Sunday Music Muse Day - Mike Melito/Dino Losito Quartet, Bill Evens, Soldier's Fancy

This Sunday Music Muse Day find me celebrating the new release of friend, and October birthday boy, Mike Melito, with The Mike Melito/Dion Losito Quartet You're It. This a tasty and highly anticipated CD has Mike and company deliveriing a solid and smooth swinging session.  I glad CD player use lasers and not needles or I wear this out in not.  I picked my copy at Bop Shop Records, you can, too.  Support you local musicians and retailer.  We need them both.

To round out my weekend music, here's Bill Evans Trio On A Monday Evening.  This a live recording of a date at the Madison Mission Theatre in Madison. WI. on Monday November 15, 1976. The liner note say even with the rise of electric jazz fusion and Bill's Heath issues "brought on my years of narcotic addiction, was still at the top of his game in'76".  I rarely hear a Evans recording when he's not.  This will been get plenty of hearing time from me.

Time for another additional extra, which a start with a Inktober 2020 drawing.  It curious how one word can launch you down a creative rabbit hole that would make Alice think twice.  Inktober's # 7 prompt was the word "Fancy".  Simple, enough but my brain immediately jump to "Soldier Fancy",  which was the folk group of friend back in the 1980's n New York City.

I was pressed for time, so I Google "Soldier Fancy" the song and the group. First thing to pop up was a paint titled "Soldier's Fancy" by Henry Victor Lesur.

This was a good start point for me.  I dug into Google more and found one version of the song on youtube, not by the Soldier" fancy I knew.  There isn't an online version of original group, Marie Mularczyk, Hazel Pilcher, and Jerry Mastriano doing the song (there has been additional members at different times)   There was a Soldier's Fancy reunion concert held in 2018 at the Folk Music Society of New York, although only Marie Mularczyk  remained from the group in he '80s.  The concert info mentioned Soldier's Fancy was featured at the first Annual Village Voice Festival of Street Entertainers. 

As it happens,  I have a cassette of the event, Street Heat, given to me by Marie, stored with my  Warped Sky cassettes. Plus, I had another cassette, Ballads Broadsides and Bad News, with Marie, Hazel and Jerry, which has the song Soldier's Fancy" on it, so I played the tune to refresh my memory on the lyrics

I decided to do drawing inspire the lyrics of their title song.  I tend to do my drawing in the early evening, in about 2-3 hours.  This came out well.

I decide to add gray tones later.

But as finished the the rabbit hole sucked me in deeper.  I needed to make a video using the tracks from the cassettes and my art.  But, one element was missing, I remembered I had a old Soldier's Fancy concert flyer somewhere my art file, that wild be perfect the video.  Of course, I didn't know exact where, so that meant search through boxes and art files in the basement. Three hours later I found it.

So, I gather the artwork and transferred the tunes from the cassette and make this video.

But the travel in the Rabbit hole are to be continue,  next week.  You see, as I said I was a friend of Marie through another musician friend, Paul Kovit,  he's the opening act on the Soldier Fancy concert flyer.  Paul was excellent folk guitarist and song writer, but he had a desire to play drums, so he got the idea to rent a practice studio, invite some friends to come play and jam so he could bang on the drums.  I asked me, and after heavy arm-twisting, I agreed. Paul was much better guitarist and musician than me. At the studio we were joined by...Marie Mularczky on acoustic guitar and vocals, Jerry Mastriano on electric bass, and female singer guitar who only came to a a couple of early session, not sure it was Hazel. I play my Fender Stratocaster with my EFX rack. We ended up playing Irish Folk tunes which I never played before. Paul named the ad-hoc group "No Laughing", is in no one was to laugh at his mistakes as novice drummer.  Well there was plenty of good hearted laughs in the year of bi-weekly sessions.  We start recording the sessions for fun.  In the end I thing we surprised ourselves.

Next week.  Enter No Laughing.

Sunday Music Muse Day. Bill Evans, Ryo Kawasaki

This Sunday Music Muse Day find us celebrating Mother's Day. So here's wishing all you wonderful moms  a happy Mother's Day.  Here's some nice tunes to accompany the activities of the day. First Bill Evans Trio Sunday at the Village Vanguard, a CD reissue of classic album with additional alternate takes.

Next up is Ryo Kawasaki My Reverie, a solo opening playing "music inspired by the great performances of the Late Bill Evans...", although it features no tunes written by Evans.  The liner notes might have explained more, but the text is in Japanese. In any case it is  solid CD to enjoy on a rainy afternoon, as it as as I write.

Again, enjoy Mother's Day and honor them all, living, and those no longer with us. Peace.

Sunday Music Muse Day - Bill Evans, Bill Frisell

This Sunday Music Muse Day finds me, like many others, walking around like a mindless zombie on the first day of the Daylight Saving Time change.  Why it effects us this way is a mystery.  In any case, I'm using the music of Bill Evans Trio 64 to help ease me through this day.  This CD is sort of a double reissue, of the original LP's eight tunes, and 8 additional tunes which come from The Complete Bill Evans on Verve CD set.  Those include alternate takes and false starts.  With Resonance Records announcing  a new Bill Evans release I thought this would nice one to enjoy today.

To add the grim mood of the day, our weather is dark, overcast, and gloomy.  So, the music of Bill Frisell Good Dog Happy Man is a nice tonic for the day.  Again, Frisell's  eclectic blend of Jazz, Folk, and Americana brings a ray of hope to any day.

It will take a couple of days to shake the DST zombie curse, so found some good music to break the spell.  Enjoy.

Sunday Music Muse Day - Gary Burton Quartet, Bill Evans & Jim Hall

This Sunday Music Muse Day, find us in the western region of upstate New York bracing for a forecast of dangerous high winds of 50 to 65 miles a hour.  There be a chance of rain with that, but the real concern is overturned trees and downed power lines, resulting in blackouts.  We're hoping for best.  To ease the tension I'm listening to Gary Burton Quartet Live, with Pat Metheny (guitar), Steve Swallow (bass), and Antonio Sanchez (drum).  This live set record in 2007, is sort of a reunion of the classic Gary Burton Quartet of the 1970s, with the exception of Sanchez.  Burton relate in the liner notes how he is amazed at guitarist since he tried learning guitar as a teenager, and "never could figure out ...all the different fingerings."  By contrast he said, "most guitar players don't play the vibes, but the exception to that would be Pat Metheny".  It seems Burton lent Metheny a vibraphone one summer, before he join the band, and with a few months he was playing better than Burton's students.  That's a cool story.  The CD has the quartet revisiting old tunes with a fresh approach from experiences learned on musical paths they travel since playing in the original group.  It would be nice to pull out the original group recording for comparison.  On a side note, the cover is by Peter Max the quintessential artist of the hippie movement of the late 1960s and early 70's.  I like the art, but the type design and placement makes this look like a kid's music CD.

To further ease the tensions and enjoy the clam before the storm, I put on Bill Evans & Jim Hall Intermodulation. This CD is a re-issue of the follow up 1966 LP to their classic 1962 duet session, Undercurrent.  I had the good fortune to have picked up Undercurrent in the past year, so this is a great compliment to it.

As I write this, winds are picking up. So wish us luck. 

Sunday Music Muse Day - Bill Evans & Jim Hall, Benny Green & Russell Malone

Welcome to another Sunday Music Muse Day.  This week's theme is jazz piano-guitar duos. First up is a classic date by two jazz legends on their respective instruments, Bill Evans & Jim Hall Undercurrent, recorded in 1962.  Undercurrent was followed up with a second duet album, Intermodulation in 1966.  A quote from a editorial review notes: "Duet albums were rare in 1962 and encounters of this quality are still rare. Bill Evans and Jim Hall, two modern jazz giants, were in peak creative form at the time, Evans leading his own trio and Hall working with Sonny Rollins's quartet at the time."  One listen is all it takes to totally agree. Of the added alternate takes on the CD, I actually prefer the alternate of My Happy Valentine to the one on the original LP release.

The second duet is Benny Green & Russell Malone Birdbird record in 2004, that makes it a 52 year difference from the Evans/Hall date, the beauty of jazz is the continuity of the tradition.  Their set is not as introspective as the Evans/Hall duet, as a Jazztimes review noted, "Pianist Benny Green and guitarist Russell Malone are contemporary jazz musicians in the best sense of the term; great musicians whose repertoire includes blues, soul, pop, bop, Afro-Latin and even hip-hop." So, this CD is a much more lively affair, and a good contrast to this Evan/Hall duet.

Both selections are good to enjoy on this cold, almost spring afternoon.

Sunday Music Muse Day - Esperanza Spalding, Al DiMeola, Bill Evans, and Bad Plus.

Another Sunday Music Muse Day has arrived.  This week's selections finds a nice mix of old favorites and some catching to the buzz, sort to speak  That is the case with finally picking up Esperanza Spalding - Chamber Music Society, a Grammy winning CD by a Grammy winning artist (but to be honest, I rarely pay attention to the Grammy Awards, since so much of my favorite music never would make the list).  She definitely a amazing musician and earns, and deserves, all the praise and accolades she gets. Plus, the fact that her beating out Justin Bieber for 2011 Grammy Award for Best New Artist is just icing on the cake.

Next up is a old favorite fusion guitarist, Al DiMeola.   Flesh on Flesh continues Al's jazz fusion exploration of Mediterranean, Latin and Middle Eastern music.  I admit, in contrast to the taste pictures of Esperanza Spadling's on her CD, the reclining nude on Al's CD cover seems a little embarrassing.  Just enjoy the CD for the music.

There is nothing embarrassing about the next selection, the great pianist Bill Evans, the Everybody Digs Bill Evans CD.  Although the liner notes on the back of CD says Bill Evans was embarrassed by the four endorsement on the cover by Miles Davis, George Shearing, Ahmad Jamal and Julian Cannonball Adderley, only goes to show how humble he was.  No jazz lover's collection complete with lots of Bill Evans' music. I'm so happy to add stunning this trio set, featuring Sam Jones on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums, to the others I have.

My last selection is The Bad Plus - Give.  This interesting jazz trio makes music that keep the listener on their toes combining elements of modern avant-garde jazz with rock and pop influences.  For example, they cover Ozzy Osbourne's Black Sabbath tune "Iron man".  Check it out below.  I was first introduced to their music on my local jazz station, Jazz 90.1.  I find their music adventurous and complex, and the more you listen, the more levels of enjoyment you discover.  I've pick up some of their tunes in itunes, before, so it's nice to pick up full CD.

Thanks for dropping by.  Enjoy.