“…many, perhaps most of the great things that get done in this world, especially in the realm of art, are done by people with no common sense whatsoever.”
so writes Terry Teachout in the mailbox section of today’s blog post. He was responding to an email he received wherein the correspondent mentioned some young dancers “who had so little common sense and so much passion for dance….”
Family and friends may wonder why we toil at projects that hold so little hope of substantial financial gain, and I guess passion is as good an answer as any. The image of a starving-artist-in-the garret loses its allure with age and the fires of idealism may be reduced to smoldering embers, but creative passions never die.
Rifftides offers a short list of recommended holiday music so I thought I’d tell you what’s coming through the speakers at our house during the holidays:
- Leon Redbone – Christmas Island
- The Three Tenors Christmas (Carreras, Domingo and Pavorotti)
- A Jazz Piano Christmas (Benny Green, Junior Mance, John Lewis, Tommy Flanagan…)
- A Nancy Wilson Christmas
- Christmas with Etta Jones
- Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song
- Jimmy Smith – Christmas Cookin’ (smokin’ big band arrangements by Billy Byers)
- Stevan Pasero – Christmas Classics for Guitar (tracks range from Pachelbel’s “Canon in D Major” to “Deck the Halls”
- Guitars for Christmas — Joe Negri (MCG Jazz)
If rock music is your thing, best check in with Carl over at Cahl’s Juke Joint
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Meanwhile Anne, over at Just Muttering, has discovered Classical Trumpet?! I was glad to see a comment mentioning The Canadian Brass. I love that group. Luther Henderson wrote some really wonderful arrangements for the quintet (2 trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba). I’m posting here the first two-and-a-half minutes or so of their rendition of Brass Toccata as performed at a memorial celebration for Luther. (Sorry, the recording quality is not great.) They’ve done lots and lots of recordings — from Pachelbel and Vivaldi to Fats Waller and Gershwin — so I’d be surprised if you don’t find one that includes some of your favorite selections.
Can’t believe that Joe Williams isn’t also coming through your home speakers! I lifted a glass (of orange juice) in honor of his birthday yesterday and thought of you guys as well!
xoxo
Shame on me! I stared to say that I wished Joe had recorded a Christmas album, but then I kinda sorta remembered that maybe he did. I couldn’t recall the title and I didn’t find it on our shelves, so I waded throught the listings at amazon.com and sure enough I found it — That Holiday Feeling (Verve/Polygram) — and ordered a copy.
We do lift a glass to Joe almost daily…usually at martini time.
Apparently I should have worded my “discovery” more carefully. I knew about fairly sedate classical trumpet (Purcell, chief among what I knew) but not such lively, exciting stuff.