Happiness is...

... a Charlie Brown CD, Milt Jackson on the vibes, and Jimmy Scott with Jazz Expressions.

Can you believe it's almost March already? Time flies by quicker with each passing year. There are so many tasks and ideas competing for my attention that it's easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of activity, and I forget about the things I actually enjoy. It's really is important to stop and smell the roses, and I've been trying to do that recently.

In the past month I saw Brad Mehldau and Jimmy Scott in separate performances at Jazz Standard. Strangely enough, in both shows the supporting musicians caught my attention more than the featured performer. Brad was providing backup to a saxaphonist whose name I embarrassingly cannot remember; Jimmy Scott's backup band, Jazz Expressions, was a very tightly knit quartet (drums, bass, saxaphone/flute, piano). I'm just surprised the drummer only got one real solo during the entire set - he looked very buttoned down but you could tell there was something itching to get out.

Jazz piano fascinates me. I played classical piano for most of my youth but my skill level was not that great and my playing style was dull and uninteresting. I suspect much of this was due to suppressed feelings of resentment for being forced to take lessons. I did a lot of things against my will in my youth, but in retrospect I really am grateful for having done them. I just wanted to play computer games all the time - thank goodness the rest of my family had other ideas.

There were two events that changed my opinion of piano. The first was Debussy's Arabesque, which I learned on my own and was the last and most complex composition I could play. The second was the performance of Fur Elise in Immortal Beloved. To me, Fur Elise had become the banner anthem of all Korean families with a child who play the piano. I was weary of it - I had played it and heard it played countless times. But something about the performance in Immortal Beloved truly moved me. I ran to the nearest piano and played it again with renewed interest. There was also a third event - listening to Eric tickle the keys during college, but that was over a period of four years.

The pianists at Jazz Standard left vivid images in my mind and I wanted to listen to more jazz piano. Suddenly, unbeckoned, the lively notes of Linus and Lucy entered my head. The Vince Guaraldi trio, performing pieces from the Charlie Brown TV specials, was calling me.

Some googling and a search on Amazon revealed two core Charlie Brown-related CDs with the Gauraldi trio. The rest of the CDs appear to be tributes, eliciting a wide range of opinions from fans. Academy Records didn't have the CDs, so I bought them used from Amazon. The first CD, the soundtrack from A Boy Named Charlie Brown, arrived yesterday. At 44 minutes (eight of which are for a rendition of Fly Me to the Moon, which was not part of the show), the CD is short but worth every penny. I can't wait for the second CD to arrive, the soundtrack to the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

I came across a misalphabetized CD while browsing the jazz section at Barnes and Noble: "Milt Jackson, Wizard of the vibes." Jazz neophyte that I am, I'd never heard of him so I ran the CD under one of the listening kiosks to get a listen. The vibraphone is truly an underappreciated instrument. Hearing it took me back to elementary school music class. If we weren't all huffing and puffing on recorders we were assembled behind a range of percussion instruments - xylophones, metalophones, and the tiny glockenspiel. But the tracks on this CD were a dimension beyond. I'll have to come back and explore this more.

So much music, so little time to listen to it all. Unless you're one of the iPod zombies that the NYT talks about in The World at Ears' Length. I used to think the iPod was pretty cool, but the legions of white earphones on the street have been creeping me out for the past few months. I was amused to find a guy with an iPod with his own over-the-ear headphones yesterday.

Anyway, that's all for now.