Paris Blues

It sometimes surprises me what Paris can do to one's playing. To me it's clear here that not only did Memphis Slim and Willie Mabon play Blues Parisians understood but Duke Ellington as well got the Artistic Sense of the Blues. It may be worthwhile to point out that Ellington's best selling record "Live at Newport" consists overwhelmingly of the Blues, which was his predominant style of composition until he went into Sacred Music.

This was NOT a box of cliches, licks and grooves but a sense of Life's eternal and immediate expression. It must reach the highest intellectual and emotional level of the grown up.

Here's to you, dear Paris !!

(Paris, March 2019)