MY NORTHERN SKIES

Hello, welcome to the My Northern Skies website, home of my two weekly radio shows, which alternate here each week, The Jazz File every Tuesday (8pm) and Flick the Dust Off every Friday (10am).

Featured Album | 400

Lee Konitz and Red Mitchell | I Concentrate on You | SteepleChase CSC 1018 | 1974

A duet album recorded in Denmark in the mid-1970s, in tribute to the great songsmith Cole Porter. Eleven songs set to the alto sax and double bass (or piano on “Night and Day”) by two musicians whose musical empathy is evident from the start of “Just One of Those Things” through to the title cut “I Concentrate on You”. Recorded at the Rosenberg Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark, I Concentrate on You finds the Chicago-born sax player in relaxed mode throughout, with the New York bassist providing complex patterns or those all-important spaces, which allow the pieces enough room to breathe. This is most evident on “It’s Alright With Me”, the popular song from Porter’s 1953 musical Can-Can. Despite the absence of the human voice, which is the usual vehicle for numbers from the so-called Great American Songbook, Konitz and Mitchell allow the melodies to be instantly recognisable, therefore giving you the listener the opportunity to sing along. Having said that, there is a moment of scat during “You’d Be Nice To Come Home To”. Despite some fine performances, the art department were having a rest day it appears, with a simple mug shot of the sax player wearing his familiar bucket hat against a brick wall, being as inviting as just the brick wall.

Playlist:

Blue ‘n’ Boogie – Miles Davis (Walkin’)

Just One of Those Things – Lee Konitz & Red Mitchell (I Concentrate on You)

Make Me Feel Your Love – Javon Jackson (Jackson Plays Dylan)

Alternate Summer – Tom Harrell (Alternate Summer)

Rain on the Roof – Sue Raney (Songs for a Raney Day)

Out There – Eric Dolphy (Out There)

Match Sticks – Chuck Anderson (Original Jazz Classics)

Night & Day – Lee Konitz & Red Mitchell (I Concentrate on You)

Cool Struttin’ – Eric Reed Trio (Blue Trane)

The Breakdown – Hank Mobley (Roll Call)