New Coltrane Recordings Show Saxophonist at a Transition Point

Barry Baldwin has extensive background driving busses with the New York City Transit Authority. Longtime New York resident Barry Baldwin is passionate about music and has listed no various genres from rock and pop to American classics, such as jazz and the blues.

For fans of John Coltrane, a welcome discovery last year was a 1963 recording from New Jersey’s Van Gelder studios that remained lost for more than half a century. With McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Garrison on bass, the session features the same quartet that recorded the groundbreaking album “A Love Supreme.”

With the master likely destroyed by Impulse! In the 1970s as part of storage cost-saving efforts, a reference tape was given by Coltrane to his wife Naima and the recordings remained with the family over the decades.

One aspect of the recordings of interest to fans is that two of the seven tracks, with Coltrane on soprano sax, are never-before-heard untitled originals. A third track “One Up, One Down” has only surfaced once in a Birdland jazz club bootleg recording.

Another remarkable aspect of the “Both Directions at Once” sessions is that they capture Coltrane just as he was moving beyond his bebop roots into the free jazz modality that would characterize his later work. One of the tracks that illustrate this transition is a straightforward three-minute recording of Nature Boy. Coltrane would return to this Nat King Cole composition in 1965, with a studio version that was much freer and featured extended soloing.

Keb’ Mo’ – Keeping the Legacy of the Blues and Americana Alive

Barry Baldwin is a longtime Brooklyn, New York resident who served as a bus operator with the New York City Transit Authority for many years. Passionate about music, Barry Baldwin enjoys a range of classic styles that include R&B, rock, blues, and jazz.

One of the contemporary artists who keeps the legacy of the blues alive on stage is Keb’ Mo’, a Grammy winning artist who has had a career as diverse as the music genre itself. Born Kevin Roosevelt Moore, he grew up in Los Angeles where he had his mother’s album collection, which featured music ranging from Johnny Mathis to Jimmy Smith, as inspiration.

As Keb’ Mo’ grew older, musical influences such as Otis Redding, Taj Mahal, Santana, and Bob Dylan came to the fore. He also delved deep into the roots of the sound and gained a mastery of Delta blues rhythms, as well as country music, calypso, and the Great American Songbook.

This mix of styles was apparent on his 1980 debut album, and he has achieved acclaim for slide-guitar infused songs such as “Old Me Better” and “Soon As I Get Paid.” Interviewed recently by Rolling Stone, Keb’ Mo’ pointed to a primary motivator being the opportunity to “shed a light on truth, history, and situations.”

Is Direct Mail Marketing Still Effective Today?

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Former bus operator at New York City Transit Authority, Barry Baldwin received multiple safety awards and certificates for ensuring that his bus was not involved in any accident for three consecutive years. Before joining New York City Transit Authority, Barry Baldwin spent three years with Chase Manhattan Bank performing direct mail marketing.

In this age of technological advancement, it is not surprising that online marketing is the leading strategy for advertising campaigns and brand building. However, it could not be denied that offline marketing strategies, such as direct mail marketing, are as effective as online marketing.

Direct mail marketing is an offline marketing technique where promotional materials, such as leaflets, brochures, postcards, and letters are delivered to prospective clients by mail. Here are a few reasons why direct mail marketing is still effective today.

A study conducted by Canada Post was designed to determine how direct mail marketing and digital advertising impacts the brain. During the study, the researchers created two different marketing campaigns that featured mock products. The first campaign comes from a travel agency. The second campaign comes from a retailer. Both campaigns utilized the same message consistently applied to both the offline and the online formats.

Two hundred seventy participants were enrolled in the study. Each participant saw both offers in just a single format. The researchers tracked the electrical activity of the brain. They also used an eye-tracking test to measure eye movements. The result of the research yielded two important observations.

First, direct mail marketing is easier to understand. Based on this study, reading and processing a marketing material requires 21 percent less cognitive effort compared with online materials. It means that direct mail marketing entails lesser time and brain power to resonate with a prospective buyer.

Second, offline advertisements are more persuasive. The study also revealed that response to offline marketing materials is 20 percent higher compared with the online counterpart. It means that that message of offline advertisements gets across prospective buyers at a higher and faster rate.

Simple Exercises That Effectively Boost Circulation

Based in New York, Barry Baldwin has decades of experience in the transportation industry as a NYC Transit Authority bus operator. A fitness-focused individual, Barry Baldwin walks and cycles in New York when he has the chance, and also works out with light weights to keep his muscles in tone and circulation healthy.

With five quarts of blood passing through the blood vessels every minute, a well-functioning circulatory system is essential to deliver oxygen throughout the entire body, while also ensuring that waste is effectively eliminated. The simplest way to get blood pumping at the right level is through exercises that cause the heart muscle to contract at higher rates and move blood more rapidly through the cardiovascular system.

A combination of aerobic and resistance training is ideal, with the punch-and-twist being a popular combination. Mimicking a boxer’s stance, the exercise starts in a standing position and involves alternating arm punches as far out as possible, accompanied by a small twist of the spine each time. The extension and flexion of the elbows work out the arms and rotate the trunk in ways that also engage the diaphragm muscles.

Another circulation-improving exercise is the simple push-up, which combines cardio and resistance—elevating the heart rate while working out the upper body. Low-impact diaphragmatic breathing can also be effective in increasing circulation, as it stimulates the deep lymphatic structures that are essential in transferring waste materials and nutrients between the blood stream and tissues. This can be accomplished by lying on one’s back and placing one hand on the stomach and one on the chest. A sign of diaphragmatic breathing is when the hand on the belly rises with each breath, while the hand on the chest stays at a constant height.