After the first uplifting (kind of) election result since I moved to Britain, let us relish socialism's return to the accompaniment of some old time afternoon jazz. I inherited a whole bunch of records from my late uncle and am slowly working my way through them and finding little gems.
Stan Getz - Her
Gorgeous innit? Sentimental perhaps, but come on; it's got all the confident panache of a classic Bogart/Bacall melodrama!
J.J. Johnson - Who Will Buy?
J.J.'s trombone tone is something I always react positively too, but rarely has it been so sing-a-long-friendly as here. And how awesome are those shuffling drum-shifts?Basie's Bad Boys - Love Me or Leave Me
Early Count Basie slays. Tightest swing there is.
Django Reinhardt - Finesse
A tune that lives up to its name. Every line, every single note, is simple elegance incarnate. The little clarinet flourishes round 1:30 give me the shivers.
Johnny Hodges & his Orchestra - You Walked Out of the Picture
That perfect voice of sadness shows up on a whole bunch of old Johnny Hodges recordings, and apparently it belongs to a Mary McHugh, whom I haven't been able to find a single picture of. I guess she walked out of them, and left an air of delicate melancholy for us to build a fantasy around.
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