Report #32 - 21 September 2009

A brand new poem again this week called "Kestrel."

I used to see these birds, our smallest type of falcon, back in Michigan; usually perched on a power line, watching over a field, waiting for lunch to make a careless move. Out here, I see several every day, working the surrounding pastures. When the sun catches them, and you see, fully, their russet bodies, sky blue wings, and striking black facial lines (falcon's war paint) it's easy to believe that your eyes are deceiving you: giving you a fantastic image that isn't of this world. But that's the nature of nature: reality is often more fantastic than fantasy.

I found the CD that this week's song is from, Shelly Manne's Steps to the Desert, in the discount bin at the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis. With the subtitle "Modern Jazz Versions of Favorite Jewish and Israeli Songs," I can see why they would think this could be a cheesy novelty album, and its true that a couple of the tracks sound like the theme song to Bewitched; however, there are enough solid tracks on this collection to take it out of the discount bin and put it on my jazz shelf, including the song in this week's episode, a very jazzed-up take on "Hava Nagila." The musicians featured are Manne on drums, Shorty Rogers on flugelhorn (trumpet on some tracks), Teddy Edwards on tenor sax, Victor Feldman on piano and vibes, Al Viola on guitar, and Monty Budwig on bass.

Click below to listen:
Report #32