Summer-er

I have some fantastic gems to share with you that I've found over the past months which I've neglected to post! Not a great deal is happening with my playing at the minute, the Summer has taken it's toll! Just practising the same exercises again and again, just keeping my lip in shape and trying to fix some long-term problems.

First things first, here's a YouTube video which I found while looking for covers to the Gnarls Barkley song "Crazy". I loved this cover so much, I just had to find out more about the artist, Katie Noonan. She's an Australian jazz singer who studied opera and classical-style singing along with jazz at the Queensland Conservatorium. After listening to her cover of Crazy, I listened to her album "Skin" which is a fantastic collection of original jazz tunes. She has also recorded an album or her own interpretation of Lennon & McCartney songs called "Blackbird: The Music Of Lennon And McCartney". She's definitely an artist to keep an eye on!

This is, however, my favourite cover of Crazy -> YouTube.

I found a fantastic cover by Flora Purim of Jaco Pastorius' Las Olas Farewell. It's hard to find recordings of this tune, as Jaco never recorded it himself, except on some of the New York sessions disks, which were illegally distrubuted. Jaco himself plays on this cover, and the lyrics really add to the song from Flora.

There's a great recording of West Side Story arranged by a pianist called Dave Grusin, which I heard years ago but I can't find a recording of it online, only to buy on Amazon. But he does have another album with the famous GRP All-Star Big-Band called Dave Grusin Presents GRP All-Star Big Band Live!, with some great covers of tunes like Manteca, Singx3, and Cherokee. The GRP has had some fantastic musicians over the years, and there are some great YouTube videos of them. My favourite has to be the trumpet feature they did on the tune Cherokee, check it out on YouTube!

My brother sent me a link to a fantastic album on Spotify by Banda Paralela called "Banda Paralela In Box" with some great covers in a Ska style.

The Summer just makes me want to listen to Chuck Mangione, and I just find myself listening to this tune more and more -> Feels So Good. You can find more versions on YouTube, like the live version and the version with his dad singing vocals.

I can't think of any more at the minute, I'm sorry I can't say more about what I'm doing at the minute! I'm genuinely just enjoying the Summer and chilling out, last term at college was drawn-out and stressful!

Hope you're all staying classy!

'til next time...

Thanks ~ The Jazzbone