DEC 24, 2016 – What You Missed Earlier in the Week (Thanks to Me not Writing About It!)
So Wednesday my granddaughter Zoe and I ran some errands. The trip included: Walmart, the library and Lowe’s. For the trip to the library was an album that ‘i picked up at the Princeton Record Exchange a while back. It is a compilation album of tracks from albums that Jimmy Smith recorded on the Milestone label, during his brief tenure with the label. The album is titled Milestone Profiles: Jimmy Smith.
Milestone Profiles: Jimmy Smith.
Jimmy Smith has always been a jazz favorite of mine. My first exposure to jimmy Smith’s dynamic organ playing was the album The Dynamic Duo, he recorded with Wes Montgomery. Eventually Jimmy Smith’s Greatest Hits album became a favorite in my music rotation. That album introduced me to Jimmy’s hits like “The Champ” and “The Sermon” Through the years many Smith albums have been added to my music library!!
Here’s some information about the album from AllMusic…..
……the music on this volume in the Milestone Profiles series is compiled from albums Smith recorded between 1989 and 1993. Apparently Smith’s contract wasn’t exclusive, since there are many other titles of new music issued in Europe or Japan. There is one exception, though, and a fine one. Included in this nine-cut set is a version of “The Sermon” with Eddie Harris from 1981, taken from an album called All the Way Live. Apparently — and astonishingly — this was the only time the two ever played together, and it’s the best thing here despite some flaws in the actual recording. The rest is a collection of mild swingers, blues, and standards like “Midnight Special” with Stanley Turrentine from the Fourmost album in 1989 — Kenny Burrell and Grady Tate were the other players on the session. And there are three other cuts taken from either this date or the Fourmost Return disc that was also issued in 1990, recorded a day after the first. “C Jam Blues,” with Terry Evans playing guitar, is another high point here, from 1989’s Prime Time. The music throughout is certainly of high quality and would give a novice Smith listener a fine portrait of his mastery as an organist. Read More
I agree that the version of “C Jam Blues” that opens the album is great! I missed “The Sermon” on the CD because the CD was skipping on that track! i guess I’ll have to clean the CD and hope that it works!!
A Side Trip to the Library
When we got to the library, my plan was to go in , drop off the two books that I finished and leave. Not! I came out with three books. They will all be due back to the library near the middle of January. So maybe they will give me a good start on my reading for 2017.
Two of the books are not like books I typically read. The first book is Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave….From Goodreads
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Little Bee, a spellbinding novel about three unforgettable individuals thrown together by war, love, and their search for belonging in the ever-changing landscape of WWII London…..
Reading the praise on the back of the book I was intrigued…..
“Cleave has the extremely rare power of making you smile with lively language and clever observations while thoroughly, irreparably breaking your heart – New York Newsday
“Cleave kick-starts his stories from the first breath and never takes his feet off the pedals” – Washington Post
“Inspirational and moving… Cleave is acutely intelligent wordsmith. Some of the sentences cut so deep you want to scream out in pain and recognition – The Time (UK)
Sounds good to me. Last year one of my Reading Challenges was to read more general fiction and/or literature. In addition I wanted to read award-winning books. Maybe a Pulitzer Prize or a Man Booker Prize. Both the above book and the following book fit in that Challenge,. The next book was All That Man Is by David Szalay All That Man Is was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.
Again from the back cover of the book…
“Each story (there are nine in the book) is a beautifully crystallized vision of what it is for a man to be a particular age: insecurities about body and money, the wait for life to feel like it’s really got going; the sudden realization that this is all there is…. It’s hard to imagine reading a better book this year” – The Times
Overall both of these books seem like winners. I hope they live up to their billing!
The final book is a mystery, Stone Coffin by Swedish author Kjell Eriksson. I enjoyed reading one of Eriksson’s previous books The Princess of Burundi. So I am looking forward to this one.
Ok so it’s almost 11:30 on Christmas Eve and my day began at 4:45 this morning so my brain is fried…..See you tomorrow hope you have a Merry Christmas!
t
