Bosch and Art Pepper Perfect Together!

Watching Bosch leads to the Music of Art Pepper

Last night my wife and I finished watching the first season of Bosch on Amazon Prime. The series is based on the books of Michael Connelly featuring LA Detective Harry Bosch.  If you haven’t seen it do, because it’s really, really good. I have not read many of the Harry Bosch books, but what I have read I have enjoyed, and there are three of them on my TBR shelves! Michael Connelly is the executive producer of the show and I’m sure he has a lot of say over the way Harry is portrayed, which makes the series that much better! Read More

Watching You -Michael Robotham

Watching You – Michael Robotham (Joseph O’Loughlin #7)

As Watching You begins, Marnie Logan has problems her husband Daniel has been missing for a year and times are tough. Her missing husband  Daniel left a pile of gambling debts behind and Patrick Hennessey a mobster wants to collect. So Marnie is forced to take a job at with an escort service to help settle her debt and pay her bills. One night she meets and saves a businessman from committing suicide. She collects no money from the distressed John. Her pimp beats her! The next morning his body is fished out of the river. He has been stabbed and killed by a kitchen knife! Read More

Wallace Roney – Jazz Trumpet from Philadelphia!

Wallace Roney – Trumpet – Born May 25, 1960 – In Philadelphia.

Tomorrow May 26th is the great Miles Davis‘ birthday. Today is the  birthday of  the only trumpet player that he ever mentored Wallace Roney. Wallace was born in Philadelphia in 1960 So he is too young to have experienced 1960, which was the year that former Whiz Kids manager re Eddie Sawyer resigned as the hapless Phillies’ manager after a 9-4 opening day loss to the Reds and said.: “I’m 49 years old and I want to live to be 50.”  But I digress so it’s back to Wallace Roney. Read More

May Reading Update…..

May Another Good Reading Month – Five books finished with a week to go!

At he end of April my projected reads for May were projected to be…..::

What Then Shall We Do?
Dance of Death
Bowl of Heaven
A Delicate Truth
The Technologist

As I moved into May, I finished reading What Then Shall We Do? and Dance of Death. At that point, I went to the library and then changed the books. I added: How to Read the Solar System,and The Smoke at Dawn by Jeff Sahaara from the library. Then I added Preston & Child’s Brimstone (the book prior to Dance of Death) and The Devil’s Punchbowl from Greg Isles both from my TBR pile. Additionally, I continued reading Bowl of Heaven from Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. A few days later, Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell, which I requested from the library became available. I zipped through that book and then did the same thing with Brimstone!! Read More

Brimstone – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Brimstone – Preston & Child – Pendergrast and D’Agosta chase down the Devil?

Preston & Child’s FBI Agent Pendergrast investigates those curious cases, so when Brimstone opens with art critic Jeremy Grove found burnt to a crisp in a locked and barricaded room in the attic of his mansion in the Hamptons, you knew Pendergrast would be there soon. Grove is found burnt to death from the inside out, amid the smell of brimstone. And next to him is the devil’s hoof print burnt into the floor! Soon the question arises: Had Grove really made a Faustian pack with the devil and he came to collect??? Read More

Wajdi Cherif – Jazz Pianist

Wajdi Cherif – Tunisian Born Jazz Pianist – Born May 20, 1975

So May 20th is a holiday in several nations including, Cambodia, East Timor and Cameroon. It was also the birthday of a Tunisian jazz piano player, Wajdi Cherif!! Knowing nothing about his music, other than that he played piano, I went to Spotify and listened to his 2009 release Fuzzy Colours and I didn’t have to listen long to become intrigued by and enjoy his music. Returning to All About Jazz, I discovered that at five years of age Wajdi was learning to play tunes he heard on the radio in his homeland of Tunisia on his little piano. Wajdi never lost his love for music and along his life’s journey, he earned his BA in English Literature, but more importantly he discovered jazz!! At the American cultural center in Tunis, he watched live performance videos of pianists Chick Corea, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans. He soon decided to make jazz music his career, and set out exploring it on his own. He made his professional debut in 1998. In 2003, he released his first album Phrygian Istikhbar in Paris. Accompanying Wajdi on the album were Diego Imbert on acoustic bass, Jeff Boudreau on drums and Habib Samandi on Arabic percussion. The album went on to become a finalist in the Indie Acoustic Awards in the USA in 2004!! From All About Jazz: Read More

Jimmy Thackery – Blues Guitar Virtuoso

Jimmy Thackery – Band Jimmy Thackery & the Drivers

Born:May 19, 1953

I first discovered Jimmy Thackery &the Drivers in the late 90s, in the period where my sons and I visited Tunes Used CD store in Marlton every week. My introduction to his music was  his 1994 release Trouble Man that I picked up on cassette. I’m listening to it now remembering what a great album it is! Check it out!! I loved the album since then several of his albums are in my music library. I must say that over the last several years I’ve lost track of his career, hum, maybe his birthday is a good day to start reconnecting….. from AllMusic…. Read More

Night Owl Music: Goodman and Gorka with thoughts of New Jersey!

Steve Goodman sings about the dangers of falling asleep with the TV on,

while John Gorka sings about living in New Jersey….

So we’ve all been there, it’s late at night the TVs on you fall to sleep to its glow, what could go wrong??…….maybe Steve Goodman can tell us….. in a song, that always brings a smile to my face, no matter how many times I hear it!! Read More