As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Les McCann

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/01/02/les-mccann-jazz-pianist-dead-compared-to-what/

 

I’m admittedly very late on this one, as jazz pianist and vocalist Les McCann died back on December 29th. Although I’m largely unfamiliar with his body of work, I finally decided that there were three reasons why I should note his passing:

 

·        He discovered Roberta Flack and got her signed to Atlantic Records. (The rest is history.)

·        He and his trio backed the great Lou Rawls on his splendid 1962 debut album, Stormy Monday.

·        Last, but certainly not least, his fiery 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival performance of “Compared To What” (with the rest of his trio, along with Eddie Harris on tenor saxophone and Benny Bailey on trumpet) brought this classic protest anthem to the attention of the wider world.

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