So while today is a sad day for the rock world, losing Keith Moon, it is a happy day for the jazz world, because on this day in 1930 Sonny Rollins, the “Saxophone Colossus” was born! From his biography page at his website:
So you can probably count on you fingers how many musicians are still performing beyond the age of 80. Two that I can think of off the top of my head are B.B. King and Tony Bennett, and when Wayne Shorter, plays the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday of this week, he will have join that group! Wayne was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 25,1933.
The name of Loudon Wainwright’s last album was Older Than My Old Man Now and I bet that title fits many of us Baby Boomers! Yes our fathers worked hard and died young. My Dad was 60 years old when he died of a heart attack in 1984, his younger brother Arthur was only 55! His father was 53 when he died from his third heart attack in 1953!
John, wife Jean and Jimmy Ashton
So January 1st for me was usually family get together time with my Father’s family, typically, at my Uncle Ott’s or Kenny’s place. I remember many a good New Year’s Day celebration! It was also Uncle Johnny’s birthday. Johnny was my mother’s oldest brother, born in 1923. Johnny would have been the fourth John Sherrington Ashton a name which dates back to 1814 when the John S Ashton the first was born in Holbeach, England. John’s middle name however, was Howard. I believe that my Great mother Charlotte Trout Regars had a lot to do with naming her grandchildren. John’s middle name was Howard, which is one of Charlotte’s brothers name and my mom’s brother James middle name was Elmer, which was Charlotte’s grandfather’s name. The name middle name of Elmer cased Jimmy to say that he was James “No name” Ashton. But back to Uncle Johnny.
Originally posted Decemeber 20, 2012 – Revised December 19, 2016
Thirty years ago my wife and I were sitting at Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Turnersville, NJ waiting for the birth of our third child. Well actually I was waiting, she was laboring! Anyway, we were wondering all day whether Peter would be born on her Mother’s birthday. Alas, Peter did not cooperate. He was born at 3:30 AM on December 20th. So Happy Birthday, Peter, your mom and I are very, very proud of the terrific young man you have become! (An interesting sidelight. Peter was born a day after his grandmother’s birthday, while his daughter Zoe was born a day BEFORE her grandmother’s birthday! Much to the chagrin of my wife!)
The Old Man at the Record Exchange
So my wife and I spent this afternoon in Princeton and Allentown, NJ. First, I went to the Princeton Record Exchange to get whatever I could find for my birthday, we then visited Labyrinth Books on Nassau Avenue, on the way home we went to the cemetery at the Allentown Presbyterian Church and we ended the night with dinner at Bung’s. It was a nice birthday afternoon! Oh, while I was in the Princeton Record Exchange, my wife was wandering around a very big cemetery about a block away!
Ok so today is my birthday, the 64th that I’ve celebrated! It seems like only yesterday my mother was writing in my baby book….October 1, 1952, Eddie’s first birthday, October 1, 1953, Eddie’s second birthday…. such a great writer she was…left me with so many written memories!
So today is the birthday of one of the Blues Legends George “Buddy” Guy was born July 30, 1936. Now for some reason I never got into Guy’s music until the last few years but his 2010 release Living Proof was of of my favorites that year. I guess I was too busy listening to the guys he influenced like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. From Wikipedia: Buddy Guy
