Bloggerhythms

The late saxophonist Paul Desmond rose to fame as part of The Dave Brubeck Quartet. He still has the honor of being the man responsible for the biggest selling jazz single of all time, "Take Five." His hit also appeared as the first track on Brubeck's classic Time Out LP way back in 1959. Desmond rode shotgun in Brubeck's car (some even say he was the driver) so it's not surprising that he also wanted to make his own records. According to Doug Ramsey, a highly regarded jazz journalist who wrote the liner notes for both the original five CD box set and the awkwardly titled, ten track sampler culled from it, The Best Of The Complete Paul Desmond RCA Victor Recordings Featuring Jim Hall , Desmond made an agreement with Brubeck that if he recorded on his own it would be without a piano player. Your first thought could be, here is another example of commerce getting in the way of art but the pact turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the agreement allo...

Billy Joel recorded an excellent cover version of Freddie Scott's "Hey Girl" in 1992. His take of the Goffin - King song possessed just as much soul as Scott's original and was released as part of Joel's 1997 compilation, Greatest Hits, Volume III . It features a great sax performance by Everette Harp. The remake reached # 13 on the U. S. Billboard Adult Contemporary music chart but it was beaten by Scott's 1963 hit that went to #10 on the Hot 100. The opinion here is that Joel's newer version is the superior of the two.

Not long ago Bloggerhythms went on a tirade about Dr. Dre's soundtrack to the film  Straight Out of Compton . You can read my harsh words here if you so desire. My opinion of the album's lyrics and of rap music in general remain unchanged. However, I do believe there are excellent spoken word recordings made by musicians of substance. Perhaps the most noteworthy example - one that's almost too easy to embrace - is the work of the late R&B and jazz musician Gil Scott-Heron. Scott-Heron's most famous song/poem is "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." It's a spoken word treatise that could be considered a political diatribe by some. He first recorded it for his 1970 debut album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox , a whole record of such fare on which he performs in a live setting with only bongos and congas as accompaniment. The following year the musician re-recorded "Revolution" again with a full band for his more musical album, Piece...