I've been listening to too much rock. Having finally let my iTunes shuffle a bit I fell into a hole of Marcus Roberts and I've been loving it ever since. I think the ballet has braced me.
I have four of Marcus' albums:
- Deep In the Shed
- Gershwin For Lovers
- Alone With Three Giants
- The Truth is Spoken Here
My favorite cuts are his renditions of Pannonica and Jungle Blues. I've always, since I first started listening seriously to jazz, been a sucker for standards. They were my rudder in a disorienting universe of improvisation. And while I completely dig riffing and solos and whatnot, I maintain that nothing really speaks about an artist like their covers of standards. Roberts is not daring but employs a subtly stylish virtuosity that speaks for itself. In many ways, I think of him as the Vladimir Horowitz of jazz, just masterful, mastery.
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