Cast Your Fate to the Wind

This is my cover of “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”, an instrumental which was originally written and performed by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. His recording was a top-40 hit in 1963, reaching #22 and staying on the charts for 18 weeks.

Despite the its popularity and straight-forward nature, I could find no recordings by and instrumental guitar bands such as the Ventures or Shadows.

I Will Say Goodbye

This is my instrumental cover of “I Will Say Goodbye”, with music by Michel Legrand. The original French title was “Je Vivrai Sans Toi”. For my arrangement, I tried giving it a setting in the style of the Shadows.

 

Summertime

This is my instrumental version of “Summertime“, which was composed in 1934 by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess.  The song soon became a popular and much recorded jazz standard.

The Ventures included a cover on their 1962 album, “Mashed Potatoes and Gravy”, with Nokie Edwards playing the lead.

Corcovado

This is my instrumental version of “Corcovado” (known in English as “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars”) It was written by Antônio Carlos Jobim in 1960. An English lyric was later written by Gene Lees. The Portuguese title refers to the Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro.

Manhã de Carnaval

This is my sixties-style instrumental arrangement of “Manhã de Carnaval” (“Carnival Morning”) by Brazilian composer Luiz Bonfá and lyricist Antônio Maria.

“Manhã de Carnaval” appeared as a principal theme in the 1959 Portuguese-language film, “Black Orpheus”. It was one of the first Bossa Nova compositions to gain popularity outside Brazil. Particularly in the United States, the song has become a jazz standard and is considered to be one of the most important Brazilian Jazz/Bossa songs that helped establish the Bossa Nova movement in the late 1950s.

We Few

“We Few” is an original jazz/fusion composition that I wrote back in 2011, during my “Palindrome” period. The guitar part shows has some country influence. I think this is one of my better original tunes.

Mainstream

“Mainstream” is an original “smooth jazz” tune. I recently came across the original lead sheet I made for this, and got a bit of a shock. I wrote this FORTY F***ING YEARS AGO!!!. The genre classification “smooth jazz” hadn’t even emerged yet in 1979, even though George Benson pretty much set the table for it with his “Breezin” LP. It was derisively called “Fuzak” back then.