iPod Roulette - April 2011 JAM

April is Jazz Appreciation Month at the Smithsonian.  In keeping with that, I've drawn solely from my Jazz playlist in my iTunes for this month's session of iPod Roulette.  Some of my favorites didn't come up, but it's still a nice variety.


1.     Livin' Inside Your Love (George Benson) - I've loved George Benson since I was in college.  Until recent years he was one of the few Jazz artists that I didn't mind using vocals.

2.     Sigh (Praful) - This group is described by Wiki as an "acid jazz" mixture band.

3.     Daddy Longlicks (Lee Ritenour featuring Joe Robinson) - This is from 6 String Theory, which I featured here.

4.     I Say a Little Prayer (Earl Klugh Trio) - A smooth version of a very recognizable song.

5.     Fives (Lee Ritenour featuring Guthrie Govan and Tal Wilkenfeld) - I usually skip when there is a repeat artist, but the guitarists featured with Ritenour here are so different from Joe Robinson that the selection had a completely different sound.

6.     Back in Business (Down to the Bone) - Their Wiki page has been removed, but the link to it referred to them as another "acid jazz" band.  Funny, I'd never heard that description before and here I've seen it twice in one sitting.

7.     Flamenco Sketches (Miles Davis) - No doubt about it, Davis is one of the greats of Jazz.  This is from Kind of Blue, considered by many to be his best album. 

8.     Sinkin' Soon (Norah Jones) - I must admit that I'm not terrilby fond of Norah Jones.  I only downloaded this song to try and give her a chance since I knew several of my friends love her music.  It didn't work for me.

9.     There Goes the Neighbourhood (Candy Dulfer) - From her first album, Saxuality. I love her version of Lily Was Here!

10.   The Girls Next Door (Pat Metheny Group) - Love, love this song!  The underlying beat is great!

11.   Tears in Rain (Vangelis) - This is from the soundtrack to Blade Runner and contains one of my favorite movie lines. 

12.   Somersaults (Bill Bruford with Ralph Towner and Eddie Gómez ) - Bruford was the first of two drummers for my favorite group of all time, Yes.

13.   Black River (Keiko Matsui) - Very smooth Contemporary Jazz.

14.   Siempre Hay Esperanza (The Sunset Lounge Orchestra) - This is from the Sade Cool Down Experience.  I couldn't find any kind of link to the Sunset Lounge Orchestra, but they evidently do covers of various groups' music.  I heard this one on my Jazz station and loved it. 

15.   The Lesson (Victor Wooten) - This is one of the few people in my Jazz playlist known for playing the bass!

6 String Theory

I think many of the folks who don't care for Jazz have a set idea of what they believe all Jazz music sounds like in general. Now, ask a Jazz lover about their music and you'll get an entirely different attitude. There will be references to artists, instruments, styles, vocals and more. It's a huge genre with a wide variety of options within.

I recently purchased Lee Ritenour's 6 String Theory. It came out earlier in the year, but I only discovered it a few days ago. I'm amazed at the variety of music captured in the 15 tracks on this album! Consider some of the guest artists: Slash, Neal Schon, Vince Gill, Taj Mahal, Keb' Mo', B.B. King, Jonny Lang, George Benson, Joey DeFrancesco... and that's less than half of them. There are Country influences, Blues, Rock and Classical, along with some acoustic work.

Lee Ritenour alone would have made the album for me. All the others just make it that much better. I have a feeling it's going to be an album I listen to over and over and over.

Emotion and Commotion

Satellite radio in my car was an extravagance I treated myself to years ago. The past four or five months I have kept my dial on the "c-jazz" station, Watercolors, with the occasional switch to Contemporary Christian or Classic Rock. I've discovered lots of new artists (or new to me) and new releases from old favorites.

Several weeks ago a song came on that grabbed me right from the start. When I pushed the info button for the title and artist I was surprised to see the name Jeff Beck! Although I couldn't place any specific things he'd done, I knew he was a rock guitarist. I checked at iTunes and saw that the song was from an album due to be released on April 13th which allowed me to get it on my iPod before leaving town last week.

It's excellent! My favorites are 'Never Alone' (from the radio), 'Hammerhead', 'Nessun Dorma', and 'Serene', but I don't regret getting the whole album. It covers a broad range of styles and, in my opinion, doesn't have a bum track on it. I've provided the link to the album at Amazon here, but you'll have to go to iTunes or somewhere else to hear clips.

Possibilities

Quid's new "Tune-In Friday" feature makes me want to share music, too!

Last week I mentioned my recent Jazz kick. Although I normally prefer instrumental Jazz, I've heard enough with vocals lately that I have developed an appreciation for it. Herbie Hancock, of Jazz/Funk fame, put out a collaboration album in 2005 entitled Possibilities, featuring artists such as Paul Simon, Santana, Annie Lennox, Joss Stone, John Mayer and more. It was A Song for You with Christina Aguilera that drew me to the album. Here's a short version that I found on YouTube.

Cinema Paradiso

I've been on a pretty intense Jazz kick the past couple of months.

Chris Botti and Yo Yo Ma are two names I wouldn't normally think of putting together. One I associate with Jazz, the other with Classical. However, they do go together and quite nicely at that.

Hit me with some Jazz

Considering my dad owned and managed a radio station which fell under the "Middle of the Road" label, my childhood was filled with "Easy Listening" music. My first introduction to what I would consider Jazz was Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Perhaps I was initially just fascinated by the lady dressed only in whipped cream on the cover of "Whipped Cream and Other Delights", but I grew to have a true appreciation for Alpert and his trumpet.

Teenage years came along and wooed me over to Rock & Roll, especially the “Progressive” or “Art” Rock groups such as Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, ELP, etc. Jazz was pretty much forgotten until my 20s and 30s. None of my friends or relatives liked Jazz, but somehow, I learned of a few select Jazz artists and began a small CD collection which included performers like David Sanborn, Candy Dulfer, Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton, Joe Sample and Miles Davis to name a few.

The advent of XM Radio broadened my horizons and opened me up to many new artists...or at least new to me. While looking up specific songs I’ve heard on the radio I often spend time browsing, and occasionally downloading, other songs at iTunes. For that matter, I’ve even found a few by reading other blog posts!

My library has grown to include a wide variety: Acoustic Alchemy, Steve Laury, Stanley Jordan, Victor Wooten, Gato Barbiere, Down to the Bone, Bill Bruford and more. With a few exceptions (most notably George Benson) I prefer instrumental Jazz to that with vocals.

Here’s a clip of a song I heard earlier in the week on XM. The title is "Summer Madness" and can be found on Jerald Daemyon’s 1995 "Thinking About You album". Enjoy!