12.22.2006

On My HD: Moulin Rouge

This is another in an Occasional Series of junk that resides on my hard drive, but which you might also find interesting, entertaining, or otherwise generally offensive...

Actually, Moulin Rouge isn't quite it, but here's the rest of the story:

I was listening to The Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra's live recording at MCG. The third track caught my attention - again. It does every time I listen to it.

It's called Nature Boy, and if you know the movie Moulin Rouge, it is the main theme song from that movie. Incidentally, that movie is one of my favorite romantic movies of all time, and if you're not familiar with it, I would recommend a little Holiday time project for you. It's worth it. And if you're in my general age bracket, and like music, you'll get a real charge out of all the music. The challenge is to see if you can name all the original songs/artists that are excerpted in the movie. Fun stuff - love that movie.

But back to this recording. John Clayton, whom I've yacked about a lot on this site, is a MASTER of the upright bass. Not only is he an amazing jazz player, improviser, composer, and arranger, but he was a classical player before he was a jazz player. This makes him a far better bow player than most of his colleagues. On most of his albums and in almost every live concert he plays, he pulls out the bow and treats the audience to an amazingly beautiful classical-style bass solo. Most of the time, they make me all squishy inside, and this one is no exception. Get yourself onto the iTunes music store, spend your .99, and grab a copy of that song.

It'll make you all squishy inside too. I promise.

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