Cloudy, foggy, wet Monday morning jazz

Monday, cloudy, foggy, and wet, but not actively wetting. It rained hard late last night, a real stop-and-would-you-listen-to-that-! kind of rain event.  Clearly, it continued to rain into the night, long after I had powered myself down, because all surfaces were still quite wet this morning.  WeatherBug says we have accumulated 0.11" of rain so far today (since midnight, presumably). Mostly cloudy becoming mostly sunny is forecast for today. Highs on the 50's-60's borderline.  Doesn't look like it will clear off to me, but then I don't get paid to predict this stuff.

Traffic was light on the commute and the music was lengthy and intricate.  The iPod was clearly in an all-jazz mood, picking out three classics from three very different jazz styles: big band, masterful piano trio, and vocalist. I checked, when I got to campus, to make sure I was really in full shuffle rather than genre shuffle, and I was.  So the iPod gets full credit for the congruity of this playlist.

Jessica Williams (second track in this morning's playlist) is one awesome pianist.  A Portland native and frequent local headliner in Seattle jazz clubs, with 74 CDs to her credit, 350 compositions, and still going strong. Williams is well respected in the jazz world, with peers like Dave Brubeck calling her, "One of the greatest pianists I have ever heard..."  Though she has played all the major venues, she welcomes private small bookings (her Web site indicates she even prefers those to large professional gigs).  I heard a concert/interview with her (Fresh Air, Terry Gross) many years ago and was amazed that she could literally play any style with immediate ease.  If you get the chance to catch one of her shows, especially smaller local venues, I highly recommend. 

• Bob Mintzer Big Band: Timeless (8:05)
• Jessica Williams: Solitude (6:20)
• Frank Sinatra: Witchcraft (2:53)

PS: the jazz theme continued in-office for five more tracks before the iPod switched to a Travis tune (Under the Moonlight), so it really had some jazz to get out of its system this cloudy, foggy, wet Monday morning.