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Condor (Theme From "Three Days Of The Condor") - Dave Grusin
I originally picked up Dave Grusin's Cinemagic last summer on a buying binge, and was intrigued by the timbre of this track. A few weeks ago, I rented "Three Days Of The Condor" from Netflix, and was delighted to hear this smooth piece playing over the opening credits. I read on some website that it sounded like music from a skin flick. If that's the case, then Dave can get funky with his bad self any time, and it's fine by me. And speaking of... |
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Sexe - Line Renaud
This is one of those lounge pieces you'd expect to hear playing at a dinner party in an episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. or something. The vocals are so loungy and sexy, sounding very late-50's Henry Mancini. I don't know what role Line Renaud plays in this tune, but whoever he or she is is fly. |
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Time Out Of Mind - Steely Dan
I remember first hearing this one at a cross-country meet on my Discman in the fall of '95, the summer after Steely Dan came on my radar and hooked me. Several weeks ago, my friend Katie and I checked out Steeling Dan, the local cover band, and they jammed out on the bridge chords ad infinitum. It was a beautiful thing. What the lyrics mean, I have no idea. But, that's par for the Steely Dan course. |
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And Love Goes On - Earth, Wind & Fire
I love the intro on this one. The rest of the tune, I could take or leave, but the intro (which is repeated later on) is awesome. It embodies a big, bombastic, horn-laden sound over a fun progression of chords. I promise, I'm almost done citing EWF. Almost. |
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Prayer - Phil Keaggy
I had the privilege of playing piano with Phil Keaggy this past weekend at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, MN. This song was our opening instrumental, serving as the call to worship. In the days between the Tuesday rehearsal and the Saturday service, I fell in love with this song, especially the bridge section, whose fusion-esque chords and guitar style reminded me of the early days at Grace Church in St. Louis. In that moment, Phil Keaggy took me back to my first love. |
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Court And Spark - Joni Mitchell
St. Louis' very own Dan Ayres and his lovely wife Debby turned me on to Joni during the summer of '99. Though I'd heard her name mentioned in conjunction with James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and Carole King, I'd never explored her solo work. This whole album is a masterpiece, but the title track kicks it off with a tasty piano part and Joni's haunting alto. And it only gets better from here. |
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I Will Be Here For You - Michael W. Smith
The first time I heard this song was when my sister sang it during the "Take It To The Max" spring musical, put on by the JAM junior high ministry at Grace Church in Edina, MN. This was in 1995. Nine years later, the song evokes memories of my early days of Christianity. Coming up on college and additional uncertainty, Smitty had his way of indirectly (or openly, as this song's title attests) offering his support. |
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Holy Is The Lord - Chris Tomlin
I'd been playing keys all summer at the Upper Room, an experiential worship community in the Minneapolis area. For a few weeks in a row, we played this song, which was a powerful undertaking. Everytime the "together we sing" part comes up, I get goosebumps, made all the more electric by playing the organ part over those changes. God is holy indeed. There is some awesome modern worship out there. |
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Before Today - Everything But The Girl
I'm a big, big fan of electronica/groove-type music played mellow, and voiced by a mellow female vocalist. No matter how hard the edge of the music is, that kind of voice always softens it up. Not only that, but there's a synth part playing parallel perfect fourths during the chorus that sounds terribly similar to "Out Run", again satisfying my Sega Master System fetish. This piece fits into the whole Dido/Zero 7 genre...a great piece to play late at night with a candle burning. |
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Life In A Northern Town - The Dream Academy
I finally took the plunge and snapped up the all-but-extinct library of obscure 80's tunes, Living In Oblivion, from BMG a week or so ago. Seriously, these guys reached deep into the forgotten corners and pulled out what they found there. To my knowledge, this is the only collection that features "The Captain Of Her Heart" by Double. Anyways, I hadn't heard this song before the collection arrived, and had a nice feel to it. Mix-worthy. |
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Synchronicity II - The Police
Talk about dark. On the Police's final studio album, this track stood out as a radio favorite, alongside "Every Breath You Take" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger". The subject matter is a bit sketchy; the only thing I can extract from it is a dual theme concerning an overworked, suicidal executive, and a creature crawling from the loch and descending on a lakeside home (ala The Grim Reaper in "Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life"). I first heard it on KQRS in Minneapolis, and was taken both by Sting's voice and the dark ending, where he sings "many miles away" over and over. I bought the boxed set to ensure that, somewhere, it would be on there. |
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Bread And Wine - Cowboy Junkies
Props to Mick Johnson for opening my eyes to the dark mulling of the Cowboy Junkies. This track features some wicked Hammond organ behind the singer's haunting vocals. That pretty much captures the essence....I'm looking forward to digging deeper into the Junkies' catalog. |
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It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference - Alison Krauss
Being a closet Todd Rundgren fan (well, actually, I'm pretty open about it to those who'll listen), and a new, ardent admirer of Alison Krauss' angelic pipes, I was totally delighted to hear this marriage of Todd's perfunctory classic performed in a relaxing setting. This has a nice Nashville pop sound, with tasteful guitar soloing, and reserved piano licks from the king of Nashville piano, Matt Rollings. And, man, what a voice. Again, thanks to Mick Johnson for the hook-up. |
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Blame It On The Moon - Katie Melua
Just additional proof that you can't judge a CD by its jacket. The jacket in question had all the trappings of a Susan Tedeschi-style, run-of-the-mill blues record. I popped it in skeptically, wondering what form of modern rock she would try to emulate and then find her voice in. However, there was none to be had. The Russian-born, England-raised Melua struts a sassy line between burlesque cabaret and laid-back warbly ballads...no hard-edged blues on the radar here. It sounds like a composition of Andrew Lloyd Webber, plucked from a Broadway musical. This song came up in the mix as I drove home from work yesterday, and it was just the thing to set the mood for the evening. One of those heart-strung songs you can't exactly relate to, but feels like you should. |
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Journey's End - Rippingtons
After picking up 1996's Brave New World right before heading down to St. Louis and Webster University, I was hooked on the smooth (but not too soft) sound of the Rippingtons. With a well-established catalog still unpurchased, I started with their previous release, Sahara. It was a cold November day, and the Webster Groves Streetside Records was still in existence when I picked this one up. And this track is just gorgeous. Every time it comes on, the warm guitar of Russ Freeman takes me back to those cold nights, and served as a musical fireplace. Hard to believe it's only about 3 minutes long. |
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Still Crazy After All These Years - Paul Simon
This is the live version from Paul's Concert in Central Park, which I lifted from the 1964/1993 boxed set. This is a gorgeous song, painfully well-written, and this version features the late Richard Tee, very much at home on the phased-out Fender Rhodes, and filling the gaps with achingly tasteful licks. The sax solo is by Michael Brecker, reproducing his original solo from the 1975 album. |
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Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - Tower Of Power
I jumped in at the last minute at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie a couple of weeks ago, and this was our instrumental prelude. It was a blast to play, and it's got a steely kind of drive to it that has always caught my ear at first listen. |
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Captain Jack - Billy Joel
We conclude tonight's mix with the same track that served as the denouement on Billy's starmaker album. This epic opus starts with a faint pipe organ in the distance, quickly joined by piano (natch), bass, drums and guitar. I first heard this song during my sophomore year of high school, right after I'd picked up Billy's Greatest Hits album. I was reading Roy Gallant's book "Our Universe" during my first listening, and I now always think of the outer planets in the solar system and Saturn V rockets. The spacey pipe organ almost justifies it as the theme to a sweeping space opera or something. Bittersweet, poetic lyrics. A smashing hook. Those are the ingredients of hits. Along with the secret sauce, of course...the recipe for which only the greats have the touch. |
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