We had a virtual school board meeting on Monday night. I am the Technology Director at a school district which means the job of streaming the meeting falls on me. It has been nice to be able to sit at home and participate in the meetings that way. Usually I have to wait around in my office at work until the meeting starts at 7:00 PM. Then depending on how long the meeting and my half hour drive home it is usually straight to bed.
Already being home gives me the ability to have dinner with my wife. It also allows me to sit in my office downstairs and spin some records while I am waiting for people to join the meeting.
This week in general has been pretty crazy, I had the wireless go down at one of my buildings so between fixing that, my other duties, and playing around with CUB Finance I have needed some soothing tunes.
Many people consider Aja to be the best of all the Steely Dan albums. There are others who feel it is actually one of the greatest albums ever made. While I am very familiar with Steely Dan, I just picked up my first copy of it at a record store this past summer.
Personally, I really think Aja is a great album and I would probably agree that it is one of their best if not "the" best. If the song "Old School" was on it I would say hands down it is the best. I really love that song.
Seeing Steely Dan has been on my bucket list for a while now. I am pretty sure Donald Fagen still tours, but since the other half of the duo passed away a couple of years ago I am not sure it would be the same.
I'd still love to see Fagen at some point in my life. He has some really great solo stuff in addition to the work he did as Steely Dan.
This is definitely the kind of music that you just want to sit in comfy chair with a whiskey/whisky in hand and relax all night to.
I couldn't tell you how I first heard about Pro'xima Parada even if I tried. If I had to guess, it was probably recommended to me by Spotify after I finished listening to something else. That is usually the way it goes.
I have really come to enjoy them. They have have a bit of a Jazz/Funk/Soul/Blues sound that something inside of me can really attach onto. One of the types of Jazz that I really enjoy is the organ style which usually relies pretty heavy on the Hammond B3 or some emulation of it.
This band makes me think of that style every time I listen to them.
I was reading about them on their Spotify artist page the other day and I think the main reason they got together is because they wanted to make music that makes people happy.
I think they might have a new album coming out this year, so I am pretty excited about that. If you have never heard of them before I really recommend you check them out!
Finally, it is only fitting when talking about Jazz that I leave you with a little bit of Coltrane. I know, I know, this video is actually of the Brandford Marsalis Quartet. Believe me, if I had been able to find a video on YouTube of the original I would have.
The main reason I used this video for the song "Giant Steps" is because I wanted you to get a real idea of just how complex the saxophone parts are on this song. It's one thing to watch a players fingers dance over a piano keyboard.
Quite another to watch a set of lighting fingers fly over the valves of a saxophone.
Oddly enough, I think it was Big Band music that really drew me into the Jazz sound. I know it isn't the route most people probably take to discover a love of Jazz, but for me, it just kind of worked.
Anyway, I hope you find these selections as relaxing as I did this week.
If you have been listening to something awesome this week, let me know about it in the comments. Better yet, write your own post and use the #weeklyspins tag!
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