Today's clip is from Dame Shirley Bassey, whom I adore and love, she is among my top three favorite singers (including Sarah Vaughan and Leontyne Price), and I honestly can't rank them. They are so different, and I find each one of them absolutely necessary in my weekly playlist.
DSB (as she as often referred to on the internet) recently released a new album, "The Performance". It is fantastic to see how great she sounds at 70+ years, and of course, she STILL looks amazing. This clip contains one of her earliest hits, "Kiss Me Honey, Honey", along with a WONDERFUL song from her new CD, "Almost There."
"Almost There" is such a great song of regret over mistakes with the person who you almost had something great with. I've listened to this SOOOO many times over the past few days that my neighbors should probably know the lyrics.
I missed Tuneful Tuesday last week because I was doing laundry at my mother's and lost track of time. By the time I realized, it was already after midnight on Wednesday. It didn't seem right to do it then.
So my one and only follower, besides myself, suggested that I pick certain days for certain kinds of posts. She has "Music Monday", and I will have "Tuneful Tuesday".
I'm going to post two videos today, since I didn't get to post on Tuesday last week. This first video is the source of the title of my blog. I think it comes from a biography of Sarah Vaughan. In the beginning, someone is commenting on her artistry, and how when she sat at the piano, she could play "beautiful changes". To me, jazz, and life, have so much in common. Sometimes you play the melody as written, and sometimes you improvise over and through the changes. Even though this was originally a blog about learning jazz piano, I thought the title was still appropriate.
So here is video number one. I love this video because you rarely get to see a clip of her playing the piano.
The second video is of another one of my ALL TIME favorite singers, Leontyne Price. Whenever I hear this specific recording, of this specific aria, I seriously lose it. I can't even come up with words about how it affects me. Her voice is just so exquisite that I go through phases where I listen to this song REPEATEDLY, for days on end. I'm in one of those phases now, which is why I'm writing about this today.
So here it is, Tacea la notte placida from "Il Trovatore"
Now I just need to come up with a theme for Wednesdays . . .
