This Day in Music Happy Birthday to Austria’s “Chet Baker” Michaela Rabitsch!!

Today March 8th Austria’s only and top female jazz trumpet player Michaela Rabitsch celebrates her ?????? birthday, Michaela is a singer, composer and is called a modern-day female Chet Baker by the US magazine Jazzscene!! She calls Weyer, Oberosterreich, Austria her hometown and currently Vienna is home. She has started her musical journey at 7 studying classical violin, at 14 she moved to Vienna to continue her studies. She switched to trumpet and studies for jazz- and popular music at the Bruckner conservatory Linz (now Anton Bruckner private University) with Ingrid Jensen, Peter Tuscher and classical trumpet with Fritz Handlbaue. Over the years she has played in a variety of groups and individuals. Most recently she has concentrated on her own compositions played together in quartet or duo with Robert Pawlik. They have released to CDs as a duo Moods and their latest release Voyages. This afternoon I downloaded Voyages and gave it a listen – this is one terrific duo! According to their website: Read More

Yesterday in Music – Feb 21, 1980 – Trumpeter Takuya Kuroda was born!!

About the same time that the Safari discovered Aynsley Lister, I also discovered the music of Japanese-born trumpet player Takuya Kuroda.That was several days ago, and yesterday Takuya celebrated his 34th birthday. While I had listened to a little of his latest album Rising Son, when I first heard about his music, but today I listened to the full album and it was a treat!! Read More

2014 Jazz from New York native, Jersey City resident Tim Hegarty – Tribute!!

Tim Hegarty’s new album is titled Tribute which was released by Miles High Records on in January of 2014. the album is Tim’s way to say thanks to those who taught him and influenced his playing. Tributees include: Dexter Gordon; Frank Foster ; George Coleman; Jimmy Heath; Joe Henderson; John Coltrane; Sonny Rollins; and Thelonious Monk. After listening to the album, I’d say he done them proud. Currently, the album is lucky #13 on the JazzWeek Jazz Chart this week and rising! Read More

Today in Music – Feb 10, 1961 – Jazz Trumpet Player Paolo Fresu was Born!! (Video)

This morning the name that caught my attention on the list of birthdays at All About Jazz was Paolo Fresu,a trumpet player. Paolo is in fact not only a trumpet and flugelhorn player, but he is also an arranger and composer. And an award-winning  one at that!!  Paolo was born in Berchidda, Sardina on February 10, 1961 and he his musical career has spanned the last 30 years in which he has performed on over 300 albums.many as a sideman and lots as a leader of his quintet.But wait there’s more…(if you call now – just joking) He is also  according to Wikipedia: Read More

Today in Music – Feb 9, 1982 – Vibraphonist Behn Gillece is born in New Jersey! (with video)

Solarstalgia - Aton Five

One of the reasons that I explore the daily birthdays at All About Jazz is that it gives me names of musicians that I don’t know, like yesterday, when I discovered  Pawel Kaczmarczyk the great young Polish jazz pianist. The odds of coming across his name elsewhere are pretty low. Anyway, the first name on the birthday list is actually someone I already knew, but only because when I was checking the birthdays at All About Jazz, I  saw his latest album on the same page! That artist is  Behn Gillece and the album is Top Shelf. Read More

The Safari Explores the Music of Terrence Blanchard – Magnetic!

I’ve written it before and I am sure I will write it again during the years from 1980 to 1995 there was so much going on in my life that there was little time for musical explorations. During that period our family grew to include four children Nick (1979), Andrew (1982), Peter (1986) and Elizabeth (1990). Along the way our family lost my wife’s mother to breast cancer (1982 at the age of 48), my wife’s grandmother, and father, my father (1984) the way our sons Nick and Andrew both had medical problems, and mu wife had to miscarriages!! Anyway you get the picture, musical explorations were way down the list! I write all of this to give myself an excuse for not knowing about many of the artists that i have recently been discovering. One of those artists is trumpeter Terrence Blanchard! Today I have listened to his latest release Magnetic and throughly enjoying it!! Read More

The Safari – meets Philadelphian, Chicagoan, New Yorker, pianist, organist Ben Paterson!!

So on Sunday while I was exploring the music and legacy of Lester Young, I also listened to the music of a new musician, Ben Paterson. His Trio’s new album Essential Elements is currently,number 4 on the Roots Music Reports Jazz Chart. On Sunday I put the album on while I was reading and I really didn’t notice the album as the first two songs went by, but then the songs and Paterson’s piano playing got stronger and stronger and by the end of the album I was a fan! I listened to the album again tonight and was more impressed the second time around! Now I’m listening to his second release Blues for Oscar, which is pretty good, too. Now, I only have to go and listen to his first album Breathing Spaces! From his biography at his website: Read More

The Safari Explores the Music of Lester Young – better late than never!

Lester Young died when I was 7 years old. His last performance was in Paris, at the tail end of an abbreviated European Tour in March of 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke. During that tour, Young ate next to nothing and virtually drank himself to death. He died on March 15th, only hours after arriving back in New York. He was 49 years old!!. Yesterday, Lester’s name came up, as I surfed the web looking for music. When I saw the name, I said you know I really don’t know much about Lester other than he played the saxophone.When I went to Wikipedia here’s what I found. Read More