Hi I'm Brian McKnight, I'm here at Amoeba and this is What's in My Bag.
This first one is ac tually my...
It's probably my favorite record of all time.
and not because it's Michael Jackson, it's Steely Dan.
This is the first CD version of 'Gaucho.'
The reason why it's 'cause I'm a huge Donald Fagen and Walter Becker fan
but the second reason is because there isn't one song on this CD that I skip past.
I listen to every single one. I listen to them the way it was intended
in the sequence that they wanted you to listen to them.
To see that here, and it was the last one you guys had
even if I never take it out of the packaging I've got it.
I think the last version of this I had that was physical was actually a cassette tape.
Seven songs on a record. Who does seven songs on an album?
That's not straight ahead jazz from 1947.
This is amazing, so that was one of my first choices.
I picked one of two of these.
As a piano player, you want to know your competition, and I'm not even in his...
He's way up in the stratosphere somewhere, at the very top
and I'm down here with the mere mortals. This is the best of Art Tatum.
Greatest jazz piano player who ever lived.
They say that the way he learned was on a player piano
that was programmed at the time, in the 20s, or actually maybe in the teens
by two piano players playing at the same time.
So when you hear him play, it sounds like two people are playing.
That's how awesomely he plays. So I had to get that one.
There's a couple songs on here that I hadn't heard him do. I thought I'd heard everything that he had done.
And here's another one. So this is all of Art's solo pieces.
To hear him play this solo stuff
it just blows your mind that someone could be that musically talented.
Just gotta have this stuff. Art Tatum.
Move right along to more Art Tatum.
And there's this. When you see this cover
and you understand who this person is, this is John Coltrane, 'Blue Train.'
To me, one of the greatest iconic musical figures of the 20th century is Miles Davis
and he wanted to play with him. One of the only guys.
He had other saxophone players, but the premier saxophone player
tenor player was John Coltrane.
You see that Blue Train, you see it's just... what's he thinking? What's going on?
You know that this is gonna be smoky, it's gonna be hot, it's gonna be soulful.
So there's that, and
speaking of the guy I was just talking about.
When you come upon anything that Miles Davis does
particularly the essential Miles Davis, you have to have it
if only just for 'My Funny Valentine.'
Y'know, when you hear the recording of that
you realize what they're talking about when they talk about Miles Davis and what he
has meant to the American musical landscape.
And those were my choices.
Cool, thank you so much.
Thank you.