It must schwing

A pal gave me the stunning DVD- BlueNote, A Story of Modern Jazz – guaranteed to make you jump up and schwing, to put it in Alfred Lion terms. Lion and his childhood friend Francis Wolff, built BlueNote into what it became from their pure love of the music. Lion was an immigrant from Germany when he arrived in NY with no money in the late 1930’s.  Jazz, the quintessential American music, discovered by Europeans. A new find is Junko Onishi – she’s a pianist who definitely heats up the room. 

Here’s ‘Senor’ by the great Horace Silver, who’s featured on the DVD. Excellent sound in a 1959 recording.

 

Then there’s John Coltrane, unmatched. My Favorite Things– a Rodgers and Hammerstein tune from The Sound of Music, another 1959 Broadway musical that my sister and I got to see, compliments of my dad. Mary Martin was the lead.

Here’s an incredible lineup; McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, Eric Dolphy on flute and alto sax. Nirvana.