Record: Newport 1958 Artist: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra Released: Columbia Records, 1958 The idea of composing music of any kind is completely magical to me. I can understand DaVinci dipping a brush into his oils and producing the "Mona Lisa" or Dante spinning his Divine Comedy, but how, I... Continue reading

Record: Sinatra-Basie Artist: Frank Sinatra and Count Basie Released: Reprise Records, 1962 I bought my first true stereo in the summer of 1990, and few purchases before or since have given me as much pleasure. Until then my music had come from single-speaker clock radios, cassette tapes played through a... Continue reading