Sunday Music Muse Day - John Scofield, Charlie Haden & Jim Hall

This Sunday Music Muse Day I get to celebrate my first visit to one of my favorite record shop since the pandemic hit four months ago.  I finally returned to the Bop Shop Record, yesterday, they're on limit 3 day schedule and are following all the proper covid-19 guidelines for retail store.  Actually, Tom, the owner, had called me earlier in the week about a special order I placed back in January.  Unfortunately, since I wasn't sure when the shop would  open, or if he found the CD, I bought it online. But, Tom was good about it, and I was able to get one of this week selection instead.  I picked up John Scofield Swallow Tales, his new release from ECM.  The is special CD as it celebrates and is a tribute to Steve Swallow, legendary jazz bassist and composer, who plays on the set, and is long time friend and playing partner of Scofield. You can tell the music is a labor of love by Scofield.  Well worth checking out.

My next selection is Impulse release of Charlie Haden and Jim Hall, a live duet CD including several favorite Haden tune I associate with records with Pat Metheny.  This CD is a real treat by two giants in the world of Jazz.  I can easily highly recommend it. 

As part of my Dragonfly Views blog I have a Sunday Music Muse Day post where I always hoped to present original music that I had filed away mostly unfinished and unheard, always putting it off because my playing leaves much to desired. But as I get older it becomes apparent waiting for perfect has become an excuse not to do anything. But, sometimes you just have to get things out of your system. So, rough edges and all here is the song, "November Night 2020". November Night is one of my favorite original tune, written in 1980. The original version is included at the end of this video. This was actually the first time we, my friends Rodney Means and Richard Miceli, played it together. That version was posted back in 2008.

This "2020" version was made using a backing a backing track created in Band in a Box music software. You write in chords and a lead line and it creates a backing track and even a solo performance, with varying degrees of success. I'm often surprised how my simple tunes sound fleshed out by a full band, even an artificial one. One area I need to work on is sound mixing in Garageband, I'll get there. Enjoy.

Sunday Music Muse Day - Pure Moods, Warped Sky Stray Clouds 'Song to my Friends" and "The Wise Fool" by Peter Grosett

This Sunday Music Muse Day finds us in our 4th of July holiday weekend.  In these days of pandemic and political chaos, I chose to have a low-key holiday and stay close to home. I spent most of 4th stacking and organizing CD collection in our new CD storage unit.

In moving the CDs I came across a many I haven't played in ages. My pick for today's Sunday Music Muse Day is one of them, Pure Moods. a 1994 compilation CD of New Age music, for lack of better description. I remember seeing TV ads for it, a thought it was cheesy.  I must have picked it up out of a discount bin, and actually it has some good tunes on it, like TV show themes from X-Files and Miami Vice. Plus Artists like Enya, Mike Oldfield, and David Byrne (of Talking Heads). But My favorite tune is Native American group and song, Sacred Spirits - "Yeha-Noha".  It's natural beauty is stunning.

Sunday Music Muse (Part 2) (Actually another (embarrassing) attempt to clear the backlog of undeveloped and unfinished music ideas.) "The Wise Fool" is another  original tune written by friend Peter Grosett back in 1982 and a really favorite tune of mine.  (You can see my last post for Peter's "Flowers" for a fuller a background) I was hoping for a little Gary Burton Quartet feel with the vibraphone.  This backing track was created in Band in a Box music software.   So, rough edges and all here is the song, "The Wise Fool". I hope it gives a hints of the great song Peter wrote.  I grabbed photos Pete has shared to make this video. I hope it serves as a tribute his continuing creative spirit. 

Here's an extra Warped Sky Stray Cloud entry,  a tune inspired by this image post by my friend and former co-worker at Bright Memorial Library. It's silly tune I wrote back in the '80, and I always thought it would be a good kid's library tune. Working at BML, I thought it would be a nice theme for BML story time. So, I made this fake promo for the library, and with the quality of my vocal you can consider it satire.  

Hope everyone have a safe 4th of July, all thing considered.