Monthly Archives: March 2008

The Best Norah Song?

Everyone knows Norah Jones now, thanks to her debut album Come Away With Me. While her albums since then have failed to impress me, there are still several songs of hers outside of Come Away that I enjoy. In fact, among my favorites of hers remains her song with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on their album, Medicated Magic, on which she sings “Ruler of My Heart,” beautifully. Backed with Robert Randolph and the steady strumming of a rhythmic guitar, along with several horns with their melancholy whining, Norah’s rendition of this love song is quite heartfelt.

Waltz For Debby

There’s a short list of jazz standards that I haven’t ever picked up. I’ve heard most of them, and they’re good, but none were so compelling to deter me from more important acquisitions such as nearly every Mingus and Monk released. Among those were Dave Brubeck’s Time Out, an excellent album that I picked up earlier this past summer when friends of mine who are newer to jazz discovered it in a record shop and ended up loving it. I’m fortunate enough to have seen Brubeck perform live, and while I know the album well, I’ve never owned it. Of course I’ve since remedied that situation.

More recently, I’ve finally decided to purchase a standard CD issue of the Bill Evans Trio’s Waltz For Debby. There are numerous versions of this album in an already extensive and excellent body of work from him, and though this is another album I know and enjoy, I’ve never bothered to own it for some strange reason. I encountered it on a friend’s recommendation while working in Georgia many years ago, and most recently I was reintroduced to it in the gold CD version while at a regional audio conference. And even though I pick it up every time I’m in a local shop (invariably there are used copies available), I always find other treasures that usurp its priority. But with a local coupon in hand and an unbeatable final price of around five bucks, how could I resist?