What are you listening to?

[feaito]

Hi Ali,

I get your point Re. Dean Martin's voice...

Concerning Ella & Gershwin, I'm sure the 3 CD Set you got is the same than the Verve release of the 1990s, so you're in for a treat!:

[charliechaplinfan]

From what I can tell it only has the alternate or studio takes missing and it sounds great both on CD and through the ipod. I'd recommend it.

[feaito]

I have both releases the on in the link and the 4 CD set with the alternate takes that was released during the 2000s, not because of the alternate versions, but because of new high resolution-20 bit transfer...

I've been listening mainly to (Jazz) Bossa Nova and Brazilian influenced music...last year I was lucky enough to attend Bebel Gilberto's only Show in Santiago and In South America -other than the two that she made in Brazil- and yesterday I wen to see masterful Eliane Elias perform Live at Well known Chilean Jazz Festival....She's awesome!!! Her voice and her skill at playing the piano are jaw-dropping....and besides, she's very nice and sweet.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

That sounds great Fernando! What a great concert!

Right now I've been listening to a Doris Day Retrospective and one of my favorites on the CD is "My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time."
It was one of the collections discussed in the book Considering Doris Day.

Can you believe the GIPSY KINGS were on Toy Story 3? I enjoy their music quite a bit.
But I also am a huge Tito Puente fan. I was able
to see him perform live here in Houston back in 1997.

But lately, it's mostly been classical on our local station here in Houston.

[feaito]

Hello Christy,

While Tito Puente is not one of my favorites per-se, he's a great musician and I have CD of him and Chazz Palminteri which is very good.

I have Doris Day CD with her best-know hits and I play it from time to time....Sentimental Journey, Que Será Será, Send Me No Flowers are among my favorites. Doris Day is an actress whose films (her comedies with Rock Hudson and other during the early '60s) are an important part of my childhood, because they were aired very frequently on Public TV Stations in Santiago de Chile.

Gipsy Kings on Toy Story? Wow....I recall their hits during the 1980s...most notably the super hit"Bamboleo" and "Djovi Djova", the latter, the only song of them I like very much.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I was a MAJUH Gipsy Kings aficionada! They had a wonderful show here at an outdoor venue called the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion. Everybody
brought their maracas and their castanets! (The real ones, not the plastic ones.) I think that was the last time I played the castanets with an
entire audience who was also playing their castanets...

And, yes, I did go through a very serious Celia Cruz phase where I would get my students to sing to "Munecas de Cha Cha Cha" when I taught
Spanish in the secondary schools...

[feaito]

How interesting Christy...I did not know that you taught Spanish

[charliechaplinfan]

I love the Ella sings Gershwin. I've been revisting Louis Armstrong Hot Five and Sevens purchased in New Orleans in the centenary of his birth, 2001. I was reading again about his upbringing in New Orleans and also reading a bit about King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton, I really like Jelly Roll's early piano work.

[feaito]

Ali, have you listened to Ella's Gershwin recordings from the Decca Years (1940s)? They are also superb!

[charliechaplinfan]

No I haven't, something else to collect in time.

Whilst reaching back to the early jazz years I've discovered that it's a minefield to work out what to buy, there literally is so much to chose from. I've briefly looked at Duke Ellington, since downloading a coupe of Cotton Club albums, I've listened to lots of excerpts and realise that I recognise more tunes than I realise but type his name into Amazon or itunes and it's awash with albums. I don't like jazz singing that has a lot of embellishments in them, much as I love Ella Fitzgerald I really hate, I think it's called scat singing, the be bop e doop kind of improvising. So purchasing music can take me ages. I love Louis Armstrong both on trumpet and singing, he has a way with his vioce that just makes me want to burst into smiles.

[feaito]

I'm not very fond of scat either...It's fine with me, but I prefer straight-forward renditions of the Classics, the Standars & the Blues....Ella's Songbook albums are among my favorites.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I love all of Ella's recordings, but I think my favorite is Ella in Berlin...Her version of "How High the Moon" and "Mack the Knife" blow me away every time I hear them. Lots of scat, there, baby!

Yes, Fernando, I taught high school Spanish in public schools for a couple of decades, and Advanced Placement Spanish. The last few years I taught advanced reading, poetry, etc., to help Native Speakers earn a 5 on their placement exams. (the finer points of the subjunctive, vocabulary enhancement, and obscure grammar stuff...). The last year I taught Spanish, I wrote a little play called "Origins of Spanish Poetry" (from children's rhymes to ballads/romances).

The students were great! We even had a guitarist in our group who accompanied the students. (It was performed mainly for 9th-10th graders.) It was the first bilingual theater group at the school district where I worked.

My Master's is in English, so I have mainly been teaching at the college level the last couple of years. It's great!

[feaito]

Thanks for sharing part of your life with us Christy. Teaching is pivotal to our society's future. I have Ella in Berlin and it's very good, in fact Critics say Ella in Berlin and Ella In Rome are her best Concerts ever!

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I was initially an applied piano major in college, and my parents loved to dance and listen to records when I was growing up. So I heard all kinds of great tunes.

Some of the performers that I've been lucky enough to see live include: Eric Clapton, Count Basie and His Orchestra, Willie Nelson, Michael Martin Murphy, William Alan Ramsey (he serenaded me on my birthday once), Leon Russell, B.B. King, Arnett Cobb, Joe Williams, Barry Manilow, The Gipsy Kings, Tito Puente, The Rolling Stones, The Oak Ridge Boys, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (when I was 4), The Judds, Bo Diddley, Asleep At The Wheel, Debbie Reynolds, Harve Presnell, Wynton Marsalis, The Thunderbirds, and THE MONKEES!!!

Oh, and I forgot--Vickie Lynn and the Velvets! (a local group from the 60's)

[feaito]

What an impressive list of talents Christy!