Recently I sent some music links to a colleague (who also makes music), and her remark about Jazz was that she only likes very few selected pieces.
So do I. Ok, I can deal with hot fusion stuff like Snarky Puppy, because I could also (at least partially) dig people like Frank Zappa when I was younger. Plus what Snarky still have are melodies. Search Christian McBride’s documentary (also on my blog) about them for this.
So it’s melodies, but it’s also rhythm – as long as you can sing (or at least remember) the melodies, and/or even dance to the rhythm, it’s a good song. And so two of my currently favourite Jazz Standards are both Bossa Nova tunes, can you believe it?
The first one is from Horace Silver, and it’s called “Song for my father”:
And the cover photo indeed shows his father John, who was from the Capverdian islands. Horace wrote this in the house of Flora Purim, and so he combined a Brazilian Bossa rhythm with an old Capverdian folk meldody to write this masterpiece.
What totally got me was not only the theme and rhythm, but also the sax solo from an (at the time) young man called Joe Henderson.
And so the second tune I want to recommend today is on Joe’s first album under his own name. It was written by (the trumpet player on this) Kenny Dorham, who was also kind of a mentor for Joe and other, younger musicians. Kenny’s most well know song is also a Jazz Standard, and it’s called “Blue Bossa”:
Time- and priceless, don’t you think? The soli, and the slightly different melody when it comes back after those soli (and the bass solo is really cool!); wonderful. Sunshine music, both of these tunes. Love them.
Thanks for reading and/or listening.