This Sunday Music Muse Day finds us again having wild swings in temperatures and weather from bone chilling cold and snow to mid-50s temps. In any case good music is a comforting fix. First up. John Abercrombie The First Quartet, a 3 CD collection recognized as the late jazz guitarist's period that established himself as solid band leader after his debut releases Timeless and Characters, both favorites of mine. I was happy to buy to set to replace the vinyl records I sold with my whole collection, but I knew they existed on CD. The music is as great as I remembered. ECM has been re-releasing a lot of their early catalog in sets like this. My only nitpick is they're not reproducing the original covers in color in the package. So, I made copies and mounted to the plain sleeves.
My second is Ginger Baker "Why?". The late Ginger Baker was of course the powerhouse rock drumming legend from Cream, the power trio of the 60's featuring Eric Clapton, on guitar, and Jack Bruce, on bass. Both Baker and Bruce were influenced by jazz and turned to it more in their later careers. This 2014 release was made after a ten year layoff, as the age of 74. An online critic gave it 5 stars and remarked "Baker obviously possesses enough self control and good fortune to have avoided the demise of ill-fated legends like Keith Moon or John Bonham, contemporaries who crashed and burned so spectacularly that they will never fade away in the classic rock annals." I find this CD to be okay as a jazz outing. I found his other CD with jazz guitarist Bill Frisell more iinteresting.
So, whatever your weather, try to find a warm, safe spot to enjoy some good music.
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