The other day, while cleaning up some Inquisitive Mind Books listings on Amazon (and making sure An Abecedarium of Ornaments was in good order), I decided to give myself 10 minutes to browse the bajillions of music listings on the site.
This wasn’t entirely random browsing. I keep a notepad on the passenger seat of the VW expressly to jot down the names of interesting artists and the titles of appealing tracks I hear on KNKX, our local NPR jazz affiliate. On the list was Canto De Ossanha, from Aquarela Do Brasil by the Nate Najar Trio.
I found the album, duly added it to a Wish List, and nosed around for other releases by the same artist. There was one single copy of a Christmas music CD, issued back in 2007.
I liked the review, was grateful the album didn’t have any errant reindeer and only a few Santas, and clicked buy.
The CD arrived right after Veterans Day. Now, this is early enough in the holiday season when I’m easily, deeply annoyed at hearing Bing in the frozen food aisle, but… I had lots of photo work to do, so I thought I’d add the album to the Mac and listen while Photoshopping.
I thought I’d stumbled into a secret recording Timothy had made and hidden in my iTunes library.
Tim’s distinctive phrasings were informed by the intonations of many jazz greats, including Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Grant Green and George Benson. Charlie Byrd appears on a flock of CDs and LPs on our shelves. And here was a jazz guitarist, closely associated with Byrd, throwing down harmonics and patterns that could have been Timothy in a very 52nd Street, Christmas-in-Herald-Square, sort of mood.
I couldn’t stop smiling. Obviously, this is one holiday album I won’t mind having on permanent repeat come this year’s Winter Solstice gathering.