#2 Moonglow

Art Tatum plays the Will Hudson, Eddie de Lange, and Irving Mills standard, from the compilation Art Tatum Solos (1940).

#3 What A Little Moonlight Can Do

Here's a little Billie Holiday, to get things going, from the 2005 The Best of Billie Holiday compilation on Intersound.

hi paulsc!

#4 Cool Blues

Charlie "Bird" Parker plays a tune that was in his book until the end, in a February 19, 1946 L.A. date at Dial studios, with his friend Erroll Garner on piano, from the Yardbird Suite: The Charlie Parker Ultimate Collection.

Hi, phoenixc! Glad you could make it, tonight.

#5 There's A Small Hotel

Erroll Garner doing a Rogers & Hart tune, from the Compact Jazz: Erroll Garner compilation.

#6 No Moon At All

Carmen McRae sings an Evans/Mann tune from The Jazz Collectors Edition compilation.

It's rainy in Jacksonville, FL tonight, the furtherest west point on the Eastern seaboard. So, there's no moon at all, here...

#7 Footprints

Footprints is a Wayne Shorter tune that Miles Davis recorded on his Miles Smiles album. Here, Toots Thielemans does a version that's pretty faithful to the spirit of the Miles Davis arrangement, except that Toots does the lead part by whistling and playing harmonica. From the Compact Jazz: Toots Thielemans compilation. A December 19 & 20, 1989 recording date at the Clinton Recording studio, NYC. for Nippon Phonogram.

hey paulsc, I've never heard of Carmen McRae and like #6, but how come it's not listed amongst the tracks on the linked compilation?

"hey paulsc, I've never heard of Carmen McRae and like #6, but how come it's not listed amongst the tracks on the linked compilation?"
posted by phoenixc 13 February | 19:20

'Cause not every Web site is 100%??? I don't know, really. What I'm holdin' is where I got it, phoenixc ;-)

#8 Wolverine

When Branford Marsalis released Crazy People Music, I saw him in an interview where he was asked where he got that title for the album, and he said he'd played early mixes of the album for a woman he was seeing at the time, and when he asked her what she thought of it, she said "Baby, that's crazy people music!" Needless to say, the relationship didn't go anywhere. I thought that was a perfect explanation of how a lot of people "hear" jazz, particularly the later post modal forms, such as "free" jazz. And while there's some dissonance in this Branford Marsalis tune, I wouldn't say it was "crazy people music."

The album was nominated for 1990 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist Grammy.

I also wanted to mention a September, 2006 interview between Branford and WGBH's Eric Jackson, in which he talks about some of the challenges facing jazz performers today. Worth the time to listen.

Actually, phoenixc, I think I solved the mystery about the "No Moon At All" tune, previously credited in this set to Carmen McRae. It was actually courtesy of Anita O'Day, from this compilation.

I stand corrected!!

#9 So In Love

I knew Beegie Adair 30+ years ago, when I lived in Nashville, so when a friend in Memphis said she was going to see Beegie a couple months ago at the Germantown Civic Center, I told her I thought she was in for an evening of good music. Beegie is a great example of those regional jazz musicians who have carved out careers in music playing and teaching, while balancing a home and family life successfully, And after nearly 40 years in the music business, she's still swinging, and still thanking her husband in her album notes, and she's still teaching students to play this music with heart.

Here she is with her long time Trio members Roger Spencer on bass and Chris Brown on drums, doing a Cole Porter tune from her 2000 album "Dream Dancing."

#10 Tiempos Felice (Happy Times)

Gary Burton with Pat Metheny, guitar; Mitchel Forman, piano and keyboards; Will Lee, bass; and Peter Erskine on drums, from the 1990 Reunion album.

cool. "So in Love" was lovely.

#11 Milestones

If you never got a chance to see Tito Puente [and could I just put in a word here to nominate his Wikipedia page creator as "Best Wikipedia Bio Pic Archivist Evar"], you missed a great show, by a guy who clearly loved what he was doing, and took it as a personal challenge to see to it that his audience loved it, too. I had the pleasure of seeing Tito on several occasions, including a memorable night in Atlanta about 14 years ago, down in an old movie theater in the Little Five Points neighborhood. No venue could have been less conducive to the kind of energetic rhythmic music Tito was known for, and the opening act tried way too hard to get the house "rockin'." So, when Tito hit the stage, the crowd was restless, and shell shocked from the opening act, and tired of waiting for Tito. But within 15 minutes, all was forgiven, as the little man went to work. "I'm gonna get you!" he shouted, over his band. "Get you up, get you dancing!" And in 20 minutes, he did. 1500 people in an old movie theatre, stomping, and clapping, and Tito and his band fudging beats to make the crowd stomp first off beat, and then on beat, playin' with us, havin' a good time, apparently, himself. One helluva show, but now he's gone.

This is a cut from the album Tito Puente's Golden Latin Jazz All Stars "Live" at The Village Gate doing the Miles Davis tune called Milestones that has been recorded by everybody who's anybody, since 1958. But here, you get the "Who's Who" of Latin Jazz on stage, live, kickin' it, including Tito Puente on timbales, Mongo Santamaria, congas; Giovanni Hidalgo, congas, drums & bongos; Paquito D'Rivera, alto saxophone; David Valentin, flute; Claudio Roditi, trumpet; Hilton Ruiz [link is to his June 6, 2006 obituary], piano; Mario Rivera soprano sax. It'd be hard to put together a better Latin jazz band, anywhere, anytime. Sadly, this album appears to have gone out of print in the RMM Records debacle and sale to UMG.

If you get a chance to pick it up somewhere, do!

i bet you've already played Milt "King of the Vibraphone" Jackson.

ethylene, I have played Milt, and Gary Burton, and some other vibraphone players, in previous sets, but not, so far, tonight. Shoutcast rules prohibit us from "advertising" who is coming up, though. But I like "Bags" as he was called, and the MJQ (Modern Jazz Quartet), if that's any guide?????

This is the first time i could listen and i'm gonna have to turn off the radio in a sec. i just knew from reading some set lists you probably had some.

#12 Sea Glass

Michael Brecker was one of those guys that believed in practicing. You've gotta respect a horn player who puts in the hours in the practice room, because it always shows. On this cut, from his self-titled 1986 debut album, there is a strong sense of a guy who has put in the time, even as a young man, to master his instrument, who is turning it into a vehicle for taking his listeners on larger musical journeys. This piece is all about the tones and colors he can get on his horn, and the fluidity with which he can get them. So he squawks, he croons, he sings, and steals your ears doing it. As the first track on his first album, it was a great calling card, for a career ended too soon, but bright with accomplishments and friends.

#13 Solar

The Bill Evans Trio: Sunday at the Village Vanguard is the "early" trio with bassist Scott LeFaro and drummer Paul Motian, from a session recorded June 25, 1961. This cut is a tune by Miles Davis, and showcases the improvisational interplay between Evans and LeFaro, which I think Evans so deeply missed after LeFaro was killed in a car wreck two weeks after this recording was made.

#14 Javanaise

In 1975, classical flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal and jazz pianist Claude Bolling came together to record a suite for flute and jazz piano trio that became, somewhat unexpectedly, a major commercial hit in the U.S. I've bits of this suite in elevators, in dentist's offices, and in concerts by symphony orchestras trying to raise money. But the original needs no apology or introduction, as the simple, clean sounds of the album and Bolling's ability to swing the somewhat stiff Rampal along are reason enough to listen to this album. Nowhere is that collaboration better evidenced than in this tune.

#15 Con Alma

This is another "standard" that everybody and his brother has taken a crack at recording since Dizzy Gillespie wrote it. Here, Stan Getz plays a memorable version from his 1967 album Sweet Rain, via the compilation The Artistry of Stan Getz, Vol. 1. This March 21, 1967 date recorded at Englewood Cliffs, NJ features Chick Corea on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Grady Tate on drums.

#16 Satin Doll

When you have McCoy Tyner playing a tune co-written by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Johnny Mercer, you have a cut that is going to swing. And this one does! From the 1986 Double Trios album. With Avery Sharpe on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums.

#17 Cool Weasel Boogie

The '70's and '80's weren't easy times for aging hipsters, and some navigated those troubled jazz decades with more grace than others. Musically, Chick Corea did as well as any one, if not generally much better, with his various project groups, such as The Chick Corea Elektric Band and Return to Forever. But there's something sad and strained about the picture of Chick on the back cover of this album, posed in M.C. Hammer black parachute pants, wearing red shoes and 80's "big hair", and holding a synth.

Eh, you do what you gotta do, I guess. But who would've ever thought a guy who played with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Stan Getz and dozens of other folks around at The Birth of The Cool would have had to try to ever look "with it?"

But Chick's music didn't suffer much, although it did get squeezed through too much post processing in GRP's 24 track studios. The boys were learning to play with all the new toys, I think. At any rate, this tune is a pretty good snapshot of that time, with Carlos Rios on guitar.

#18 Waltz for Debby

Here's a sweet, cool rendition of the wonderful Bill Evans tune "Waltz for Debby" from the We Meet Again album we've heard several cuts from over the last several programs. Ramsey Lewis and Billy Taylor in a fine piano duet on a classic tune.

19 Later Than You Think

This June 1985 recording of Joe Williams "and Friends" on Delos is a great example of a talented jazz singer reprising his career with an excellent supporting band. In this case, his "Friends" included Thad Jones on trumpet, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis on tenor saxophone, Benny Golson on tenor saxophone, John Collins on guitar, Jerry Peters on keyboards, Norman Simmons on piano, John Heard on bass, and Gerryck King on drums.

Boys, this may be your last Valentine's Day reminder for 2007. "Fix that girl a drink!"

#20 Turn Out The Stars

This is the title tune from the June, 1980 recordings of The Bill Evans Trio at the Village Vanguard, for an album Bill Evans [link is to a very worthwhile, extremely well written, on-line short form bio of Bill Evans] was working on when he died from complications of his cocaine addiction on September 15, 1980. So that would make this line up, the "last" version of The Bill Evans Trio, with Marc Johnson on bass, and Joe LaBarbera on drums. I can never hear this music without feeling conflicting emotions of regret for what was lost to the personal demons Bill Evans carried with him all his life, and appreciation for the beauty which he distilled for the rest of us through them. Not everyone could live as long as he did with what he carried, much less produce as he did. And yet, what could have been, if fate had not so early turned out the stars?

To recap, in this program, we heard:

1. McCoy Tyner - The Greeting (2:27)
2. Art Tatum - Moonglow (2:59)
3. Billie Holiday - What A Little Moonlight Can Do (2:59)
4. Charlie Parker - Cool Blues (3:09)
5. Erroll Garner - There's a Small Hotel (3:12)
6. Anita O'Day - No Moon at All (2:29)
7. Toots Thielemans - Footprints (8:03)
8. Branford Marsalis Quartet - Wolverine (10:40)
9. Adair, Beegie - So in Love (5:37)
10. Gary Burton - Tiempos Felice (Happy Times) (4:14)
11. Tito Puente - Milestones (14:15)
12. Michael Brecker - Sea Glass (5:50)
13. Bill Evans Trio - Solar (8:56)
14. Jean-Pierre Rampal & Claude Bolling - Javanaise (5:21)
15. Stan Getz - Con Alma (8:05)
16. McCoy Tyner - Satin Doll (7:10)
17. Chick Corea Elektric Band - Cool Weasel Boogie (6:46)
18. Ramsey Lewis/Billy Taylor - Waltz For Debby (6:53) (6:55)
19. Joe Williams - Later Than You Think (4:23)
20. Bill Evans - Turn Out The Stars (6:22)
Happy V-Day, boys and girls, and t'anks, so much, for the use of your ears. See ya Thursday, same time, same channel, "God (in which I don't, much, believe) willin', and the creek don't rise.."

thanks paulsc!

You're welcome, phoenixc. Glad you could listen tonight.

Nice set, paulsc. I'm sorry I missed it.