Tag Archives: Jazz

April 26 in music history

20 year anniversary for Johnny Cash’s American RecordingsAmerican Recordings did something very important — it gave Cash a chance to show how much he could do with a set of great songs and no creative interference, and it afforded him the respect he’d been denied for so long, and the result is a powerful and intimate album that brought the Man in Black back to the spotlight, where he belonged.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)
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William “Count” Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984)
was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie’s theme songs were “One O’Clock Jump” and “April In Paris”.
Count_Basie_in_Rhythm_and_Blues_Revue
Johnny Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992)
was an American blues singer and guitarist. According to the music journalist Tony Russell, “Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth. When Shines came back to the blues in 1965 he was 50, yet his voice had the leonine power of a dozen years before, when he made records his reputation was based on”.
johnny shines
 Devils & Dust is the 13th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, and his third folk album (after Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad). It was released on April 25, 2005 in Europe and on April 26 in the US. It debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200 album chart.  bruce devil and dust
Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886? – December 22, 1939)
was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues.
MaRainey
Duane Eddy (born April 26, 1938)
is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically “twangy” sound, including “Rebel Rouser”, “Peter Gunn”, and “Because They’re Young”. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
 duane eddy

 

– Hallgeir

Videos of the day: Govt Mule covers All Along The Watchtower

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All along the watchtower must be one of the most covered songs Bob Dylan has ever written, and there are some good ones, and yes, also the greatest cover of them all. Jimi Hendrix made it his own and Dylan even altered his way of playing the song after hearing Jimi’s version, or so the story goes…

The three takes we are going to present today are very different, very jazz-tinged and very good!

The first is from Mountain Jam 2009 with Karl Denson on Saxophone, he does a tremendous job! Warren Haynes’s guitar is equally impressing in this 13 minute masterpiece.

Gov’t Mule – All Along The Watchtower (2009):

“For nearly three decades, legendary saxophonist Karl Denson has been getting crowds around the world out on the dance floor. Approaching iconic status, Denson has moved bodies and minds dating back to his earliest years with Lenny Kravitz’s band through his ongoing tenure as a founding member of seminal boogaloo revivalists The Greyboy Allstars and his current roll as a member of San Diego dub rockers Slightly Stoopid. Nowhere, however, is this more apparent than with his own band, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. Touring relentlessly for the past 15 years and leaving a massive audience in his wake.”
– Karl Denson’s Facebook page

Our second choice is recorded Dec 16th 2006 at the Warren Haynes 18th Annual Christmas Jam. We get a groovy take with Gov’t Mule, Dave Matthews and Branford Marsalis. Warren’s playing is even better than in the first video.

Gov’t Mule – All Along The Watchtower (2006):

Our last version is an audience recording, but very lively and close to the band. Members of The Sanctuary Blues  joined Govt Mule’s 1st 10-year anniversary Concert at the Township Auditorium in Columbia, SC 02.06.2014. The sax solo is switched for fantastic trumpet and trombone solos.

Gov’t Mule – All Along The Watchtower (2014):

What a soulful voice Warren Haynes has!

– Hallgeir

Today: Roger Daltrey is 70 Happy Birthday

OLD post … You’re being redirected to a newer version……

Roger+Daltrey

 I can’t retire.
~Roger Daltrey

 

 

First of all, you have to understand that I’m like anybody else. When I hear my voice on a record I absolutely loathe my voice. I cannot stand my voice.
~Roger Daltrey

 

The_who_roger_daltrey_stomach_scar_surgery Continue reading Today: Roger Daltrey is 70 Happy Birthday

Today: John Coltrane recorded A Love Supreme in 1964

john-coltrane-a-love-supreme  “My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being… When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups…I want to speak to their souls.”― John ColtraneA fine documentary short about the album:

Continue reading Today: John Coltrane recorded A Love Supreme in 1964

Today: Albert Ammons passed away in 1949 64 years ago

AA

“A major inspiration to generations of improvising musicians, Albert Ammons is best remembered as an exciting pianist who inaugurated the Blue Note record label by hammering out blues and boogie duets with Meade “Lux” Lewis, and as the father of hard bop tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons. Born in Chicago on September 23, 1907, he learned the rudiments of piano from his parents and neighbors and began cultivating an ability to play the blues when he was 12 years old.”

Allmusic

Continue reading Today: Albert Ammons passed away in 1949 64 years ago