So on this date “Monk” was born. Yes, William “Monk” Montgomery the older brother of Wes, was born on October 10,1921. What’s that I hear, you say, you thought I meant the other Monk – yeah, Thelonious Monk was born on this date, too, only a few years earlier in 1917! Anyway, here’s some background on Monk Montgomery! From Wikipedia:
On this day in 1940 jazz organist Larry Young was born. I was unfamiliar with Young’s music until recently. That may have been a result of his early passing. Young died in 1978, after entering the hospital with stomach pains, he died from untreated pneumonia However, after reading some of the information below I did hear his music back in the day, when he played on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and also playing in Tony Williams’ Lifetime . From Wikipedia:
Through the years very few of the jazz artists that I followed were drummers. I have a couple of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers albums in my library. Today we can celebrate the drummer, who most folks feel is the best drummer of all-time. Bernard “Buddy” Rich was born on September 30, 1917 in Manhattan, New York, to Jewish vaudevillians Bess (Skolnik) and Robert Rich. Rich was billed as “the world’s greatest drummer”! He was known for his virtuoso technique, power, groove, and speed. According to Wikipedia:
On this date in 1924 “Bud” Powell was born. I wrote the other day about pianist Benny Green whose style has been compared to Bud Powell, but I don’t know that much about Bud. I image that the reason is because he died 1966. Additionally, he spent the years between 1958 and 1963 in Paris. In 1963, he returned to the US, and on July 31, 1966, he died of tuberculosis, malnutrition, and alcoholism. Some background from Wikipedia:
So while today is a sad day for the rock world, losing Keith Moon, it is a happy day for the jazz world, because on this day in 1930 Sonny Rollins, the “Saxophone Colossus” was born! From his biography page at his website:
According to About.com/Oldies Music, on this date in 1967, the jazz world lost a legendary figure when John Coltrane died from liver cancer at the age of forty. (The actual date of his death is July 17th) Coltrane was and still is one of the most influential jazz musician, ever. I have never been a big fan of the sax, most of my jazz listening revolves around guitar, organ and vibes, but every time I hear Coltrane’s music I love it. From Wikipedia:
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:
