Road Trip Playlist
On the road with Johnathan Blake and Hans Glawischnig up in Canada this past week we’ve spent many hours in the van driving and during that time have listened to some great music.
Yesterday Johnathan was primary DJ and here’s a sample of what we listened to; My good friend David Binney’s release “Welcome to Life”. Great writing and playing on this. David is joined by the always killing Chris Potter on Tenor, pianist Craig Taborn, Adam Rogers on guitar, Scott Colley on Bass, and Brian Blade on Drums. They all play wonderfully as usual and David’s writing is terrific. It’s a very fresh sounding record in that David’s diverse influences have led him to a composing style and language that’s unique and original. Great record.
Next was “John Coltrane live from the Showboat” with Roy Haynes on drums and a barely audible Jimmy Garrison on Bass. Evidently McCoy was late to the gig so they played trio and it’s stunning. We listened to a blues and Trane’s solo on it is incredible. After that we stayed with Trane and listened to a cut from “Live in Stockholm”, this time a minor blues and again Trane’s solo is killing.
After that was a couple tunes from Kurt Rosenwinkel’s new record which was recorded live at the Village Vanguard. The band is Mark Turner on Saxophone, Adam Goldberg on piano, Joe Martin on Bass, Eric Harland on Drums, and of course Kurt on guitar. Kurt is a great musician and a really strong song writer. I remember when I first heard him years ago at Berklee and was struck then by what a great vibe his tunes had. I must get this CD. Great playing by all.
Another Tenor titan was next up for us and this time it was the incredible Sonny Rollins. Trio from the mid-1960’s, the song was “There will never be Another You” and Sonny was taking care of business as usual. I don’t remember the actual name of the record but it wasn’t the Live in Stockholm version. Actually Nels Henning Pedereson is on Bass this time. Any way, Sonny Rollins is one of my all time heros. I’m a little hazy on what came next but think it was Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Evidently there’s a new version out that includes demo tracks, songs that didn’t make the record, and interviews. It’s pretty interesting to listen to and I was reminded of how much I love that record.
We followed that with “Off the Wall” again the new version with interviews and demos. That’s a great record too and one I hadn’t checked out. Need to get it.
Finally as we pulled into Patterson, New Jersey to drop Johnathan off at home we where listening to “Tribe Called Quest”. The first record…the title I don’t remember but it’s so funky. Johnathan has recorded with Q-Tip by the way.
Listening to all this reminded me of how much great music there is in the world. So much to listen to, so little time!
Peace – Donny
