This Day in Music – May 20, 1975 – Tunisian Jazz Pianist Wajdi Cherif was born. Happy Belated Birthday, Wajdi!

Wajdi cherifSo 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: Read More

May 21, 1968 – Last Contact from the USS Scorpion that never returns…..(Phil Ochs Video)

Originally posted at Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries...

Uss_scorpion_SSN589May 21, 1968 the last signals from the United States’ nuclear submarine USS Scorpion were heard. From shortly before midnight on the 20th of May through midnight on the 21st the Scorpion tried to send radio traffic to the Naval Station in Rota Spain, but was only able to reach a Naval communications station in Nea Makri, Greece. These messages were forwarded to SUBPLANT. Six Days later the submarine was reported overdue at Norfolk. Read More

May 20th in Cambodia, East Timor and Cameroon…….Part One – Cambodia – never forget!

Originally posted at Socialstudious.us

Today is a special day in several South East Asian countries In Cambodia it’s the Day of Remembrance. in East Timor they celebrate their country’s 12th year of Independence, and in Indonesia National Awakening Day is celebrated! While across the Indian Ocean and on the west coast of Africa, Cameroon celebrates their National Day.
Ok I can hear all of the collective sighs now, who cares, well me because it gives me a reason to learn somethings I didn’t know about these countries or somethings I’d rather forget about Cambodia, but I guess like remembering the Holocaust it is better to remember. Ok so first let’s look at where in Cambodia is located in southeast Asia…
laos-cambodia
So there’s Cambodia right in the south central part of the map, with Laos and Thailand along its northern border and Vietnam to the east and southeast. When you look at the map you can readily see why Laos and Cambodia were important for the movement of equipment and men from the north to the south of Vietnam. But back to Cambodia’s Day of Remembrance from Wikipedia…. Read More

Socialstudious – May 19, 2014 – Do We Care About All the People of the World??

Sometimes I feel really guilty, the reason is that I many of the things that I own were made by people who were exploited. I bet more than one of my shirts was made either in China or Southeast Asia by workers who are paid next to nothing and who work in buildings that are in many cases unsafe, my running shoes and my iPhone, too. It would be great if we could do something as a country to enforce safety requirements on the companies that create conditions like these…… Read More

This Day in Music – May 19, 1953 – Blues Guitarist Jimmy Thackery was born!!

Jimmy ThackeryI first discovered Jimmy Thackery &the Drivers in the late 90s, in the period where my sons and I visited Tunes Used CD store in Marlton every week. My introduction to his music was  his 1994 release Trouble Man that I picked up on cassette. I’m listening to it now remembering what a great album it is! Check it out!! I loved the album since then several of his albums are in my music library. I must say that over the last several years I’ve lost track of his career, hum, maybe his birthday is a good day to start reconnecting….. from AllMusic…. Read More

Progressivo Italiano from Italy’s Conqueror – Stems…no seeds

Conqueror – Rock Progressivo Italiano Italy
So yesterday, I was trying to organize some of my stuff around the computer and my work desk. My that’s tall order!! Anyway, I went to progstreaming and looked over the albums and chose the album Stems by Conqueror. As usual, I knew nothing about the band, except that the album cover looked kind of interesting. It took a few minutes before I stopped and said, “Hey, this is pretty good”  And as I listened, the album proceeded to get better and better.
About Conquueror

Conqueror is an Italian progressive rock band whose music is labeled as Rock Progressivo Italiano The band was founded by drummer Natale Russo (note if you translate their webpage from Italian to English Natale’s name becomes Russian Christmas!) in November of 1994. The band went through many line up changes between their formation and the release of their début album. The band released Insinto in 2003, the bad’s ninth year together.  Since then they released four more albums, making Stems the band’s fifth release. The band’s current line up includes..…. Read More