Teasing the Korean

Of course. The Nervous Set. The senior brain...

I did not know that!

Some have suggested that Paul sharing songwriting credit with Linda on Ram was a maneuver to minimize the negative effects of Beatles-related legal entanglements after the group's breakup, but I don't remember the details.

I don't know Tommy Wolf, not that my lack of familiarity with him should be a barometer of fame, but it's very possible. May Dad and his then-songwriting partner wrote a song recorded by Duke Ellington. They share songwriting credits with Ellington and Gordon, not that the record earned any royalties to begin with. IIRC, Elvis has a songwriting credit on one of his own big hits. He never wrote a song in his life.

I'll ask them to ship it via media mail so I can save a few bucks.

It was very common for publishers and/or famous artists to share songwriting credits with unproven songwriters.

It is proto-downtempo loungey electronica.

Does that include shipping?

I had Round Midnight and Kind of Blue before I had In a Silent Way, and before I heard Bitches Brew. I also had Miles on the Charlie Parker Savoy box. Not sure what you are asking about Dave Brubeck, though...

So are these tracks available? It looks like I will have to speed-correct them, along with the Bud Powell Roulette album I asked about recently!

She probably never heard it. I guess you also know that Kern tried to get a law passed that would prohibit musicians from taking any kinds of liberties with his songs? Thankfully for us, and for the jazz world, the law didn't pass.

I guess you know the story of Kern's widow clutching her pearls and reaching for her blood pressure meds when she heard the Platters' version of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." By today's standards, the Platters' version sounds like a pretty straight, respectful reading of the tune. Some musicologists have suggested that Kern's "They Didn't Believe Me," from 1914, might be the first of what we now call "Great American Songbook" standards, in its use of more vernacular "Americanisms."

My all-time favorite vocal version of "The Song is You" is by Keely Smith, with Billy May. Yes, you sometimes find some surprising, non-functional chords in those old fake books, and even old piano sheet music. If you spend enough time with them, they challenge your assumptions about harmony and what is and is not "hip," or "hep."

Precisely. The ii-V-I approach can be an improvement in some instances, while also being a way of dumbing things down in other instances. Rodgers' original harmonies for "Dancing on the Ceiling," for example, are much more interesting than the changes that jazz and cocktail lounge guys typically play. Back to "The Song Is You:" One edition of The Real Book actually had a Dm7-G7 at the end of the bridge, completely undoing the effect of the deceptive cadence!

This would have been my assumption. Thanks for clarifying.

Well, you never really know how they arrived at what they did. Was Kern thinking of precisely what I just described, or did he arrive there from following a different path of logic?

Well, not having followed them from gig to gig when I was six years old, I wouldn't know that.

I love Jerome Kern's "The Song is You," and I especially love the deceptive cadence at the end of the bridge. If we are in the key of C, for example, the bridge ends with, more or less, an F#7 to a B7, suggesting it will go to E, but instead abruptly going back to the home key, C. I just realized the other day, playing the song on the piano, that if you play the B7 chord as a B dominant 13, and then flat the 13th before you go to C, you have within that larger chord two augmented chords: a B augmented - B, D#, and G, but also, interestingly, a G augmented: G, B, and D#. This means that the B7 augmented is also subtly functioning as a G augmented, which would suggest the V (G) going to the I (C). So, at the end of that deceptive V7 chord, you have a hint of the true V7 chord. This may be obvious to most of you, but this just occurred to me. I'm sometimes amazed at how many simple musical things have been staring me in the face, but it takes me decades to notice them.

Michel Legrand - Symphonic Suites from Umbrellas and The Go-Between.

In the not-too-distant future, you will probably be able to custom-order this album via AI.

Agreed. I would argue that Bernard Herrmann fulfills a similar function as a gateway into film music. His association with so many cult directors - Welles, Hitchcock, dePalma, Truffaut, Harryhausen - must be partially responsible. And like Miles, Herrmann's career spanned a number of styles and periods. Considering that his first film score is Citizen Kane and his last is Taxi Driver, you know you're in for a wild ride.

Last night: Mother Nature's Son by Ramsey Lewis. Love the Moog interludes between tracks!

In addition to what I learned through my parents, I had four good jazz resources in the generally suburban area where we lived: A weekly AM radio big band/swing show A community FM radio station that played jazz on weeknights Monday-Thursday An NPR station that played jazz after 11; I would go to sleep with this. Peaches Records, which had an extensive jazz LP section, including affordable twofers, and a massive cutout bin. I was listening primarily to acoustic jazz in high school, but a friend had Bitches Brew, and we used to get high to it. At around this time, I picked up In a Silent Way, based on some things I read, and I thought it was simultaneously more interesting while also providing a good chill out vibe. To this day, I much prefer In a Silent Way to Bitches Brew. Either way, I think it is a safe to say that Miles has served as a jazz entry point for more listeners than any other single jazz artist.

Thanks all for these recommendations.

Thank you!