Music I'm listening to now...

Two recommendations for you:

Miles Davis, Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet. This recording has a song I hear as a bumper on Fresh Air all the time, and I finally decided to track it down. The song that I've been hearing for a few years now is a tune that starts off with the piano playing the song of London's "Big Ben," before Miles kicks in with a harmon muted trumpet solo on "If I were a Bell." It's a great tune, and sets the scene for the rest of this album that sees Miles at the top of his bebop game, prior to jumping into his fusion era. I dig the bebop stuff much more than his fusion, and having a taste of this Miles disc, I'm jonesing for more. My only issue is that it doesn't sound to me like Coltrane is at the top of his game, though this I'm sure is sacrilege. All in all, though, this makes me long to be in New York, hanging out in a smoky jazz club, sharing a beer with friends and enjoying the mix. There's a great ballad, "You're my everything," and some really hip fast paced tunes that make me smile. Every song's a winner. It's $6.00 at iTunes, and I've been finding it really enjoyable to listen to while I type away...or do taxes. At the very least, buy the ballad. (Everyone should have a few jazz ballads for playing at 1:00 in the morning, preferably with a glass of wine--or even better, Scotch and a cigar).

Recommendation #2 is a jazz album everyone should own, and one which I should have bought years ago. It's Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. A classic album, one which everyone has heard before in all kinds of movies or TV shows. Just check out a sample of Take Five over at iTunes, and you'll instantly recognize the tune. It's a landmark recording, noted for it's use of nonstandard time signatures, as opposed to straight-up 4/4 time, or a jazz waltz feel, the typical time signatures for jazz music up to that time. It's a classic.