Cannonball Adderley 50 Years -- August 8, 2025

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I was probably listening to KJAZ when they announced that sax player Julian "Cannonball" Adderley had died. He was only 46, and he died after having a stroke. The nickname "Cannonball" came from his propensity for eating. "Cannonball" was a distortion of "cannibal." 

He played with the Miles Davis sextet on the album Kind of Blue and other albums.

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Live)


Miles Davis - So What (Official Video)


Miles Davis - Straight, No Chaser

San Francisco Examiner, 24-August-1956

Ahmad Jamal RIP -- April 16, 2023

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Ahmad Jamal has died. I have loved his music since I first heard it. He had a great influence on Miles Davis and many others.

  Poinciana (Live At The Pershing, Chicago, 1958)

AHMAD JAMAL . Trio " Darn That Dream " . 1959

AHMAD JAMAL Trio . Ahmads Blues

Wayne Shorter, RIP -- March 5, 2023

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I was sad to learn that Wayne Shorter has died. He has been an influential musician and composer for my whole life. I first heard Weather Report in high school. Later I figured out that Wayne Shorter was the same guy who had played with Miles Davis.

 
Wayne Shorter Quartet - All blues


“Footprints” - The Miles Davis Quintet Live In Sweden: October 31st, 1967


Weather Report - Live at Montreux (1976) [Remastered]


JOE ZAWINUL & WAYNE SHORTER - In a Silent Way

Chick Corea and S Clay Wilson, RIP -- February 13, 2021

 

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Chick Corea has died. I have heard his music and his name for most of my life. He played with Miles Davis' electric bands, he founded Return to Tomorrow, he collaborated with everyone and he wrote some jazz standards. 

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Underground comix artist S Clay Wilson, father of the Checkered Demon, has died. Some of his stuff went too far for me. 

Charlie Parker 100 -- August 29, 2020

 

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Charlie Parker, sax player, composer and music visionary, was born 100 years ago today, on 29-August-1920. Charlie Parker and his friend Dizzy Gillespie were two of the founding fathers of bebop. Bird influenced everyone.

Bird had an addiction to heroin and other opioids, but it didn't rule his life right away. He made many recordings and influenced young musicians like Miles Davis and Jackie McLean. Parker tried to tell young musicians not to copy his drug use, but many wound up addicted to heroin. 

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Clint Eastwood made a movie called Bird, which starred Forrest Whitacker as Parker. The movie showed him as being screwed up his whole life. That is an exaggeration. 

People often say that Bird With Strings is one of their favorite albums. 

Jimmy Cobb, Larry Kramer, RIP -- May 28, 2020

Drummer Jimmy Cobb died of cancer.  He was the last survivor from the Kind of Blue sessions with Miles Davis. 

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Playwright and activist Larry Kramer died of pneumonia.  I didn't like some of his methods, but he was working for a good cause. 

Lee Konitz and Stirling Moss, RIP -- April 20, 2020

Saxophonist Lee Konitz died of pneumonia brought on by the TrumpVirus (COVID-19). He played on Birth of the Cool.  He was a friend of Charley Parker.  He made some interesting sounds.

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Race car driver Stirling Moss also died, but not of the TrumpVirus.  He never won the Formula One championship, but he won almost everything else.  I remember him announcing races on Wide World of Sports. 

#TrumpVirus

Bob Dorough, RIP -- April 24, 2018

I was sad to learn that Bob Dorough has passed on.  Most people remember him for Schoolhouse Rock, but I like his other work, too.

"When it was hip to be hep, I was hep." -- Bob Dorough and Dave Frishberg

He even got to sing with Miles Davis.

Favorite Albums -- April 19, 2018

Last month on Facebook, I was nominated by a friend to list my ten all-time favorite albums. "What really made an impact and is still on your rotation list. Post the cover, no need to explain." I enjoyed the exercise, although it was tough to narrow it down to ten and not make any explanations. I thought I would use my blog to share the albums and perhaps make some comments.

My first choice, because the file name was first in the directory, was Elvis Costello's third album, Armed Forces.  This was the first Elvis Costello album that I purchased.  I love the music on the LP and the EP.  Once I saved up enough money, I went back to Tower Records and bought his first two albums.

Some don't like modal jazz; they think the musicians are just playing scales.  Miles Davis and his sextette are not just playing scales on Kind of Blue.

Last year my daughter and I were sitting in the car waiting for my wife.  I put this CD in the player.  My daughter was quiet until she heard "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away?"  She said "That is warped."  Yes it is.

I had trouble deciding which Duke Ellington album to select, but "Ellington at Newport" has the 27 chorus saxophone solo by Juan Gonsalves on "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue."

I bought my fiancée all of Ella Fitzgerald's songbooks, but the Gershwin was our favorite.   We used two songs from it for our wedding reception.

I read in Newsweek that Glenn Gould had recorded a new version of The Goldberg Variations.  I saved enough money, which took a while because classical albums cost more than pop or rock'n'roll albums.

I found Harriet Janis and Rudi Blesh's They All Played Ragtime at the Anza Branch Library and enjoyed it, but I hadn't heard most of the music.  The Anza and Richmond branches did not have any ragtime records, but I found Joshua Rifkin's album at the Main Library.  I later bought my own copy.

I don't own this actual album, but this image allowed me to represent Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five and Hot Seven with one entry.  I love all the recordings.  "West End Blues," "Weather Bird," "Potato Head Blues," all of them.

I didn't know about Louis Jordan until someone played "Saturday Night Fish Fry" on KJAZ.  I went looking for him at Tower Records.

What can I say about Sun Ra?  Space IS the place.  Some don't believe he visited Saturn in 1936 or 1937.