Category: Music
Today In Music – Ron Carter’s Birthday – Not!
So my usual routine in the morning consists of reviewing several this day in history and music sites. Then I think about the events, birthday, etc, that catch my eye and decide while exercising and taking my shower what to write about and how the music may tie into my musical library. Today two things caught my eye. The first was the birthday of Ron Carter the jazz bassist and the second was that on today’s date the first Grammys were awarded! So as I thought about Ron Carte I thought about how he was the bass player on probably over half of the jazz albums that are in my collection. So I decided I would go with today being his birthday…… then I came down to write the post and I discovered that, in fact, today is NOT Ron Carter’s birthday rather his 76th birthday will be celebrated on May 4th. So I thought ok, I’ll go with the first Grammys. Then I read this:
Morning Music – Ben Sidran does Dylan Different!
Ok so last night I was looking at the Roots Music Report Jazz charts and there at number 2 was a new album from Ben Sidran. Now, I knew Ben Sidran way back in the early 70s when he was a member of the Steve Miller Band. From allmusic:
February 17, 1982 – Thelonious Monk joins heaven’s jazz band.
Yesterday marked the 31st anniversary of the death of one of the greats of jazz, On that date Thelonious Monk died of a stroke, at the age of 64. I really didn’t get into Monk’s music until the last few years. I do have one album Monk Plays Duke on vinyl, but I have Brilliant Corners and Alone in San Francisco on the iPod! I had the album Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall on an mp3 player as a download from Rhapsody, now that’s one great album. (Note to self get that album on the iPod!).
Anyway here’s some background on Monk from Wikipedia:
Musical Roots – Mike Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981)
So yesterday February 15th back in 1981, the music world lost one of its greatest guitarist to heroin addiction, when Michael Bloomfield died. While Bloomfield started with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. I didn’t discover his music until The Electric Flag album “A Long Time Comin’ The album quickly became a favorite and Bloomfield’s guitar artistry was a big reason. I followed his career through his work with Al Kooper and the Super Session Album and then The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. I didn’t discover his later solo work until the late 90s early 2000s. Here’s some background info from Wikipedia:
Lunchtime Music: From Wes Nickson Band “Louise”
So on a sad note, Max Stalling posted this to his Facebook Page this AM:
Folks, on a somber note, I’d like to take a moment to note the passing of Bruce Kidder, former DJ at KHYI 95.3 The Range (OFFICIAL) in Dallas (and KFAN/Fredericksburg prior to that). He was crusty and cranky on air and only partly like that in real life. He was a supporter of music and songwriters and became my friend. He was an old school DJ/radio personality with real opinions and attitudes about music and topics. He picked up on my music and put it into regular rotation. I will miss him and my condolences go out to his wife Julie, all his family and anyone else who had the good fortune of knowing him.
A Jazzy Thursday Afternoon – so let’s go Into the Night with Oscar and Milt!
So today I doing some work that required a bit of concentration, so the soundtrack was jazz oriented. Last night I had turned on Pandora and was listening to some jazz albums and one of the tracks was from the album Very Tall by Milt Jackson and Oscar Peterson, since the track that played last night was very good and I had never heard this album I thought that the album would be a good place to start my afternoon music. I was right! What a great album, but then I” wouldn’t expect anything from these two great jazz masters! here’s some information in the album from CD Universe:
Today (what’s left of it) in Music – Milt Jackson’s Birthday!
New Bluegrass – Tiger Maple String Band – Coming Home
So last night I was checking out the Roots Music Report for some new music, and there at No 45 sat a band named Tiger Maple String Band. Their name looked interesting. I usually like bands with String Band in their name because that evokes in me thought of old timey music and tthat’s what I heard when I gave their recent release Coming Home a listen. I recognized a couple of old Appalachian standards mixed in with some great instrumentals. I love those instrumentals Here’s what they say about their music – from their website:!
