More piano jazz

I never did blog about the lovely Marian McPartland/JoAnne Brackeen concert from a couple weeks back, did I? I'll just say this: Marian McPartland, of NPR "Piano Jazz" fame, is over 80 and improvises like a wonder. And JoAnne Brackeen is one of the most under-appreciated artists in jazz: check her out if you don't know her work. I first heard Brackeen at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis on a below-zero January evening several years back. Hearing her direct and inspired approach made me want to be a poet again--or at least woke me out of my mediocre-music slumber. (Since I didn't, in fact, really become a poet again.)

At any rate, tonight it's Brad Mehldau, playing at Murry's. Saw Kurt Elling there back in November. A much nicer, more intimate setting than the Missouri Theatre, where McPartland/Brackeen played.

All of these concerts, by the way, are taking place right here in the middle of Missouri, courtesy of the We Always Swing Jazz Series. I lucked out at last.