So I got this Toshiba Gigabeat for Christmas last year from my job. That is one thing about my work. They give away great gifts at the annual Christmas party. Last Christmas it was Plasma screen televisions and trips to anywhere in the world. Well, I won a 10 gig Gigabeat, which is like Ipod’s less attractive, lower IQ brother. Still, it was a nice piece of equipment, and to get it for free,well…who could ask for anything more? Well, I could. Five months in and it looks like my Gigabeat is no longer Gigabeating. Dead as dead. So, it looks like I’ll be shopping for an IPOD. Unless any of you have a better suggestion. It sucks that it died, but at least I didn’t pay for it.

Anyway, a lot of new music on your way this week. By request, I have added some more Billy Eckstine. Mr. B. What a voice! I’ve also added a live version of “Georgia on My Mind” by Ray Charles. Really nice. Again, thanks for all the great emails and compliments. It really makes running the station worth my while. It is probably my favorite hobby and the fact that it has taken off really gives me a boost of pride. I think it may have helped that I went for the ballad angle. You already have great jazz stations in Forever Cool and Dimensions in Jazz and Classic Jazz Corner. I had to go a different route if I wanted anyone to tune in. And you have.

By the way, I am always looking for obscure, lesser-known artists. If you have any suggestions, please come forth and let yourself be heard!

Thanks,

William

I don’t know if you’ve ever felt this way, but once I hit my thirties, I began to wonder if all my great artistic discoveries in life were over. Had I seen all the great movies? Had I read all the great books and heard all the great songs? Is everything from now on just a sequel, a watered down version of the original?

Tonight I was in the grocery store. Like always they were playing music over their speaker system. Normally, I pay little attention to what is playing. It isn’t that it’s bad. Maybe I tap my fingers a little as I cruise my cart up and down the aisles. But everything they play is like a pop classic. I’ve heard it all before. It’s not bad, it’s just nothing new. Well, tonight the song “New Frontier” by Donald Fagen started to play. Now, I remember this song from when I was a kid. I must have been nine or ten when the tune came out, but I loved it back then. I memorized every line. It had been years since I’ve heard it, but even tonight I found myself mouthing the words to the song. I never forgot those great lyrics.

Yes we’re gonna have a wingding
A summer smoker underground
It’s just a dugout that my dad built
In case the reds decide to push the button down
We’ve got provisions and lots of beer
The key word is survival on the new frontier
The imagery of it still gets me. I could even recall that great album cover.

Even the album cover evokes a certain Evening Melancholy feel. It is when the song got to the following lyrics that I realized something:

I hear you’re mad about Brubeck
I like your eyes I like him too
He’s an artist, a pioneer
We’ve got to have some music on the new frontier

Now, at nine or ten I had already been exposed to jazz, but didn’t know it was jazz or that the reason why I loved Charlie Brown cartoons or the television show “Taxi” were, in part, because of the music. Vince Guaraldi made those Charlie Brown specials great. The ones that came after Guaraldi’s input were good because of the material, but they were not great, in my opinion. The Guaraldi tunes cemented their greatness. The opening theme to “Taxi” is so infectious. Maybe it does begin to cross over into jazz fusion. I don’t know. All I know is that I love that song. I believe the title is “Angela” by Bob James. So I liked jazz, even then, but I didn’t know it was jazz. I definitely didn’t know who Dave Brubeck was. So when I heard “New Frontier” and I heard the lyrics about Brubeck, an artist, a pioneer, I figured he must be one hell of a painter. It was only tonight that I realized he was talking about the great jazz musician.

To make a long story even longer, that was what I was getting at with the title of this entry. A song I enjoyed almost twenty five years ago had a completely different meaning to me then than today. I loved it then and perhaps I love it even more now because the references make sense. “Casablanca” was a good movie when I was a teenager, but after I sank my teeth into World War II and as I saw more and more movies and read screenplays, I came to discover a whole new movie. Good became great. “The Germans wore grey. You wore blue.” Just the poetry of it bowled me over. With the station I am constantly discovering new artists, new songs, new listeners. What would life be without discoveries? Whether it’s art or other people or even ourselves. Having our eyes opened from time to time can definitely make life more interesting, and at times, more palatable.

 

So my friend Stacy and I went to see “Thank You For Smoking” today. Stacy is my independent film buddy. All of my other male friends pretty much go for the eye candy, shoot ‘em up, bang-bang type pictures, which is fine when you are looking for a nice palate cleanser. But the independent films are the ones that stick to your ribs. And “Thank You For Smoking” was definitely a rib-sticker. Isn’t it great when you watch a movie and a song comes on and you say, “Wait. Wait. Who is that? Who is that playing?” Or you watch a movie and you say, “Hey, that’s….” For instance, when I saw “Capote” (with Stacy), I said, “Hey, that’s Coltrane!” Or when I saw “Failure to Launch” (with my girlfriend. Relationships sometimes call for the obligatory so-so romantic comedy), I said, “Hey, that’s Madeleine Peyroux!” Well, today during the movie, I heard “Smoke Rings” and I said, “Hey, that’s…who is that?” When I got home, I immediately logged into IMDB and looked up the movie’s soundtrack. Lo and behold, it was The Mills Brothers. I should have known that. Regardless, I downloaded it right away from Emusic and will be adding it this week. I was also in a Sammy Davis kind of mood, so I am adding a few of his tunes. Etta James, as well. A live version of “At Last”. How bout that?. “At Last” was going to be my wedding song until about ten years ago when every single living soul on the planet decided to put it in their wedding. Still, it’s a great song. I am also adding some bonafide jazz players. You can see the whole list on the homepage. Lastly, I added two more Sam Cooke tunes. I know, I know. Sam Cooke is not a jazz singer, but please indulge me. I’ve enjoyed Sam Cooke since I was like eleven and I am only adding his standards, none of the pop stuff. This time around I am adding “She’s Funny That Way” and his version of “Smoke Rings” which was the only version I had ever heard before today.

 

I checked this morning and saw that Evening Melancholy is now 7th in the jazz genre and 149th, I believe, overall. My goal for this year was to crack the top ten and we’ve done that and then some. The amount of listeners has really grown since Live 365 put us up as a recommended station. Anyway, I want to thank everyone for listening and thank you for all the wonderful emails of support you have sent. Hopefully, we can keep going strong and continue to bring you great music. As always, if you have any suggestions or requests, please let me know.

William 

 

Well, here it is, another lazy Sunday afternoon. The birds are chirping outside my window. I’ve got a little King Cole Trio playing over the computer speakers. “I’ll String Along With You.” Remember when Capitol came out with that enormous King Cole Trio box set that contained all of their material? Is that still available or is it strictly an Ebay find now? Anyway, it has been a warm weekend here in Nashville. We hit the low eighties yesterday. The weatherman said we were about fifteen degrees above normal for April. Is no one utterly frightened by all of the weird weather patterns we have been having lately? Seems like warning signs going off left and right.

Speaking of climate changes and weird weather patterns, if you are a regular reader of this blog, you would have noticed mention of my friends Gaylea and Scott and the opening of their new packing and shipping business a few weeks ago. The picture below is a photo of the grand opening.

Well, six days later tornados ripped through Nashville and surrounding cities. The new packing and shipping business became an unwilling victim to the tempest. Six days of bliss and unbridled ambition and hope was turned into this

It’s quite a blow to know that your friends struggled so hard to get something going, then only six days later their dreams are completely shattered. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. My friend Gaylea’s response to this? “God is SO good.” Why? Because her mother was there when this happened and she came out alive. Evening Melancholy is blind when it comes to politics, race and religion. Jazz can not be categorized in that kind way and neither can the station or website, but you have to admire that kind of faith. It can all be gone in just a snap of a finger. Love ‘em while you have ‘em. Life is short. Cliched but true.

On a happier note, I spent last Sunday afternoon at the Frist Center here in town.

Once the downtown Post Office, the place was gutted and transformed into the Frist Center for the Visual Arts http://www.fristcenter.com It has been open since 2001 and provides Nashville with that added dose of culture we much longed for. I went to see the African Art; African Voices exhibit, which I found quite beautiful AND informative. I have also seen various painting and photography exhibits there. If you plan on visiting Nashville, definitely stop here. The exhibits are always interesting and the staff has been friendly and helpful every time I have gone.

As far as the station goes, I am adding two new cds. One is the But Beautiful cd by the late Shirley Horn. I will also add some tracks from the Thelonious Monk Quarter with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall cd. I guess I will add some tracks. I haven’t listened to it yet, so I am not sure if there is anything appropriate for the station on them. I also received a cd in the mail the other day from a guitarist by the name of Earnest Woodall. I like what he has done with the tunes “Night and Day” and “Body and Soul”, so I will be adding those tracks as well.