This week’s theme: A Jazzy Christmas. Featured artists include Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers, Teddy Edwards, Victor Feldman, Al Viola, Monty Budwig, Charlie Parker, Kenny Dorham, Max Roach, Al Haig, Vince Guaraldi, Diana Krall, Rosemary Clooney, Dan Axelrod, Dinah Washington, Ramsey Lewis, Isaiah J. Thompson, John Pizzarelli, Julian Lee, Philip Norris, Kyle Poole, Manhattan Transfer, Nancy Lamott.

Theme: Jazz instrumental and vocal versions of songs written by Frank Loesser. Featured artists include Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, Bill Evans, Eddie Costa, Charles Rouse, Julius Watkins, Gildo Mahones, Teddy Charles, Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, Zoot Sims, Herb Geller, Gene Quill, Hal McKusick, Al Cohn, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Sammy Davis Jr., Carmen McRae, Hoagy Carmichael, Art Pepper, Rosemary Clooney, Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, and many more.

This week’s podcast: More vocals and instrumentals from the Great American Songbook. Featured artists include Dinah Washington, Ben Webster, Annie Ross, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Barney Kessell, Herb Ellis, Rosemary Clooney, Zoot Sims, Scott Hamilton, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Sonny Rollins, Paul Desmond Jim Hall, Sonny Criss, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more.Featured songs include Makin’Whoopee, I Was Going All Right, Diane, I’ve Got a Crush on You, Cry Me a River, I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face, For All We Know, and more.

This week’s theme: A Jazzy Christmas for 2024. Featured artists include Bill Evans, Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Carmen McRae, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Nancy Lamott, Dexter Gordon, Herb Geller, Rosemary Clooney, Jimmy Rushing, Louis Armstrong, and many more.

This week’s theme: Jazz Vocals featuring horn player accompaniment. Featured artists include Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dave Lambert, Joe Williams, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Abby Lincoln, Kenny Durham, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington, Clark Terry, Paul Quinichette, Lockjaw Davis, Annie Ross, Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Helen Humes, Teddy Edwards, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, and many more.

This week’s theme is a surprise, but it is quite lovely, IMHO. Featured artists include Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Chet Baker, Horace Silver, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, and many more.

This week’s theme. The best of Jazz Collector Live, Part One. Musical highlights from the first year of the Jazz Collector Live radio show/podcast. Featured artists include John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Ben Webster, Art Tatum, and more

This week’s theme: A Jazzy Christmas. Featured artists include Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, Kenny Dorham, Jimmy Rushing, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Herb Geller, Bill Evans, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Dan Axelrod, Al Perlman.

This week’s podcast: Various jazz vocals, including Ray Charles and Betty Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Oscar Brown Jr., Abbey Lincoln, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Anita O’Day, Rosemary Clooney and Scott Hamilton, Chet Baker, and more.

My second mode of listening is background, and for that I sometimes choose vinyl, and sometimes not. It depends on what else I am doing. If I am doing something that takes 20 minutes or so, or if there are a lot of people in the house and we are playing a game or something, I often put on vinyl because I am being active and don’t mind walking over to the turntable every 20 minutes and turning the record over or putting on a new record. But if I have music on in the background when I am reading a book or relaxing on my iPad with the New York Times or a crossword, then I typically will listen to a digital format, usually Sonos, which I have in all rooms and all locations. I will often put on music that is comfortable in the background, maybe some Ella or Art Tatum or even Bill Evans, stuff I know and don’t have to concentrate too much on, but is comfortable and somewhat soothing even. At night, going to sleep, I always use Sonos. I have created about 60 or 70 playlists I have labeled “Ballads,” as in Ballads 1, Ballads 2, Ballads 3, Ballads, A, Ballads B, in multiple combinations using a mix of music, jazz and vocals, plus other favorites such as James Taylor, Allison Krauss, Nancy Lamott, Sinatra, and The Beatles.

Then, there is the question of what to do with new records that I purchase. In the past, I have always tried to listen to each record before putting it on the shelves and immersing it into the collection. But, that stopped working years ago when I started buying more and more records at at time, and then collections, and, at the same time, stopped spending as much time listening as I did before life got in the way. So, sometimes, new records will get buried in the collection without a listen but with the promise that someday, when I get old and retired, I will have all of this time to put great music on the turntable and it will all come as a pleasant surprise to have fresh music in my ears after all of these years. I do realize that scenario is just a pipe dream and, if the time ever does come where I do have more time to listen, I will much more likely go back to my old friends and enjoy their company and remind myself of great times in my life and how and when I purchased each record and where I was when I first heard it and all of the other associations it brings and all of the other things you do when you get together with friends and family and reminisce.

And that’s my story, today, Dec. 8, 2019. I am perhaps somewhat nostalgic on this day because this was the date, 39 years ago, that John Lennon was shot, just a few blocks from where I am sitting now and writing this post. Sometime this afternoon, I will walk over to Strawberry Fields in Central Park and join the crowds of people there singing Beatles and Lennon songs and paying tribute.