I hate travelling, everything outside nyc hits me as being entirely irrelevant and the only reason I might visit is because I have friends or family I might want to see and who for some reason don't want to visit the center of the Universe.
Also, outside of nyc I am outside of comfort zone and while I usually don't look to music for comfort, I do at airports and tourist traps. So what took over my ears on a recent trip to orlando? The new Justin Townes Earle and the Complete Verve Recordings by the Teddy Wilson Trio.
Justin is a deep ache of an album, endlessly moving and straightforward and a move forward before it moves back. Teddy Wilson, the MArxist Mozart, who began playing his career in the same band as Armstrong before hooking up with another Armnstrong alumni, Earl hines. You can hear Teddy on many a classic recording by Billie Holiday, benny Goodman and Lena Horne. He was also the first blacksideman to play with a white band. Some claim right?
The Verve recordings were made between 1952 thru 1957 and while not up to his 1930s material, to a neophyte such as myself, it is a little 'tomato" or "tomartoo". Wilson swings through dextrous, light fingered instrumental takes of dozens of standards and listening to him on the way back from the boardwalk it was the supreme match of background and upfront music.
Teddy Wilson Grade:A
Justin Townes Earle Grade: A