From Sibelius to Selma Savolainen. Finnish Jazz Part 1

I play music from the early days of Jazz in Finland up until today. And quote from Jukka Perko about what makes jazz Finnish.

Because a lot of Finnish names are long and their pronunciation is often quite different from what we English speakers might expect, I've no doubt butchered some of the names in trying to pronounce them (even though I truly did some research in trying to pronounce some of them). So to compensate, I'll write down the spelling (at least the English spelling) of most of the names of the musicians who play on this podcast. I'l also spell the names of the tunes.

Here goes: from the first selection to the last:

- Seppo Kantonen / keyboards

Get ready for Part 2 next week.

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Some more great recordings of (mostly) tunes that I've discovered from Chuck Sher's "Standards Real Book". They include (not in order):

Songs you'll hear are:

All My Tomorrows

Bluesette

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Good Bait

(How Little It Matters) How Little We Know

The Days of Wine and Roses

The Slow Hot Wind (aka Lujon)

'Tis Autumn

Night and Day

A House is Not a Home

And here are the musicians and singers I'm playing. Guess who is singing or playing which song?

Tony Bennett, Lenny Breau, Bob Dorough, Sarah Vaughan with Jimmy Rowles, Emmett Cohen w. Houston Person, Nina Simone, Mose Allison, Dizzy Gillespie, Joshua Redman w. Gabrielle Cavassa, Robi Botos, Frank Sinatra, Ted Nash.

Focusing more on the song than the artist---tunes in The Standards Real Book. I've taken some of the songs I've tried to play on the piano....and listened to some different versions of them. I'm playing for you some of the best versions of some of my favourites. The tunes for this week are:

-The Summer Knows (written by Michel Legrand): a guitar version by George Benson

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Thanks.

-Larry

Once again I play a few recordings that I found myself listening to and enjoying over the summer. Some of them are new releases, a couple aren't. Six of the nine tracks are by Canadian artists, one is from Havana, and two are American.

Yes, we're into Autumn. And as much as I love the Fall season, it's hard to let summer go. So I'm playing some favourite recordings that I've been playing over the summer---most of them new cd's and many of them by Canadian jazz artists.

Part 2 of my two part series where a jazz artist plays it again---sometimes some years after they originally recorded that tune, and other times just a few months later.

You'll hear two renditions of the same tune by Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Noah Haidu, George Crotty, Joe Sample, and Louis Armstrong.

If you want to hear some of the many different renditions that Fats Waller recorded of his tune**, Ain't Misbehavin',** this is the show for you.

And if you are fascinated by So What by Miles Davis---again, I recommend you listen to this podcast. That's because between the two them, it takes up half this episode.

The episode is called "Play it Again Sam", inspired by the quote (that was never said, by the way) from the classic film, Casa Blanca. And more directly related to that film, I play two different versions of the tune that Sam was supposed to play 'again'---As Time Goes By. These are versions by the great jazz violinist, Stepane Grappelli.

The episode starts with the much under-recorded Canadian pianist, Steve Holt, and a composition that he wrote and first recorded 42 years ago as a piano solo---and this year re-recorded it with Toronto's finest jazz musicians. And it's a beautiful tune.

Rounding off the show are two dramatically different Frank Sinatra renditions of an old standard.

Some great swinging jazz; jazz that doesn't require a drummer.

You'll hear recordings by Edmonton saxophonist and clarinetist PJ Perry and so many others. Includes a delightful track by the late Sheila Jordon, a duet of Bill Evans and Jim Hall, and the new release by Toronto guitarist David Occhipinti. Some great music all the way around!