Today I was listening to Ray Charles.

When I got to Georgia On My Mind I was filled with an actionable desire to play this song at the piano.

And I used the Fake Book Index to realize that it is in the Real Book Volume 2, which I luckily own.

I flipped to the page with Georgia and was completely distracted by the glorious Get Me To The Church On Time. As a kid, I was lucky to have been introduced by my Mom to this phenomenal musical overflowing with magnificent songs.

And life was good.

Sus chords

Recently, have been toying with major scale constructions of (ascending) 3 5 1 2 and (inverted) 2 3 5 1. Really beautiful simple open sound.

Also there is the related 1 2 5 7 (doesn’t really work in any inversions…).

André Previn

I hadn’t realized he had died. I associate him more than anything else with a video on YouTube in which he interviews Oscar Peterson and relates a story about the classical musician who had come to see Art Tatum to excitedly share “hi Art, I’ve been practicing for months and I finally learned your piece and not only that but I composed some variations on it!” And Art listened, and nodded, and thought for a bit, and then proceeded to play some insane improvisations — “your ideas made me think of these new variations.” I just looked it up: the piece had been Tea for Two (too many notes, your majesty!), the pianist Horowitz (“This is not a concert, it’s a miracle”, wrote one commenter on YouTube). Hear Previn tell the story!

I also hadn’t realized that Previn had been the music supervisor for My Fair Lady, and that he had been involved in jazz — I had always thought of him as a classical master.