So last Monday August 5th was the 52nd anniversary of the birth of fiddle player/violinist and composer Mark O’Connor. I did a lot of reading that day about the great Americana music that he’s produced over the length of his career, but couldn’t decide on what to play. So I think I posted something else. Anyway here’s some background about Mark:
So as a follow-up to listening yesterday to the music of Christian McBride, last night and today I explored the music of some of his jazz contemporaries. Today’s focus has been mainly on trumpeters. Typically, if I’m listening to the trumpet the musician is usually Miles Davis, Chet Baker, or Freddie Hubbard with Blue Mitchell occasionally thrown into the mix. Somehow last night I ended up on MOG checking out the music of Ambrose Akinmusire and his debut release on Blue Note, When the Heart Emerges Glistening. Here’s what Jeff Tamarkin at AllMusic writes about the album:
So yesterday I was browsing around for new releases and came across bassist Christian McBride’s latest from his Christian McBride Trio, Out Here. I gave it a listen and I now have a new jazz artist’s music to explore, because the album is great. The trio consists of McBride on bass (duh), Christian Sands on piano, and Ulysses Owens, Jr. on drums. Here’s what it says about the album at Mack Avenue Records about the album:
This morning I gave part of Lurrie Bell‘s new album Blues in My Soul a first listen and it’s a keeper! Bell, the son of renowned blues harmonica player, Carey Bell, is a top-flight guitar player and blues man. The Boston Blues News says:
Note to Self: DO NOT PUT OFF READING TESS GERRITSEN BOOKS! Which is what I did with her book The Silent Girl, which sat on my bookshelf for a long time before it became Book 28 of 2013!
So on this Friday(now Saturday) that is going to be the third long day this week as I have another Target work day to couple with, Tuesday’s 8:30 am to 11:30 pm, Wednesday’s-7 am to 6pm. (damn I’m too old for this stuff) let’s kickstart the day with on of my favorite songs from Louisiana’s Tab Benoit “Nighttrain”!
So Buddy Guy’s latest album Rhythm and Blues has been on various music charts for about a month now, but the official release date of the album was set for today to coincide with Buddy’s 77 birthday! Yes on this date in 1936, Buddy Guy was born. For those of you non-blues fans here some background on Buddy from Wikipedia:
So yesterday would have been the 70th birthday of one of my guitar heroes, the great Michael Bloomfield. From Wikipedia:
Michael Bernard “Mike” Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981) was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, since he rarely sang before 1969–70. Respected for his fluid guitar playing, Bloomfield knew and played with many of Chicago’s blues legends even before he achieved his own fame, and was one of the primary influences on the mid-to-late 1960s revival of classic Chicago and other styles of blues music. In 2003 he was ranked at number 22 on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. Full Biography
So as someone who enjoys genealogy research, it’s always nice to see the name of your ancestor in a census, on a marriage certificate or a ship’s passenger list. It always makes you think of what their lives must have been like. When I came home from work at Target last night, my wife said “look what I found” She had found among the papers of Louise Marter, who had a massive amount genealogical information she had collected over the last 30 to 40 years. Louise passed away a few months ago and Kathy has been given the task of going through the boxes and boxes of papers to decide the relevancy of each piece of paper Better her than me because Pack-Rat Edward would be tossing nothing!! Anyway back to last night’s find. it was at list of school children in the Beverly schools in 1865 and 1866 and there among children was my great-grandfather John or Johnny Ashton
