It’s been a while since I’ve done a post about jazz treatment of pop songs. I hope this will prove worth the wait – it’s possibly my favorite one yet. Vijay Iyer is one of the most exciting and accomplished jazz pianists to have come along in years. His latest album, Solo, is already at the very top of my …
Blue Note Lives!
Haven’t had any jazz on here for a while, so here’s something I’ve been saving up for you. When most jazz enthusiasts talk about “Miles”, the chances are they’ll be referring to one, Davis, M. But there’s another Miles whose influence, while perhaps not so far-reaching, still had a profound effect on jazz and its iconography. I’m speaking of Reid …
Jazz Snark
I have a very good friend named Joel Hanley. Joel is – among many other things – my daughter’s godfather. He has just had a letter published in the Times. He makes an excellent point.
Woke Up This Morning
I’m pretty sure Tony Soprano was no jazz fan, but even he would have enjoyed this version of his theme song, from the debut CD of Taylor Eigsti. Eigsti is an interesting player, who has been lumbered with the “prodigy” soubriquet for years, but seems to be wearing it well. As with many first outings, he’s trying to cover a lot …
God Bless You Tube
Here’s a wonderful clip of two of my favorite musicians playing a duet together at a jazz festival in Italy. Someone once called the clarinet “an ill wind that nobody blows good”, but Anat Cohen disproves that theory. She came to Columbia, MO a couple of years ago and was just delightful. As you can see from this clip, she …
Wrapped Around Your Finger
Of course, yer man Sting has many jazzy connections (Branford Marsalis, etc. In fact, now that I come to think of it, he once even appeared on a Joe Henderson album). Lesser known, but probably more musically interesting, are Andy Summers’s excursions into jazz territory with albums like Peggy’s Blue Skylight and his Thelonious Monk tribute album. Really. Still, when …
Beatles, Jazz, or What?
Finally, on this Thursday morning spot, some Brad Mehldau. Mehldau is perhaps the musician most responsible for the recent vogue of adopting pop songs and transforming them into a jazz idiom. I could do several months’ worth of posts just with him. He’s covered everything from Oasis and Paul Simon to Radiohead, Nick Drake, and Soundgarden. And he does it …
Smells Like… Jazz?
Right, it’s Thursday, which means it’s time for your regular dose of pop/rock masquerading as jazz, or possibly the other way around. This week, ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Bad Plus, doing, um, Nirvana. TBP have carved something of a niche in the surely-they-wouldn’t-do-that category, when it comes to jazz covers of pop tunes. There has been some …
Bird
There’s not a lot of Charlie Parker film footage out there. Luckily, much of what there is has now been stuck up on You Tube. Even if you don’t especially like jazz, see if you can sit through the following 90 second clip. You get to see what all the fuss is about. You also get a cracking drum solo …
More Diz, More Muppets
Regular readers will know of my fondness for muppet videos. So, after this recent celebration of Dizzy Gillespie’s birthday, posting this was an obvious one. Damn, those muppets were funky.