Bobby Hackett is supposed to have said of Louis Armstrong, “Do you know how hard it is to make a melody come alive?”
Dan Barrett knows so much about making the notes on paper come alive while honoring the composer’s intentions. Here he is at the 2009 Jazz at Chautauqua, offering an early-rising audience Meredith Willson’s TILL THERE WAS YOU, with great affection and sublime skill. He’s accompanied (in every way) by pianist Keith Ingham, bassist Frank Tate, and drummer Pete Siers:
Hackett would surely have admired this performance.