Spotify Sunday: By Another Name

Jazz musicians absorb tunes, spend time with them, nearly live with and in them. Getting to know a tune means internalizing its contours and chord sequence to the point where one can walk onto that no-bullshit-zone of a bandstand and tell a story through just joining up the notes. It’s what you work towards.

In British jazz that process also goes with a self-deprecating sense of humour. In particular, the songs get nicknames — sometimes punning, sometimes oblique, often childish and always funny. Alright, perhaps they’re only funny the first time.

So here’s a different sort of Spotify Sunday playlist. Normally, Night and Day contributors list their selections with the song names upfront (see here, for instance). Instead, by way of a Sunday challenge, I’m going to give you the songs’ nicknames and put the actual titles at the bottom. Here goes:

1) First up are two Detroit-born pianistic giants, Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan.