Ben Finlay
MA Cultural History, BA (hons) History. Former history and politics lecturer at University of Chichester.
Historian, writer, reader, musician, talker, blues and jazz obsessive.
https://bsky.app/profile/lionunicorn.bsky.social
- #OTD in 1969 Goodbye Cream bid was released, with three tracks recorded live at The Forum in LA, and three (including the evergreen 'Badge') recorded in the studio. Warning: contains guitar solos. #musicsky #cream
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- 1) "Wit is a weapon. Jokes are a masculine way of inflicting superiority. But humour is the pursuit of a gentle grin, usually in solitude." Remembering the great Frank Muir, born OTD 1920 in Ramsgate, Kent.
- 2) Muir was born in a pub, and spent part of his childhood in Leyton, Essex (now part of London). In later years, whenever his dignified speech patterns caused listeners to assume that he had received a public school education, Muir would demur: "I was educated in E10, not Eton".
- #nowplaying Recorded OTD 1960, Billy Taylor 'Uptown' Billy Taylor - piano Henry Grimes - bass Ray Mosca - drums #jazzsky #musicsky
- "The songs are rebellious and haunting, auditory messages from the past..." My new article celebrating weird drama from the golden age of kids' TV. @lionunicorn.bsky.social
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- Recorded OTD 1959 at Atlantic Studios, 'Blues & Roots' by Charles Mingus, one of the greatest ever jazz albums. B&R came from an idea of producer Nesuhi Ertegün, who suggested Mingus make a record that was 'a barrage of soul music: churchy, blues, swinging, earthy.' #jazzsky #musicsky #mingus
- Rumours are confirmed that yes, I indeed have a new article coming out on the internet's finest website tomorrow. @lionunicorn.bsky.social
- #OTD in 1973 Weather Report were at Connecticut Recording Studio, Bridgeport for the first of four consecutive sessions recording their third studio album 'Sweetnighter.' The record saw a move away from collective improvisation towards a funkier sound and accessible grooves. #jazzsky #musicsky
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- "I would like to be a scholar in whatever I do, a scholar is never finished, he is always seeking and I am always seeking." #nowplaying The Ahmad Jamal Trio 'Awakening' Recorded at Plaza Sound Studios in New York City on February 2 and 3, 1970. #jazzsky #musicsky #vinylcommunity
- "He wasn't just a guitarist: the man was a master musician. He could write a beautiful melody or a nasty groove at the drop of a hat; he could lay on the harmonies and he could come up with a whole sound" - Etta James Remembering the great Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, born OTD 1935 in Houston. #blues
- #nowplaying Bill Evans Trio, 'Explorations'. Recorded OTD in 1961 at Bell Sound (New York City). It was the second and final studio album Evans recorded with his classic trio featuring Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums. #jazzsky #musicsky #classicalbums
- #nowplaying The beautiful 'Sweet Rain' by Stan Getz, a long-time favourite of mine. Sublime. Released July 1967 Chick Corea, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Grady Tate, drums.
- "I compulsively reach for perfection in music, often at the expense of everything else in my life." Remembering Stan Getz, born OTD 1927 in Philadelphia... #jazzsky #musicsky #saxophone
- "Well, I can't help the way I sound. It's the only way I know how to play." The great Sonny Stitt was born OTD 1924 in Boston... #jazzsky #musicsky #saxophone
- OTD in 1956 Charles Mingus recorded the classic 'Pithecanthropus Erectus' album in New York City... #jazzsky #musicsky #mingus #classicalbums
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- Remembering the great Tubby Hayes, one of the finest ever British jazz musicians, born OTD 1935 in St Pancras, London and gone far too soon. #musicsky #jazzsky #britishjazz #tubbyhayes #OTD
- Phil Collins turns 75 today. His drumming with Genesis, Brand X & his Big Band is in turns subtle, muscular and propulsive, & up there with the best. He also played on albums by Eno, Robert Fripp, Robert Plant & produced John Martyn, which is better than most of us have ever done. Legend. #musicsky
- #nowplaying Modern Jazz Quartet, 'Lonely Woman', one of the MJQ's finest albums. Recorded January 24–25 & 29 and February 2, 1962 Atlantic Studios, New York City. #jazzsky #musicsky
- OTD in 1960, Wes Montgomery was at Reeves Sound Studios, New York City, for the second of two sessions that became the classic album 'The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery'. The title says it all. Sublime. #jazzsky #musicsky
- 1) Ronnie Scott & Tubby Hayes – The Jazz Couriers, The Couriers of Jazz (1958) Co-led by saxophonists Scott and Hayes, The Jazz Couriers were a revelation in British jazz. Active between 1957 & 1959 (when Scott left to open his club in Soho)... #jazzsky #musicsky #britishjazz
- 2) the quintet took inspiration from their American counterparts but delivered some seriously swinging jazz with their own unique British sound. As record dealer Chris McGranaghan remarks in the documentary Tubby Hayes – A Man in a Hurry (2015) their sound ‘just had London written all over it.’
- Remembering the great Ronnie Scott, tenor saxophonist and co-founder of the world-famous Soho club that takes his name, born OTD 1927 in Aldgate, London. Of the club, he once said: "I love this place, it's just like home; filthy and full of strangers." #jazzsky #musicsky
- OTD in 1970, Freddie Hubbard was at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs for the first of three consecutive sessions to record the classic 'Red Clay' album for CTI Records. He was accompanied by Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Lenny White. #musicsky #jazzsky #classicalbum
- One of my favourites by the great vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, born OTD 1941 in Los Angeles...
- “I used to pick cotton, But I never liked it. I was about eight or nine... I knew there was something else better to do.” Remembering one of the great voices, Bobby "Blue" Bland, born OTD 1930 in Barretville, Tennessee. I discovered him on the great 70s album 'Dreamer'. #musicsky #blues #soul
- The "King of the Slide Guitar", Elmore James, was born OTD 1918 in Richland, Holmes County, Mississippi. I remember first hearing Elmore on the Ace compilation 'Let's Cut It!'; every track crackled with energy and vitality, And, of course, his influence was huge. #musicsky #blues #slideguitar
- Happy birthday to 'the Guv'nor' - bassist, songwriter, record producer & founder of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span & The Albion Band. As 'the purest devotee to tradition in the folk-rock firmament' he features heavily in my top ten folk - rock albums for @lionunicorn.bsky.social: #musicsky
- "Each day, as you get older, there is a new perspective on life. It's a progression of some sort." Remembering one of the finest actors, John Hurt, born OTD 1940 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. #filmsky #cinema #television
- "Medicine man got heap strong power You'd know better than to mess with me" Released OTD in 1968, the psychedelic New Orleans classic 'Gris Gris', the debut album by Dr. John. #drjohn #blues #musicsky #jazzsky #neworleans
- 'A Song for Me', the third album by the much underrated Family was released OTD in 1970. It features on my personal top ten prog rock favourite albums here: #musicsky #prog #topten @lionunicorn.bsky.social
- Remembering one of New Orleans finest, Snooks Eaglin, born OTD 1937... #jazzsky #musicsky #neworleans #blues #guitar
- In my quest to watch all the authored documentaries and other landmark television of the 1970s, this is lined up next. 'Visionary' broadcasting that deserves re-watching and reappraising...details to follow.
- *Released #OTD in 1975 - "I had a job in the great north woods Working as a cook for a spell But I never did like it all that much And one day the axe just fell So I drifted down to New Orleans Where I lucky was to be employed Working for a while on a fishing boat Right outside of Delacroix..."
- "... I wrote the music for dancing and listening. It is true music with much and many of my meanings. It is my living epitaph from birth til the day I first heard of Bird and Diz. Now it is me again..." Recorded OTD 1963, Mingus's masterpiece, The Black Saint & the Sinner Lady. #jazzsky #musicsky
- Happy birthday to the great Tom Baker who turns 92 years old today.
- Remembering Jimmy Cobb, a beautiful drummer with one of the greatest discographies ever, born OTD 1929 in Washington DC. #jazzsky #musicsky #drums
- Saddened to hear of the passing of the great Ralph Towner. His solo work, and music with the Paul Winter Consort and Oregon was incomparable. Above and beyond. #ralphtowner #ECM #jazzsky #musicsky
- 'Literature was the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom. Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading and inwardness are so strenuously challenged, literature is freedom.' Remembering Susan Sontag, born on this day in 1933.
- Picked this up for my birthday on Tuesday. Television documentary of the highest order, from an era rich with many a grand series - Alistair Cooke's America, Civilisation, Connections and others - I'm intending to watch them all with an idea in mind...
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- #OnThisDay 1996: Our Friends in the North began, starring Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Craig, Mark Strong and Gina McKee as four Geordie friends. This superb drama depicted a changing Britain from the 1960s to the 1990s. #BBC #television
- "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." Martin Luther King Jr. was born OTD in 1929. Quote from “The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr”, p.124, 1992 #Martinlutherkingjr #education
- Remembering blues guitar legend Earl Hooker, born OTD 1930 in Quitman County, Mississippi #musicsky #blues #guitar #mississippi
- "I'll never play a drum solo you can't dance to." Remembering the great Gene Krupa, born OTD 1909 in Chicago. #jazzsky #musicsky #drums
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