Playlist and Notes: 2 May 2023

 

Picking up the pieces before the summer hiatus.  On today’s show, there are several odds and ends I want to mention: First, in honor of Dr. Sara Grove’s retirement, a song from one of her favorite bands. A brief mention of Arthur Briggs, the subject of a BBC News Story, and featured on “Blue Moon.” A nod to my hometown, which will host the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Despite the cold weather here in Pennsylvania, summer is just around the corner. Finally, to end the year, Amina Figarova’s plea for peace.

Have a great summer everyone.

 

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, featuring Miche Braden – Livin’ on a Prayer

Blue Moon – Django Rhinehardt and Coleman Hawkins

Charlie Shavers Quartet – Old Kentucky Home

Art Blakey Quartet – Summertime

Joey Alexander – Summer Rising

Louis Armstrong – Summer Song

John Coltrane – Summertime

Amina Figarova – Only Peace Liberates

 

Notes:

The passing of music legend and rights activist, Harry Bellefonte (1927-2023).[1]

Miche Braden – b. 1953 (Detroit, MI) – has performed on stage as Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith.

Arthur Briggs – b. 9 April 1901 (St. Georges, Grenada) – Hugh Scofield’s story about Briggs, billed as the only British subject to be involved in the creation of jazz. He was a major figure in the Paris Jazz scene in the 1920s and 1930s, was a witness to the Liverpool Race Riots of 1919, and survived a Nazi prison camp during World War II.

Charlie Shavers – b. 3 August 1920 (New York City) – From his 1961 album Here Comes Charlie. Died from throat cancer at the age of 50.

 


[1] Peter Keepnews. “Harry Belafonte, 96, Dies; Barrier-breaking Singer, Actor and Activist,” New York Times, 25 April 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/music/harry-belafonte-dead.html; Wesley Morris, “Harry Belafonte, Folk Hero,” New York Times, 25 April 2023; https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/music/harry-belafonte-singer-activist.html.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Playlist and Notes: 30 August 2022

With the beginning of the fall semester, summer is quickly coming to an end. The first set includes three songs that reminds us of the joy and thrills of summer, and the melancholy that creeps in as the weather gets a little cooler and the leaves begin to fall.   Since this is my first show since the pandemic temporarily closed the university in March 2020, the second set on today’s show remembers three people who have died since that time: Chick Corea, Charlie Watts, and, just last week, the shocking news that Joey DeFrancesco, who recorded scores of albums of his own behind the organ, and as sideman with many performers, including Miles Davis, had passed. I will play more songs to remember DeFrancesco in the coming weeks. I also celebrate the 102nd anniversary of the birth of Charlie Parker and offer a heartfelt congratulations to Joni Mitchell in her triumphant return to the Newport Folk Festival in July. Finally, after the seeing the film Elvis at the Cumberland Drive-In a...
Read more

Playlist and Notes: 7 February 2023

On today’s show we have several themes and start some month-long retrospectives. In the honor of Black History Month we will profile some of the great blues singers during February, featuring two artists each week. In another segment, we will listen to jazz music from, and inspired by, Africa. But to start the show today, we begin with an acknowledgement that it is winter in Central Pennsylvania with a couple of songs about the season. Joey Alexander – Winter Blues Kieth Jarrett – Blackberry Winter Michael Brecker – Midnight Mood Blind Willie McTell – Statesboro Blues Mississippi John Hurt – Coffee Blues Ramsey Lewis Trio – You Been Talkin’ ‘Bout Me, Baby Moe Koffman – A Night in Tunisia Mulatu Astatke – Girl From Addis Ababa Black Flower – O Fogo Blues Tribute  We begin our survey of important blues artists with a person who is not that well known but highly influential: Blind Willie McTell: Born blind in 1901 to an unwed 14-year-old mother, who would die in 19...
Read more

Playlist and Notes: 6 September 2022

Image
  On September 10, 1956, the Miles Davis Quintet, along with John Coltrane, recorded the Thelonious Monk tune, “’Round Midnight.” It would be the first of Miles’s great quintets, Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (double bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums). The song would be the first track on an outstanding album, Round About Midnight , which released in 1957. On today’s show we have a listen to music where the other members of the quintet are leader. Later this semester we will have a retrospective of Philadelphia’s own, Philly Joe Jones. We also honor a couple of legends’ birthdays during our second segment: Horace Silver (2 September 1928, Norwalk CT), Sonny Rollins (7 September 1929, New York City), and Elvin Jones (9 September 1927), playing drums on Coltrane’s “A Few of My Favorite Things.” On last week’s show we heard a couple of important black female singers from the 1950s who influenced Elvis Presley. Today, a curren...
Read more