The Parents

It's always a challenge when I'm on a trip with my parents and I want us all to enjoy music along the way. I met the challenge this weekend on a drive to Hannibal, Missouri with Mom, Dad, and my wife Nicole. With the possible exception of the post-'65 model George Jones, has a squarer-looking individual ever been blessed with more euphonious pipes than Mel Torme? I found myself totally riveted--to the extent that I wasn't even hearing conversation or really seeing the road (and I was driving!) by Torme's versions of "Born to Be Blue," "A Stranger in Town," "'Round Midnight," and "Blue and Sentimental," from Verve's Compact Jazz comp. The man wasn't nicknamed "The Velvet Fog" for nothing! "Born to Be Blue" in particular is a performance where Torme seems to be able to add the audio version of soft focus to his interpretation to add a deeper layer of meaning to the fairly corny lyrics; it's hard to imagine even Sinatra topping it. Another highlight of the trip was the second disc of Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (also on Verve), on which Ella's vocals ride the tricky rhythmic ripples of Ellington's compositions like a state-of-the art kayak, with Stuff Smith's sedutive violin and Ben Webster's breathy, lusty tenor sax following every contour and shift. She also duets with guitarist Barney Kessel on stark versions of "Solitude," "In a Sentimental Mood," and "Azure" that are brief sand-bar respites under a shining--but very blue--moon. On the return trip, I managed to squeeze in the recent budget-priced 2-Lps-on-1-disc reissue of Willie Nelson's early-'80s duet albums with soon-to-be-departed legends Webb Pierce and Hank Snow (In the Jailhouse Now and Brand on My Heart, respectively, on Sony Music Digital Compact Classics). Not a single merely good track out of 20, and "In the Jailhouse Now," "I Don't Care," "Heebie Jeebie Blues" (with Pierce), "I've Been Everywhere, "Carribean," "Golden Rocket," and "Brand on My Heart (with Snow) surpass the original versions. It's simply miraculous to hear three cagey old singers with very little in the natural gifts department think their way through these old chestnuts. I was gratified repeatedly throughout the trip when Dad was moved to pick up the cases of all three of these discs and peruse them carefully. Anybody else have some sure-fires to recommend for parent weekends?