SquawkRadio Comments

I just love JAZZ.  Wynton Marsalis is a wonderful trumpeteer. On Tuesday, he played at the Riverside Church memorial for Ed Bradley and he was excellent.  He was very emotional but you could tell that he played from his wounded heart for his good friend. So did all the others: Jimmy Buffet, Aaron Neville(Amazing Grace) pianist Alaine Toussaint and a wonderful ending to the service was a New Orleans funeral brass band playing “When the Saints Go Marching In”, It was wonderful to see everyone waving handkerchiefs in the air as tradition calls for in a final goodbye.

Liz, have you heard Bette Midlers new Christmas CD?  It’s great.
I love the new rendition of “From A Distance”.

*orannia sticks up her hand and hangs her head in shame*

I must admit to not listening to jazz (and also not knowing where to start but while I could play the ignorance card I won’t). So, any suggestions to enlighten me to the wonderful world of jazz would be greatly appreciated as I would like to learn Especially from the 40s - I love the 40s.

However, I think I can be forgiven to listening to nothing but U2 for the next little while. I went to the second NZ concert on Saturday night (they postponed their March dates because of a family illness) but they came back! They were last here 13 years ago (and I saw them then It was so worth the wait! And they played One Tree Hill!

orannia *who still sounds like she has been smoking constantly because of all the screaming and singing she was doing on Saturday*

This is one of my absolute favorites! I’ve had it since freshman year in college and it’s survived many moves. Another fav is Diana Krall’s Christmas CD, both the full length release and her first mini-release with the song from Charlie Brown’s Christmas special. (Sorry, can’t remember the name of it just now!)

Wow, Mary, I was going to mention the Charlie Brown Christmas special also! The music on that was such trendy jazz at the time, but it’s become truly timeless.

Now Liz, this is kind of Off Topic, but I love your weekly music blogs so much I just had to ask you about this. Have you ever heard of a rock guitarist from the Fifties named Link Wray? He did a guitar instrumental called RUMBLE that was a legend among future guitar greats like Pete Townsend and Eric Clapton.

The reason I ask is, after thirty years of looking around I finally found an album by him, RUMBLE THE BEST OF LINK WRAY on Rhino. (Don’t you just love Rhino records?) It’s twenty cuts of pure electric guitar rock and roll, mostly very up tempo rockabilly type rock. And there’s one really funny tune on there, “Run Chicken Run,” that would be the PERFECT theme song for SQUAWK RADIO!

Oooh, we have the whole CD of the Charlie Brown Christmas music.  It’s the perfect jazzy background accompaniment to having friends over for dinner during the holidays.  I adore it!

Wynton Marsalis and Kathleen Battle—WOW! I have no many CDs and tapes of Kathleen Battle and a couple by Wynton Marsalis. Battle’s is the best soprano I’ve ever heard. And nothing beats Marsalis’s laissez-faire and savoir-faire. This is a must-buy-ASAP album for me. Thanks a ton, Liz.

Whoops. A typo there… I meant “so many” not “no many”. 

Ahh Liz, is it really that time of year again? hmm..
I loved him in Ken Burns “Jazz” TV series..he made the show! What a talented family he comes from, all his brothers, as well as his dad were/are world class musicians!
Ho ho! ho!
Orianna, can I be your friend? What a lucky dog you are! U2! For them to play one tree hill is NEVER! ever!

Yup Ms Mary - very lucky! The amusing thing is, U2 haven’t played One Tree Hill since they were last in NZ - 13 years ago...so they had to practice it Unfortunately, One Tree Hill currently doesn’t have a tree - it had to be cut down (long story) and there are still ‘discussions’ going on 6 years later as to what specied of tree to plant! Sorry for the mass off-topic post BTW

Going back to Xmas songs, does anyone know a song called Snoopy’s Christmas (by the Royal Guardsmen)? When Snoopy flies against the Red Baron in WW1? It has to be the most popular song in NZ at Christmas - it just isn’t Christmas until you’ve heard it

orannia

Elsie, I just saw a piece this morning on “CBS Sunday Morning” about Bette and the new CD. It looks fabu. Definitely gonna check it out.

Orannia, you have so much wonderful music to discover! For the 40s, though, you’re looking mostly at big band stuff and swing. I’d recommend Duke Ellington and Count Basie to get you started. Great, great stuff. And we had “Snoopy’s Christmas” on a 45! I LOVED that song!

Oh, and the Vince Guaraldi score for Charlie Brown is another fave around here. “Christmas is Coming” is probably the song everyone’s thinking about. Or else “Linus and Lucy.” Both are perfect to put me in the Christmas mood.

Larry, I’m not familiar with Link Wray, so I asked my guitarist hubby about him. He wasn’t familiar with him, either, until he went to iTunes and checked out “Rumble,” which he’d heard and liked but didn’t know the artist. (I’m betting if the tune isn’t already on his iPod, it will be soon.) Thanks for the rec! (And yeah, I have more Rhino CDs than I can shake a stick at. *G*)

You’re welcome, Keira! I promise you’ll love this.

Ooh, I have to put this on my list to pick up.  I love Christmas CD’s!  I just bought a cheapy at Wal-Mart called CHRISTMAS SWING with greats like Tommy Dorsey, Fatts Waller, Les Brown, Louis Prima, Guy Lombardo, Benny Goodman, etc.  I am popping it in the CD player now.

My favorite Christmas CD at present is The Brian Setzer Orchestra, BOOGIE WOOGIE CHRISTMAS.

We have that, Susie! We love it! If you haven’t already, check out Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s Christmas CD. I blogged on it last year. It’s wuuuuuuuuunderful.

Thanks, Liz!!!  The previews sound awesome.  I’ll have to pick that one up for sure. (Probably first) Of course, I’ll never get past the 3rd track.  “The Year Without a Santa Clause” is my favorite Christmas show and the Heat Miser/Snow Miser song is my all time favorite Christmas song EVER!  Now I have it stuck in my head