5 Songs Friday Mar. 28, 2025

Music from multiple genres and eras

Robert Nighthawk as Robert Lee McCoy – “Lonesome World” 1937 available on Prowling With the Nighthawk. I knew of Robert Nighthawk’s electric Chicago blues from the early fifties, but I didn’t realize he was living in St. Louis in the thirties or that he did a recording session with Big Joe Williams on second guitar and none other than Henry Townsend (whose home I would visit in the late 90s for an interview, giving me one degree of separation here) in attendance. This is an upbeat danceable blues from the 30s, with an expressive vocal performance. He and Williams play strong guitars, with Williams dancing around on the high strings while Nighthawk lays down the deep riffs on the low strings. I don’t know what the sales success of this record was, but man, it’s a powerful performance.

Van Der Graaf Generator – “Out of My Book” 1970 from The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other. This band named after a static electricity machine has always been a mite mysterious to me. I’ve owned a few Peter Hammill solo albums, but never really got around to hearing his early work with this group. It’s quite lovely stuff, of course. This song looks at love from several angles – the singer rejects her advances, tells her he’s not good, begs her to love him, and imagines growing old and sedate together. In the end, though, he wonders how he can be sure, one of those questions that can’t be answered. It’s all set to a delicate melody made brighter by the flute line wrapping itself around the singing. There’s a cool little syncopated bit that comes up in each verse that serves as the closest thing to a hook this early prog ensemble was willing to allow.

John Coltrane – “Welcome” recorded 1965 released 1967 on Kule Sé Mama. I can’t imagine a calmer record was ever made. “Welcome” is all about peace, hard-earned peace at that. It’s made by the classic Coltrane quartet. McCoy Tyner plays all these luscious notes on piano, Jimmy Garrison bows single long-held notes on bass, Elvin Jones kicks and thumps and rolls and crashes on the drums, and Coltrane connects to the contentment of the universe. There is a basic simple melody, which on one variation comes close to being the third line of “Happy Birthday,” entirely coincidentally, I’m sure. A little more than half way through there is a brief bridge-like section which uses chord changes rather than the modal variation of the rest of the recording. Coltrane was traveling on levels the rest of us can only ever glimpse, but thanks to his ability to communicate what he felt, this is as beautiful an experience as anything I know.

Oscar Peterson – “Hogtown Blues” 1976 from Oscar Peterson in Russia. “Hogtown Blues” was an original composition by Peterson that sounds remarkably like it was written in 1920. Of course, as played by Peterson here, it’s way faster, and with approximately 400% more notes than even Earl Hines might have added to it. Peterson was one of the most technically proficient pianists in jazz history. I get winded just trying to picture his hands flying across the keyboard while I listen to this cut. His left hand thunders chords and sometimes approaches boogie woogie while his right hand runs up and down the melodic contours of the piece. There are numerous tempo changes, too, to trip up dancers. Really a remarkable performance.

Mason Jennings – “Fighter Girl” 2008 from In the Ever. There are plenty of songs about jilted lovers, and an equal number of songs about leaving somebody, but there are far fewer songs about the exhilaration of stealing a lover from somebody else. This is probably a good thing, as it’s not exactly behavior we want to encourage. Jennings here is walking on air because she’s snuck out at night to be with him, and they wind up having sex in the grass on a hill after a moonlight swim. There’s not even a real chorus in this song, just a gradual buildup of excitement until “It’s you and me now against this whole wide world.” I often forget how good Mason Jennings is – he’s an old fashioned songwriter with a connection to contemporary audiences.