Wednesday standouts:
The Asian Flavour
- Ma-Eum Heart-IU (Endearingly modest vocals and guitar. Keren Ann's "Not Going Anywhere" could segue with this.)
Big Band
- I've Got You Under My Skin-Woody Herman (A stately, classy rendering of the Cole Porter standard on clarinet and saxophone.)
Chamber Music
- Frederic Chopin: Nocturne No. 1 in B major, Op. 62 (Pascal Amoyel, piano) (Amoyel conveys the piece's warmth and romanticism with appropriate delicacy.)
Cocktail Lounge
- Melodie en Sous-Sol-Michel Magne (Excellent instrumental fusion of blues, jazz, and easy listening, with the saxophone radiating confidence.)
Folk Roots
- By Way Of Sorrow-Cry Cry Cry (This is a beautifully sung and played cover of a Julie Miller tune. Lyrics about finally being rewarded after being treated poorly require sensitivity, which Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky, and Richard Shindell deliver. The Wailin' Jennys also sing this with similar sensitivity.)
Holiday Hits
- Theme From "Friday The 13th"-101 Strings (Never underestimate the ability of a violin section to sound convincingly psychotic in unison.)
- Theme From "Hellraiser"-Matt Fink (With its brassy undercurrent of bass, this sounds like underscoring for a nightmare set on a ship during a raging storm.)
Jukebox Oldies
- Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha-Sam Cooke (The more I hear this, the more I'm convinced that it would segue with Jimmy Cliff's "You Can Get It If You Really Want.")
New Age
- Elegy-Philip Aaberg (Appropriately solemn piano.)
Retro R&B
- Tell Me It's Just A Rumor, Baby-The Funk Brothers (A cool uptempo, piano-anchored instrumental; I kept expecting it to segue into Maxine Nightingale's "Right Back Where We Started From.")
