Spring

Ah Yes!

Moving into my favorite time of year (at least that's what I'll say until the same leaves that have yet to make an appearance this year are turning all shades of fire and orange and yellow in the fall, when THAT will be my favorite time of year, until next spring, say March 22nd, when THAT will be...etc...etc)

I don't know, though. There's something about the waking up of the earth (and consequently of our souls!) that far outshines all other times, all other climes. I love the tropics, and have ducked out of a fair number of winters at various longitudes (Hawaii, Far East, Caribbean)/similar latitudes (Tropic of Cancer), but there does feel to be a certain pay off for getting through another winter up here.

New Calendar Posting

Finally got some more "web presence" when I realized yesterday that I could publish my ical calendar on the web through .mac (or my other server I believe). The permanent link is to the left. Check here to see my playing schedule.

Tunes

I've just been playing through the great tune "Some Other Time" on piano. Foremost in my mind is Bill Evans' great reading of it on the record "Waltz for Debby" ('61). But there is also the amazing version of Tony Bennett killing it on a later Bill record - the duo record they recorded "The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album" ('75). And the fly in the ointment is of course the mind/ear bending version of "Peace Piece" from "Everybody Digs Bill Evans" ('58)(all these records I'm mentioning are highly recommended). Not for the faint of heart. That harmonic system of the tune - C major to G7sus - is so locked in, that when he starts "bending the air" at around 3'50", the point is made with an exclamation mark: rules are made to be broken.

Interesting: I've had that record "Everybody Digs" on vinyl and cassette, but never the CD. So I just went to download it at iTunes and lo' and behold, there is an outtake of "Some Other Time" which was unknown to me. Bill did a take of the intro to that tune, which became "Peace Piece", and the take of "Some Other Time" got shelved as a result.