Sunday Music: The Real McCoy

McCoy Tyner will be missed. He was one of those players you felt could do anything. He didn’t play chords and melodies so much as he played colors and feelings. A few personal favorites: A Love Supreme. If this isn’t a religious experience, I don’t know what is. https://youtu.be/ll3CMgiUPuU John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. All …

Sunday Music: Playlist For January 2020

Kicking off the new decade and ending the old - with style. As always, these songs are mostly new music from 2019/2020 releases. Here is the iTunes link. If anyone wants to make a Spotify link (or any other service), post it in the comments or email me and I’ll add more links. If anyone …

Sunday Music: Little Wings

How lyrical can a guitar be? There's the infamous intro, the conversation behind the sung lyrics, and then the crying solo. Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" is a packed 2 1/2 minutes of guitar mastery. https://youtu.be/QDd5cF0aB0Q And if that's not enough, Stevie Ray Vaughan took it to a whole other level. He gives us Jimi and …

Christmas Music: Joe Pass’ White Christmas

The way he voices the chords, the way he phrases the melody, the way he plays with rhythm and tempo - classic Joe Pass applied to a seasonal standard. https://youtu.be/RHlg6xjzbI4

Sunday Music: A Dose Of D’Angelo

Just put them on a stage and let them play. Magic. Here's D'Angelo, Spanky, Saadiq, Ali Shaheed, ?uestlove, and friends doing "Lady" - enjoy. (Especially that guitar intro!) https://youtu.be/s11XaUKsMU8 And "Chicken Grease" with the Voodoo-era band, also live on Chris Rock. https://youtu.be/m4XI6LXCsH8

Sunday Music: In The Wintertime There’s A Kind Of Light I Only Get From You

Norah Jones' "Wintertime" (co-written with Jeff Tweedy) got the feature treatment on the Broken Record Podcast (Season 3, Ep. 9). It was the first time I had heard the song and it's probably everything one would hope a Jones/Tweedy collaboration could be. The melody and chord structure are gorgeous, and the lyrics* fit the vibe …

Sunday Music: Bud Powell’s “Over The Rainbow”

Just some classic, solo Bud Powell. For as playful as he is with this song, it's the chord work and phrasing, especially in the middle where he settles into the song as a ballad, that gets me every time. https://youtu.be/tZhOQr09O1M

Sunday Music: When Adversity Strikes (Mercy, Mercy, Mercy)

It all started in an empty grocery store on a late weekday evening. I don't know whose version of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" came on, but it was smooth, and not in the complimentary "this scotch is so smooth" way, but in the Kenny G "smooth" jazz way. That meant as soon as I got to …

Sunday Music: Sultans Of Swing

According to legend, Mark Knopfler was in a nearly empty London pub one night while a jazz band played off in the corner. After their set, the frontman announced that their name was "The Sultans of Swing." The irony stuck with him and he went on to mythologize them in the lyrics. Musically, this song …

Sunday Music: “Peace” by Horace Silver

I'm feeling a little sentimental this morning after putting one of our cats down last night. Silver's "Peace" has been stuck in my head. Blue Mitchell's trumpet, the backing horn harmonies, Silver's lush chords and fills, and the bed laid down by the rest of the rhythm section - perfection. https://youtu.be/ieaAHwvqljg