Jazz Bassist Christian McBride was born on May 31, 1972 in Philadelphia, Pa. I only discovered his terrific bass playing last year, but since then he has become a favorite. So check out some information about Christian and some of the posts that I have written since finally catching onto his music.....
Today I had a chance to listen to two progressive metal bands, whose latest albums sounded interesting when given quick listens on Progstreaming. The albums and bands were Esoteric Symbolism from Teramaze and A Frail Deception the debut from Psycrence. Once again these two bands exemplify the worldwide appeal of progressive metal, Teramaze hail from Melbourne, Australia, while Psyrence call Athens, Greece home!! (Part 1 - here Teramaze - Part 2 to follow??)
Oh Boy! I finally read a book quickly and increased this years book's read total all the way to eight!! (He says with a sarcastic sneer on his face and tone in his voice). The book was Cold Shot to the Heart and is book #1 in the Crissa Stone series from Long Branch, New Jersey native Wallace Stroby. They always say that you should write about what you know and what would a former writer for the Newark Star-Ledger know better mob related crime! (typed with Jon Stewart's mob voice ringing in my ears!)
Today is the great Miles Davis‘ birthday. He shares his birthday with the only trumpet player that he ever mentored Wallace Roney. Wallace was born in Philadelphia in 1960 So he is too young to have experienced 1960, which was the year that former Whiz Kids manager re Eddie Sawyer resigned as the hapless Phillies’ manager after a 9-4 opening day loss to the Reds and said.: “I’m 49 years old and I want to live to be 50.” But I digress so it’s back to Wallace.
So this afternoon, when I went to Wikipedia to research jazz trumpeter Wallace Roney, who celebrates his 54th birthday today, my eyes wandered down the Wikipedia main page to check what national holidays were being celebrated today. I saw that……
Mother’s Day is being celebrated in Algeria, France, Morocco and Sweden
First Patriotic Government in Argentina (1810)
Independence Day in Jordan 1946
and Towel Day….
Towel Day 2005, Innsbruck, Austria, where, by his own account, Adams got the inspiration to write the Guide.
I browse the daily listing of jazz birthdays each day not only for whose birthday it is that particular day, but also to discover new music. Many times I select who I read about by the instrument they play. Other times I select someone with a foreign sounding name, figuring that will lead me to explorations of jazz music beyond America’s shores. Tunisian born Wajdi Cherif is a perfect example of this type of choice. I read about, and spent time listening to Charles Earland’s music this morning, based on the instrument he plays – Hammond B3 organ!!
Ok so I have visited the Ranker site before, but today and yesterday I spent some time on the site looking at various list that would pertain to this blog. The following list is one of them. I am in total agreement that Agatha Christie is the greatest mystery writer of all time, but many of the writers that I have read over the years are not even on the list!! and if they are they are well below where they would be on my personal list of the best mystery writers of all time. So I will break this post down into two posts, this is the first, duh! and in it I am presenting the Ranker listing and would ask for your thoughts or comments! The second list will be the Me, Myself and Mysteries list. But you will have to wait until after my 6 and 1/2 hour break! So for now the question is What Do You Think??? No James Lee Burke??
So May 20th was a holiday in several nations including, Cambodia, East Timor and Cameroon. It was also the birthday of a Tunisian jazz piano player, Wajdi Cherif!! Knowing nothing about his music, other than that he played piano, I went to Spotify and listened to his 2009 release Fuzzy Colours and I didn’t have to listen long to become intrigued by and enjoy his music. Returning to All About Jazz, I discovered that at five years of age Wajdi was learning to play tunes he heard on the radio in his homeland of Tunisia on his little piano. Wajdi never lost his love for music and along his life’s journey, he earned his BA in English Literature, but more importantly he discovered jazz!! At the American cultural center in Tunis, he watched live performance videos of pianists Chick Corea, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans. He soon decided to make jazz music his career, and set out exploring it on his own. He made his professional debut in 1998. In 2003, he released his first album Phrygian Istikhbar in Paris. Accompanying Wajdi on the album were Diego Imbert on acoustic bass, Jeff Boudreau on drums and Habib Samandi on Arabic percussion. The album went on to become a finalist in the Indie Acoustic Awards in the USA in 2004!! From All About Jazz:
