Too relatable for any lifelong jazz fan. A few of my favorites:

Get excited when, in the noise of the mall, you hear the perfect high-hat rhythm. Only to find that it’s coming from a coffee machine.

Feel surprised when you see a photograph of musicians that’s in color.

Start using phrases like “Dig it!” or “Solid, man!”

A young barista with a nose ring notices your T-shirt with Satchmo’s picture—trumpet to his lips, eyes wide. When she smiles and says, “I love jazz. I saw Michael Bublé in concert,” you scream, “Bublé is not a jazz musician—he’s a lounge singer!” …

One of my favorite people in the Apple Community is Sal Soghoian, formerly with Apple and now a free-agent automation sensei. One thing a lot of folks don’t know about Sal is that he is a Berklee trained guitarist and ridiculously talented.

Sal has a YouTube channel, Playing the Coda, where he shares some of his music. The trick here is that in nearly all of these tracks he is simultaneously playing the melody and the bass line. At once. On one Guitar. Watch closely. Here’s is George’s Blues.

Bill Evans is one of the best pianists ever to play jazz. He was the moving force behind Miles Davis’ outstanding Kind of Blue album. I once heard that Miles would sometimes call Bill and ask him to lay the telephone receiver on the piano and just play.

Bill was famous in his day and, as a result, got plenty of gigs. As a result, we’ve been getting plenty of previously-unreleased Bill Evans recordings, but a recent one, Bill Evans Treasures, is fantastic. It’s a series of recordings made in Denmark over four years (1965–1969).

There is a bunch of trio work and some features he did with the Royal Danish Symphony Orchestra and the Danish Radio Big Band. It is those recordings that I can’t stop listening to. Arranged by Palle Mikkelborg, the orchestrations are a fascinating showcase for Bill’s piano. You also can’t help but note how his playing changes with the bigger ensembles. It makes me wish more of the greats of that era had the opportunity to play in bigger groups like this and how they would have sounded. This album is a new favorite for me and can be a great start or addition to your Bill Evans collection.

There are some remarkable contemporary jazz artists making traditional bebop jazz these days. One of my favorites is the Yayennings Quartet. It’s an interesting instrument composition with trumpet, tenor sax, bass, and drums. There is no traditional comping instrument (like a piano or guitar). Instead, the trumpet and sax frequently play soft chord tones behind the soloing player.

The trumpet (Jay Jennings, who also is the composer) and tenor sax (Bob Reynolds – yes, that Bob Reynolds) play tight melodies flawlessly. They just released their second album, YAYennings, Vol. 2 and every track makes me smile. Enjoy it this weekend.

This week I’m featuring Wayne Shorter, who we sadly lost this week.

Wayne was a tenor and soprano saxophone player and tremendously talented. Back when I was a kid I met a guy that played with Wayne in the Army. He explained how Wayne, even back then, was on a different planet from everyone around him. As a kid, I used to listen to his solos with the Jazz Messengers. But he was a fixture in jazz for his entire life, playing both traditional jazz but also with cutting edge bands like Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet. Then he changed the face of jazz with his participation in Weather Report. In researching for this post I found this great article demonstrating how Wayne changed jazz.

You could listen to any Wayne Shorter album and enjoy it. But if I had to pick one, it’d be the 1966 album “Speak No Evil” (Wikipedia)(Apple Music).