Singin' in the Rain | Good Mornin' | Warner Bros. Entertainment

Tuesday Morning

Set List

M I L E S D A V I S - Kind Of Blue - Full Album

Monday Blues

Set List

Sunday Favorite

In this edition of Sunday Favorite, my top choice is the share of the Italian national anthem on YouTube -

Note - The share was direct to Set List, so I will pass along the link via my theme text -  New Year's Global Music Italy.

Estelle Zander was my grandmother on my mother's side.  Her heritage was pure Swedish.

Robert Flosi was my grandfather on my mother's side.  His heritage was pure Italian.

My mom and I are not blood related to them because she was adopted at birth.

I was and always will be my grandma's best friend and soulmate.  Anything Swedish is a passion because of her.  I will forever miss my mormor.

I never met my grandfather because he passed in 1976 of bone cancer.  Yet I have long enjoyed hearing stories, looking at albums, and finding granddaughter love for my grandpa on a spiritual level.  Every so often I feel his presence based on the scent of his beloved cigars and pipes (a collection my mom and I still have).

And so I am choosing the language of my grandpa's heritage to know a bit more about my family, irrelevant to blood relation.

Play It Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis

b. October 18, 1961

Beyond being a musician and composer, Wynton Marsalis is also a music teacher and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Honors -

9 Grammy Awards 

Only musician to win a Grammy in jazz & classical categories in same year

Pulitzer Prize for Music - Blood on the Fields

National Medal of Arts

National Humanities Medal

NEA Jazz Master 

UN Messenger of Peace (named in 2001)

7 million copies of albums sold worldwide

Wynton has toured 30 countries on all but one continent (being Antarctica)

Louis Armstrong Memorial Medal 

Arts Education Medal 

Inducted into the American Academy of Achievement 

Honors in the Netherlands, France, Spain, and the UK

Honorary degrees from several prestigious universities

Wynton Marsalis discography - Wikipedia

(Wikipedia)

Chris Botti honored Miles Davis.  Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong are inspirations to Wynton.  So much more could have been written in this entry but first admire his impressive honors and second enjoy a rather captivating live performance spotlighting only the best in the present day.

Play It Miles Davis

Miles Davis

May 26, 1926 - September 28, 1991

Miles Davis held a career that spanned from the mid-1940s to the 1980s and a hint beyond.  From his early life to his passion for music and the trumpet, writing about Miles Davis would exhaust this post.  Catch up on Wikipedia.

As for due honors -

8 Grammy Awards ... 32 Grammy nominations

Hollywood Walk of Fame (1998)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2006)

Kind of Blue - 

Quadruple Platinum certified (2008)

Quintuple Platinum certified (2019)

Miles Davis Discography - Wikipedia

60+ studio albums - 39 live albums - 46 compilation albums

4 soundtrack albums - 3 remix albums

27 box sets

57 singles

Miles was not refined - he had flaws.  He hurt others.  He devastated himself.  Yet when he tapped the first note to a song in a performance or studio recordings, all of the imperfections were erased and supreme perfection blossomed kind of like a blue flower.

Play It Louis Armstrong

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong

August 4, 1901 - July 6, 1971

Honors -

Grammy Award

12 Recordings inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1972)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hollywood Walk of Fame (1960)

Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame (1976)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1990)f

Louisiana Music Hall of Fame (2007)

Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2007)

National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (2017)

Best known songs -

"What a Wonderful World" 

"La Vie en Rose"

"Hello, Dolly"

"On the Sunny Side of the Street"

"Dream a Little Dream of Me"

"When You're Smiling"

"When the Saints Go Marching In"

Collaboration Albums (with Ella Fitzgerald) -

Ella and Louis (1956)

Ella and Louis Again (1957)

Porgy and Bess (1959)

(Wikipedia)

Notes - Recognizable voice...Advocate for desegregation following the Little Rock, Arkansas crisis (In this case, three black students were denied access to an all white high school.  Guards and state troops blocked the three students and, sadly, President Eisenhower did nothing to diffuse the crisis.  Louis Armstrong was gaining headway in crossing the racial bridge with his music and leveraged such popularity to convince the White House to do something so all students could receive an education.)

Get the Party Started

Play it!

It's Friday!