Author: mick

Spiral Galaxy in Hydra (NGC 3717) NGC 3717 is visible as nearly edge-on galaxy showing a distinct dust band in the constellation Hydra. It is about 80 million light years away from the solar system, and it extends 3.5 arc-min in the sky. Surprisingly the galaxy features some faint extension to the south (star stream),…

Roy Anthony Hargrove (born October 16, 1969) is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997 and in 2002. Hargrove has played primarily with jazz musicians including Wynton Marsalis and Herbie Hancock. Hargrove was the bandleader of the progressive group The RH Factor,…

Joseph Lee “Big Joe” Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982) was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over four decades, he recorded the songs “Baby Please Don’t Go”, “Crawlin’ King Snake” and “Peach Orchard Mama”, among many others, for various record…

From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle. A closer look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell of dust. Through this window, a brightly-lit workshop appears where a whole open cluster of stars is being formed. In this cavity…

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997), also professionally known as Fela Kuti, or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer, pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre and human rights activist. He has been called “superstar, singer, musician, Panafricanist, polygamist, mystic, legend.” At the height of his popularity, he was referred…

Lionel Frederick Cole (born October 15, 1931) is an American jazz singer and pianist whose recording career has spanned over sixty-five years. He is the brother of musicians Nat King Cole and Ike Cole, father of Lionel Cole, and uncle of Natalie Cole, Carole Cole, Timolin Cole, and Casey Cole. Cole was born to Edward…