Exploring the Music of Jazz Saxophonist Vincent Herring on his birthday – November 19th!!

Vincent HerringAmong those who are celebrating their birthdays today is jazz saxophonist Vincent Herring, who was born on this day, November 19th in 1964. The year of the great Phillies collapse and the year I went to both a World Series game and the baseball All-Star game in New York. It was a great year for a 13 year-old! Anyway, back to Vincent Herring, even though he has released albums as a leader since 1989’s American Experience, I just discovered his music back in January, when I listened to his 2013 release The Uptown Shuffle, to say the least I was very impressed by his playing!! You can read my post New Jazz from Saxophonist Vincent Herring – The Uptown Shuffle!! to find out more about Vincent and the album. Tonight to celebrate Vincent’s 50th, I thought I’d go back and listen to one of his earliest  albums Dawnbird released in 1993 on the Landmark label. Ron Wynn write this about the album in his review at AllMusic…. Read More

From the Archives: Book 33 of 2011 Lassiter by Paul Levine ….

By Paul Levine

Through the years two of my favorite mystery series are the Jake Lassiter and the Solomon and Lord series both from Paul Levine. I haven’t read a book of his since 2011, when I read Lassiter. Here’s the review I wrote about it back when I finished the book. Tonight as I was re-posting this review I went to Levine’s page at Amazon and I see that books 9 and 10 in the Jake Lassiter series are both available at Amazon for only $3.99 each!! What a steal! Now I only have to find time to read them!!!! Anyway here is the review for Lassiter! Read More

Exploring the Jazz Saxophone of Houston Person, following his birthday!!

Houston Person

Houston Person – Saxophone  (born November 10, 1934)

Houston Person is a jazz artist whose name I have seen on the JazzWeek Chart, as recently as this week. His latest release as a leader The Melody Lingers On is now at # 9. I had yet to listen to any of his music until last week. To be more specific,   I listened to two albums on his birthday, November 1oth. The albums nI listened to were Something in Common  from 1989 and Now’s the Time. Now’s the Time, released in 1990, was recorded with legendary bassist Ron Carter. Both albums were released on the Muse label. They were recorded at the Van Gelder Studios with  Rudy Van Gelder serving as the engineer. I have listened mostly to Now’s the Time and for me it is simply an incredible album, just the two of them, a bass and a saxophone blending together, soaring alone! Read More

Your Life Calling:Reimagining the Rest of Your Life – Jane Pauley

Your Life CallingWhen I saw Jane Pauley’s book.Your Life Calling in the library last week it was like, yes! This is the right book at the right time! And while it was not exactly what I anticipated, it was nevertheless a good read. See two months ago, I applied for Social Security, more out of necessity than actually wanting to retire. Throughout this past year, the work that I have done for the last 34 years,  has just not been there, and I have mostly been collecting unemployment and thinking about how I want to move forward with my life. I really don’t want to go out and find another job doing  the same thing that I have done, so when my unemployment insurance ran out, rather than just take any job, I applied for my benefits and upped my hours at Target. So far,it has been a good thing, but  I still keep wondering, is this all there really is, or is there something else out there that I would want to do!! Read More

Exploring Dan Harris’ Quest to up his happiness in 10% Happier!!

10 - HappierSo I finally finished Dan Harris’ book 10% Happier:How I Tame the Voice Inside My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge and Found Self-Help that Actually Works – A True Story  and it must say something about how  I feel about the book that it took me, probably, about a month to read a 221 page book, 237 pages if you count the appendix!! I guess if I realized that it was actually more of a biography than a self-help book it would have helped with my enjoyment of the book. However, as I wanted for the methods and things that I could do to reduce that voice inside my head, all I got really was another story about Dan’s quest to discover more about Buddhism and Mindful Meditation. Read More

Amanda Kyle Williams’ The Stranger You Seek’s strong ending leads to Book 2 of the series!

The Stranger You SeekSo last week I wrote that I was struggling through The Stranger You Seek the first of the Keye Street novels from Amanda Kyle Williams. Tonight I went to the library to get book 2 in the series Stranger in the Room! It’s easy to explain the reason , stealing and editing a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail “It Got Better!! Read More

After a Great Read – Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan – I can’t wait to begin Very Bad Man!

bad things happenA couple of Saturday’s ago, I was browsing through the books at Barnes & Noble and I came across The Last Dead Girl, Book # 3 in the David Loogan series written by Harry Dolan. On the dust jacket of the book I read that Stephen King called Dolan’s book Bad Things Happen   “a “great f***ing book“! When I came home, I went to my local libraries website and requested the book. I was captivated by the book from the opening sentence, the pages flew by and it quickly became Book 29 of 2014, and I agree with Mr King in is  a great f***king book! Read More

Babysitting Granddaughter Zoe leads to the New Age Music of A Beginner’s Mind – Thanks Zoe!

MindustSo last week while I was babysitting my two month-old granddaughter Zoe, I had Soundscapes one of Comcast’s Music Choice  stations on the TV. My thought was that the instrumental New Age music would keep us both relaxed, and I think that for the most part it did the trick, at least for me. Some old friends like R Carlos Nakai and Peter Kater made an appearance with a track from their album Ritual, along with some music from David Arkenstone. There also was  a lot of music from folks that I didn’t know, like Armand & Angelina and their album Sacred Flute Journeys and a group named A Beginner’s Mind and their release Mindust. After I came home I went to Spotify and gave the album a listen and really liked the album a lot. Read More