Listening Journal: Louis Armstrong
Cherokee by Wynton Marsalis
Cherokee is skillfully-composed MP3 jazz by Wynton Cherokee. The song is from the album ‘The Essential Wynton Marsalis’ that was released in July 2007. The musicality is mind-blowing. I was carried away by the song, thanks to the harmonizing instrumentals that the performers played with a lot of comfort and ease. Regardless of the tune’s blazingly fast tempo, Marsalis’ solo swings hard and deep. The composer’s sense of tremendously amazing. Together with his trumpet skills, Marsalis performed something that can be easily considered ‘insane’ by the majority of jazz lovers. It would have been difficult for me to accept that the performance was done purely by manual instruments if I did not watch it. One can easily mistake the tunes to have been made by a computer. Notably, at one instance is the performance, Marsalis takes beautiful circular breathing to do a fifteen-second phrase of 8ths and what he achieves is remarkable and so tasty. Additionally, the pianist, Marcus Roberts, did a fantastic job not to overshadow Marsalis’ trumpet sound. The majority of jazz trumpet players often lack integrity while performing, but Marsalis managed to bring integrity back to the forefront of jazz improvisation on the trumpet. Cherokee could possibly portray Marsalis as the greatest Classical jazz trumpet player, and I would recommend it to anyone who desires to listen to high-quality jazz performance.
Recipe for Love by Harry Connick Jr.
Recipe for Love was composed and released by Harry Connick Jr. in 1990. The track became one of Connick’s notable breakthroughs after being ranked number eighty-six in the UK Singles Chart on release. It, however, topped the jazz charts in the same year. The music is glorious and of high-quality. Connick and his performers hit the instruments so hard, yet superbly harmonizing the sounds to make completely outstanding jazz. Connick’s vocal is also astonishing. It seems like he did not consider adhering to the principles of making rhymes, but his close-to-spoken performance has both high and low chords that make it exemplary. The excellence of the song portrays Connick as a young genius, highly talented, and gorgeous jazz performer of all time. The song is easy to follow, and the lyrics are not challenging to understand and memorize. I listened to it two times, and the third time I was singing along with the artist. Besides, Connick’s word-choice while writing the song is commendable. He uses simple and decent vocabularies that significantly expand the capacity of his audience. Parents can listen and play the song with their children anytime in front of any crowd. The track is awesome, and I would also recommend it to all jazz lovers who have not listened to it yet.
So Beautiful by Robert Glasper
So Beautiful was written and released by Robert Glasper in Jun 2015. Just like its name suggests, the music is all about love and beauty. What makes it even better is how the introductory part is done. Glasper begins by pressing the comforting piano keys, and drumbeats and guitar strikes follow him. The performance is honestly cool and startling. The control in the intensity is greatly remarkable. Glasper and his performers create a peaceful and romantic product that one can listen to during this pandemic period to relieve some stress. The track is undoubtedly splendid. The rhythm of various chords in the track is chronologically arranged to ensure that the movement from one key or intensity to the next is brought up in a unifying and complementing way possible. Besides, the visuals are gorgeous. Using black and white colors in shooting the video makes it easy for viewers to focus their minds and concentrate only on the sound of the instrumentals. There are no visual destructions that could make a viewer shift their attention while watching the video.
