First Listing

Here are my first listings on the Yoity Tot CD List. If you want to find out more about what I think about these CD's than just the brief comments I have below, I suggest you visit my profile on Amazon and browse through my reviews there. Or, of course, you can always drop me a comment or e-mail asking for some exposition, and I'll be happy to provide you with some.

Jazz In Silhouette is, without a doubt, my most frequently listened to CD. Since the very day I bought it, it has always been in close range and when I don't know what else to listen to, this is one that I can turn to and be happy I did. It's a wonder I haven't bought more Sun Ra CD's since, but I'm sure I will soon.

Saxophone Colossus was in the rotation at my poker game last night, and everyone enjoyed it when it came on, including me. One of my guests even knew some of the "Mack the Knife" lyrics and rattled them off reasonably in time when "Moritat" was playing.

Afro-Cuban is a recent acquisition that impressed me right out of the box. It just has so much going for it, without being an overly "ethnic" flavored CD. Just great jazz.

The Billy Taylor Trio's self titled work is one of those overlooked, often forgotten CD's, for some reason, but I just never grow tired of it. The song selection is really good, having a mix of familiar and not so familiar works, but the sound is just really satisfying. Another reliable CD that I pull off the shelf with a good bit of regularity.

Somethin' Else by Cannonball Adderley features Miles Davis and another great selection of songs. This is a nice CD to have for when you are in the mood for Miles Davis but don't want to put on Kind of Blue because you are in an upbeat mood. It really sizzles.

Kind of Blue is arguably the greatest jazz recording of all time. There are some I listen to more, but it's hard to say anything is better than this CD. It really turned me back toward the heart of jazz. Bluesy, passionate, "listen so you won't be disappointed later" kind of music that you feel inside.

The Cole Porter Songbook sung by Ella Fitzgerald was a turning point in vocal jazz because it brought together one of the era's greatest (if not THE greatest) female vocalists with probably the quintessential American song writer of the last century. There are few people who can listen to a Cole Porter song and not feel some reverie and respect for his work, and when Ella sings with the high quality orchestras assembled by Norman Granz (and others), the result is nothing short of jazz history.

Portrait in Jazz by Bill Evans is probably not his best work, but it has a selection of songs on it that I really like. "Witchcraft" and "Someday My Prince Will Come" stay with you a long time after you listen to Bill snap them to attention and make them swing. (Plus he's got Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian behind him, what became the model of jazz trios for years to come.)

And finally (for now), Have a Little Faith by Bill Frisell gets in for some amazing guitar work that doesn't sound like guitar, plus his wonderful takes on Bob Dylan ("Just Like A Woman"), Madonna ("Live to Tell") and Aaron Copland ("Billy the Kid").

Oh crap, and I almost forgot, The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan. Pick me up, spin me around, and play me some blue notes! Yet another CD I can put on anytime and never be disappointed or second guess my selection.

An Informal Survey into the Fame of Cole Porter

We have a safety slogan board at work, and I'm usually the one to come up with the slogan that goes on the board. I've been doing it for about four years, so I've been out of ideas for the last three. Yesterday, I came up with something that I thought would fly, and it did. I used Cole Porter's lyrics to formlulate a seasonal safety slogan to this effect:

Birds do it.
Bees do it.
Even educated fleas do it.
Let's do it.
Let's stay safe this spring.

(Yeah, I know.) After I put it up, I thought I would get some comments, but alas, no one said anything unless I asked first. Although when prompted several people said they liked the slogan, no one knew where it came from. So, I just started asking people if they knew who Cole Porter was. I estimate that I asked forty people. Most of them were older than me (I'm 44). Only five people knew or had heard of Cole Porter. Not one of them knew that the "safety slogan" I put up was a lame variation of a Cole Porter song. These were not the results I expected.

The youngest person to know Cole Porter was 30 years old. The oldest I won't say, but I think he's in his sixties. Of the five people who "knew" him, only three knew he was a jazz musician, and only one knew he was a composer. (A familiar reaction was, "I've heard of him, but I don't know what he sings.") I'm not disappointed, but I am surprised.

I feel privileged to be as "young" as I am and as familiar with Cole Porter as I am. Being a jazz musician does have perks, however insignificant they may seem to others.

De-cidedly good, but de-finitely not great.

Mrs. S had watched it once before, but having been on a classic song kick of late, we borrowed the DVD De-Lovely from the library and watched it together last night. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a movie about the life of Cole Porter starring Kevin Cline and Ashley Judd. I didn’t know much at all about Porter, so the movie was pretty interesting. The music is, of course, wonderful, and the producers got a bunch of big names – Robbie Williams, Alannis Morrisette, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, etc. – to sing some of his signature tunes so we didn’t have to listen to Kevin sing/talk/whisper/warble his way through them (although there are plenty of other songs where we do). This movie makes a bit of a to do about Porter’s bi-sexuality, but thankfully, it’s handled tastefully and as Porter (apparently) did during his life, it isn’t treated as a major issue. My only gripe, and it is a small one, is that the movie seemed a little too surreal. The sets were all really bright and lavish, obviously trying to evoke “the jazz age”, but I think they could have done it better by hiring musicians instead of actors to play in the background (I get a little irritated when I hear the piano going down the scale and the pianist on the screen’s hands are going up, up, UP, or the drummer’s hitting the snare while the high-hat is going “tss-t-t-tss”). Then if they subdued the tone a little, made it just a little rough around the edges, I would have enjoyed the movie more. In retrospect, there was nothing wrong with the way the movie was shot. I just think the mood the director was trying to evoke was not the right one, especially when you consider part of the movie took place during the Depression and part also took place during WWII. Could be I was just in the mood for a slightly darker, “film noir-ish” experience. And I’m no big fan of Ashley Judd, and Morrisette’s solo was pretty grating, if you ask me. All in all, these are minor complaints, so, if you have any interest in Cole Porter and his music at all, this movie is worth renting/borrowing to check it out.