Jaga Jazzist - "Toccata" - Live at Le Poisson Rouge, NYC 2011

Janis: Little Girl Blue

Highly recommended biopic about Janis Joplin. Through the years, I have come to appreciate Janis, especially from my ex-wife, Ellie and stepdaughter, Cassie.

It is amazing how I know all of her songs as they unfold in the movie and I knew that her life was quite troubled but the true pain is revealed in the flick.

Seeing all the faces of her band members, friends and relatives it appears evident that Janis just could not ever grow old; her work had to be that of a young person and probably would not have translated well into middle and old age.

Like Amy Winehouse, the lack of real love or perhaps the need for a love that just does not exist in our corporeal world, in the end, was the downfall for both Janis and Amy.

R.I.P. oh great women singers...

Kew Rhone

Flying home from Cartagena I had my iPod and decided to play one of my favorite albums of all time. Recorded about 40 years ago, it is called Kew Rhone. This is a truly avant garde jazz-classical work. To me, it is a desert island choice for the top 25 albums I would listen to over and over again. Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's I wrote two quasi-classical pieces that I called "Jazz Symphonies." I entitled them the New York Jazz Symphony (1987) and the California-Oregon Jazz Symphony (1991). These were feeble attempts at what is the ultimate Jazz Symphony, Kew Rhone.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfnSkp4DObyaP12v2d5fPBrY28FVaUcrv