I will confess, I had a remarkably music-free Christmas, however.  Much of the focus was on the baby and the other babies that have popped up this year.  So, I got a cool new watch, some much-needed clothing and other cool stuff, but little in the way of new music.

Still, I got at least two Amazon.com gift certificates.  I don’t think the two of them together are enough to buy one of those sweet Miles Davis box sets I like, but they should be able to catch me up on a few new jazz CDs that have come out this year and that I have not purchased.

I hope you and yours had a great holiday as well.  I also hope your holiday was filled with cool music and, more importantly to this blog, lots of great jazz and/or bues.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

Interesting note, my brother admitted that, had he had a boy, he was going to name the young man Miles Parker.  How cool is that? 

It’s been an interesting thing between me and my brother.  He is three years younger than me and he and I always took different tracks when it came to music.  I was into oldies and classic rock when he was into rap and then punk and even a heavy metal phase.  I moved away to St. Louis for a while and my brother grew up, went to college, started a career and settled down his wild ways.

By the time my marriage had ended and I had moved back from St. Louis to Chicago, I found a young man wearing fancy clothes, in a nice apartment and listening to a huge collection of Charlie Parker music.  I showed up one night with my Miles Davis stuff and, well, we kind of crossed each other with appreciation for each other’s taste in music.

I have to say it was pretty cool.  We finally agreed on something and it was jazz.  For him, it was Charlie Parker and for me it was Miles, but we still both loved the music.  In fact, if it weren’t for him and his love, I may have never found clubs here in Chicago like the Velvelt Lounge.

Music is like that.  It can cross generations and it can be passed from one sibling to another. When it clicks in someone’s head, you can almost see it and almost hear it.  It happened to me in that radio studio when I sat there like a statue, unable to move, while listening to at tune from “Kind of Blue.”  It happened to my brother when he first heard “Bird” playing his sax.

I guess nothing I am saying here is particularly profound, but it’s on my mind.  I have been looking for the perfect song, in any genre, to express how I feel about my niece and how cool it is that there is this new life and I am some part of it.

One of my favorites is a song called “Raina” by singer/songwriter Peter Himmelman, but it is NOT jazz.  Still, if you have the means, find it and take a listen.

I just can’t wait for the day when I may get to play that “Kind of Blue” album for my niece and, with any luck, she smiles and starts bopping her head along with it.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

I am a fan of the horn players, particularly trumpet players.  I also love what many consider to be “classic” jazz.  I admit this.  When I go to my CD player or want to play a tune on my computer, I pull out my Miles Davis collection.  I also love Dizzy and Bird and Charlie Mingus.  I love listening to Thelonius playing the piano or perhaps Earl Hines.

Still, there are modern jazz musicians who play music in that classic tradition.  The Marsalis family would have to be considered among them.

The patriarch is Ellis Marsalis.  I have only ever heard one of his albums and it was one I had when I worked at the jazz radio station in college.  Ellis is a music teacher and he plays piano and he raised his family in the city of New Orleans where he was a major fixture on the New Orleans jazz scene.

His sons are a kind of who’s who in jazz.  There is Branford, who was famous as the guy who was the first band leader Jay Leno played around with when he took over the “Tonight Show.”  Branford plays the saxophone, and he is the one, I feel, ventures the furthest from traditional jazz and will experiment.

Then there is Delfeayo Marsalis.  He plays the trombone.  I am not as familiar with his work as I am Branford and Wynton, but I have heard very good things about him

There is also Jason Marsalis, who is a drummer.  Again, like Delfeayo, I am not as familiar with his work.

For me, my favorite, has always been Wynton.  When it comes to modern jazz trumpeters, for my taste, there is none better than Wynton Marsalis.  I ask you to get his album entitled “Citi Movement” which was released in 1992 for a good example.  It’s still one of my favorite jazz albums.

Wynton is not only a great musician, but he is the Musical Director of Jazz and the Lincoln Center.  He has won nine grammys and he has even won the Pullitzer Prize for Music.  That last award was the first time it had been awarded for jazz music.

Anyway, I suppose there are other modern jazz musician that people can point me to.  I have some of their albums, probably.  For me, though, when I download, or buy or play music from my collection of jazz, it’s the Marsalis family I go to, again and again.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge