PICK UP THE PIECES

THE PHIL COLLINS BIG BAND

ORGAIZATION: THE PHIL COLLINS BIG BAND

COUNTRY:

ALBUM: A HOT NIGHT IN PARIS

LABEL: ATLANTIC RECORDS

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1999

A Hot Night in Paris is the only album by The Phil Collins Big Band, released in 1999 by Atlantic Records. Fronted by Genesis lead singer Phil Collins, the album did not contain any singing. Instead, the album consisted of big band renditions of primarily Collins and Genesis songs, with Collins remaining at the drums.

The album did not chart on the Billboard 200, although it did reach #3 on the jazz album chart.

The Phil Collins Big Band was a side project of English rock drummer, singer and musician Phil Collins, which performed in 1996 and 1998.

Although best known for his work in pop as a solo artist and progressive rock with Genesis, one of Collins' earliest influences had been the American big band drummer Buddy Rich. The group presented big band renditions of Collins and Genesis songs, including hits such as "Sussudio" and "Invisible Touch". The group was primarily an instrumental act, with Collins remaining behind the drums, like the early days of Genesis and rarely singing at performances. The group split up in 1999, when Phil Collins started to work on the music for the then upcoming movie, Tarzan.

The group released one album, A Hot Night in Paris, recorded in 1998 and released in 1999. The footage of Montreux Jazz Festival 1996 was featured as a bonus feature on the 2010 DVD "Phil Collins Live At Montreux".

Collins' work with the Phil Collins Big Band received acclaim and Modern Drummer readers voted him Big Band drummer of the year in 2000. 

MY FAVORITE THINGS

JOHN COLTRANE (SAXOPHONIST)

SONGWRITER: OSCAR HARMMERSTEIN II & RICHARD RODGERS

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: MY FAVORITE SINGS

LABEL: ATLANTIC RECORDS

GENRE: MODAL JAZZ

YEAR: 1961

My Favorite Things is the seventh studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane, released in 1961 on Atlantic Records, catalogue SD-1361. It was the first album to feature Coltrane playing soprano saxophone. An edited version of the title track became a hit single that gained popularity in 1961 on radio. The record became a major commercial success. In 1998, the album received the Grammy Hall of Fame award. It attained gold record status in 2018, having sold 500,000 copies.

In 2000 it was voted number 392 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums

The title track is a modal rendition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. The melody is heard numerous times throughout, but instead of playing solos over the written chord changes, both Tyner and Coltrane take extended solos over vamps of the two tonic chords, E minor and E major, played in waltz time. In the documentary The World According to John Coltrane, narrator Ed Wheeler remarks on the impact that this song's popularity had on Coltrane's career:

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926–July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes and was at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions and appeared on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. Over the course of his career, Coltrane's music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. He remains one of the most influential saxophonists in music history. He received many posthumous awards, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church and a Pulitzer Prize in 2007. His second wife was pianist and harpista Alice Coltrane. The couple had three children: John Jr. (1964–1982), a bassist; Ravi (born 1965), a saxophonist; and Oran (born 1967), also a saxophonist.

SONG FOR MY FATHER

HORACE SILVER QUINTET

SONGWRITER: HORACE SILVR

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: IT’S GOT TO BE FUNKY

LABEL: BLUE NOTE

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1964

"Song for My Father" is a composition by Horace Silver. The original version, by Silver's quintet, was recorded on October 26, 1964. It has become a jazz standard and is probably Silver's best-known composition.

Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.

After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut, Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950. Silver soon moved to New York City, where he developed a reputation as a composer and for his bluesy playing. Frequent sideman recordings in the mid-1950s helped further, but it was his work with the Jazz Messengers, co-led by Art Blakey, that brought both his writing and playing most attention. Their Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers album contained Silver's first hit, "The Preacher". After leaving Blakey in 1956, Silver formed his own quintet, with what became the standard small group line-up of tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums. Their public performances and frequent recordings for Blue Note Records increased Silver's popularity, even through changes of personnel. His most successful album was Song for My Father, made with two iterations of the quintet in 1963 and 1964.

Several changes occurred in the early 1970s: Silver disbanded his group to spend more time with his wife and to concentrate on composing; he included lyrics in his recordings; and his interest in spiritualism developed. The last two of these were often combined, resulting in commercially unsuccessful releases such as The United States of Mind series. Silver left Blue Note after 28 years, founded his own record label, and scaled back his touring in the 1980s, relying in part on royalties from his compositions for income. In 1993, he returned to major record labels, releasing five albums before gradually withdrawing from public view because of health problems.

As a player, Silver transitioned from bebop to hard bop by stressing melody rather than complex harmony, and combined clean and often humorous right-hand lines with darker notes and chords in a near-perpetual left-hand rumble. His compositions similarly emphasized catchy melodies, but often also contained dissonant harmonies. Many of his varied repertoire of songs, including "Doodlin'", "Peace", and "Sister Sadie", became jazz standards that are still widely played. His considerable legacy encompasses his influence on other pianists and composers, and the development of young jazz talents who appeared in his bands over the course of four decades.

(First Chorus)

This little song for my father

Does things that no other

Can do

As I sing it to you

It has a rhythm and rhyme

That will fasten his memory

In time

As his beauty shines through

For through my mind and soul

My heart will always hold

A special place for him

It's true

(Second Chorus)

We bow our heads and we pray

Every day's Father's Day

Let's review

All that he means to you

Our mother's love is real nice

But old Dad sacrificed

For us too

Let us give him his due

We're very proud to be

In his biography

We sing this song for him

And you.

THERE MUST BE A BETTER WORLD SOMEWHERE

DR JOHN

SONGWRITER: DR. POMUS

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: AFTERGLOW

LABEL: GRP

GENRE: BULES

YEAR: 1995

Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music combined blues  pop, jazz, boogie-woogie, funk, and rock and roll.

Active as a session musician from the late 1950s until his death, he gained a following in the late 1960s after the release of his album Gris-Gris and his appearance at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. He typically performed a lively, theatrical stage show inspired by medicine shows, Mardi Gras costumes, and voodoo ceremonies. Rebennack recorded thirty studio albums and nine live albums, as well as contributing to thousands of other musicians' recordings. In 1973 he achieved a top-10 hit single with "Right Place, Wrong Time".

The winner of six Grammy Awards, Rebennack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by singer John Legend in March 2011. In May 2013, Rebennack received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Tulane University.

Sometimes, I wonder just what I am fighting for

I win some battles, but I always lose the war

I keep right on stumblin' in this no man's land out there

But I know, yes, I know that there must be a better world somewhere

Flying high, some joker clips my wings

Just 'cause he gets his kicks and he's doing those kind of things

Keep on fallin' into space, either hangin' in mid-air

But I know, yes, I know that there must be a better world somewhere

Every woman I want only wants herself

Everybody I love, loves somebody else

Yeah, every woman got a license to break my heart

And every love affair is over, before it gets a chance to start

If it ain't here, maybe in the year after

Instead of tears, I'll learn all about laughter

Meanwhile, I'm stuck out here, Lord knows it just ain't fair

But I know, yes, I know that there must be a better world somewhere

Every woman I want only wants herself

Everybody I love, loves somebody else

Every woman I know got a license to break my heart

And every love affair is over before it gets a chance to start

If it ain't here, maybe in the year after

Instead of tears, I'll learn all about laughter

Meanwhile, I'm stuck out here, Lord knows it just ain't fair

But I know, yes, I know, hey, I know

That there must be a better world, there sure gotta be a better world

Lord, now there must be a better world somewhere.