Multi-talented and award-winning Flutist Tom Keenlyside has recently released a brilliant new Jazz CD, "A Night At The Espresso". Tom has brought together a group of sparkling great Jazz talents to join him in a celebration of his Jazz beginnings at a the Espresso Coffee House in Vancouver, BC. Tom shares his fond remembrances of this time of his life. "I would arrive home at my appointed curfew hour...11:00 pm and say goodnight to my parents. When I was assured that they were asleep, I would crawl out my bedroom window, down the trellis, up to Granville Street, and take the bus downtown to the Espresso Coffee House, where I would remain until 5 or 6 in the morning. What a scene! So exciting! There, I would revel in the stories of the older cats, John Dawe, Nick McGowan, Rocky Weems...they all had stories to tell, and when they played in was like magic to my ears. Those guys running through the changes of "Have You Met Miss Jones", " "Stella By Starlight", or "All the Things You Are"...And me, furiously struggling to keep up."
Tom has never lost his love for music and even though he developed into one of the most talented Jazz musicians of our time, he never lets any opportunity to "sit in" go by. That's how I got to know Tom. I first ran into Tom in the Palm Desert California area while having dinner at one of the many local restaurants with live music. Tom came into the restaurant with his lovely wife Nicki-Lea and it wasn't long before he joined the Trio playing flute as good as I have ever heard anyone playing Jazz flute. To say that Tom's life has been totally dedicated to music is no overstatement. Tom plays Flute and Tenor Sax, Composes, Arranges and sings in addition to his studio work with music production. The best part of all is Tom is a wonderful, caring person with no personality attitudes; just genuinely a nice person.
The music on "A Night At The Espresso" will please any Jazz fan. It's a cool mix of some great standards and some original compositions from Tom and Miles Black who also provides outstanding Piano work for this CD. I have selected two "YouTube" selections from this CD for you to sample. The first one is the Cole Porter standard, "All Of You" that showcases the wonderful musicians Tom has brought together including a great vocal from Melody Diachun. The second is an original composition that I loved called "Dave". To all my friends in the Coachella Valley CA area who get to hear Tom sit in all the time in the winter, you need to absolutely buy this Cd to add to your Jazz collection. And for any other real Jazz fan reading this, this is one of the best traditional Jazz CD's I have heard in a long time. Thank you Tom for continuing to produce great Jazz for all of us!
"All Of Me"
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