barry McGuire. From Wikipedia – Barry McGuire

…..an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song “Eve of Destruction”, and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian music.   In 1963, McGuire along with Randy Sparks (the founder of The New Christy Minstrels) co-wrote, and sang lead vocal on, the Christys’ first and biggest hit single: “Green, Green.” He left the Christys in January 1965, after recording the album,Cowboys and Indians; however, on the 1965 album Chim Chim Cher-ee, he sang only on the title cut…..   As a folk rock solo singer in the 1960s, he was best known for his hits “Eve of Destruction” and “Sins of the Family”, both written by P.F. Sloan. His other chart successes were “Child of Our Times” and “Cloudy Summer Afternoon (Raindrops)” (penned by Travis Edmonson of the 1960s folk-duo, Bud & Travis). “Eve of Destruction” sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[1]   McGuire’s LP, The Eve of Destruction, reached its peak of number 37 on the Billboard 200 chart during the week ending 25 September 1965. That same day the single of that name went to number one on both charts. McGuire was never again to break into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. According to McGuire, “Eve of Destruction” was recorded in one take on a Thursday morning (from words scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper) and then he got a call from the record company at 7:00 the next Monday morning, telling him to turn on the radio—his song was playing. The recording includes an “ahhh” where McGuire could not read the words.[2] The Temptationsreferenced McGuire’s song “Eve of Destruction” in their song “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)”. For other references and covers of “Eve of Destruction” see the article: “Eve of Destruction”. Read More

Today in History October 15, 1883 – A Dark Day in US Race Relations

Civil Right Act of 1875On October 15,1883  the U.S. Supreme Court would have made many of the current justices on the Supreme Court proud, when the Court struck down part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 The long title of the Act included: An act to protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights.. The result of the court’s action allowed for individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race. From Wikipedia: Read More

Life’s Soundtrack – A Fast Run (for me!!) and great Blues from Chris Thomas King!

Bona FideWith the IQ test over and having done better than my wife anticipated, I now have my eyes set on my first 5K of the year, this Saturday in Delanco. Tonight was my second to the last workout before the race, and it turned out to be my best run of the late summer early fall! I tried to run short pickups throughout the run and a couple of times my pace dropped below 9 minutes per mile and was under 10 minute per mile pace through most of the run. I pushed it through the first 3.1 miles of the run and then backed off.  I was able to pick it back up though for a decent push at the end. Overall the time was 39:32 over 4.03 miles for a final pace of 9:48. which I am happy with! The soundtrack of the run was Bona Fide, the latest release from Chris Thomas King who is somewhere today celebrating his 49th birthday (according to his website and 50th according to All ?Music)! Chris Thomas King2 Read More

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

Garrison Fewell2This 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!! Read More

Today in Music – 1924 – Happy 89th Birthday – Jazz Giant Terry Gibbs!

Explosion! Terry Gibbs

Explosion! Terry GibbsI’ll confess that when I think of the last name Gibbs, I think football -Joe Gibbs Hall of Fame coach for the Redskins, and not vibraphone. But that will probably change after learning today that one of the best jazz vibraphonist Terry Gibbs was born on this date in 1924!! Now I’ve written before that I love the vibes and the list of players in my library includes: Gary Burton, Bobby Hutcherson. Cal Tjader, Walt Dickenson, Stefon Harris, Dave Pike and a couple of others, but no Terry Gibbs. I think I’ve seen the name, but never heard the music. Once again shame on me! Read More

Thoughts of Tomorrow’s Pending Test and Pie for Breakfast!!

Intelligence TestOk so tomorrow for breakfast, I need something that will ignite my meager mental faculties! You see tomorrow my daughter who is in graduate school at the University of Delaware, majoring in Educational Psychology, will be giving me an IQ test! Somehow I think that is illegal and the results should be confidential between her and me and NOT given to her mother!! I don’t think this is going to end well for me!! One of the things I’ll have to do is to listen to a statement and then repeat it, which is not that bad. But then I will have to repeat it backwards. Let’s try it – backwards it repeat to have will I! Hah, a piece of cake! !cake of piece A…Oh I can see all those analogies now – hand is to glove as head is to oven – is that right!! How about this one! Read More

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

Dave Robinson

Zen Bicycle Band- Clive Fletcher, Paul Cheneour and Dave Robinson

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: Read More