Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for April 29th

Today you have Johnny going to party, an American musical icon's birthday, and one of England's all-time great guitarists...

4/29/1967 (53 years ago today) - So, John Lennon's at home watching a bit o' telly, when a story comes on about the 14 hour "Technicolor Dream Benefit Party" being held at the Alexandria Palace in London for the International Times. Strikes his fancy! John calls for his driver to take him to the show which features Pink Floyd, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, The Move, Suzie Creamcheese, and a budding young artist by the name of Yoko Ono. Not just another night out, then...

4/29/1993 (27 years ago today) - Guitar-ace/production-whizz Mick Ronson passes away from liver cancer at age 46 -- The supremely talented "Ronno" got on the map with the scorching licks he played as a member of David Bowie's Spiders From Mars, and it's a simple, cold hard fact: those Bowie albums from 1970-'73 would be utterly unimaginable without Ronson's fantastic guitar work -- Mick had a wicked nice run with Ian Hunter as well, including the must-have "You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic", one of rock's premier most perfect records ever -- Also on his resume are production credits (alongside Bowie) for Lou Reed's classic "Transformer" LP, as well as working with Morrissey, Elton John, T-Bone Burnett and John Mellencamp. Still sorely missed...

4/29/1899 - Born on this day, a true American musical genius: the one and only Duke Ellington -- Composer, bandleader, pianist; worked with Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday; generally acknowledged as being responsible for "elevating the perception of jazz to an art form on par with other traditional musical genres"; left us on May 24th, 1974, though his reputation continued to rise, and he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999. It's simple: Duke is probably one of a half-dozen bona-fide masters of twentieth century music, a 50 year career of nothin' but really cool stuff!

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"Why people tear the seam of anyone's dream/Is over my head...", xoxo!