Category: Music
This Day in Music – May 31, 1972 – Happy Birthday – Christian McBride!!
Jazz Bassist Christian McBride was born on May 31, 1972 in Philadelphia, Pa. I only discovered his terrific bass playing last year, but since then he has become a favorite. So check out some information about Christian and some of the posts that I have written since finally catching onto his music.....
This Day in Music – May 25, 1960 – In Philly – Jazz Trumpeter Wallace Roney was born! (video)
Today is the great Miles Davis‘ birthday. He shares his birthday with 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.
This Day in Music – May 24, 1941 – Jazz Organist Charles Earland was born in Philly!!
I browse the daily listing of jazz birthdays each day not only for whose birthday it is that particular day, but also to discover new music. Many times I select who I read about by the instrument they play. Other times I select someone with a foreign sounding name, figuring that will lead me to explorations of jazz music beyond America’s shores. Tunisian born Wajdi Cherif is a perfect example of this type of choice. I read about, and spent time listening to Charles Earland’s music this morning, based on the instrument he plays – Hammond B3 organ!!
This Day in Music – May 20, 1975 – Tunisian Jazz Pianist Wajdi Cherif was born. Happy Belated Birthday, Wajdi!
So 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:
New Jazz from NJ Saxophonist Tom Tallitsch – Ride!! (Video)
So this morning I loaded up two new jazz albums on the iPhone to serve as the soundtrack for my trip to Trader Joe’s, and then proceeded to listen to neither of the albums!! What I did listen to on the way over was Ride the great new release from New Jersey resident Tom Tallitsch!! The album has been on the iPhone for a week or more now and the more I listen to it, the more I like it!!
Yesterday in Music – May 10, 1935 – Julius Wechter leader of the Baja Marimba Band was born!!
How about a little musical analogy ——
The Rolling Stones are to The Beatles as
______________ are to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass!
If you said The Baja Marimba Band!! You would be correct and probably old!! On this date in 1935 the leader of the Band 
Julius Wechter was born!! To explain the analogy The Beatles we re the clean-cut good guys and the Stones the bad boys. And Jules says this about the Baja Marimba Band’s relationship to Herb and the Brass! They were….
This Day in Music – May 3rd – Happy Birthday Jazz Flutist Andrea Brachfeld!! (Video)
On this day May 3rd in the year ??? (Hum, we don’t really need to know that) flutist Andrea Brachfeld was born! From All About Jazz….
Flutist Andrea Brachfeld, is a graduate of The High School of Music and Art and Manhattan School of Music. Over these past 20 years she has recorded more than a dozen CD’s with many artists including, Africando, Noel Pointer, and Timbalaye. Her breakthrough performance as the flutist for the popular Latin band Charanga ’76, catapulted her into Salsa history and fame as the first female flutist to play this music in the United States. While in high school she received the “Louis Armstrong Award for Outstanding Student” from Jazz Interactions. Study with Hubert Laws, Jimmy Heath, and Mike Longo helped her develop her own style. Downbeat magazine referred to Andrea as “one of the finest jazz flutists around.” She has twice been the recipient of the Latin New York Music Award as a flutist.
This Day in Music – May 1, 1982 – Jazz Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire was born (Video)
On this day May 1st in 1982 Ambrose Akinmusire (ah-kin-MOO-sir-ee) was born in Oakland California. His latest release The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint has been in my listening rotation and I have enjoyed it! This was not my first meeting with Mr. Akinmusire, winner of the 2007 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, two of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world. No, I first listened to his trumpet back in August of last year when I spent A Night of Exploration – Contemporary Jazz Trumpeters! Since then I have listened to his second album on Blue Note records,When the Heart Emerges Glistening and I like it more and more with each listen. The New Yorker calls Ambrose: “a thrilling young trumpeter and astute bandleader [with a] unique spark in his playing” Ambrose’s musical journey started when Steve Coleman asked the then 19-year old Ankinmusire Manhattan School of Music student to join a European tour with his Coleman’s Five Elements. After the tour Akinmusire returned to the West Coast and received his Master’s Degree from the University of Southern California. In 2007 he attended the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, and studied with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Terence Blanchard. the imagined savior is far easier to paint is Ambrose’s second release on Blue Note Records and the second with a title that is pretty long. On his website he says…..
