So yes, as listed under Currently Reading on my webpage, I am still reading Subversives! I am now more than 65% of the way through the book, Reagan just became governor of California, so the battles rages more fiercely! But while reading that, I am still reading mysteries, and just finished Book 14 for 2014, Kings of Midnight from Wallace Stroby.
Checking the birthdays at All About Jazz, yesterday I saw that it was drummer Stanton Moore’s 42nd birthday, and that he had released a new album Conversations this year. I first discovered Stanton’s drumming back in 2010, when he released Groove Alchemy, Anyway I enjoyed that album, additionally, when I looked back at the old post that I wrote I saw that I also heard Stanton’s drums on Anders Osborne’s album American Patchwork! So it didn’t take me long to head on over to Spotify to explore the album. Here’s some background for those of you unfamiliar with Stanton’s work….
Originally posted at Let’s Explore Jazz
So while I did really enjoy all of the albums on the Jazz playlist that I created yesterday. There was one album though, that caught my attention very quickly and that was Alive by Hiromi! The album was released on June 17th on the Telarc label and currently the album is No, 37 on the JazzWeek Chart and No 11 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Alive is Hiromi’s ninth studio release and her third release as Hiromi’s Trio Project. The current trio features: Simon Phillips on drums and Anthony Jackson on bass. Her first four releases were as Hiromi, For the next two releases guitarist David Fiuczynski joined the group and the band became Hiromi’s Sonicboom. As a composer Hiromi blends a variety of musical genres like post-bop, progressive rock, classical, and jazz fusion, into her compositions. Wait prog rock? Does she have a page at ProgArchives….Yes, she does, she is included in the Jazz/Rock Fusion sub-genre. From her biography at ProgArchives….
This morning I took a moment and gave a quick listen to a few of the albums now on progstreaming, I picked two, found the albums on Spotify, put them on the iPhone and listened today. The two albums were from Roy Strattman: The Lie of the Beholder and Mike Kershaw’s Ice Age. Of the two I listened to more of Strattman than Kershaw, so I guess I’ll begin there.
So this morning I sat down and made a list of five Jazz artists whose new albums I thought I would like to explore. Rather than listen to each of them fully today, I made the following playlist picking a few tracks from each of the albums. I figured I’d listen to the playlist and see what album stood out the most for me and then listen to that album. So here is the playlist give it a listen in full or one track from each artist and then vote for our favorite….. I already know mine ….all of them – just kidding…..
Today way back in the year of 1913 on this date James William Perkins was born in Belzoni, Mississippi. Ninety-seven (97) years later now know better by his stage named Pinetop Perkins, he won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album for Joined at the Hip, an album he recorded with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Perkins is the oldest-ever Grammy winner. In between he had a fantastic career that saw him play with many of the most influential blues and rock and roll performers in American history.
Last week, when I wrote about the jazz fusion sub-genre, the name Joe Zawinul came up as a major force in the sub-genre. Today I have a reason to write about and listen to Joe’s music, because on this date in 1932, Joe was born. Joe was born, raised, and classically trained on the piano in Austria. Around 1959 he knew that to grow in the jazz genre, he needed to come to the US, so he applied for a scholarship to Berklee School of Music through Down Beat Magazine. He won a $200 scholarship , came to America.And like they say the rest is history and that’s what his career was historic. You can read the full story here.
After my run last night, I was pretty much physically drained, I took a shower, ate and then wrote a post at Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries. After that, I was going to write about my run and its soundtrack, which was the new album from The Royal Southern Brotherhood. While I was getting ready to write that post, I went to look up something about a prog band that I listened to earlier in the day Rite of Passage. wasn’t having much luck finding information, so I went to progstreaming, where I first saw their album. While I was browsing for the Rite of Passage album, I noticed another album No Tengas Miedo from Kant Freud Kafka. I went to Spotify found the album and gave it a listen and really liked the music. I set out to find more out about the band, off to ProgArchives. I ended up at the ProgArchives forum where there was a discussion among the leaders of the various sub-genre groups, whether or not, the band belonged in the Symphonic sub-genre. As I was listening, I was agreeing that the band was not symphonic, but more fusion/jazz oriented, but definitely prog and definitely good! Here is what I learned at New Prog Rock Releases…..
Among the jazz musicians birthdays yesterday was Hammond B3 organist and pianist Milt Buckner. Buckner was an influential musician on both instruments. He started out playing piano in Detroit in the 1930s.