Home Archive by category "Birthdays" (Page 3)

Category: Birthdays

Exploring the Jazz Saxophone of Houston Person, following his birthday!!

Houston Person

Houston Person – Saxophone  (born November 10, 1934)

Houston Person is a jazz artist whose name I have seen on the JazzWeek Chart, as recently as this week. His latest release as a leader The Melody Lingers On is now at # 9. I had yet to listen to any of his music until last week. To be more specific,   I listened to two albums on his birthday, November 1oth. The albums nI listened to were Something in Common  from 1989 and Now’s the Time. Now’s the Time, released in 1990, was recorded with legendary bassist Ron Carter. Both albums were released on the Muse label. They were recorded at the Van Gelder Studios with  Rudy Van Gelder serving as the engineer. I have listened mostly to Now’s the Time and for me it is simply an incredible album, just the two of them, a bass and a saxophone blending together, soaring alone! Read More

Exploring Birthdays on October 14th leads to Jazz Guitarist Garrison Fewell and Blues Artist Chris Thomas King!

Garrison Fewell2

Over the last several years that I have written this  blog, I have used the lists of birthdays that I have found at several sites as a source to find new music. What I do is read down the lists, find names of musicians that I don’t know then go to Spotify listen and if I like the music I go and read more about the artist,  then I write about them. Here is a post I wrote last year on October 14th, when I discovered Garrison Fewell, and Chris Thomas King……. Read More

This Day in Music – Birthdays for Bill Medley, and “Mama” Cass Elliot -two of the best voices ever!

Mama Cass Elliot

Included in today’s birthdays are:

Bill Medley (The Righteous Brothers) 1940
Cass Elliot 1941 (died July 29, 1974 – 32 years old)
David Bromberg 1945

There are voices and then there are VOICES and for me Bill Medley is the later. From the early days with The Righteous Brothers to Dirty Dancing and “I Had the Time of My Life” with Jennifer Warnes, he had it and he certainly influenced his generation! Read More

Today in Music – August 6, 1957 – Harmonica and Vibes Virtuoso Hendrick Meurkens was born!!

Live at Bird's EyeOn this day, August  6, 1957  vibraphonist and chromatic harmonica virtuoso Hedrick Meurkens was born to Dutch parents in Hamburg, Germany. Meurkens was listed on today’s birthday list at All About Jazz as a harmonica player . When I went to Spotify to listen to his music, I started with his new release Junity, which opens with a nice rendition of The Beatles “Blackbird”. I listened to a few more tracks and then went to the next album his 2011 release Live at Bird’s Eye. As I listened to the album, I thought. boy, he sure is nice to give that vibes player so much time! Well, I thought he is pretty damn good! After I listened a little more and really liked the album, I went to Hendrick’s website, where I read that……. Read More

Say “Happy Birthday, Gracie” – “Happy Birthday, Gracie” – It’s Gracie Allen’s Birthday – July 26,1895!!

Gracie Allen

So on this date in 1895, yes, you read that right,1895, one of the great comic actors of all time was born, Gracie Allen. From the time she began performing with her husband George Burns in vaudeville in 1922, until they finished production on their TV show in 1958, Americans loved the antics of Gracie. I have fond memories of the George Burns and Gracie Allen TV show. I remember watching it in the afternoon,so it must have been in the 60s when I was watching because the show ended its regular run in 1958, but reruns were shown on CBS in the daytime throughout the 60s. Read More

This Day in Music – June 11, 1946 – John Lawton formerly of Uriah Heep’s birthday, leads to belated “happy birthdays” for Others!!

I will admit that I was never a big Uriah Heep fan. I knew of them, and I have probably heard some of their music along the way, but none of it has made it into my music library. But I did notice yesterday, as I was looking through the new prog rock releases, that the Heep's new album Outsider, was released. So I wasted time, unless you count the time between 1969 and now as wasted because I have not sought out Uriah Heep, going to Spotify to listen to it. Anyway, I really liked the album and maybe I'll consider a portion of the aforementioned time wasted!

This Day in Music – May 20, 1975 – Tunisian Jazz Pianist Wajdi Cherif was born. Happy Belated Birthday, Wajdi!

Wajdi cherifSo May 20th was 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