WARM-HEARTED EXPLORATION: DAVID SILLS / MICHAEL KANAN: “SWEET AND LOVELY”

From David Sills’ “The Sweetest Melody” CD on Gut String Records.  Sills and pianist Michael Kanan create beauty — searching and generous music that lives up to the song’s title.

The video was recorded in December 2011 at the Drawing Room, Brooklyn, New York.  To listen to and view more music from David Sills’ The Sweetest Melody session, and other Gut String Records releases, visit here.

The man behind the camera, string bassist / composer Neal Miner, is also someone you should know.  And in a few days — on Friday, September 7, from 7:30 to 10 PM at Smalls (183 West Tenth Street, Greenwich Village, New York City), Neal will be leading a small group featuring saxophonist Alex Hoffman and drummer Phil Stewart — music for the mind and heart.  Click  here  for the schedule at Smalls.

May your happiness increase.

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SHE BROUGHT THE SUN TO US

This beautiful photograph — new to me — was taken in 1954.  The source is “Apic / Getty Images,” but it appeared on the Facebook page VintageBlackGlamour.

This is the iconic image for me — not the martyred heroin addict, bone-thin, clutching a glass of gin, but a woman in complete control of the music she is creating.

With Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Edmond Hall, Jimmy Sherman, Freddie Green, Walter Page, Jo Jones in 1937: an art that needs no one to remix it:

May your happiness increase.