Another Delayed Sunday Music Muse Day

Life, a college visit, and the start of the NFL season, combined to push this week's Sunday Music Muse Day to Monday, again.  This time I have some interesting and solid picks for music lovers.
First up, is another great Jazz find with my father, Sam Woodyard, on drums.  It's a Verve Master Edition reissue of the LP Johnny Hodges, Soloist with Billy Strayhorn and THE Orchestra.  "THE Orchestra" has to been the Duke Ellington Orchestra, without the Duke.  Jimmy Jones is on piano, with Billy Strayhorn as bandleader and arranger.  I enjoy finding and listening to Sam's outings with other groups, although this has him familiar grounds.  It's a great set.

 Here the original cover.

 And the original back cover.

My next selection is a local band the I saw listed to play at the Little Cafe, a small music venue, the our independent movie theatre. I checked their website and sampled their tunes from their CD, Margaret Explosion - Live Dive.  From my first impression of their name, I expect it to been a female-centric, folk-rock band, but to my surprise they're avant-garde jazz band, as one review noted they "play spacey, floating dreamscapes with smart improvisational skill".  Margaret Explosion's music reminds me of "a little" Miles Davis "In a Silent way" era music.  Even, my wife Lisa like it on first listen.  Most of their tunes are totally improvisational live tracks, so in a way they only exist on CD, so if you see them live you should expect a "Greatest Hits" set.  I missed their show this past weekend, but plan to look out for their next performance.

I also like this animated video they  did the music for.

Next is another CD by guitarist Charlie Hunter, titled "Charlie Hunter".  I think it's his first release.  I'm such a sucker for the 8-string guitar sound he gets.  The radical neck design is so interesting.  Some of his stuff can be hit and miss, it's always worth giving it a listen.

The last selection really take me back, Return to Forever - Returns.  It's 2 CD set of the Chick Corea's Return to Forever fusion band with the original members, Al Di Meola, on guitar (actually Bill Conners was original guitarist on the first album) , Stanley Clark, on Bass, Lenny White, on drums, and Chick, of course on keyboards.  This are live track recorded during their 2008 world wide reunion tour, which I missed somehow.  It's fun to listen to the old standards played with new fire and intensity of players who have continue to grow and mature.   Many times there are music nods, musical quotes, to each member's solo efforts.  This is a nice compliment to the Corea-Mclaughlin CD I featured last week.

After a busy weekend, I'm looking forward to spending time with these great tune.  Enjoy.

Sunday Music Muse Day - The Record Store Day

Here's my Sunday Muse Day post.  I took part in the National Record Store Day activities by visiting two local stores and making some nice buys.  First stop was the Record Archive, where there was a big celebration with live music inside and food trucks outside.  The place was packed and everyone was having fun. I only picked up two albums for a $1 each, only for the covers, and CD of Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow. 

 The Stewart Copeland The Rhythmatist album cover is actually the second cover for record. The first featured masai warriors. Compare them below.

I have to assume the record company felt a photo of Steward was needed on the cover instead of leaping africans.  Go figure.
The Slave Stone Jam album was picked up for Ben Grimm "The Thing" on the cover.

 No, not really, but I thought of the  art of DE ES Schwertberger, Austrian artist and painter, when I saw the latest Fantastic Four Movie images.  His work has been shown in exhibitions in New York City, where he lived for a short time, and Switzerland.  I first saw his painting in Omni Magazine back in 1970s.   I actually visited his studio in NYC for UFO discussion.

My second stop was the HI-Fi Lounge, were Jazz 90.1 DJ, Derrick Lucas​, was spinning some jazz vinyl.  My thanks to Derrick for bringing HI-Fi Lounge to my attention,  It's just a few minutes from my home.  I made most of my Record Store Day purchases there.

 These include CDs by local talents, Bob Sneider​ and  Mike Melito​.  I've heard these guys live and it's nice to have their music in my collection.

 The other buys were Theo Croker - Afro Physicist, young hot trumpet, who will be featured in upcoming Rochester Jazz festival, and a Charlie Hunter Quintet CD, feature Charlie on his unique sounding 8 string guitar.

 All in all, a great music day. Enjoy.