Well, friends. It's that time of the week again, Sunday evening & I have to go back to work again tomorrow morning at 7:00 am. How am I going to spend the last hour of the weekend before I go to bed? Well, I have one of the greatest jazz albums of all time playing in the background, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis.
Now, I don't consider myself a jazz expert by any stretch of the imagination. I have no idea what key they're playing in, I don't know which cats played on which sessions, I didn't even know until recently that Kind of Blue was recorded somewhat out of key. I only have a modest collection, some Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday & several others, but until I complete my Miles Davis collection, I don't know how much I'll broaden my horizons. I only have one friend who's really interested in jazz, little Dan, & he pointed out to me that the greatness of Miles was due to the fact that he didn't have to outplay everybody else to get his sound across. Not only did he allow for his bandmates to shine, but he also allowed for the brilliant silence that can occur between the notes you play. Sometimes greatness comes from what you don't play, as opposed to filling every waking second of a song with a superfluous note.
Speaking of blues, I finally painted the bathroom after Mike & I did some extensive drywall repair a few weeks ago. The color was originally a lighter blue, which I was quite proud of. However, I felt as though it would be a waste doing all that work to repaint it the same color, so I went four or five shades deeper blue. It looks ace, save for the one time I tagged the ceiling, which I'll repair tomorrow. For the record, Duration Home tinted with envirotoner tint makes for the best interior paint money can buy (you can't get it everywhere, it's a little trick that you can only get in Grand Haven).
I want to put framed albums of Miles' Kind of Blue & Joni Mitchell's Blue in there, but it might look silly.
Five Favorite Songs of the Day
All Blues-Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
Blue in Green-Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)-Bob Dylan, Amsterdam 2007
A Case of You-Joni Mitchell, Blue
Highwater (for Charley Patton)-Bob Dylan, Amsterdam 2007
Have a good week, friends...
andrew
3 comments:
The only thing I know about Miles Davis is that the Cosby Show used to pay homage to him years ago. I'm not a fan of jazz even though I played baritone sax in a jazz band in high school. At least that's what it was called even though it was big band music that we mostly played. Another time, Dad and I attended a concert of the Ramsey Lewis Trio at Concordia,RF. It was a very boring concert. I'm glad you got to "jazz" up your bathroom!
There are lots of good "blue" jazz albums out there. You could display an iconic album cover of John Coltrane's "Blue Train." It might be hard to find but a picture of Tina Brooks' "True Blue" album I am sure would look good in their too. Also it is an under-rated jazz album according to Mel and Me.
The term "brilliant silence" appeals to me. I feel the same way about verbage. Sometimes what you do not say is most effective.
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