Looks like the last time I posted anything here was 2009, a virtual lifetime ago. Won't bother with catching up, let's dive back into the music...
What I've been listening to, according to my iTunes:
Túnel Acústico, the new album from Marcos Valle, the giant of Brazilian music whom I did not discover until the fall of 2023 when his 1983 hit "Estrelar" came blaring over the speakers at my our kids' eye doctor's office. Though I didn't get Valle's Portuguese lyrics, the melody grabbed my ear. I immediately set to researching him and his music. Valle is 81 years old and still making music and touring the world, believe it or not. He has been active since the mid-1960s when the Brazilian samba music came to the USA. His "Summer Samba" is a jazz standard still performed by musicians today. He has recorded sporadically for British label Far Out Recordings and various Brazilian labels since 1998 and I have acquired several of those albums.
"Pleasant Valley Sunday" - Carole King....never knew this was one of her tunes, always associated it with the Monkees. I have her live version from a tour in the early 2000s.
"All My Life" done by the original songwriter Karla Bonoff. Again, didn't know she was the songwriter, always associated it with Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville's ethereal performance of it from the late 1980s. Bonoff's voice agrees with it quite nicely.
"Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy" and "Jingle Bells" Buck Owens and His Buckaroos. Vintage 1965 Buck, Buck-O-Caster guitar in full effect.
"Angela" the "Taxi" TV show theme song done by its composer Bob James, the extended version from his album, "Football" in the 1970s and a newer live version done with James' jazz trio.
"Eva Comin' Down" by Ryan Ellis, a West Coast Christian artist who raps on this new hip-hop single. Nice music break near the end.
"Sao Paulo" by Chic, the second track from their seminal self-titled 1977 album. This is a laid-back jazzy track, atypical of their usual funky music. Believe I heard this on SiriusXM and whoever intro-ed the tune said Chic's bass player Bernard Edwards wrote the tune after the group toured Brazil.
¶ 6:20 PM 0 comments
