Success takes the right people, with the right skills, at the right time and the right place. You can’t copy or replicate success. And so it was that in 1965, having left Jack McDuff’s Quartet, George Benson set out on his own. Benson hired Buffalo NY native, Lonnie Smith to […]
Celebrating Ron Carter
It’s Ron’s birthday, here is my post from last year, which has both the four-fer mix and the Youtube video I created from one of Ron’s laserdiscs. That post contains detail about Ron and his career, the original post for the laserdisc has a great tribute video about Ron Carter, […]
Happy Birthday, Hubert Laws
Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is one of the most pervasive, and impressive artists to appear on Creed Taylor, CTI productions. While others, notably Bob James, Don Sebesky, and Dave Matthews through their arrangements had a bigger impact on the overall sound; and George Benson, Grover Washington, Jr, Esther […]
Happy Birthday Lonnie Smith
The doctor is in the house! Today is Lonnie Smith’s birthday, born July 3rd, 1942, for those that are counting, that makes Lonnie a tender 78 years old. I have a special place in my music pantheon for Lonnie, his track, Afrodesia was a dance floor classic in 1975 London. […]
Happy Birthday – Ron Carter
Ron Carter is the a 4x nominated, 2x Grammy Award winner; The Guinness World record acknowledged most recorded bassist of all time; A National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master; a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Music Department of City College of New York, having taught there for 20 years, […]
Happy Born Day Freddie Hubbard
April 7th, 1938 marks the day Freddie was born. Sadly, Freddie Hubbard passed on December 29th, 2008 aged 70. This post is my way of celebrating his time with us. Freddie burst onto the music scene in the late 1950’s and working with, and featured on the 1958 album by […]
Happy Birthday – Astrud Gilberto
A belated Happy Birthday to Astrud Gilberto. When I woke up this morning, during the great 2020 isolation event, I opened instagram on my phone and there it was, from @arnaldodesouteiro wishing Astrud a Happy Birthday. According to wikipedia, Astrud was born on March 29th, so a few days past. […]
Happy Birthday George Benson
March 22, 2020 is George Benson’s 77th Birthday, Happy Birthday George! George is a GRAMMY Hall of Fame inductee, having been nominated 25 times and won 10 GRAMY awards. His first award was 1976, when he received 5x nominations and won 3x awards including Best R&B Instrumental Performance for the […]
Happy Birthday – David Matthews
In 1975, Dave was playing Monday nights at the Five Spot cafe in New York, with a 12-piece combo band, when Creed Taylor offered him a position as house arranger for CTI. Dave would work for CTI as Chief arranger through until 1978, and record both modern jazz and some […]