#2 Get Happy

In the liner notes for this album by Ellis Marsalis (jazz pianist and father of the New Orleans jazz clan that includes Wynton and Branford), this number is remarked:

"Get Happy" takes a forward look to a pre-bebop concept where a grace-noted octave vamp serves as the accompaniment for a single note line introduction before bringing in the melody. Each improvised chorus is replete with arpeggios ascending and descending. The second improvised chorus makes a "Fats" Waller statement (but only momentarily) before returning to the single-note line and a quick quote from Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# minor for an ending.

That's a lotta music in 2:44 !

#3 Night In Tunisia

From a live broadcast from Birdland, NYC on March 31, 1951, this is Charlie Parker (alto sax) and the All Stars -- Dizzy Gillispie (trumpet), Bud Powell (piano), Roy Haynes (drums) and Tommy Potter (bass) -- doing a tune by Dizzy Gillispie and Frank Paparelli. Orginally recorded for the album Summit Meeting at Birdland Columbia #34381 via the Yardbird Suite compilation.

#4 Exactly Like You

Errol Garner (piano) with Wyatt Ruther (bass), and Eugene "Fats" Heard (drums) doing a tune by Johnny McHugh and Dorothy Fields. Recorded July 27, 1954 in Chicago.

#5 It Takes a Whole Lot of Human Feelings

Carmen McRae (vocals) with Joe Pass (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), Dick Shreve (piano), Frank Severino (drums) and Larry Bunker (percussion), doing a tune by Micki Grant from the musical review Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. Recorded in 1971 for Delta Music in Los Angeles. 35+ years after it was written, this tune still sounds contemporary and fresh to me.

#6 Three to Get Ready and Four to Go

... is another little musical joke, like Unsquare Dance, where the rhythms of a 3/4 waltz figure are broken into varying 3 and 4 beat meters. Hence, some laughter from the audience as the band forces the joke. Recorded March 10, 1976 at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, Michigan for the 25th Anniversary Reunion album of The Dave Brubeck Quartet.

#7 Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus)

From another collaboration of trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist/arranger Gil Evans, this track from the album Porgy and Bess stands out, for the sensibilities both men brought to the popular Gershwin score. Of Gil Evans, one reviewer wrote that "On Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus) he sensed the seriousness with which Gershwin had approached the theme, and in this "healing" prayer, in which the "amens" etc. are given to the orchestra, there is an urgency, a suppliance of sound." And for reasons such as are evidenced on this track, for all the jazz versions of this popular work, this one has remained the most popular.

#8 I Love's You Porgy

Here is Tito Puente's Golden Latin Jazz All Stars with another theme from Porgy and Bess, Arranged by Claudio Roditi, and featuring Tito Puente (timbales), Mongo Santamaria (congos), Giovanni Hidalgo (congos and bongos), Paquita Rivera (alto sax), David Valentin (flute), Claudio Roditi (trumpet), and Hilton Ruiz (piano). Recorded live at the Village Gate, NYC, April 17, 1992.

#9 Guatemala Connection

Hubert Laws doing one of his own compositions, from the 1978 album "Romeo and Juliet."

#10 Hackensack

Benny Carter (alto sax) with Clark Terry (trumpet and flugelhorn), Kenny Barron (piano), Rufus Reid (bass) and Kenny Washington (drums), doing a tune by Thelonious Monk, based on the chords of Gershwin's Lady, Be Good. From the album's liner notes:

"Carter had never played the melody before, so Terry hummed it to him just before they walked on stage, and away they went! ... Terry impeccably executes some Gillispie-ish figures, and Carter sails through two effortless choruses. Barron is in exceptional form throughout, and Reid's imaginative bass lines have an invigorating effect on his fellow musicians."

11 The Ballad Of Chet Kincaid

Branford Marsalis (saxophone), Kenny Kirkland (piano), Robert Hurst (bass) and Jeff "Tain" Watts (drums) from the 1990 album Crazy People Music.

This tune, originally written by Quincy Jones as "Hikky-Burr" and used by Bill Cosby as a theme on one of his television shows, was reworked and retitled by Branford Marsalis, with the permission of Quincy Jones. From the 1990 album notes by Leonard Feather:

"We altered it a bit," Branford observed, "using minor chords, and we changed the title, by permission of Quincy and Cosby. It sounds like it was taken from the last two bars of 'Waiting for Tain,' but we went from there into a theme idea; Kenny started playing, we worked out the rhythm and added a bridge. We kept the funk and Tain plays a hip-hop beat instead of a '60's beat."

#12 You Taught My Heart to Sing

McCoy Tyner playing one of his own compositions, from the album Revelations, recorded October 25-27, 1988 at Merkin Hall, NYC.

#13 The Theme (Davis)

Trumpeters Thad Jones, Howard McGhee, and Kenny Dorham team up with Billy Taylor (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Al Heath (drums) for a 1961 recording of a theme by Miles Davis. From the compilation album "The Best of the Jazz Trumpets."

I'm listening. Nice stuff, as usual.

Thanks, box. Glad to have you along for the ride.

#14 Soul Sister

Ramsey Lewis and Dr. Billy Taylor play dueling pianos on a compostion by Taylor. From their 1989 "We Meet Again" album.

#15 Song X Duo

Not being a big proponent of "free" jazz myself, I'm not one to press much of it on others casually. But here's a quiet, interesting duo treatment of Ornette Coleman's "Song X" with Pat Metheny on guitar, from the 1986 album of the same name.

#16 Tenor Madness

A Sonny Rollins tune recorded April 10, 1975 in Boerenhofstede, Laren, Holland by Toots Thielemans (harmonica), Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass), Wim Overgaauw (guitar), Rob Franken (keyboards) and Bruno Castellucci (drums). From the compilation Toots Thielemans Compact Jazz.

#17 Mean to Me

A tune by Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert from the album Pure Desmond. Paul Desmond (alto sax), Ed Bickert (guitar), Ron Carter (bass) and Connie Kay (drums). Recorded at Van Gelder Studios, Rudy Van Gelder, engineer, September 24-26, 1974.

#18 Epistrophy

From the album Monk's Music, recorded June 26, 1957 in NYC. Thelonious Monk (piano), Ray Copeland (trumpet), Gigi Gryce (alto sax) Coleman Hawkins & John Coltrane (tenor sax), Wilbur Ware (bass), and Art Blakey (drums). Here's a a YouTube link to a much shorter version.

#19 Night Dreamer

The title tune from Wayne Shorter's first Blue Note album in 1964. Blue Note albums of that era were recorded directly onto 2 track stereo tape recorders. There wasn't any concept of "multi-track" recording, so any "mixing" of microphone inputs that was done, was live-to-tape. The later conversions of these works to digital formats was simply a question of digitizing the 2 track masters, as there was really nothing else to be done. As a result, I think there is a certian warmth and "presence" to these recordings, that is missing entirely from later, probably technically better recording methods, as there is very little, electronically, between the session sound of 40+ years ago, and a listener, today. From the album's liner notes by Nat Hentoff:

"... 'The tune,' Wayne explains, 'weaves from major into minor, but it has mostly a minor feel. And the minor keys always connote evening or night to me. That's the reason for the first part of the title. In addition, it's in 3/4; but the way Elvin Jones plays 3/4 gives it an almost floating feeling. Yet although the beat does float, it also is set in a heavy groove. It's a paradox, in a way, like you'd have in a dream - something that's both light and heavy. And that explains the second half of the title.' The theme does indeed have a dream-like ambiance. In the solo section, the urgent thrust of Wayne's two improvisatory passages is complemented by Lee Morgan's crisp commentary and the characteristically lithe piano of Herbie Hancock."

#20 'Deed I Do

Diana Krall with a tune by Walter Hirsch and Fred Rose, from her 2002 Live in Paris CD. With Anthony Wilson (guitar), John Clayton (bass), and Jeff Hamilton (drums).

#21 I Will Say Goodbye

Once again, The Bill Evans Trio, with Eddie Gomez on bass and Eliot Zigmund on drums, takes us out with the title track from the 1977 album of the same name. To recap, in this set, we heard:

1. McCoy Tyner - The Greeting (2:27)
2. Art Tatum - Get Happy (2:45)
3. Charlie Parker - Night In Tunisia (5:15)
4. Erroll Garner - Exactly Like You (3:13)
5. Carmen McRae - It Takes a Whole Lot of Human Feelings (3:46)
6. Dave Brubeck Quartet - Three to Get Ready (6:10)
7. Miles Davis - Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus) (4:40)
8. Tito Puente - I Love's You Porgy (8:42)
9. Hubert Laws - Guatemala Connection (5:45)
10. Benny Carter - Hackensack (6:57)
11. Branford Marsalis Quartet - The Ballad Of Chet Kincaid (5:41)
12. McCoy Tyner - You Taught My Heart to Sing (5:14)
13. Thad Johes, Howard McGhee, Kenny Dorham - The Theme (Davis) (10:15)
14. Ramsey Lewis/Billy Taylor - Soul Sister (5:15) (5:17)
15. Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman - Song X Duo (3:09)
16. Toots Thielemans - Tenor Madness (8:00)
17. Paul Desmond - Mean to Me (5:48)
18. Thelonious Monk - Epistrophy (10:45)
19. Wayne Shorter - Night Dreamer (7:17)
20. Diana Krall - 'Deed I Do (5:18)
21. Bill Evans Trio - I Will Say Goodbye (3:30)

Until next time...

Thanks, paul.