Home Archive by category "Music" (Page 26)

Category: Music

The Safari Explores the Music of Woody Shaw (Dec 24, 1944 – May 10, 1989)

Christmas Eve was the birthday of one of the best, least famous trumpet players, Woody Shaw.  Shaw was born  December 24, 1944 in Laurinburg, North Carolina. and raised in Newark, New Jersey from the age of one year old.  His parents  were Rosalie Pegues and Woody Shaw, Sr. His father was a member of the African American gospel group known as the ‘Diamond Jubilee Singers’ and both his parents attended the same secondary private school as Dizzy Gillespie: Laurinburg Institute. Shaw’s mother was from the same town as Gillespie: Cheraw, South Carolina. Read More

The Safari finds Breather by Shlomi Cohen – a breathe of fresh world fusion!!

Yesterday, as I was reviewing the Jazz birthdays, I noticed one of the showcased albums on the sidebar. The album was Breather and the artist was Shlomi Cohen.Since the name sounded, and the album looked, interesting I thought I’d give it a listen. What I found was a very, very talented new musician.  Who has been nominated for a Grammy as part of the nominated album “Frutero Moderno” by Gonzalo Grau & La Clave Secreta. He is also collaborates with Colombian Harpist Edmar Castaneda, bringing his incredible and unique form of music to the world. Shlomi is also a member of the horn section of   the Bernie Worrell Orchestra (founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic). Now,  where he finds time to record Breather, his debut solo album, I don’t know, but somehow these ultra-talented people always find a way don’t  they! Read More

This Date in Music – Dec 23, 1929 – Chet Baker was born!!

Murder Creek - Murray Kinsley & Wicked Grin

Early this year May 13th marked  the 25th anniversary of the death of Chet Baker, today we celebrate his life, because on this date in 1929 Chesney Henry “Chet” Baker, Jr. Well,  back in the day I was not a Chet Baker fan. But through the years I would be listening to jazz radio and one would come this great trumpet or flugelhorn and I usually know that I was listening to the horn of Chet Baker. As I started to collect more and more jazz over the last ten years more of Chet’s music has made its way into my library. Looking over his discography at AllMusic, I realize that I haven’t even scratched the surface of HIS music from a career  that ran from 1952 to his death in 1988.  During his career he released well over 100 albums on nine major labels plus many smaller labels predominately in Europe. The main reason that he recorded so many albums according to AllMusic.com  was that …. Read More

The Safari goes up the NJ Turnpike to find Jazz Guitarist – Bob DeVos’ – Shadow Box

So this week on the JazzWeek Radio Chart ar No 30 is Bob DeVos and his current release Shadow Box. As usual the Safari asks the questions – Who is this Bob Devos, What does he play?? Where is he from??  Turns out the answer to the last question is, just northeast of me in Patterson, New Jersey! What and Who is Bob?  Bob is as the title of his website reads a “Jazz Guitarist. His biography at Wikipedia says that his playing style is similar to the playing of Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery-( DeVos  moves the ball to the 40 yard line) – and he is most noted for his work with organist Richard “Groove” Homes -( he’s over mid field and into the red zone)!!!  In his biography below I read  “Mr. DeVos has headed his own modern, powerhouse Bob DeVos Organ Trio with Dan Kostelnik on Hammond B3 organ and Steve Johns on drums.” Read More

The Safari Goes “into the morning” with Jim Alfredson’s Dirty Fingers: A Tribute to Big John Patton

So yesterday when I was reviewing this weeks JazzWeek Chart the band at number 23 caught my eye. The band was Jim Alfredson’s Dirty Fingers and their album is A Tribute to Big John Patton. Jim Alfredson, name is familiar, I know  now – Organissimo!! Love their music!! I listened to their latest album Dedicated back in April of this year. Great stuff!! Read More

An Essential for 2013 from Echoes – Ludovico Einaudi – In a Time Lapse

The other day Echoes with John Diliberto issued their list of   25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2013. Atop that list was the album In A Time Lapse, from Ludovico Einaudi,  which I finally listened to today.  It was a very beautiful collection of music that is a perfect soundtrack for my workday, nice a soothing, just the right sound to help keep me calm and focused!! Not knowing anything about Mr, Eindaudi. I first went to his website, where his biography is in his native Italian. Since I was not using Googke Chrome at the time, I left his website and went searching for information  about him elsewhere on the net, at places like WIKIPEDIA – surprised!! Read More

The Safari finds NYC Jazz from Brian Lynch Unsung Heroes Vol. 1 and Vol. 2!

The other day I was reviewing the Weekly Jazz Chart   and there at No 19 just below Dr Lonnie Smith was an Brian Lynch and his latest album Unsung Heroes Vol. 2. The tagline on the album is “a tribute to underappreciated trumpet masters” sounds like my kind of album! I went to Spotify found the album sat back and listened to some damn good trumpet playing. So now I needed to find out some more about Brian Lynch a trumpeter that I have not come across yet! From Wikipedia… Read More