Dec 31, 2020
I can't imagine there would be much traveling on this COVID-19 New Year's Eve, but if so, please take extra care and pick that designated driver!
A perennial favorite song for New Year's Eve, and the Official SNC Song of the evening is Frank Loesser's classic, "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" It was written in...
Dec 28, 2020
2020 was an especially cruel year for jazz musicians, and we lost so many talented masters this year that I don't think I have completely grasped the impact their passing will have. A few we lost to COVID-19, others simply to old age. Some of the eleven musicians I honor in Podcast 786 were friends, and others were...
Dec 26, 2020
Jazz history is replete with brothers who played and recorded with one another over their careers. I can quickly think of the Montgomery Brothers (Wes and Monk), the Heath Brothers (Jimmy, Tootie and Percy), Randy and Michael Brecker, Nat and Cannonball Adderley, and Winard and Philip Harper. So many others only...
Dec 25, 2020
Merry Christmas to you all. I am a practicing Jew who does not celebrate Christmas as the birth of the messiah. However, I can appreciate the universal themes of peace, love and understanding that are prevalent this time of year, and so the Official Straight No Chaser song of Christmas Day is "Peace" written by...
Dec 24, 2020
It's December 24, which means that once again it's time to break out the Official Straight No Chaser Song of Christmas Eve. It's not really a song, actually, but Louis Armstrong reciting "Twas the Night Before Christmas", in his inimitable raspy voice.
Recorded on February 26, 1971 at his home in Queens, New York, this...