Two iconic jazz saxophone players share October 13th as their birthdays. one, alto sax player Lee Konitz, is considered one of the main figures in the
cool jazz movement, although Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings throughout his career. The other, tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders is an important figure in the development of free jazz.
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!
Origianally Posted at FreeWheelin Jazz Safari – Sept 14, 2014
Among the Jazz birthdays on September 9th was post-bop drummer Elvin Jones. Jones was born in 1927 and was best known for
his time with the John Coltrane Quartet. Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan and was one of seven children of Henry and Olivia Jones. His family was very musical and his two older brothers Hank and Thad both became respected jazz musicians. Hank was a pianist and Thad played trumpet and coronet.
English: Victor Wooten playing his bass guitar at the Belly Up, 2006-03-04. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Originally posted at Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries…..
So this morning as I was looking at the people born on this date, I thought how badly you must feel every year now as you celebrate your birthday on this tragic date. I think I’d celebrate either the day before or the day after, or maybe you just say, hey it was my day before you ruined it!
I have heard Orrin Evans’ piano on a variety of albums over the last years but Liberation Blues on the Smoke Session label is really the first Evans album that his been in my rotation for any length of time. I can tell you it won’t be the last, and since his recording career includes 20 plus albums recorded as a leader since it began in 1994, I have a lot more music to explore!
So this morning I was checking what happened on this day in music, when I came across this item at About.com: Oldies Music….
1968: Anticipating a protest firestorm at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, Chicago bans the new Rolling Stones single, “Street Fighting Man,” from its airwaves. The song calls for “fighting in the street” and a “palace revolution.” More at Oldies-About.com
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, Wayne Shorter joined that group last year and this year Wayne will kick off a European Tour on October 16th in Croatia. Among the destinations are Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Portugl! Wayne was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 25,1933.
So if you were the pianist for your Baltimore church the ripe old age of nine, grew up in a house where Gospel music was heard side by side with Thelonious Monk and Jimmy Smith, there’s a good chance that when you grow up, the music you compose may just be tinged with Gospel! Such is the case with Cyrus Chestnut. Cyrus is the child of McDonald (a retired post office employee and church organist) and Flossie (a city social services worker and church choir director.) McDonald was the son of a church minister, and the official organist for the local church in Baltimore, Maryland, where Chestnut grew up. He started to teach Cyrus to play the piano at three years old and Cyrus hasn’t looked back. At nine he also enrolled in the prep program at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore and then it as on to Berklee College of Music in Boston. At Berklee Cyrus earned a degree in jazz composition and arranging. Cyrus says this about his musical compositions….
