originally posted November 15, 2013
So tonight I was reviewing the list of jazz musician birthdays on November 14th and a name that caught my attention was guitarist Derek Gripper, who was born on today’s date in 1977. I read in his biography at All About Jazz that….
On this day in 1947 English musician, songwriter, producer and founding member of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer Gregory Stuart “Greg” Lake was born. Greg Lake and I go back a long way Greg is 4 years my senior so, while I was a 17-year-old high school student, Greg was invited by his high school friend guitarist Robert Fripp, to join King Crimson. Fripp asked Lake a fellow guitarist asked Lake to switch to bass and to take on the role of lead singer. Lake agreed and as they say the rest is history!! So my first introduction to Lake’s music was from King Crimson’s debut album In the Court of the Crimson King. From Wikipedia:
Ok so to honor Russell Malone on his birthday today, I said I would listen to his 2010 release Triple Play. But when I went to MOG, there was a 2013 release listed at the top of his discography, so I downloaded that and listened to it! It was great! I came home tonight and discovered that, the album I listened to was Playground which was actually released in 2004! I don’t know why it’s listed as 2013 unless it has been re-released??? The last song on Playground is Carol King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” a song that won both James Taylor and Carol Grammys! Now hearing Malone’s guitari instrumental version of the song was great, but earlier in the day I had watch portions of a video of a performance of the song with Russell playing guitar and Dianne Reeves providing the vocals. Now I didn’t know anything about Ms. Reeves, but I certainly want to find out more about her! What a wonderful voice, so rich, so soulful. Well I’ll just let you decide for yourselves as we go “into the morning” with the guitar of Russell Malone and the voice and soul of Dianne Reeves and the equally wonderful songwriting of Carole King (her Tapestry album is in my vinyl collection and millions of other people’s collections throughout the world )
The first time I really heard the guitar of Russell Malone was one night a while back when I stumbled upon this video of Malone, Christian McBride and Benn Green performing Wes Montgomery;s “Jingles” and I was blown away by his talent!! (and McBride and Green’s talent too!!)
This morning I was in jazz mode and listened to the Christian McBride & Inside Straights release People Music. The album was released in May of this year. Inside Straight has everything I enjoy in jazz, lively vibes from Warren Wolf, piano from Peter Martin and smooth saxophone from Steve Wilson, All supported by the solid bass lines of Christian’s bass and Carl Allen;s drums.on the majority of the songs. On a few of the songs the piano duties are manned by Christian Sands and Ulysses Owens, Jr. handles the drums. Both are considered members of the Inside Straight family.
Yesterday morning I decided that I’d check out what’s new in the world of New Age Music and what better place is there to do that, than Echoes.org. So I surfed on over there and looked at the Top 24 Albums for October my curiosity peaked quickly when I read the name of the band that holds the number two spot the Bombay Dub Orchestra with a name like that, they have to be checked out!! At their website I read…..
At number 48 on the Roots Music Report Jazz Chart this week sits the latest release from jazz guitarist, Graham Dechter, Takin’ It There. The first track on the album is titled “Road Song” Hum, could this be Wes Montgomery’s “Road Song”? After the first few notes, it was obvious that it was!! Here’s a bit about the Takin’ It There from AllMusic….
As I looked over the birthdays today at All About Jazz the first one that caught my eye was another vibist or vibraphonist (it is an either) Marc Wagnon. But then I got distracted by the career of Eddie Henderson and didn’t take time to write about Marc!!
