eighties night

Recently, the Jazz Protagonists had a special Protagonists Jazz Party (that's the name of our radio show). For no particular reason at all, we decided it was Eighties Night. So we played music by Michael Jackson, Wham, The Police, Sade, and what turned out to be a lovely spin on "Somewhere Out There," from the animated movie An American Tail. We also taped "Memories," from the musical Cats (which we reinterpreted as a slow samba-bossa in 5/4 time) but didn't have time for it to air.

All the songs were reimagined in some way, as befits a jazz group. The way we described it to jazz listeners was that it wasn't like Eighties Miles; it was like Fifties Miles doing Eighties tunes. In fact, I've talked about all this before.

The line of the evening went, as usual, to bassist Greg Norris, who one memorable night merited a show, culled from tapings of live gigs, titled Weird Comments By Greg Night. After "Somewhere Out There," I complimented his sensitive solo. He responded, "That song makes me wish I was young and still believed in mice."

The entire hour is online. Enjoy.

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