Thursday, July 10, 2008

Lush Life

My favorite classic jazz album of all time is "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman", made in 1963 when I was only four years old.

The signature tune on this album is the definitive recording of "Lush Life", a bittersweet song about failed romance. Coltrane did an instrumental of it, and Nat King Cole recorded it too, but Johnny Hartman's interpretation of it on this album is just amazing. He has the most gorgeous voice, and he wrings everything from this song; you just revel in the sound of it. I'm not one for jazz ballads in general and vocal ballads in particular, but this is a significant exception.

I first heard Lush Life around 1989, in the early morning. I was going to a bike rally out of town, so the alarm was set to wake me up early. It was early enough that the local public radio station was playing overnight jazz, and the radio came on in the middle of Coltrane's solo. The realization that this was something special quickly woke me up, and when Johnny came back it, I was fully awake and paying attention with both ears. What is this, I was thinking.

Like I first heard it, the song is best appreciated in a dark room. Use a nice audio system and Johnny's lovely voice will flow over you. Listen to the lyrics, and listen to the unusual last note Johnny sings.

Remarkable facts behind this album:

  • The song Lush Life was composed by Duke Ellington's legendary composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn. He composed the lyrics to this world-weary song when he was only 16.
  • Hartman had never heard the song until he and Coltrane were en route to the studio and heard Nat King Cole sing it on the radio. Hartman immediately decided that song had to be included in their album. It was made that same day in one take!

I just looked out on Amazon where you can play and download the tunes, and 123 reviewers give it 5 stars, 9 give it 4, and only 2 anything less. Even on little notebook speakers you can hear how special Hartman's voice is.

Pilgrimage

The New Belgium brewery

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

A different kind of lobster claw

I'm in Broomfield, Colorado, doing customer work with Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. Very interesting work, but more on this later.

I had dinner at a combo restaurant / brewpub, and though the

LobsterGame

restaurant was pretty forgettable (as was the beer), they had a unique little device in the lobby: a lobster game. 

As you can see, it's setup like the kid's game where you attempt to pick up toys or candy with a big claw. Invariably you never get anything. Well, in this one the bin is full of salt water and lobster! If you can catch one, you can have it. It costs $2 per attempt, and I suspect the success percentage is about the same - but for a different reason: These "toys" are experienced and wily.

I watched one fellow pick up a lobster pretty easily, but once out of the water the lobster wiggled a little bit and got himself out of the claw and back into the tank. I suspect they make a decent profit on this game!