Friday Five

January 16, 2026

  1. Duke Ellington, "The Peanut Vendor" (1931): Ethan Iverson wrote about clave rhythm recently. He wrote a bit about "The Peanut Vendor" and mentioned that there is an entire chapter about the tune in Chris Washburne's book Latin Jazz: The Other Jazz. So I got the chapter (shout out to interlibrary loans!) and read about (among other things) Duke Ellington's version which was recorded very soon after the 1930 hit recording by Don Azpiazú. I've heard this version before, but failed until now to appreciate it's wild modulation and entirely new sections composed by Ellington.
  2. Donny McCaslin, "Tension" (2012): Nate Chinen recently wrote about David Bowie's Blackstar for the 10th anniversary of its release. Donny McCaslin and his band are basically Bowie's collaborators and backing band on that record. McCaslin's album Casting for Gravity is apparently one of the things that drew him and producer Tony Visconti to hire McCaslin. It's a wild record, a little bit like what I imagine King Crimson might have sounded like if Robert Fripp had been a saxophone player. "Tension" is my favorite tune from this record.
  3. David Bowie, "I Can't Give Everything Away" (2016): It was a tough choice between this and "Lazarus" from the aforementioned Blackstar. The harmonica at the start of the song makes me think it's going to be a different vibe than it ends up being. This is the last song on the last album Bowie released in his lifetime and it's hard not to read into the title.
  4. Fiona Apple, "Fast As You Can" (1999): The Dead Wax podcast recently had an episode where they talked about this track. I remember hearing it when it came out and really liking her piano. The arrangement's sudden shifts are delightful surprises. And the production and engineering are top notch.
  5. Warren Zevon, "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" (live version from 1980): I had an extended period where I was deep into Warren Zevon. (One of our two cats is named Zevon. The other is named Levon, for Levon Helm.) But I really only dove in on Warren Zevon's studio albums when I was doing my personal deep dive. I recently watched David Letterman inducting Warren Zevon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he mentioned how he was taken with Zevon's first live album, Stand in the Fire. The studio version of "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" is fine, but the live version pushes me around more. The narrator's attitude toward Jeannie is off-putting in ways that it probably wasn't meant to be, or at least in ways that were meant to be more subtle. I wonder if he purposely went with "she did not pull away" to be uncomfortable rather than going with "she leaned in to kiss me too" or something like that. Whatever the case may be, it's not like you go into a typical Zevon song expecting to like the main character. And things do not end well for him.
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