Posts by El Somnambulo

This elegiac farewell to Lester Young was composed by Charles Mingus shortly after Prez's death, and appeared on his essential Mingus Ah Um album. The musicians: Charles Mingus, bass Horace…

McCoy Tyner's first recording after leaving the John Coltrane Quartet was 'The Real McCoy'. In both senses of the term. While the 1967 album demonstrated the spirituality that Tyner shared…

People who have never heard this still know that its opening riff was borrowed by Steely Dan for 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number'.  It's also one of my fave jazz…

One more passing from 2017. Pat Dinizio of the Smithereens.  This song had to be good to overcome that...hair:

I was listening to a show called 'Sound Opinions', which is out of Chicago but which XPN picks up and plays on Sundays. The hosts were remembering those we lost…

Does any song better sum up where we stand in January of 2018?  If so, I want to hear it. BTW, this song is 44 years old, which defines the…

I've received a warning from the Punctuation Police about excessive use of exclamation points.  This, however, is as far as it goes as we've reached the Top Ten. And a…