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Intents and Purposes – Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet

Intents and Purposes – Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet meets 80s Jazz Fusion

Rez AbbasiOne  of the albums that has been in my music rotation is Intents and Purposes for the Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet Rez Abassi is a jazz guitarist and rising star on the jazz scene.  He was voted #2 “Rising Star” guitarist in DownBeat magazine’s 2012’s esteemed Critic’s Poll, and #1 in 2013’s poll, Intents and Purposes is Abbasi tenth album and throughout  his career he has become best known for music that blends jazz with Indian music. On his first eight albums he has been both a leader and a collaborator. His collaborations have been with  Rudresh Mahanthappa, pianist, Vijay Iyer and with his wife, Juno-award-winning Indo-Canadian singer/songwriter Kiran Ahluwalia, for whom Abbasi serves as musical. On his last two albums the influence of Indian music on his music has been more subdued. His 2012 release Continuous Beat featured a trio composed of bassist John Hébert and drummer Satoshi Takeishi. Read More

Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell

Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell and 1855 London Perfect Together!

David Morrell author of Inspector of the DeadDavid Morrell has been a top mystery and thriller author since his debut novel First Blood released in 1971, introduced the world to John Rambo! I have enjoyed Morrell’s books since 1984’s release The Brotherhood of the Rose. All total Morrell has written twenty-eight novels, and his work has been translated into twenty-six languages While I have enjoyed Morrell’s books through the years, I never thought that any of them were as good as The Brotherhood of the Rose or the novels that followed like The Fraternity of the Stone and The League of Night and Fog, that is until 2013 and the release of Murder As A Fine Art. Murder As a Fine Art was a wonderful historical murder mystery set in 1850s London featuring Thomas De Quincey, known as The Opium-Eater and author of an essay titled “On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts”   and his daughter Emily. In March of 2015 the second book in the series Inspector of the Dead was released and this week it became the 24th book I’ve read in 2015 and one of my favorites of the year! Read More

Tomislav Goluban – Blow Junkie

Tomislav Goluban – Blow Junkie – Great Blues Harp from Croatia

Tomislav GolubanThe other day when I was reviewing the Roots Music Reports latest Blues Chart I was intrigued by the album at number 49 Blow Junkie from Tomislav Goluban. First, I was taken aback by the album seemingly drug referenced title.But then I looked more closely at the album cover I saw the harmonica and then I understood! And then there was the artist’s name Tomislav sounds a little Eastern European to me. So I made a quick trip to Spotify. downloaded the album onto the iPhone and gave it a listen on a run to do some errands yesterday morning! From the opening songs “Harp’ Rockin'” and “Blow Junkie Boogie” this album;s good time feel had me; Read More

Tomislav Goluban – Blow Junkie

Tomislav Goluban – Blow Junkie – Great Blues Harp from Croatia

Tomislav GolubanThe other day when I was reviewing the Roots Music Reports latest Blues Chart I was intrigued by the album at number 49 Blow Junkie from Tomislav Goluban. First, I was taken aback by the album seemingly drug referenced title.But then I looked more closely at the album cover I saw the harmonica and then I understood! And then there was the artist’s name Tomislav sounds a little Eastern European to me. So I made a quick trip to Spotify. downloaded the album onto the iPhone and gave it a listen on a run to do some errands yesterday morning! From the opening songs “Harp’ Rockin'” and “Blow Junkie Boogie” this album;s good time feel had me; Read More

B.B.King – Farewell to the King of the Blues!

B.B.King

Riley B.B.King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), The King of  the Blues

I look at the world and I notice it’s turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps*

The guitar that weeps today is Lucille,.the faithful guitar of Riley B. King, will feel his fingers on her fretboard no more… and the world has lost one of the best when B.B.King joined heaven’s band yesterday. B..B.King’s career has spanned seven decades, over forty albums, fifteen Grammys and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy in 1987. Here are some of the other awards and honors bestowed on B.B.King… Read More

Spiritual Haven – Russell Suereth

Spiritual Haven – Relaxing ethnic instruments and rhythms blended with modern sounds

Richard Suereth - Spiritual HavenThis morning I was looking for music to serve as the soundtrack for my morning yoga routine. (routine 3 from Richard Hittleman) I made a stop at the Zone Music Reporter‘s Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart The album that caught my eye was the number 31 album Spiritual Haven by Russell Suereth. It sounded like an album that would make a good soundtrack for my yoga set, so  I gave it a quick listen,I liked what I heard, but for some reason I didn’t use it, I come back and listen to it later in the morning though, and I think that I will be in my music rotation for a while. Here’s what Steve Sheppard of One World Music says about Spiritual Haven Read More

David Morrell: The Brotherhood of the Rose and more

David Morrell

David Morrell – The Mortalist, Frank Balenger, and   Thomas De Quincey series

So back in the 1980s (Ok think about that Edward the 1980s were 35 years ago! Ouch! When you were 14 in 1965 would you have thought about anything that happened in 1930 as anything but ancient history? Nope!) I read a lot of thrillers from the likes of Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler, Bill Granger (November Man), Richard Hoyt and others. And right up there with the best of them were books from David Morrell. Morrell’s 1972 debut novel was First Blood was adapted into Sylvester Stallone’s movie Rambo. Read More

Steve Winwood – (May 12 1948)

steve winwood Steve Winwood : Spencer Davis, Traffic Blind Faith, Solo.

Instruments: keyboards, bass guitar, drums, guitar, mandolin, violin, and other strings.

On this date May 12th in 1948 Steve Winwood was born (wait-Steve Winwood is only 3 years older than me!) When he was performing “I’m a Man” with Spencer Davis in the early 60s he was only three years older than me? And when he was making hits with Traffic and then Blind Faith he was only three years my senior damn! He was just a little more mature than that naïve kid from NJ must be that English water! Anyway Winwood’s work with both Traffic and Blind Faith is in my music library -not his more popular solo work -big surprise! Here’s the background info from Wikipedia: Read More