fasstrack

Yes, King Pleasure, Moody's Mood, Jon Hendricks, and Eddie Jefferson---big ups. I was referring to some of the more modern attempts in my curmudgeonly OP.

He's also well-regarded as an arranger. One example is Natalie Cole's 1997 Ask a Woman who Knows. A great musician who covers the waterfront.

True dat.

FWIW there's a transcription of Wynton's solo on a calyso, Little Tracy, in some book of solos.

Vocalese being the practice of setting a lyric to an improvised solo (as opposed to scat singing or writing a lyric after the fact to a jazz standard, a practice I often don't enjoy). I'm trying not to name names here---out of respect for the talents involved, and the great technical prowess sometimes involved in these efforts---but a lot of the end result, well, gets on my nerves. There, I've said it. I guess I find the lyrics silly often, and the use of 'hip' language corny and frankly even embarrassing. Far be it for me to put a whole art form down and all the work involved, but I'd like to know how people feel.

One of Papa Lou's most revealing statements in an interview: He wouldn't play Monk because he 'couldn't sell it'. Still, happy 89th to a veteran and curmudgeon.

Not bad at all....

Julian Lage=MF.

That She Shot Me Down album is anoften overlooked winner. "Good Thing Going", "Hey Look, No Crying", "Monday Morning Quarterback" are all effective as Sinatra songs. I like what he did with Good Thing Going. I'm becoming a big Sondheim advocate. I've been Jonathan Schwartz-ized......

Getting back to Ahmad, very few pianists (or any instrumentalists) have the touch, spacing, or sense of building he does. If he's accessible on top of that it's no crime IMO. It's hard to believe they put him next to Montavani and such though, but if y'all say so....

Yep. He felt he needed a chart buster. A complicated man indeed.

I liked All the Way Home (a track, not an album) from '83 or thereabouts. Generally, in view of his earlier great taste in recording the best of the ASB, I wonder if he was making the decisions as he got on.

Long live Bill Finegan!

Absolutely nothing. Just ruminating on the great Blue Eyes' questionable choice of repertoire in his later years.

Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, anybody?.....

Looks like 70's-80's Sinatra, and quite possibly one of those albums he should have never made.

He got a lot of knocks from critics. Happens to a lot of popular jazz artists.

To quote Sinatra regarding Jonathan Schwartz's negative view of Gordon Jenkins' work: 'That's just one man's opinion'.....

Was A Man Alone a song with lyrics by Rod McKuen that was the title of an all-McKuen album by Sinatra?

Uh oh.......

Great record. Thanks!

I felt bad to read that Sonny was unsteady on his feet and needed help getting on and off the stage. I hope he's among us for some more years.

And the radio tributes are pouring in: WBGO in Newark and Jonathan Schwartz. Schwartz featured some masterful ballad singing, including These Foolish Things with the seldom-heard additional lyric. His interpretations were daring and original and his instrument exemplary. We lost an artist and visionary.

Happy birthday indeed! A great man.

Great photos!