John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

It Never Entered My Mind

A moment with the Miles Davis Quintet. 

 

I've Got The World on a String

It's a long weekend, the sun is out, and here's Louis Armstrong. 

 

Four on Six

Some proof, if you ever needed it, of the genius of Wes Montgomery. 

 

Corcovado

Everyone from Miles Davis to Queen Latifah has had a crack at Corcovado, one of Antonio Carlos Jobim's best-known melodies. Can you beat Cannonball Adderley, though? 

 

Soul Station

Hank Mobley time! 

 

Pat Metheny's Girl From Ipanema

On his YouTube channel, Pat Metheny has a series of solo performances of songs he loved growing up. I was surprised to see a cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's Girl From Ipanema; it turns out that an attempt to learn a chord gave him the opening sound of a song he knew well from the radio.  

Stella By Starlight

A little Miles Davis, please. 

 

Autumn Leaves

Fall colours are still weeks away, but the air has been cooler the last while. 

Enough of a mental leap to Autumn Leaves, the jazz standard. Here's Miles Davis from 1964, with a lineup for the ages: Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Tony Williams on drums and Wayne Shorter on tenor sax. 

Misty

I'm in a jazzy mood this evening (writing time), so here's the late Bobby Enriquez popping through a cover of Erroll Garner's Misty. 

Leaving Town

I heard this Pat Metheny track on the Sirius XM channel Real Jazz, and would not have guessed it was Metheny, because it so heavily features sax. The Unity Band, Metheny's latest project, is the first time he's featured sax in more than three decades. No wonder! 

Drifting on a Reed

A little Charlie Parker is just what's needed. 

 

The Panther

From 1970, when the word "panther" had a rather different meaning than it would probably would today, it's Dexter Gordon.

 

Split Part 1

It's the Ray Bryant Combo, and it's crazy, man. Crazy. 

Seriously, it's a lot of fun. Crank it up. 

 

Aguas de Março

Aguas de Março is also known as the Waters of March, although the words in the English version of Tom Jobim's bossa nova standard are usually flipped around to fit what the season means in the northern hemisphere. I digress. It's a wonderful song; my favourite version (and there are many, including Cassandra Wilson, David Byrne and that commercial for Coke that ran decades ago) is Jobim himself singing with Elis Regina. 

Curried Soul

It's Moe Koffman playing what many people will happily recognize as the opening theme to CBC Radio's As It Happens. 

Sunflowers

It's the dead of winter ... but not in the air around the speakers this morning. 

A little Wynton Marsalis to brighten the mood. 

 

Have Trombone, Will Travel

In the car the other evening, I heard a tune called Bacalao Tonight by Clifton Anderson. Thanks to allergies, I can't go near salt cod, but I bet the title would play well here in St. John's. And the tune, too, which is feisty, boppy and a whole plate of fun. 

I can't find a version to stream here, but I did find this alternative by Anderson. (Trivia note: his uncle was saxophone god Sonny Rollins.) 

Naima

Some good music for writing time. Hot mug of tea ... all set. 

What a Little Moonlight Can Do

And, oh, what a little Billie Holiday can do, too. 

 

Hotter Than 'Ell

Here's a recording that's almost 80 years old. It's Fletcher Henderson, from 1934.

Estate

We've had quite the summer in St. John's, and hopefully the run of good weather is not yet done. I heard a version of Estate by jazz pianist Ezra Weiss on Sirius XM in the car a while back, and it fit the heat and the mood of the day. 

 

Miles runs the style thing down

"For me, music and life are all about style."
- Miles Davis  

The good kind

"There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind."
- Louis Armstrong 

Sun

It's not May anymore, but this song by Stockholm's Quiet Nights Orchestra fit the mood for the weather today in St. John's: bright, sunny, warm, with that feeling, as I walked into work this morning, that the season had really turned. (I know: a dangerous expectation to have here indeed.) 

In any event, here's a tune for the warmer weather. 

Jazz Thing

I haven't seen Mo' Better Blues in years, and I wonder how it holds up. The music, I suspect, has become kind of dated ... which makes a bit of sense, as it was very much anchored to what was happening at the crossroads of jazz and hip hop circa 1990. This is Gang Starr's theme to the Spike Lee film, er, joint.