New Performance Videos!

This past Sunday I had some time to get another batch of four tunes recorded for YouTube. I've got quite a bit of variety going on with these videos. This time I've recorded Donald Fagen's classic post Steely Dan tune "I.G.Y.,"  a swing era standard, a 1960's Mose Allison tune, and even a classical piece by Schumann.

First off, here's "I.G.Y.:"

I've loved this tune for a long time, and just recently decided to get a swing/jazz arrangement together. The tune works very well as a jazz tune whether it has vocals or not. Its got some very nice chords, a great melody that fits nicely in my upper vocal range, and a fun, optimistic late 1950's perspective of what a perfect future would be like. I ended the tune with a reference to a familiar Steely Dan tune as well, which just kind of happened and stuck!

Next up is "Tangerine:"

This is an old jazz standard dating from the early 1940s.  I've been working on this one for a very long time. Getting both the chord melody at the beginning and the improvised choruses of this tune together were tough due to the constant chord movement. I think things came together pretty well in this recording. 

"Traumerei:"

 I came across this arrangement of the Schumann piece in Mel Bay's "Masters Of The Plectrum Guitar." This arrangement was done my Mel himself in the late 1950s. I like doing an arranged or classical piece every once in a while to break things up and give me a different type of challenge.

"I Don't Worry About A Thing:"

I've recorded this Mose Allison tune a few times, but not yet for this blog or my new YouTube channel. I love the humorous lyrics in this one, as I do in most of Mose's tunes. Being a basic blues its fun to just "let loose" on the improvised choruses. I look forward to doing a few more of his tunes in the near future.

Hope you enjoy!