JAZZ ARTIST OF THE WEEK - CANNONBALL ADDERLEY

This weeks jazz artist is alto sax player Cannonball Adderley. Cannonball was a saxophonist that always kept the music swingin' and soulful. Cannonball was a member of the great Miles Davis group with John Coltrane before striking out on his own with his brother Nat. Cannonball's music is always a joy to listen to as it is always swingin' and hip.
Now I thought I was pretty hip to Cannonball's recordings and have 18 cd's by him currently in my collection. I must say though that I was caught completely off guard by some of these release (pictured) that I knew absolutely nothing about! How could this be? A hip guy like me? I believe most of these have never been released on cd and are only available on rare vinyl if you can find them. The lp Love, Sex, and The Zodiac features narration by Rick Holmes. Now most of you are probably not old enough to know but Rick Holmes was the premiere DJ on the Los Angeles jazz station KBCA (105.1) in the early 70's. KBCA then became KKGO and is now KKJZ (88.1 in Long Beach). Anyway, Rick Holmes had the 6:00PM - 9:00PM time slot during the week and played the hippest jazz anywhere! I used to listen to his show (Rick's Affair) every week night.









Anyway, check out http://myjazzworld.blogspot.com/
for downloads of these rare recordings. Too lazy to do that?
Then check out some video of my man, Cannonball Adderley and get hip!

GOD BLESS AMERICA

You may have noticed that my blogging has slowed down the last few days. The reason for this is that I have recently discovered some fellow bloggers who has listed musical downloads on their blogs. Now I don't just mean any musical downloads, I'm talking about very rare, hard to find, out of print cd and vinyl tracks. I'm talking about early 60's Mongo Santamaria, early 70's Live Herbie Hancock, 70's Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine, and much, much more! These musical treasures can be downloaded, burned to a cd or put into iTunes (which is what I've been doing).

So I have been patiently downloading a ton of free music and my poor little iPod can hold no more! All can say to this new discovery is What A Country and God Bless America!!!

JAZZ CD PICK OF THE WEEK - KENNY BURRELL

This weeks jazz cd pick of the week goes to jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell with his cd titled Midnight Blue (pictured). This recording features Stanley Turrentine on tenor sax and includes Ray Barretto on congas. Recorded in 1967 on the Blue Note label (of course), this cd is a great addition to any jazz lovers library.

The one thing that caught my attention was when you go to the Amazon link below it lists the tracks Kenny's Sounds (Take 10) and K Twist (Take 35). My question is where are all these other takes and why aren't they available to the public? Shouldn't this classic recording be re-issued with more of these bonus tracks? Oh, maybe that's next!

What? You say you're not hip to this recording? Well click on the link below to hear some audio samples of this great recording

http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Blue-Kenny-Burrell/dp/B00000I41G/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1238096325&sr=8-1

BOOK REVIEW - ELECTRIC MILES DAVIS

Because I have unlimited time on my hands I am revisiting many of the items currently in my collection (books, dvd's, cd's). I am currently re-reading the book titled Miles Beyond by Paul Tingen (pictured). This book covers the electric explorations of Miles from 1967 - 1991. This is an exhausting, in-depth look at the electric period of Miles and covers his recordings in detail. For those that dig the electric period by Miles (and I surely do), this book is definitely worth checking out!

What? You say you're not hip to the electric period of Miles? Well shame on you! Watch this video clip of Miles at the Isle of Wight Festival and get hip!

PHOTO OF THE WEEK - MACHU PICCHU

I have been fortunate enough to visit the great Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru not once, not twice but three times! The last time we had visited Machu Picchu we hiked through the Andes mountains for four days to reach our destination. Here's a few photos of Machu Picchu taken during my last visit. Enjoy!

BLOG PHOTO UPDATE

As I am always looking to change things up a bit I have removed my Japanese Homer photo from my profile and replaced it with Afro Samurai. My many readers (2? 3?) have weighed in on this and it was a close contest between the three images below. I finally settled on the one that looks the most like me (the blue background shot) HAHA!

REGGAE CD PICK OF THE WEEK - GREGORY ISAACS

This weeks reggae cd pick of the week goes to the legendary reggae singer Gregory Isaacs with his cd titled Night Nurse (pictured). This is probably one of Gregory's best known cd's. With a laid back, cool style of singing Gregory earned the nickname "The Cool Ruler". Gregory Isaacs has recorded extensively and I must admit that I have several of his cd's in my collection (thirteen cd's and counting). Gregory Isaac's is still touring and recording today so make it a point to check him out!

What? You say you're not hip to Gregory Isaacs? Well get hip then you squares and check out some audio and video samples of Gregory Isaacs.

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Nurse-Gregory-Isaacs/dp/B000068PQ5/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1237857146&sr=8-1

LATIN FUNK - LOS MOCOSOS

Los Mocosos is a Latin/Funk group from Oakland, CA. Although I have a few of their cd's I feel that the first cd that they released (pictured) is definitely the one to get. A mixture of funk, latin, jazz and ska it is definitely one of my latin funk favorites.

Check out the video. Enjoy!

JAZZ OBOE - YUSEF LATEEF

Something that you rarely see is the oboe being used to play jazz or blues. Here is a clip of the great Yusef Lateef from 1963 playing a blues on the oboe. Yusef was a monster on the tenor sax, flute and oboe and did not get the recognition that I feel he deserved. Yusef had a brief stint with Cannonball Adderley's group and this video is from that time frame.
Enjoy the sounds of Yusef Lateef!

TRIBUTE TO THE BLUES

OK, now I like listening to the blues as much as anyone however for some reason I don't really have that many blues cd's in my collection. I have some Buddy Guy, some Albert Collins and also Michael John and The Bottomline (a great local blues band).
This past weekend I rented the Cadillac Records dvd which is the story of Chess Records and some of their recording artists (Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.
Now I may not have selected the best videos available however I thought I would pay my respects to the blues with a few choice clips of some of these artists. Enjoy!