Yesterday while writing, I had a terrible craving for Mose Allison. If you know Mose Allison's music, you know the feeling. There's a warm-weather quality about Mose's piano playing that combines happy-as-a-lark optimism with sage simplicity, sly humor and sophisticated note choices, rhythms and lyrics. Mose grew up in Mississippi, so he has the Delta in his bones. But there's a countrypolitan aspect to him, too, an assuming hipster urbanity that defies category.
In 2010, I interviewed Mose for The Wall Street Journal, and his voice and Twain-like matter-of-fact humor and observations still echo in my head. Once you're exposed to Mose and his music, and you truly get it, you'll find his spirit never leaves you.
Mose is easily one of jazz's most humanistic players. He's hugely gifted, with the earth and nature in his blood. As a result, he has always been remarkably humble, at ease and free of issues. He's like a leaf flying through the air, perfectly fine with wherever the wind intends to set him down.
If you don't know Mose's music, I want you to listen. If you know Mose's music, I want to remind you about him. He is as extraordinary a straight-up jazz pianist as he is a player of his loping, Mosian originals. When you're finished listening to the tracks below, you, too, will be craving Mose.
Here's a minidocumentary on Mose when he was named a NEA Jazz Master in 2013...
Here's Strange from Autumn Song in 1959...
Here's Parchman Farm, an original, from Local Color in 1957...
Here's Ingenue, an original, from Ramblin' With Mose in 1958...
And here's The Way of the World, an original, from his 2008 album of the same name...
Now go dig some Mose and get in touch with your inner thing.
JazzWax note: To read my WSJ interview, go here.
from JazzWax http://ift.tt/29Gg07Q
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