Ruby Wrote:Francisco Gustavo Sánchez Gomez was born on this day in 1947, in Algeciras, Spain. He adopted the stage name, Paco de Lucía to honour his Portuguese mother, Lúcia Gomez. His father was a flamenco guitarist who taught his son to play from an early age and who was rigid in enforcing practice time. Fortunately that didn’t seem to have posed any hardship! Paco de Lucía was arguably one of the greatest flamenco players of all time, well known for his innovations as both a player and composer, and he died too soon, last year, at the age of 66, unexpectedly from a heart attack.

His highly acclaimed piece titled “Entre dos aguas” translates as ‘between two waters’ and alludes to his home city which is caught between the Atlantic and the Med. It was considered fairly revolutionary in the flamenco world, for the mix of styles and the inclusion of other instruments … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o8vszqVL2U

I know his playing from his collaborations with Al di Meola and John McLaughlin, Passion, Grace & Fire, and Friday Night in San Francisco, and I have probably posted this before. It has to be one of most engaging performances by this trio – fantastic! Maestros, all …

[video=youtube;ADwfyxpriAM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADwfyxpriAM[/video]

Ruby Wrote:David Knopfler was born on this day in 1952, in Glasgow, Scotland. Dire Straits was formed as a result of him introducing his older brother, Mark, to John Illsley, and the three of them then enlisting Pick Withers. David quit the band after Communiqué having already commenced the Making Movies tour.

In addition to guitar, he plays a mean piano, and can turn his hand to most other instruments heard on his albums. He also arranges, is an author, writes scores for films and television, and has an anthology of poetry – no slouch, in other words! He has released 13 solo albums, the most recent, Grace, in September of this year.

I find that I enjoy his stuff more and more with repeated listens, two albums in particular so far; Wishbones and Ship of Dreams. He’s a very good songwriter IMHO and his claims to attention to the quality of his productions certainly appear to hold water.

Comparisons, whilst really unfortunate, are inevitable: no, he does not have Mark’s magical guitar skills, but on the other hand, he’s quite versatile musically, and much as we love him/them (I'll buy anything MK brings out), neither of them have wonderful vocal ranges yet both are extremely fine storytellers in their individual capacities. Mark’s career has been stellar while David’s much more modest, and it seems he’s quite ok with that – different choices, besides, he has a loyal, if considerably smaller following which I suspect is largely due to the fact that he's simply not that well known - again, a choice. From his website … http://knopfler.com/ - “I don’t regard what I do as remotely glamorous. I write and record music because I completely love doing it.”

Grace is the theme of the new album as well as its title – here’s a live track - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE3WNNzuPi8

From Wishbones - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv7FsiA6uhk

From Ship of Dreams, the title track – (nice sax from Tim Whitehead) - (Déjà vu - posted this one before. The comforting thing is that I actually remember!! Lol!)

[video=youtube;i_Oa3_abAs8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Oa3_abAs8[/video]

Music Head Wrote:Patti Smith - strange girl

[video=youtube;jC6sLQg3gkk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC6sLQg3gkk[/video]

Music Head Wrote:Marianne Faithfull - London native born on this day in 1946
that would make her 69

I prefer the Stones version
but this was her biggest hit here in 1964, a #22

[video=youtube;of21WYW5t5g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of21WYW5t5g[/video]