At number 48 on the Roots Music Report Jazz Chart this week sits the latest release from jazz guitarist, Graham Dechter, Takin’ It There. The first track on the album is titled “Road Song” Hum, could this be Wes Montgomery’s “Road Song”? After the first few notes, it was obvious that it was!! Here’s a bit about the Takin’ It There from AllMusic….
As I looked over the birthdays today at All About Jazz the first one that caught my eye was another vibist or vibraphonist (it is an either) Marc Wagnon. But then I got distracted by the career of Eddie Henderson and didn’t take time to write about Marc!!
As I sit here inspecting the installation of a new pipe under Tuckerton Road in Medford Lakes NJ. My thoughts are on music, I thought about how last week I investigated the song “Afro Blue”. Thinking about that song, another song popped into my head, that one was “Willow Weep for Me” While there may be another cover of the song in my library, the one I really know is Wes Montgomery’ cover that is the title track on one of his albums! So let’s find out a little about the song. From Wikipedia:
Today the Music Safari lands in Greece – Thessalonki, in particular, where we meet – Yannis Papadopoulos, Theodore Amaxopoulos, Lefteris Germenlis, Bill Gkagkavouzis and Alex Hughes, who collectively form the extremely good and young progressive metal band Until Rain. Actually, the current band differs slightly from the onethat was formed in 2004 by then 14-year old schoolmates, Orestis FIKOS (Bass), Lefteris GERMENLIS (Keyboards) and Alex HUGHES (Drums).The change came between their debut album “The Reign of Dreams” released in 2009 and the follow-up album Anthem to Creation released in 2013 (which by the way was released on my wedding anniversary August 23rd). The changes were two-fold first Yannis Papadopoulos replaced Damianos Roussos on vocals, and secondly Bill Gkagkavouzis replaced Fikos on bass, Time out!! Before we go any further, it’s time for a geography lesson. For all of you haters or those who could care less, you can skip the next part from Wikipedia!
The joyous whoop that Sonny Terry naturally emitted between raucous harp blasts was as distinctive a signature sound as can possibly be imagined. Only a handful of blues harmonicists wielded as much of a lasting influence on the genre as did the sightless Terry (Buster Brown, for one, copied the whoop and all), who recorded some fine urban blues as a bandleader in addition to serving as guitarist Brownie McGhee’s longtime duet partner.(From Blues Harp)
So the soundtrack for my run tonight was supposed to be the new release from Michael Lee Firkins – Yep but someone forgot that the album was not on the iPhone but would have been on the iPod if someone had remember to copy it to the phone from the computer! I wonder who that could be!! Probably the same person who embarrassed himself yesterday in the library when the iPhone was playing in his pants and he didn’t realize it and kept wondering why the woman at the computer behind him was blaring the music so loudly. He even accused said woman, when the library aide sheepishly asked him whether he was one with the music playing! That guy quickly apologized to all, collected his books, and QUIETLY left the library!! The music that was playing, that I thought was pretty good and was surprised that the woman was listening to, was Decomposition by Michael Lee Firkins which became the soundtrack of my run this evening!! The run did not start out well! Yesterday, I had walked about a mile from my office to the garage where our car was being worked on, along the way I turned on Runmeter to see my progress and time! When I started my run this evening, I didn’t realize that the walk had not been cleared. The lady said start and I did and felt pretty good. When I hit the first quarter-mile I looked down at the phone and the time of the run said 16:02 uh unless I am literally crawling that is not right!! So I stopped, realized what happened, and then walked around the block and started the run again!! The second time I hit the quarter-mile mark the time was 2:19 which was correct and I went on to run one of my fastest paces of the year 9:50 per mile and much of the time the pace was around 9:30 per mile! I felt comfortable throughout the run!! 
Michael Lee Firkins was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1967. His father was a lap steel guitarist and his mother a pianist. Michael started playing acoustic guitar at the age of eight. Mostly self-taught, he also took lessons at a local Omaha music store. Learning the songs of the times, Michael was heavily into Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Black Sabbath. Michael’s solo career started with the release of his self titled début album on !Records.The release sparkled with Michael’s blending of genres as his music is rock blended with country, blues and jazz (sounds pretty great to me!) His first release sold more than 100,000 copies. This well received album also lead to Michael being the winner of the “BEST NEW TALENT” reader’s poll in Guitar for the Practicing Musician and also runner-up in Guitar Player Magazine’s “BEST NEW TALENT” readers poll. He was also hailed as “ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PLAYERS OF THE NEXT TEN YEARS” by Guitar for the Practicing Musician. As Michael’s music was also popular in Europe, Firkins won the Edison Award, which is Holland’s version of a Grammy!! (Website biography) 
The album that I listened to, Decomposition was released in 2001 and is an album of covers except for one Firkins original! Since I am not a big fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd or Rick Derringer. I didn’t recognize several of the songs. The tracks included: “Still Alive and Well,” from Rick Derringer, Manic Depression,” from Jimi Hendrix (yeah I know this one but Firkiins made it his own!) “I Need You,” and “I Know a Little,” both Lynyrd Skynyrd covers, A highlight of the album for me, was Michael’s cover of the “Pink Panther,” (yes by Henry Mancini!!) Keeping with the eclectic nature of some of the covers, the closing track is a Duke Ellington tune “Caravan”. All in all, it is a great album and the label “guitar virtuoso” certainly fits Firkins!!
When I looked down the list of musicians who were born on this day the first one that caught my eye had the same first name my first son – Nick, Then I looked at his last name and it’s my second son’s first name Andrew now I was really intrigued! A look at his instrument, the electric guitar sealed the deal ! I was going to check out Mr Nick Andrew. My first stop was his website, where I read…..
So the other day when I was looking for YouTube videos of Eddie Harris, I came across the jazz trio Hammond Grooves from Brazil. Since I live in a town that has a large, and very important to the community, Brazilian population the band being from Brazil caught my attention. And that it was an organ trio also raised my curiosity! Since the band is from Brazil the information on online at the usual locations was sparse. I did find the band on Twitter and then found there website and their Facebook page. The only problem was that all the information was in Portuguese!! Now I usually use the Opera browser which does not offer translation of pages, so I tried to translate some of the information on Babel fish and got some basics. i.e. the leader of the band is Daniel Latorre ao (the) Hammond B-3, Wagner Vasconcelos: Bateria (drums) and Daniel Daibem:guitarra (guitar).
A while back I discovered the music of Canadian jazz musician Jane Bunnett, like usual it was on a night that I was looking for new music and boy did I listened to Cuban Rhapsody featuring both Jane and pianist Hilario Durán. and if you’ve never heard it give it a listen it’s great! Anyway, today I get to wish her a Happy Birthday Jane was born on October 22, 1956 and is a Canadian soprano saxophonist, flautist and bandleader known for her Afro-Cuban jazz melodies. In addition to her primary instruments, Bunnett also plays the trompeta china, a Cuban wind instrument of Chinese origin.
