Sunday Music Muse Day - Nels Cline, Rez Abbasi

This Sunday Music Muse day has me showcasing two CD that I need to spend some time with, before deciding if I like them, or not.  First up, The Nels Cline 4 Currents, Constellations, with Cline on acoustic and electric guitars, Julian Lage on Guitar, Tom Rainey on drums, and Scott Colley on acoustic bass.  I know of Nel Cline as a more "out there" alternative jazz player and I have CDs but Julian Lage, so I will put the effort in to give this a good listen.

Next is Rez Abbasi Bazaar. Again, I have several CDs of the guitarist's music and can find them enjoyable but sometimes hit or miss. Bazaar presents a cross-cultural blend of jazz and Indian music, with Indian vocals and sitar-guitar.  I'm trying to avoid any comparison to John McLaughlin Mahavishu/Shakti music.  So, again I'll try to give this so time to be digested.

Enjoy..

Sunday Music Muse Day - Jazzy Birthdays - February Jazz Birhday Celebrations.

For Sunday Music Muse Day, my monthly celebrations of Jazz Birthdays (as torturous to your musical sensitivities as it may be). I'm committed to doing all 12 months. Feel free to mute the sound.

Sunday Music Muse Day - Pre Super Bowl - Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz ,Michak Miskiewicz, The California Guitar Trio

Here's a quick Super Bowl Sunday, Sunday Music Muse Day post.  First up, Marcin Wasilewski,  Slawomir Kurkiewicz , Michal Miskiewicz Trio. (Wow, those names are a mouth full! I guess they couldn't decide on a name for the Trio) This a nice introspective piano trio session, which gives you a calm before the storm of the big game.  It lives up to the ECM high standards.  Well worth a listen.

My second selection is The California Guitar Trio Yamanashi Blues.  This is a nice eclectic mix of musical selections, 1950's space age rock, jazz tunes, and a hint of Robert Fripp's King Crimson, owning to Fripp being executive producer, and re-mastering the music.   Another one, worth a listen.

                             

Enjoy the game.  GO Taylor!!

Super Bowl Sunday - Old Teen Football art and and Dennis Fun Fact.

For Super Bowl Sunday, here's some old football art from my teen years and a Dennis Fun Fact. I played on a championship football team. Football was the only team sport I liked much. I played freshman HS football, but stopped after that because as a tall lanky 150 lb kid playing as a lineman, I was up against Jersey farm boys twice my weight. But, before that, I was on the inaugural Elizabeth PAL (Police Athletic League) Pop Warner football team for two seasons. Our first season, we were 3-3, the second season we were undefeated, with 5 wins and a tie. We played for, and won the championship on the November Sunday morning Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby. I remember people yelling it from the sidelines. Strange, I know there are home movies of the game and the team, somewhere, taken by a coach with a 8mm camera. I had a trophy, which I gave to my brother when I left home. Not sure, he still has it. Enjoy the game, not matter who you're rooting for. GO Taylor!!

These are my concepts for a re-design of our high school uniform. Our school colors were Red & Black.

I like this group of action shots. No reference photo were used. You can see the sketchbook pages for the origin thumbnail explorations.

                              

Sunday Music Muse Day (a day late) Terje Rypydal Miroslav Vitous Jack DeJohnette, Terje Rydal

This day late Sunday Music Muse Day post is a double spin of Terje Rydal, the Norwegian guitarist and composer, I first became aware of through his ECM recordings in the 70's, with an eclectic blend of Jazz, Free-Jazz and Classical music. My first selection, "Terje Rydal /Miroslav Vitous /Jack Dejohnette" is self-tilled untitled recording from 1979, and it has strong Jazz Fusion leaning with European flavor, with Rydal's angular and spacy electric guitar, and guitar synthesizer styling, and Vitous, the well-known Czech bassist, in Free Jazz and Jazz Fusion.  He was an original co-founder of Weather Report, with Joe Zawinul, and Wayne Shorter (reportedly he chose to leave Weather Report when the musical direction shift from more Free Jazz to a more commercial sound).  Jack Dejohnette is also highly regarded jazz drummer and composer, well-known for playing with Miles Davis, and for a long association with pianist Keith Jarrett.  This solid CD is for anyone with adventurous taste in music.  Definitely give it a listen with an open mind.

My second selection is Terje Rypdal Melodic Warrior. I'm at a lost to describe this CD, so I'll just quote a reviewer John Kelman from Jazz Online, " The lion's share of guitarist Terje Rypdal's Melodic Warrior is devoted to the nine-movement title suite, a 2003 recording with the Bruckner Orchester Linz and, most importantly, the Hilliard Ensemble, the vocal ensemble that leapt to greater fame with Officium (ECM, 1993), the first of three recordings with Rypdal's fellow countryman, Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek. The four-movement "And the Sky was Coloured with Waterfalls and Angels," from a 2009 performance with the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra at Poland's renowned Jazztopad Festival, rounds out the record, a series of tone poem studies in contrast.   On repeated listenings, the best I could come up with is, it sounds like a soundtrack for updated 'Forbidden Planet", the classic 1950's sci-fi and New free-form Classical music.  I'm on the fence with this one, it can be challenging.

Take your pick, old  or newer, Terje Rydal.  Either way, not a dull musical experience.  Enjoy.

Robot Sunday Story - " Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful"

For Robot Sunday: AI art has me thinking of the old Rula Lenska's tagline, "don't hate me because I'm beautiful" (Alberto VO5 commerical - 1979) To many of us, the AI art is the Frankenstein monster, taking the heat for the Dr. Frankenstein, in this case, the Prompt-writer (and the AI app companies). So, the debate continues. This video was inspired by this cool mech image posted on a sci-fi themed FB group. The comments strongly suggest the image was AI generated, whicn brings out some strong opinions. As a creative artist, I admit, I'm conflicted regarding AI Art...but the MECH image is insanely cool. So, I made this video, and included mech images I saved to my screensaver slideshow that I used to save various images I see online that interest me. What are your thoughts on AI generated art?