“THE SWINGIN’EST”: THE DON STIERNBERG QUARTET (ANDY BROWN, JIM COX, PHIL GRATTEAU) Bandcamp, 2024

I am out of my league, shall we say, when it comes to sports — real or metaphorical. So please don’t expect me to tell you how many “home runs” Don Stiernberg hits on his new CD. But it’s lovely, unaffected, sometimes witty jazz.

Here’s a sample, before anyone gets restless:

I am sure that if you turn to the Arts and Culture section of your Sunday newspaper or whatever sophisticated periodical you might subscribe to, the prevailing notion is that Art, if it is to be taken seriously, has to be knotty, complex, reasonably inaccessible. There is a place for Art that welcomes us in, that makes us feel that this human-being enterprise has more rewards than the headlines. This may mark me as an aesthetic simpleton, but I turn to music that brings gladness to my ears. And this CD does just that.

Don Stiernberg is a master mandolin player with lovely technique: each note rings clear and resonant. But he is more than that: he is a master musician, someone with intellect and emotion in a light-hearted balance. He could offer torrents of notes, but he knows better. His phrases breathe; we sense that he has something he wants to tell us, and that we will be better for hearing it. He knows the harmonies, but his solo work is an embrace of the melody and how it can be turned to the light so it glitters even more. And in Andy Brown, guitar, Jim Cox, double bass, and Phil Gratteau, drums, he has a compact orchestra that would lift any soloist. They are a working band (hooray for working bands!) and we feel their comfort.

One more sample before we go to the details, no?

SWEET CHORUS:

That’s wonderful music. It’s not “Easy Listening,” but it certainly is easy to listen to. The songs are for the most part classics, but they don’t feel tired or overdone by these musicians: THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE / SWEET CHORUS / COME FLY WITH ME / DETOUR AHEAD / IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU / WRAP YOUR TROUBLES IN DREAMS / OUR LOVE IS HERE TO STAY / FOUR BROTHERS / THE FEELING OF JAZZ / THE SONG IS ENDED / BOP AG’IN. Reinhardt-Grapelli, Giuffre, Ellington, Jimmy Heath, Frigo, Gershwin, Van Heusen, Berlin, and more: quite a list.

And . . . here you can read more, hear more, purchase a download or an actual CD. All four are commendable activities, with (for me) the scale weighted in favor of the last two. Working bands need love to keep working, you know.

May your happiness increase!

JIM DAPOGNY AT THE PIANO (Part One): Allegheny Jazz Party, September 22, 2014

When Whitney Balliett asked Bobby Hackett how he felt about Louis Armstrong’s death, Bobby said, “He isn’t dead as long as we can hear him.” Those words are the rationalization we create because we really cannot bear the loss of people we love, but they are in some small part valid.

James Dapogny, September 2014. Photograph by Michael Steinman.

Jim Dapogny, Professor, or James, is no longer drinking Vietnamese coffee, extolling the virtues of obscure stand-up comedians, or creating surprises at the piano. But for those who patiently and with open hearts watch the video below, he is here and will never leave us.

For a rapt audience, including me and my camera, he played IF YOU WERE MINE — that lovely 1935 song, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, music by Matty Malneck, from a musical film, TO BEAT THE BAND. We know it through Billie Holiday’s tender recording, but Jim’s piano explorations are just as touching. This performance happened at the Allegheny Jazz Party, September 19, 2014:

Thank you, Professor Dapogny, for teaching us so much about beauty, fun, and courage.

May your happiness increase!