Friday, April 06, 2007
(8:00 PM) | Brad:
Friday Night Jazz
[Update: The link to skippy has been fixed. I was out of town this weekend, and only just now realized there was a problem. Friday Night Jazz has thus been extended to Easter Sunday Jazz.]I have no idea if last week's Friday Night Jazz was popular or not, but I enjoyed it enough I'm going to keep doing it for a while. At least for as long as the mood strikes. Or until we're shut down for distributing music online.
I had a hard time deciding what to use this week. I knew I wanted something from Theolonious Monk, but I wasn't quite sure what. The only way to decide was to throw all the Monk I have onto the IPod and listen. Monk over breakfast, lunch & dinner. Monk while walking the dog. Monk while reading the Weblog. Monk while writing this post for the Weblog. But it is all just so fucking good. The man is apparently unable to come up with a bad arrangement -- and his player selection is generally exquisite. As it turned out, I simply made choosing all the more difficult for myself.
As it turned out, I simply could not limit myself to one selection. So, I made a compromise: two songs from one CD. Now, I love both volumes of his Genius of Modern Music, but the second one always seems to me to stand out a little more than the first. A little more rich. A little more bold. (Although "Well You Needn't" from volume one is simply too good for words.) Case in point, our two songs for tonight. Happy listening!
"Four in One" (alternate take): Sahib Shihab's alto sax work here hits me right between the eyes.
"Skippy.mp3": Monk's piano solo here is the reason to keep breathing, just so you can listen to it again.
