Seven Songs

I like to start my days off with a tune or a song: Sometimes I'm pensive, sometimes excited, sometimes frazzled and in need of a tune-up.

A good tune can calm my nerves, turn my morning around, or get me fired up. A good tune sticks, through thick, thin and stodgy times.

These have been most enduring:

1. Time Will Tell 
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers 
I came to know this tune very well in a dark time of my life, and it still is one that gets me through trying times. It's bright, with upbeat tempo and lace of sadness. It gives that feeling that not everything can be under one's control, but there is confidence shown in Blakey, Bobby Watson (alto saxophonist), Valeri Ponomarev (trumpeter) and David Schnitter's (tenor saxophonist) solos, and more; confidence that I translate into the belief that there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

2. 'Round About Midnight 
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers 
I love the blanket of the night. It stirs my imagination; it's when my creative juices simmer. It's also when I find peace. This song is entirely apt. 

3. Mack the Knife
Ella Fitzgerald 
The first time I heard Ella sing this, I beamed: conventionally sung by a male vocalist, this was given the woman power treatment, and Ella sang it with so much gusto, and fun. She never took the fun out of it. 

4. Fragile
Kenny Barron & Regina Carter 
The name of the song says it all. I love it when two great talents collaborate, and these two become a powerful force, though there is still fragility in the union. 

5. Diablo Rojo
Rodrigo y Gabriela 
Who knew two acoustic guitars could bring so much to the stage, and the world. When I first heard this tune I was blown away. I was floored when I ticked their concert off my bucket list.

6. Too Marvellous For Words 
Ella Fitzgerald
This is one I'll sing over and over again to my future kids. Because it's a marvellous song with all the right words and intentions, and we all know how important the right words and intentions can be.  

7. Sorriu Para Mim 
Rossa Passos 
I first heard this tune via an archived radio show of Rossa Passos' performance at Jazz at Lincoln Centre. Without being able to see her, even through a translator, I could feel her warmth, authenticity and how she smiled at me through this song (at 12.11 of the clip). "She smiled at me" is, incidentally, the title of this song.