Good Night

Good Morning

Whitstable and Faversham Visits / Book Finds

A couple of mystery shops done today. One in Whitstable, a charity shop, and one in Faversham, my local pub.




Lunch was the usual steak dish that I enjoy so much.

At Whitsbale for my five pounds spend I found these -




.. and these jazz compilation CDs -





.. a splendid haul I would say.

A busy week too. Thanks to one of the new companies I now work for (Ipsos) I have quite a few techy visits, such as mobile phones, multiroom speakers and smart televisions. Similar to jobs I do for MSUK  and I reckon they have the same clients but they pay more - almost twice as much per visit. I have eight this week!

Jazzy D's Jazz Melt

Time for some music and from a superb jazz collection is this absolutely spine-tingling song -

Shirley Horn - Summer (Estate)

From the album "Here's To Life"

Shirley Horn - Where Do You Start?

McCoy Tyner - Naima

Bill Evans - For All We Know

Bill Evans - Like Someone On Love

The jazz cat is in a mellow mood.

Enjoy.

Catch Up Time

Just about to catch up with some telly - University Challenge, Cloak and Dagger, more Star Trek DS9 and Supergirl.

Meanwhile, here is the title track of Here's To Life (sung live by Shirey) and yes ordered the album from Amazon for £6.

Shirley Horn - Here's to Life

Wire magazine reviewed it in 1992 saying -

"With Sarah gone and both Ella and now Carmen out of action for some while, the baton has rather suddenly passed to Shirley Horn and Abbey Lincoln. According to the textbook, it ought to be Betty Carter, but she is still seen as too individualistic by those who like their standards, whereas Horn and Lincoln stay just the "right side" of idiosyncrasy; oddly enough, all three are signed to the same label. (Cassandra Wilson, as well as being the wrong generation, hasn't even arrived in the standards league - just in case you were wondering).

This is obviously the album which, with its strings arranged by Johnny Mandel (whom we now have to call "ex-Natalie Cole" rather than "ex-Basie"), is designed to make Horn's status obvious to a wider public. There's a George-and-Ira, a Richard-andLarry and three by Mandel ("A Time For Love" is his best-known here) as well as more recherche stuff, but the material does present problems for me. Not only "If You Love Me", written by (and only right for) Edith Piaf, but the title-track which is a straight steal from Aznavour's "Yesterday When I Was Young" plus a middle-eight lifted from Michel Legrand.

And talk about a midnight mood . . . if you listened to this in the wrong frame of mind, you'd certainly drop off, for hardly anything rises above the snails-pace that was impossible for singers pre-Carter (the film theme "Return To Paradise" is the exception, and features the only half-way heated slice of Horn piano). But, if you listen receptively, you can hear that her almost verbatim readings contain a wealth of subtlety, and her extraordinary voice (going more than an octave below middle-C at one point) can get painfully hypnotic after a while.


I sold some old paperbacks for a fiver in Faversham anyway whilst in town, today, which has gone towards this purchase

Tara for now. 

Just Wondering

What are some red flags to watch out for in daily life?

If your job gave you a surprise three-day paid break, what would you do with those three days?

What food is delicious but a pain to eat?

Good Night