100 Essential Albums: #95 — Ellington at Newport by Duke Ellington (1956)

Read MoreIt don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
— Duke Ellington

Read MoreIt don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
— Duke Ellington

Read More“Every time I hear (the song, “The End”), it means something else to me. It started out as a simple good-bye song. Probably just to a girl. But I see how it could be a goodbye to a kind of childhood. I really don’t know. I think it’s sufficiently complex and universal in its imagery that it could be almost anything you want it to be.”
— Jim Morrison (an in interview shortly before his death at age 27)

Read More“And the sky has got so cloudy when it used to be so clear…”
Many of Sinatra’s recordings weren’t just songs. They were vicarious expressions of our very own deeply-subdued emotions, in many cases reflecting loss that Sinatra himself suffered over many decades. Sinatra’s voice conveyed both an acceptance of defeat and confidence that it was okay to feel sad and then reflect upon it.

Read MoreYou live you learn, you love you learn
You cry you learn, you lose you learn
You bleed you learn, you scream you learn