Why jazz
I keep coming back to jazz for the same reason I keep coming back to long dinners with good friends — it rewards you for paying attention. A standard you've heard a hundred times can land completely differently in a new arrangement, a new voice, a different city. It's a music that insists you slow down.
"Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time." — Ornette Coleman
Swing era or modal, Sinatra or Simone — the common thread is that unmistakable feeling of being let in on something intimate. That's why I keep listening.
On heavy rotation
Cool · 1959
Dave Brubeck
Take Five — the time signature that taught me to count in 5.
Swing · 1920s–
Louis Armstrong
Warm weather in trumpet form. Nobody plays more like a smile.
Voice & steel
Nina Simone
A whole room of feeling in one held note.
The standard
Frank Sinatra
The way he lets the band breathe. Phrasing as a life skill.
Kansas City
Count Basie
The sound of a big band swinging without ever rushing.
Cabaret · purr
Eartha Kitt
Wit, mischief, and a voice that absolutely knows it.
Rooms I've been lucky to sit in
Toronto
Poetry Jazz Café
Kensington Market's living room — tight space, serious players, the kind of night you walk home from slowly.
Aarhus
Erlings
A small Aarhus bar where the music does a lot with not much. Often the best kind.
Aarhus
Turkis
Low ceiling, warm light, good glassware — a place designed for a long second set.
Jazz
Standards
Live music
Cool jazz
Cabaret
Vinyl
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