The sessions for Tina Brooks Blue Note debut "Minor Move" took place in 1958, but were not released until the early 80's when four of its five musicians had already died. A strange way to begin the liner notes that accompanied the LP, I know, but it's a fact. "Minor Move" recently received a beautiful rehaul as part of Blue Note's Tone Poet series and both the music and package are stunning, with a quartet featuring Sonny Clark, Doug Watkins, Art Blakey and Lee Morgan backing up Brooks.
One song in particular really knocked me out, a smokey take on "Everything Happens To Me," which will take you to a sad and lonely street from it's opening piano intro. It also reminded me of a version recorded by Frank Sinatra in the 80's that had remained unreleased until the massive Reprise "suitcase" of CDs was released in the 90's. Frank had recorded it a number of times before, but it was this version where he changed the lyrics to suit his current state. This version can also be found on a single disc compilation of the same name released in 1996, and it is highly recommended, as it plays almost like a concept album with a wonderfully curated set of ballads and torch songs, save one or two missteps.
Here are both versions of "Everything Happens To Me."
4 comments:
A pair of real beauties. I was unfamiliar with both, and they both knocked me out. Great tune. Hard to believe Tina Brooks recosrds were not released when he recorded them. Amazing. I love the Sinatra take, gotta hear the rest of that record.
Thanks for the introduction to Tina Brooks. I did recognize the tune, but had not known anything about it. Now I know a little more. Checking out the Blue Note catalog now. Oh, and that singer guy’s version is pretty good too!
reading his bio, I see that interest in Brooks was rekindled after Mosaic collected his sessions for a box set. Do you have a pipeline to Mosaic, Sal? I love their approach which is to be a jazz version of Light in the Attic, Rhino or Sundazed, but even more completist, but I can't afford their prices.
@ANON,
Back in the heyday of my shop, I had about 75 percent of the Mosaic boxes, either as trade-ins by customers, or just buying them up to stock. Somewhere in a spool of CD-ROMs, I have MP3s of a bunch. Might have to do some digging.
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