{"id":8896,"date":"2017-12-11T22:37:08","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T06:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8896"},"modified":"2017-12-16T20:01:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-17T04:01:29","slug":"discovering-melanctha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2017\/12\/discovering-melanctha\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Recommendation: Discovering &#8220;Melanctha&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Dave Brubeck &amp; Carmen McRae<\/strong>, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2iSBUan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tonight Only<\/a><\/em> (Columbia)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8897\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/51EFCdut6L-e1513044100504.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"210\" \/>What would the <em>Rifftides<\/em> staff do without readers who keep us informed and on track? The always-alert Svetlana Ilicheva sent a note from Moscow about <em><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2iSBUan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tonight Only<\/a><\/em>, a 1961 encounter of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Carmen McRae. It was recorded in a New York club before a chattering audience of non-listeners. &#8221;\u00a0It has fascinating moments. One track, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Melanctha,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a Brubeck song with a lyric by his wife Iola. It was evidently inspired by a 1909 Gertrude Stein short story about the life and early death of a woman \u00e2\u20ac\u0153always seeking rest and quiet, and always she could only find new ways to be in trouble.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J05TgW43dNg\">McRae captures<\/a><\/em> the song\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s counterpoised humorous and chilling qualities. The Brubeck Quartet also recorded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2vWwbz3ifGQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an instrumental version<\/a> with a typically lyrical Paul Desmond solo. This byway in the Brubeck discography is worth exploring.<\/p>\n<p>(The initial post linked to the wrong video of McRae. Thanks to Jim Brown for tracking down the correct link, affirming the importance of alert readers.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dave Brubeck &amp; Carmen McRae, Tonight Only (Columbia) What would the Rifftides staff do without readers who keep us informed and on track? The always-alert Svetlana Ilicheva sent a note from Moscow about Tonight Only, a 1961 encounter of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Carmen McRae. It was recorded in a New York club before [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-recommendations","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}