Thursday, January 19, 2006

What's Playin' Here

Jules Dassin's "Night And the City" - the night, the lights, the depths and of course, London. (The bonus material - Criterion's usual A-grade job. Particularly Dassin's frank views about about his friend Elia Kazan and Dassin's blacklisting from Hollywood in the McCarthy years.) Look how Harry Fabian runs.
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William Wyler's "The Good Fairy". Preston Sturges wrote the screenplay. Who else has the chops to turn a dark story into a light comedy? Why can't Criterion do a Criterion for this film?
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"By George (and Ira): Red Hot on Gershwin", a cool, cool compilation of covers interpretations of the Gershwin Brothers' most well-known songs. An excuse to hear Billie, Nina, Sarah, Ella - and Janis, really. It's fun to hear vocal and instrumental interpretations of the same song in succession ("The Man I love", by Billie first and then by Miles Davis, as an example.) Guitarist Kenny Burrell playing solo on "Prelude II" and Stan Getz playing "Summertime" - now that's how jazz is meant to be played.

"Drum Hat Buddha", by Tracy Grammer and Dave Carter: A fine folk album with an occasional tendency to break into songs about wizards and ravens, which I find just a little embarassing. Other than those minor (and pardonable) crimes, the duo wrote some terrific songs.

5 comments:

wildflower seed said...

NOONE sings "I Loves You Porgy" better than Nina Simone (this is the live version, I presume), and ditto for Blossom Dearie on "Someone to Watch over Me". Wondering if you have heard Miles' "Porgy & Bess". I am not a big fan of his acoustic stuff, but this one's gold.

Happy listening/watching.

km said...

VB, that's the one, man. Blossom Dearie's version on the album is really terrific. But one of the revelations from this collection is Billy Stewart's 1964 version of Summertime. I love the early 60s R&B, but I had not once heard of this man. I've been wanting to check out Miles' Porgy & Bess for a while now. I've heard the album only in bits and pieces.

wildflower seed said...

Never heard of Billy Stewart before either, and I have not heard this particular compilation. I fell in love with Blossom Dearie after hearing her sing "Give Him the Ooh-La-La" on the Cole Porter Songbook. Such a cheeky tune, and she is absolutely perfect for it. There is also a 2-disc Verve compilation of Gershwin compositions ("'s Wonderful"/"'s Marvellous") in which she sings a really sweet "Love is here to stay".

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