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I begin with some disclaimers: I am approaching 70, old enough to have purchased Elvis records in the 50’s. I remember the 60’s- clouds of smoke, the Fillmore East, Bob Dylan. My point is that, after all these years, I find that I am not particularly nostalgic about music that enthralled me at other times of my life. I enjoy discovering new artists while still keeping a place in my playlist for older works.

I have never been much into pop music. I do know Taylor Swift is tall and Beyonce can shake it. Most country stars sound alike to me. Not a hip-hop guy, though I really dug early rappers like Grandmaster Flash and Kurtis Blow.

Some of my listening choices are influenced by the fact I play music (electric bass, blues harmonica) and find myself tracking down pieces the people with whom I play choose to learn. This year, among other playing opportunities, I was involved in regular jam sessions centered around jazz standards and with a rehearsal band covering what I’d term funk-rock tunes.

Finally, there is YouTube, an amazing storehouse of music. Where would modern life be without it?  You can find artists and songs, in both live performance and on studio recordings. There are lessons and suggestions. It is the primary source of the mp3’s on my playlist.*

All that said, here’s some of what I listened to this year.

• Lake Street Dive. This is a 4-piece band built on the soulful vocals of singer Rachael Price and tight harmony singing by drummer Mike Calabrese, bassist Bridget Kearney and trumpeter/guitarist Mike Olsen. Their style is eclectic- you can hear hints of the Beatles on one tune, Motown on another. All the members have a background in jazz: Ms. Price began her career singing jazz standards. Check out their album release from earlier this year, Bad Self Portraits.

• Marcus Miller. When I picked up the bass again two years ago, I made a commitment to improving as a player. I started listening to various bassists. Jaco Pastorius was a virtuouso, inspirational but an intimidating style to try to emulate. As a fan of the Tedeschi Trucks Band (see below), my ear caught the wonderful playing of their original bassist, Oteil Burbridge. Searching on YouTube, I found all kinds of Oteil videos: interviews, a full set he did at Bass Player magazine’s Bass Day, stuff he did with Col. Bruce Hampton’s Aquarium Rescue Unit back in the 90’s. Because of YouTube’s suggestion algorithms, my search for Oteil led me to discover Victor Wooten and Marcus Miller.

Marcus Miller is an extraordinary musician, fluent in multiple genres. He’s played with artists ranging from Miles Davis to Mariah Carey. Though primarily an electric bass player, he is an accomplished saxophonist and can play clarinet, guitar and keyboards. Having played on hundreds of records as a session musician, he is comfortable in almost any style. As a leader, he tends toward a funkified jazz style that allows him to showcase the rhythmic attack of his slap-bass technique.

• Tedeschi Trucks Band. I’ve been a fan for a few years now. They must be seen live to appreciate how intense a sound eleven talented musicians can produce. Derek Trucks wrings a soulful, vocal tone from his old school Gibson SG guitar. His wife, the petite Susan Tedeschi, is a belter whose vocals stand up to two drummers, three horns, keyboards, and bass. Add backing vocals and you have a modern-day soul review. We saw them in September on the next-to-last night of their one week stand at NYC’s Beacon Theater and were overwhelmed.

• Soulive and Lettuce are two funk-jazz bands I discovered this year. They have one thing in common- peripatetic guitarist Eric Krasno plays with both.

• For less intense music- more melodic, vocal-oriented- check out Amy Helm (Levon’s daughter) and Trigger Happy featuring Joan Osborne.

• A musician friend introduced me this year to the singing of a woman named Eva Cassidy. Eva passed away in 1996, but the range of her singing- not just her voice, but her choice of material- is simply stunning. She can cover Somewhere Over the Rainbow with delicacy and nuance, then deliver soul from the heart on Chain of Fools.
  

• Old school jazz. I think these are timeless classics.

  • John Coltrane- My Favorite Things
  • Miles Davis- Kind of Blue
  • Charles Mingus- Oh Yeah
  • Sonny Rollins- The Bridge
  • Thelonious Monk- Monk’s Dream

Of course, there is music from the past I still enjoy. Lucinda Williams, ‘70s Little Feat, Ray Charles, most any version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”. Classical music, which means Mozart and Italian opera, is part of my soundscape. Still, I look forward to discovering more music in 2015, and to making more music myself.

Note: I attempted to post links to YouTube videos for most of the artists I mentioned, but the blog's anti-spam feature had youtube.com blacklisted. However, you can search YouTube yourself for any of the artists referenced.

*Check out http://www.youtube-mp3.org/, a site that lets you convert a YouTube video to an mp3 file and download it.