Author: whskyjack

George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue says it all.

Enjoy, Jack

“So What”, by Miles Davis, originally released in 1959 on the studio album , Kind of Blue

The album features Davis’ ensemble sextet consisting of saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with former band pianist Bill Evans appearing on most of the tracks in place of Kelly.

You can listen to the whole album here

Enjoy, Jack

Credit for today’s select goes entirely to Economist Jared Bernstein. Last Tuesday he posted this on his twitter feed.

If you’re feeling forlorn behind the ascendance of venal, racism-spewing idiots, and all the other hate and dysfunction that abounds, I’ve got an antidote, or at least an essential vacation. Seriously.

Jared Bernstein

Enjoy, Jack

It’s the 20’s, young people are leaving the farm and going to the city to work in the factories. That New Orleans music had moved north to Chicago and then to New York. The radio was new, so was sound in the movies. We started to have shared experiences as a nation. Jazz, speak easies, women in short skirts……….. Grandma, who was busy raising her family, must have been shaking her head.

What I love about YouTube is access to original recordings. The quality isn’t great but you are there in the room for the first time.

The Charleston represented a decade and here it is played by its creator. James P Johnson.

ser·en·dip·i·ty /ˌserənˈdipədē/
noun: serendipity; plural noun: serendipities
the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
“a fortunate stroke of serendipity”
synonyms: chance, happy chance, accident, happy accident,

I was tempted to use Jace’s title for this Sunday’s selection for serendipity played a big part in todays selections. I was reading a story on my local NPR station web site. The next story offered was about a local musician and his strange string instrument playing Celtic music. And here is the serendipity, the YouTube algo offered up a video by one of the musicians in the group. A young man, Amando Espinoza, from Bolivia, composing wonderful music. He is using music he had heard as a child in Bolivia and fusing it with world rhythms, all played by a collection of local musicians. Not in New York or LA but in this conservative cautious cow town called Kansas City

We truly live in a golden age and as evidenced by our President, are too stupid to realize it.

I could go on but lets just relax and listen to what the world offers on our door step, enjoy.

Jack