Jazzcast 3: Vocals

Hello and welcome to a special edition of the PB Podcast – the Jazzcast. On this edition of the jazzcast I focus on jazz vocalists. The main focus of this jazzcast is classic jazz vocalists – you’ll recognize many of the names from Lena to Ella to Nat King Cole and Mel Torme. The last set has more contemporary vocalists, but the style is generally classic.

I wasn’t a big fan of jazz vocalists when I first started listening to jazz, but through the years I started appreciating what vocalists could do in the jazz idiom, and I started listening more closely to singers. I have stayed away (Mostly) from the lush instrumentalism that I find in much of the vocalist oeuvre – I’ve never been a huge fan of strings to accompany singers (or other jazz players – Charlie Parker with strings? – pass). Most of the songs here are done with stripped down bands – the trio of songs with Clifford Brown are amazing.

So, sit back and enjoy this podcast of great singing. Thank you.

Download here

August’s New Podcast

Hello and welcome to this week’s podcast. Lots of favorite songs in this ‘cast. I packed this with some of my all-time favorites, starting with Go-Betweens and Beth Orton. Lots of Brian Eno – a song, and then the bed in-between sets. Includes a few long-forgotten (but not by me) great tunes by Winter Hours, The Clique and Pylon. I even throw in a Beatles tune. Enjoy.

Download here

Links Post

Hi there. I thought that I’d share a couple of links with you from things I’ve read on the interwebs. They are worthwhile reads.

1. The New Yorker has a great article called Wrong Answer that has to do with the recent cheating scandal in the Atlanta school system. Even if you know the basics of the scandal, this article humanizes the problems.

2. Vox has a good piece called Why the Myers-Briggs test is totally meaningless. I’m an INTJ – sometimes an INTP – the final has always been my weakest score. I always thought that it was a bit facile, even if it did a pretty good job of defining me.

3. Another New Yorker article, What we really taste when we drink wine. I like wine, but ‘m not sure how well I’d do in blind tests. I’m not as much of a snob as others would suggest.

4. Finally, on TNW is an article called Why we crave human-curated playlists. Don’t know why that happened to strike me, other than my belief that it is true. Maybe I didn’t give Pandora enough of a chance. Oh, and have you listened to my latest human-curated podcast?

Podcast Special – 2014 releases

Hello and welcome to this special edition of the PB Podcast. Today’s podcast looks at the first 6 months of the year as I play some of my favorite releases from 2014. I’ve read and listened to other 1/2 year wrap-ups, and while I occasionally see one of the releases that I love, I haven’t seen all of them – this is my corrective.

So, sit back and listen to an hour’s worth of great music from Real Estate, Beck the War on Drugs, Sharon Jones, Rosanne Cash and many others as I play some of the best music from the first half of 2014.

Download here

And now we are 6 Podcast

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the podcast. We have loving, laughter, crying and other emotional outlets for today’s show. As always, please leave comments about the show – maybe you have a suggestion for am actual name for the podcast- should I try to have a regular opening to the podcast? Answer these questions on the comments. Meanwhile, listen to another great hour of music. Thank you for listening.

Download here

Extra: Jazz Podcast 2

Hello and welcome to the 2nd jazz podcast. While the first jazzcast focused on new music, this one has music from 1947 to 1961. It’s more of a Jazz 101 type pod, as some of the songs are considered classics. We start with Stan Getz (pre-Bossa Nova phase), slide into Clifford Brown, then get a classic Oliver Nelson tune that is followed by Cannonball Adderley. The final set has Mingus, Monk and Bill Evans. Beautiful music. Thank you for tuning in.

Download here