The only thing better than getting a surprise CD as a gift is finding a CD that you bought a long time ago, and then completely forgot about.
Not that this happens to me, or anything.
Music editor Connie Philips over at Blogcritics invited a handful of us to submit short entries discussing our favorite record of the year.
As you’ve read previously, this year’s choice was a tough one for me. Still, in the end my pick probably wasn’t a shock. There are no shockers in the BC Writers’ List, but there are some very interesting ones.
Honestly, it’s got to be the ultimate recording for this time of year. I never get tired of it, and even occasionally listen in the middle of the summer.
So raise a glass of egg nog and give a listen to A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The title is a little misleading here as the following list of recordings have languished, through absolutely no fault of their own, on my desk for some time. They deserved their own review space, but my brain parts never came up with a decent angle.
So check out the 2007 edition of Saleski’s Island of Misfit Musical Toys.
What? Another list?! Well, I toyed with the idea of combining everything, as well as not having any sort of numbering scheme. Ah, what the heck!
So here are the jazz records that I played the most this past year.
Now is the time of year when we bust out our top 10 lists. I love reading them and they’re a lot of run to write too.
The only problem is that I let that danged Josh Hathawayget the better of me. I’ll do better next year.
Wow, and here I had thought that the train of music trailing from John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards had gone dead. Not so! Michael Blake, former member of the Lizards, has put out this spectacular recording.
It’s been snowing like crazy around here lately. So far, this is a very different winter from what we’ve been used to. This is also the first time ever that I’m tired of winter before it has officially begun!
Anyway, I needed to music to calm me down.
I have been waiting to make this announcement since some time last summer.
Now is the time.
I was contacted by author Ted Gioia a while back. The letter arrived in the mail. Hmmm….from Texas? I don’t know anybody from Texas. The letter turned out to be an invitation to write for a new website to be launched near the end of the summer. I stared at the sheet of paper, somewhat in disbelief. After a few minutes, I regained my composure and fired off an email, accepting the invite.
Like with all major website launches, there were delays. It’s always the software. I should know, as I write that stuff too.
Jazz.com focuses its review material on individual songs. Let me tell you, writing fifty to one hundred words on a single track was a challenge. Unlike most of the rest of my writing, I was not allowed to ramble! After getting my head (and ears) wrapped around that constraint, the task actually became a lot of fun.
So check the site out. There’s a lot of fine writing there including reviews, interviews, blogs, etc.
It’s sort of hard to believe that so many years have gone by, but John Lennon’s life was taken all the way back in 1980.
Check out the tribute penned by Josh Hathaway, Dawn Olsen, Matthew Brewster, and yours truly over at Confessions Of A Fanboy.