Miles! (May 26, 1926) One of America's greatest musician-composers! Happy Birthday!

His pure sound is immediately recognizable. He exuded attitude. Improvisation gave him space to show his sensitivity (not a word often associated with him). 

What matters, he is quoted as saying, is how we respond to what’s happening around us: “When you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note you play that determines if it’s good or bad.” Or, as he put it more simply and non-dualistically, “Do not fear mistakes. There are none.”

I got to see him play twice:
1) Berkeley Jazz Festival, 1968. Wearing black, back to audience, impeccably blowing horn thru the Harmon mute. No one did Black Power like Miles!

2) San Francisco’s Both/And Club. Miles creating fusion with his Second Great Quintet - Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Tony Williams. Talk about cooking!

Attitude-plus! At the Both/And he exits the bandstand for bar. The guys play on. He rejoins them whenever-right on cue. Musically it all seemed to fit. Later my date and I are out front. Miles, four feet away at curb, wearing a waist-length fur coat and with some blond chick. Say something to him? You gotta be kidding! Then his red Ferrari drives up and he and the woman get in. Miles speeds off into the night.

Rolling Stone described him as "the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time, not to mention one of the most important musicians of the 20th century."

He’s said he always had music in his head. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Click post-retirement, super-star Miles to open to the You Tube Playlist.

Playlist Tracks:
"Bye-bye Blackbird"
"S'posin"

Kind of Blue album (The best selling jazz album of all time with over four million copies sold. In 2009, the US House of Representatives voted 409–0 to pass a resolution that honored it as a national treasure.) -
 "So What"
 "Freddie Freeloader"
 "Blue in Green"
 "All Blues"
 "Flamenco Sketches"
 "Someday My Prince Will Come"

Sketches of Spain (album)

"All of You"

In a Silent Way (album)

Betty Carter. May 16, 1929. The exquisite breathless quality of her voice ...

Click the image of Betty Carter to open the You Tube playlist, "Betty Carter." Click Play All to hear the songs as listed in the Track List below.

... makes her one of those inimitable singers who - when you hear her - you recognize her immediately. Her phrasing sensitivity makes each phrase seem almost like a concert. 

Vocalist Carmen McRae said: "There's really only one jazz singer—only one: Betty Carter."

Track List:
"Moonlight in Vermont"
"People Will Say We're in Love" [Ray Charles and Betty Carter - 1961 hit album]
"How High the Moon"
"Baby, It's Cold Outside"  [Ray Charles and Betty Carter]
"What's New?"
"Cocktails for Two" [Recorded at The Bottom Line, New York City, 1982]
"What a Little Moonlight Can Do" [Recorded at The Bottom Line, New York City, 1982]
"Every Time We Say Goodbye"  [Ray Charles and Betty Carter]

"Autumn Leaves"

Happy Birthday, Mr. Piano Man! Billy Joel. (May 9, 1949.) Going strong now for 5 1/2 decades!

Click Billy Joel to open the "Billy Joel" You Tube playlist.

Playlist tracks:
"Piano Man"
"The Longest Time"
"My Life"
"Just the Way You Are"
"We Didn't Start the Fire" [Personal note: The best name-dropping song ever!]
"New York State of Mind" (with Tony Bennett - talk about going strong!; Mark Rivera, tenor sax)
"The River of Dreams"

"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity."  - Billy Joel

The Duke! He is one of the most prolific composers in American history. And he staged a 20 piece ...

... orchestra nightly so he could hear his new music!

Click The pic of Duke to open "The Duke!" You Tube playlist of 17 vids. (All songs by the Duke except "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin.)

Driven by self-confidence that a doting mother instilled (it is said his feet never touched the ground before he was five!), he reportedly would come down the stairs in their upper middle-class Washington DC home, announcing, "Get ready, world! Here comes Edward Kennedy Ellington!"

By the mid 50s the Ellington band had fallen on hard times. A musical upstart called rock and roll and high costs were making it tough for Duke to keep a band on the road. The date at Newport held promise, but the band's set started off blandly. Audience members were leaving their seats. Duke called for "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue," [last track in the Playlist] music from 1936. And who cares?!

But tenor sax man Paul Gonsalves was inspired! He launched into what became 27 choruses of some of the most driving jams in jazz history. The audience came back to their seats. Duke Ellington's career was revitalized.

Thereafter, when anyone asked Duke when he was born, he said, Newport, July 7, 1956.

"Ladies and Gentlemen:

When all our pulses

beat ensemble [awn-sahm]

we're a swinging chart of fake

but one tailgate and false alarm

does not togetherness make

"So take it from the top and bop

and blow down through the bottom

let not the jamming ever stop

until you know you've got 'em."

Duke Ellington's intro comments to "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got that Swing."

To read the definitive biography of Duke, check out Terry Teachout's 

Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington.

https://www.amazon.com/Duke-Life-Ellington-Terry-Teachout/dp/1592407498

Willie! The original singer-songwriter, guitar-pickin' outlaw! Happy Birthday, Red-Headed Stranger!

Click Willie and Trigger to open the "Willie!" You Tube Playlist - 25 vids (mostly live performances). Click the Play All button to enjoy the Playlist.
Guest performers include, Johnny Gimble, Freddie Powers, Waylon Jennings, Lyle Lovett, Paul Simon, Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and sons - Lukas and Micah Nelson.

Some notes:
We open as Willie opens all his concerts - with "Whiskey River," written by Johnny Bush, an ol' Texas singer-songwriting buddy.

"Bloody Mary Morning." Willie and Family kicked off the first episode of Austin City Limits in 1974.

"San Antonio Rose." From Willie's ranch in the Texas Hill Country, he's joined by Johnny Gimble, the go-to fiddler in country music for years and a member of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys, and Freddie Powers, beloved Texas guitar picker-songwriter and sidekick to Willie and Merle.

"Remember Me" by T. Texas Tyler. (Sister Bobbie Nelson on piano. Harmonica virtuoso, Micky Raphael.)

"My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys." By prolific country music songwriter, Sharon Vaughan.

"Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys." By Ed and Patsy Bruce. 

"Farther Down the Line." By Lyle Lovett. As much as I like hearing Willie sing this one, it's Lyle Lovett's voice that brings a poignant, almost sad sensitivity to the song. (With that country music super star, Ringo Starr, on drums.)

"Good Hearted Woman." By Willie and Waylon. In 1969 the boys were staying in a motel in Fort Worth. Waylon got inspired to start writing the song when he saw an advertisement in a newspaper promoting Tina Turner as a "good hearted woman loving a two-timing man," a reference to Ike Turner. He went to talk to Willie who was in the middle of a poker game. Waylon joined the game and told Willie his idea. While they kept playing, they expanded the lyrics as Willie's wife Connie Koepke wrote them down. 

"I Can Get Off on You." By Waylon. A 1977 cocaine bust and lots of experience with other substances, to say nothing of Willie's marijuana ingestion, was probably the inspiration for this one.

"Me and Paul." Dedicated to his drummer Paul English, “Me and Paul” is a road-chugger about the realities of touring life, the poisons of Music Row, and how everything is better with a partner in crime. 

"Truck Drivin' Man" by Terry Fell, one of Buck Owens' Buckaroos. Speaking of "road-chugging!" Willie gives a distinct Texas feel to this country truck-driving song. Move over, Dave Dudley!

"Nothing I Can Do about It Now." By Texas singer-songwriter, Beth Nielsen Chapman. This is one of my favorites in the Willie catalog.

"Graceland" By Paul Simon. And with Paul on stage. Willie changes the line, "There's a girl in New York City" to "There's a girl in Austin, Texas." Nice.

"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." By Bob Dylan. With Merle Haggard.

"Pancho and Lefty." By Townes Van Zandt. With Bob Dylan.

"Pick up the Tempo." By Willie.

"Til I Gain Control Again." By fellow Texan, Rodney Crowell. With Emmylou Harris.

"Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground." By Willie. A fine companion, I think, to "Til I Gain Control Again."

"Stay a Little Longer." By Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan. 

"Milk Cow Blues." By Kokomo Arnold (also known as Gitfiddle Jim). Willie on electric guitar.

"Crazy." By Willie. Back in 1961 when he was mainly a songwriter, he co-wrote "Crazy" with a friend named Oliver English. Several singers turned it down, but it was a big hit for Patsy Cline. That put Willie on the track.  ...  He originally titled the song, "Stupid," but that didn't go over with the  crowd he "auditioned" it to at Nashville's Tootsie's Orchid Lounge.

"Pretty Paper." By Willie. During the 1963 Christmas season in downtown Fort Worth Willie, saw a man without legs on a low platform roller. He was selling paper and pencils in front of Leonard's Department Store. To attract the attention of the people, the man announced, "Pretty paper! Pretty paper!"

"Will The Circle Be Unbroken? / Uncloudy Day / Amazing Grace." By The Carter Family/Traditional. Willie's grandfather bought him a guitar when he was six, and taught him a few chords. Willie sang gospel songs in the local Abbott, Texas, Methodist Church alongside sister Bobbie. He wrote his first song at age seven. He's quoted as believing in reincarnation because he was writing unrequited love songs at an early age.

"On the Road Again." By Willie. [with The Highwaymen - Waylon, Johnny, and Kris] He wrote this one on an airplane cocktail napkin in about 10 minutes. Producer Sydney Pollack was sitting beside him and asked him if he could write some music for the movie Honeysuckle Rose, starring Willie, Dyan Cannon, and Slim Pickens. When Willie handed the napkin back to Pollack, the producer looked at the lines and thought, "That's not much of a song."  ...  It won a Grammy that year (1980) and Rolling Stone has listed it among the most popular songs of all time.

"Can I Sleep In Your Arms." Willie Nelson and The Boys - Willie with sons Lukas and Micah from his Luck Ranch in the Texas Hill Country. He first recorded the song for his 1975 hit album, Red Headed Stranger.

"I Don't Hurt Anymore"/"Sweethearts Are Strangers" - with Merle Haggard

"Don't Get Around Much Anymore" by Duke Ellington, whose birthday is also today (April 29). Both Willie and the Duke are among America's top composers with over 2,000 songs credited. 

"Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground"(reprise)

"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter"

"There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight" (by Hank Williams)

"I Thought about You, Lord" (Sister Bobbie, piano; Johnny Gimbel, fiddle)

Happy birthday, Joe Ely! (February 9, 1947.) Texas troubadour, honky-tonk rock and roller. Singer-songwriter, heir to Buddy Holly, contributor to the progressive country sound that put Austin on the map as the alternative Nashville. And member of the hottest trio in Texas, The Flatlanders.

Clicking Joe's image connects to his "take-no-prisoners" run of "Musta Notta Gotta Lotta." Kick it, Cats and Kittens!  (Guitar-slinger, David Grissom on lead and Lubbock sax man Bobby Keys, "resting" from his regular gig with the Rolling Stones.)

Solo Joe connects to a Butch Hancock song, "Wishing for You."

It was hard selecting these songs. For every one I chose, I had to by-pass 10!

Rockin' and rollin' on "Fingernails!" (Recorded at Buddy Holly Park in Joe's hometown of Lubbock, Texas.)

Click to see and hear Joe sing "Hard Livin."

("Oh, pick it, Joe.")

"Lord of the Highway"
("With your fan belt slippin' and your bare tires squealin'
Every time you hit the road you think you're rich
You're lord of the highway but the way you been drivin'
Sends them hitch-hikers divin' for the ditch ...")

Joe co-founded the Flatlanders with Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore in 1970. They lived a small town commune life in Lubbock, Texas, writing songs and investigating philosophies of various kinds. They tried and failed to make a dent in Nashville in 1972, only to be “rediscovered” in the late 1990s.

Joe, Jimmie Dale, and Butch sing Butch's song, "If You Were a Bluebird."

The Flatlanders rock a slow boogie with Jimmie Dale's "Dallas" with white-haired Bill Kirchen (Comander Cody's Band - wrote "Hot Rod Lincoln") and virtuoso slide man, Robbie Gjersoe, in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

"I Had My Hopes Up High"
" ... Well, the first ride I got was in a dynamite truck
The driver kept a-tellin' me his bad luck
As we swerved around the curves I began to shout
Hey-ey mister would you let me out? ..."

Bonus vid: "16 Tons" Joe Ely Band Live in Texas Gruene

His music mixed up the "boogie with the doe-si-doe." Mose Allison, born November 11, 1927, always managed to sound cool and country at the same time.

This is one of the first LP albums I ever bought. It was released in 1963. All the songs are vintage Mose - toe-tapping and finger-snapping! In 1966 I was a "poor college student" in San Francisco. One day I was getting my shoes shined downtown near where I lived and the shoe shine man had Mose's "Seventh Son" cranked up all the way on his radio. "I'm the Seventh Son!" he yelled out above the city traffic sounds. "I'm the Seventh Son!" And there was no reason not to believe him! [Click the Mose Sings album cover to hear his cut of Willie Dixon's "Seventh Son."]

He was a country-boy, born in the Mississippi Delta on his grandfather’s farm near the village of Tippo. We went to see him perform back in the '80s in Eugene, Oregon. It was a small  venue, as most of his dates were - outdoors. But he played non-stop for two hours. I mean, there was no talking. And at the end he just said, "Thank You!" [Click Mose to hear him perform live his famous rendition of the Bukka White song, "Parchman Farm." You'll also get treated to his characteristic beat-punctuating "Uh-uh-uh!" ]

He was also a city-hipster. In the '50s Mose headed for New York City where 52nd Street was the mecca for the coolest of the cool. He jammed with the likes of Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, and Phil Woods.   [Click Mose scribing to hear one of his coolest, "I Ain't Got Nothing But The Blues." It's got that great lyric at the end, "Ain't got no house in Westchester/Don't have no Chris-Craft to cruise/Ain't got no Basie with Lester/I ain't got nothin' but the blues."]

Mose was noted for scalpel-sharp lyrics. One of the best examples is his "Your Mind Is on Vacation." Click this Mose pic to hear/see a live performance which includes the lyric, "All I can say is if the shoe fits wear it/If you must keep talking please try to make it rhyme/'Cause your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working/Overtime." 

His musical musings got more reflective, more personal as the piano notes and the years flew by. Click the photo to check out his "I Looked In The Mirror," which contains the afore-mentioned, "... mixing up the boogie with the do-si-do."

One of my favorite tracks is Mose's version of the old Sons of the Pioneers ballad, "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds." Here he teams up with the impeccable Kenny Burrell (guitar) to give this ol' cowboy standby a feeling that could be at home on the coldest urban street.

Mose was no moon-spoon-June guy! He was capable punching out devastating one-liners, like, “ever since the world ended, I don’t go out so much." Clicking the photo reveals the rest of the song.

I could listen to Mose Allison all day. And I've been known to do so! If you want more Mose, here are two more tunes:

• Lost Mind

https://youtu.be/nWRnUkJ-tIo

• Certified Senior Citizen

https://youtu.be/RZnu1ic-J5M?si=9tplgSa2XtaQDI9z

Gram Parsons. He called his music "Cosmic American Music." The music writers called it country-rock. Gram, whose birthday is today, November 5 (1946), headed up the pioneering group The Flying Burrito Brothers, jammed with Keith Richards, discovered Emmylou Harris, nudged The Byrds into country-rock, and put country music in the hip pocket of many a rocker.

Click cosmic Gram to hear him fronting a live Flying Burrito Brothers' performance at 

San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom, 1969. "You're Still On My Mind" was one of the first songs Gram sang lead on with his earlier group, the Byrds.

Click Keith Richards and Gram in a jamming-song-writing session, 1971, south France, during the recording of the Stones' Exile on Main Street. Gram played a big part in steering the Stones toward country music. The two collaborated on the song "Wild Horses." Here is the Burritos' version.

Burrito bandmate Chris Hillman told Gram about Emmylou Harris, then an unknown coffee house folk singer in the D.C. area. He went to see her play and they tightened it up right away, performing and recording together. Following Gram's death in 1973, Emmylou championed his music at her concerts, often singing and recording his songs.

"Wheels" is one of my favorite Burrito Brothers' songs. It is a main rail of the mythical, mystical Fish Hawk Country soundtrack - https://fish-hawk-country.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-music-they-listened-to-in-fish-hawk.html

"Do Right Woman"

"'Farther Along' we'll understand why ..."

The Flying Burrito Brothers' 1969 album, The Gilded Palace of Sin, realized Gram's musical vision: a modernized version of the Bakersfield sound that Buck Owens popularized mixed with strands of soul and psychedelic rock. The band appeared on the album cover wearing Nudie suits emblazoned with all sorts of hippie trappings. Nudie Cohn, was a tailor who designed decorative rhinestone-covered suits, known popularly as "Nudie Suits," and other elaborate outfits for some of the most famous celebrities of his era. Customers included Elvis, Gene Autrey, Cher, and Glen Campbell. Clicking the pic opens a YouTube playlist of the album.

 

Celebrating the birthday and seven-decades career of Paul Simon. (Born October 13, 1941.) Sixteen Grammys, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Oscar-winner, genre-busting hit-maker, exquisite lyricist ...

Click Paul to dig him singing"Late in the Evening," one of my favorites of all his "rockers."

... Paul Simon's musicality infuses our culture with melody, harmony, rhythm, and grace.

Speaking of "grace" ...

Click Paul performing "Graceland." The album so-titled sold 14 million copies worldwide on its release and remains his most popular solo work.

Clicking Paul and Art opens to their first hit, "Sounds of Silence." They recorded it in 1964 for their album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, which was a flop. (I did not know this!) Paul moved back in with his parents. But without telling Paul and Art, a producer added electric guitar, bass, and drums to the song and released it as a single. It went to number 1 on the pop charts.

Here's more Paul Simon music, with and without Art. If I included all of my favorites I'd still be writing this blog.

"Kodachrome" was a 1973 hit for Paul. It blends in perfectly with Chuck Berry's opus, "Mabelline," and thus Paul and Art pay tribute to one of their influences.

"Like a Bridge over Troubled Water"

One of Paul Simon's main contributions is bringing "world music" into the  mainstream. Certainly the albums, Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints, are great examples. Here's a song from Graceland that illustrates the point.

Paul Simon takes a final bow at his Austin, Texas, appearance on his Farewell Tour. Clicking the pic opens to him singing "Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard" at a concert in 1992.

Her voice! Gritty, salty, marked by absolute clarity of diction with that clipped, bluesy phrasing. Dinah Washington, born this day, August 29, 1924.

Dinah made her recording debut for the Keynote label, December 1944, with "Evil Gal Blues", written by jazz musicologist Leonard Feather and backed by Lionel Hampton (who gave her her first big break) and musicians from his band, including Joe Morris (trumpet) and Milt Buckner (piano). It made Billboard's "Harlem Hit Parade" that year.

Like all of the greats - Louis Armstrong, Billie, Sarah Vaughan, Ella,  Sinatra - when you hear her powerful voice, you know who it is right away! 

Also like many of the great African-American singers, she found and honed her talent in the gospel choirs of the Black Church. Dinah was still in elementary school when she began singing and playing the piano at St. Luke's Baptist Church, Chicago. In her teens she directed the church choir.

Dinah Washington was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

As a teen-ager Dinah won an amateur contest at Chicago's Regal Theater where she sang "I Can't Face the Music".

Dinah's first top ten pop hit came in 1959 with "What a Difference a Day Makes." Her band at that time included Kenny Burrell (guitar) and Joe Zawinul  (piano).

"15 Minutes with Dinah!" - Dinah performs in two different venues, Apollo Theater, 1955, and in Newport, Rhode Island, 1958. 
"All of Me"

"I Don't Hurt Anymore"

"My Lean Baby"

"Only a Moment Ago"

"Oh, What a Night"

Dinah Jams! My favorite Dinah Washington album. Click the photo to open a You Tube Playlist of 8 songs from that album. It's a live performance (1954) in front of a studio audience with some of the best musicians in jazz! Dinah is in charge, though! Her renditions of "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "You Go to My Head" alone are worth the price of admission.

1. "Lover, Come Back to Me"
2. "Alone Together" 

3. "Summertime" 

4. "Come Rain or Come Shine" 

5. "No More" 
6. "I've Got You Under My Skin" 

7. "There Is No Greater Love" 

8. "You Go to My Head"

Dinah Washington - vocals, Clifford Brown - trumpet, Maynard Ferguson - trumpet, Clark Terry - trumpet. Herb Geller - alto saxophone, Harold Land - tenor saxophone, Richie Powell - piano, Junior Mance - piano, George Morrow - double bass, Keter Betts - double bass, Max Roach - drums.