Sunday Music Muse Day - John Stowell - Michael Zilber, Duke Ellington revisited.

This Sunday Music Muse Day actually finds it feeling like Spring.  I got to go shopping with just a light sweatshirt on. At Bop Shop Records, I picked up John Stowell / Michael Zilber Quartet Basement Blues. It's a tasty and energetic outing with Stowell on guitar and Zilber on saxophones and piano.  This 2016 session is their third recording together.  Eight out of the ten tunes are originals  by members of the band, with a tune by Bill Evens (Very Early) and Jerome Kern ( Nobody Else But Me).  It a nice way to greet the Spring.

By second second selection has me revisiting some Duke Ellington selections, the result of a minor discovery.  I had, what thought was, an album cover of the Duke Ellington Piano in the Foreground mounted in a simple glass frame.  The cover features Sam Woodyard, my father, on the cover. This was given to me in Paris by a friend of Sam's.  I wanted to reframe this, but I discovered  it a was a color xerox of the cover, and I would have damaged it if I removed it from the backing.  But, I wanted to have a framed version of the cover to mount on the wall.  So, I looked for a copy at Bop Shop Records.  Owner Tom Kohn and the staff were very helpful, even letting me search their basement stash of Ellington stock. after not finding the Piano in the Foreground album in main floor stacks.  I did found a copy, and picked up another Storyville Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, with Johnny Hodges and his Orchestra, because it had a band photo with Sam in it.  Now I have to find good spot to mount both covers. 

Seems like Spring finally here to stay. Try to enjoy it to the fullest.  Good tunes always helps.

Sunday Music Muse Day - MIles Davis, Gary Burton Quintet, John Stowell Michael Zilber Quartet.

After a break for a family vacation, I'm rested and back for another Sunday Music Muse Day with a little catching up to do.  First up is another Miles Davis Aura.  I have the LP, but I can't resist buying the CDs for convenience, since I only have my turntable connected to my computer, which I did when I planned to digitize my record collection, but I give up on that idea.  According to Wikipedia, "Aura is a concept album by Miles Davis, produced by Danish composer/trumpeter Pelle Mikkelborg, released in 1989. All compositions and arrangements are by Mikkelborg, who created the suite in tribute when Davis received the Leonie Sonning Music Prize in December 1984, the year Decoy was released."  It interesting that with the exception of guitarist John McLaughlin, acoustic bassist Niels Henning Oersted Pederson, and Mikkelborg, and all the players are unknown to me.  Mikkelborg I knew from several ECM records with guitarist Terje Rydal, and saxophonist Jan Garbarek.  Of course, the playing of Miles is the focus.

Next up is the Gary Burton Quintet, Dreams So Real - Music of Carla Bley.  As sub-title this a collection compostions by famed composer and band leader Carla Bley.  The quintet features Mick Goodrick on six-sting electric guitar and Pat Metheny on electric 12-string guitar.  Steve Swallow on bass, Bob Mose on drums, and Gary Burton Vibraphone. This is classic, highly rated recording, well worth a listen.

My last selection is the John Stowell Michael Zilber Quartet - Live Beauty.  This is live club date and it really has the nice small jazz club feel to it.  I have several early recording of guitarist John Stowell, from 1970s, in duets with bassist David Friesen.  Stowell just fell off my radar for many year.  But I did come across on him again recently.  Saxophonist Michael Zilber is new to me, but the pairing works very well.

I have a slight back log of CDs, but I'll limit this post to these three.  Enjoy.