Every summer I put together a playlist of favorite songs around a theme, to provide enterainment for backyard barbecues and that kind of thing. Here they are, collected for your enjoyemnt, so sit back, relax and listen to some records!

Seventy-Six Favorite Saxophone Songs

Here is 2024's summer playlist, with the theme being saxophone songs. It spans a full ten decades, almost a hundred years of recorded music. It starts off pretty sparse in the 1930's and 40's and thins out again from the 1990s' into the 21st century. The list begins with Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker, who virtually defined modern jazz on the sax. In the 50's and into the 60's it's dominated by the great jazz players, mainly tenor but a few alto, soprano, and even bari. In the mid-sixties pop music start taking over, beginning with soul rapidly followed by rock, and alot of great horn section bands appear around this time. By the mid-seventies into the 80's there's lots of different styles and in rock, horn sections largely give way to a single sax player. By the 90's rock and pop had largely moved into grunge and electronic styles, so there's less of a role for the horn. Still, around the time we see a resurgence of a new generation of jazz that continues into the present day.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/170ByJ4K4SgT8r3J5e6bzQ

1930's
Coleman Hawkins - Body and Soul

1940's
Charlie Parker - Donna Lee

1950's
Sidney Bechet - Petite Fleur
Ben Webster + Art Tatum - Have You Met Miss Jones?
Lester Young - There'll Never Be Another You
Sonny Rollins - St. Thomas
Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane - Nutty
Paul Desmond - Take Five
The Champs - Tequila
Ornette Coleman - Lonely Woman
Charles Mingus - Better Git It in Your Soul
Miles Davis - Freddie Freeloader

1960's
Dexter Gordon - Cheese Cake
John Coltrane _ Giant Steps
Paul Desmond + Gerry Mulligan - All the Things You Are
Stan Getz - The Girl From Ipanema
James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)
Eddie Harris - Freedom Jazz Dance
Wayne Shorter – Mah Jong
Sam And Dave - Hold On I'm Coming
Wilson Pickett - In the Midnight Hour
King Curtis - Memphis Soul Stew
The Beatles - Savoy Truffle
The Doors - Touch Me
Sly and the Family Stone - Want to Take You Higher
Joe Henderson - Black Narcissus
King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man

1970's
Traffic - Glad
Blood Sweat & Tears - Smiling Phases
Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4
The Ides of March - Vehicle
Rolling Stones - Heartbreaker
Headhunters - Sly
Pink Floyd - Us and Them
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
AWB - Pick up the Pieces
The Brecker Brothers Band - Some Skunk Funk
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Tenth Avnenue Freeze-Out
David Bowie - Young Americans
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
Return to Forever - Nite Sprite
Billy Joel - Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Weather Report - Havona
Steely Dan - Deacon Blues
Foreigner - Long, Long Way from Home
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
ZZ Top - She Loves My Automobile

1980's
Grover Washington Jr. - Just the Two of Us
The Blues Brothers / Aretha Franklin - Think
Joco Pastorius - Soul Intro/The Chicken
Lounge Lizards - Harlem Nocturne
The Electric Mayhem - Can You Picture That?
The Police - Hungry For You
Alan Parsons Project - Old and Wise
Genesis - Paperlate
Madness - Our House
Joe Jackson - You Can't Get What You Want (TYKWYW)
Sade - Smooth Operator
Huey Lewis and the News - The Heart of Rock'n'Roll
Wham! - Careless Whisper
Sting - Shadows in the Rain
INXS - What You Need
Tears for Fears - The Working Hour
Bill Bruford's Earthworks - Thud
Michael Brecker - The Cost of Living

1990's
Branford Marsalis - Mo' Better Blues
They Might be Giants - She's Actual Size
Morphine - Honey White
John Zorn - Batman
The Seatbelts - Tank

2000's
Ravi Coltrane - 26-2
Pharoah Sanders - The Creator Has a Master Plan
Joshua Redman's Elastic Band - The Crunge

2010's
Joshua Redman / Brad Mehldau - Ornithology
Kamasi Washington - Street Fight Mas
Too Many Zoos - Car Alarm

2020's
Sungazer - Threshold
David Murry - Cycles and Seasons

Honorable Mention - songs that didn't make it because they're not on Spotify, or they're already on another playlist:
Raymond Scott - Powerhouse
Steve Lacy - Plays Monk
Tower of Power - What is Hip
Parliament Funkadelic - Give Up the Funk
The Who - The Real Me
Maceo Parker - Pass the Peas
Duran Duran - Rio
Huang Chung - Dance Hall Days
Ornette Coleman and Pat Metheny - Song X
Fishbone - Bonin' in the Boneyard
Material - Black Light

Eighty-One Favorite Nineties Songs

I debuted my 2023 summer playlist, as is tradition. The theme was eighty-one favorite songs form the nineties. This follows from last year's seventy-seven songs from the seventies and eighty songs from the eighties the year before that. I must say the 90s seems to have alot more random song and genres from bands the came and went but have not endured so much as bands from other decades. Also not alot in the way of new and interesting jazz. Maybe it's because I worked at MTV in the 90s, or maybe it reflects deeper changes in the music industry, technology and popular culture. Or maybe it's just that I went thru alot of changes in the 90's. I started as a college student, moved across the country several times and lived in three different cities, went to from zero to sky-high to dotcom crash in my career, and ended as a new parent.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6OfV8q69SlkRNaPSvwmbU1

1990
They Might Be Giants - Flood/Birdhouse in Your Soul
Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
Jane’s Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
The Sundays - Here's Where the Story Ends
Black Box - Everybody Everybody
Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole
Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance

1991
Bonnie Raitt - Something to Talk About
Tuck & Patti - Dream
Blues Traveller - Onslaught
Rush - Roll the Bones
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
The Sugarcubes - Hit
Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy
Liz Phair - Flower
Prince + the NPG - Gett Off

1992
Alice in Chains - Them Bones
King's X - Black Flag
Snow - Informer
Barenaked Ladies - My Box Set
Neil Young - One of These Days
Nirvana - Come as You Are
Ice Cube - It Was a Good Day
10,000 Maniacs - Candy Everybody Wants
En Vogue - My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)
Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Back
House Of Pain - Jump Around
Megadeath - Sweating Bullets
Ozric Tentacles - Yog-Bar-Og

1993
Sheryl Crow - Solidify
Fishbone - Servitude
Ace Of Base - The Sign
Sting - She's too Good for Me
Donald Fagan - Snowbound
Frank Zappa - G-Spot Tornado (from The Yellow Shark)
Billy Joel - River of Dreams
Phish - Rift
US3 - Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)

1994
Soundgarden - The Day I Tried to Live
The Offspring - Self Esteem
The Revels - Comanche
Soul Coughing - Is Chicago Is Not Chicago
Material - Black Lights (Hallucination Engine)
Dead Can Dance - How Fortunate the Man with None
Seal - Kiss from a Rose
Steely Dan - Book of Liars
King Crimson - VROOOM
The Bobs - Particle Man
Herbie Hancock - Dis is Da Drum
Beastie Boys - Sure Shot
Animaniacs - All The Words in the English Language

1995
No Doubt - Spiderwebs
Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know
Everclear - Santa Monica
Weezer - Say It Ain’t So
The Beatles - Free as a Bird
Macarena - Los Del Rio (Bayside Boys Remix)
White Zombie - More Human Than Human
Annie Lennox - Something So Right
Medeski Martin and Wood - Friday Afternoon in the Universe

1996
Beck - Devil's Haircut
Wallflowers - One Headlight
Geggy Tah - Whoever You Are
Know Your Chicken - Cibo Matto
Cake - The Distance
Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground
Space - The Female of the Species
The Beaux Hunks - Powerhouse
Michael Brecker - African Skies
Oasis - Don't Look Back in Anger
Johnny Cash - My Wave

1997
Might Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get
Steve & Edyie - Black Hole Sun (Loungapalooza)
Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
Foo Fighters - Everlong
The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
Sarah McLachlan - Building a Mystery
Smash Mouth - Walking on the Sun
Ben Folds Five - The Battle of Who Could Care Less

1998
Cher - Believe
Fastball - The Way
The Seatbelts - Tank
Brian Setzer Orchestra - Switchblade 327

1999
Weird Al - The Saga Begins

Seventy-Seven Favorite Songs from the 70's

Last year I created a playlist of 80 Favorite Songs from the 80’s to enjoy while hanging out in the yard. Last weekend two of my neighbors were playing competing classic rock playlists, which inspired me to create a playlist of 77 Favorite Songs from the 70’s for 2022. It turned out the be pretty interesting. It’s organized chronologically, which helps to see how trends come and go, and some juxtapositions of different things around the same time. I limited it to one song per artist, and since it was the era of long songs, I excluded full-album-side multi-song suites, or parts thereof. The early part is dominated by album rock, including early prog, with lots to 7- or even 10-minute songs. The middle part is thinner, and a bit of a transitional period, with a pretty deep side foray into jazz fusion. Toward the end there’s a lot going on again, as funk and disco emerge, as well as new wave and a variety of other styles. Even though this playlist has fewer songs than my 80’s one, its about an hour and a half longer. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1StgmZvDHuG35B2FeOAepZ

1970
Woodstock - Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Wah Wah - George Harrison
American Pie - Don McClean
War Pigs - Black Sabbath
Child In Time - Deep Purple
Take a Pebble - Emerson Lake and Palmer
Miles Runs the Voodoo Down - Mile Davis
Fire and Rain - Blood Sweat and Tears
Box of Rain - The Grateful Dead
I'm Your Captain / Closer to Home - Grand Funk Railroad
Layla - Derek and the Dominos

1971
Superstar - The Carpenters (1971)
L.A. Woman - The Doors
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys - Traffic
Can't You Hear Me Knocking? – The Rolling Stones
When the Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin
Heart of the Sunrise - Yes
Wind-Up - Jethro Tull

1972
Watcher of the Skies - Genesis
A Hit by Varèse - Chicago
School's Out - Alice Cooper
Summer Breeze - Seals and Croft
Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie

1973
Undun - The Guess Who
Jessica - The Allman Brothers Band
Rosalita - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd
The Real Me - The Who
What is Hip - Tower of Power
Watermelon Man - The Head Hunters
Spain - Return to Forever
Birds of Fire - Mahavishnu Orchestra
Frankenstien - Edgar Winter
Right Place Wrong Time - Dr. John

1974
Back Home Again - John Denver
Crime of the Century - Supertramp
Apostrophe (') - Frank Zappa
Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Pt 1. - King Crimson
Whatever Gets You Through the Night - John Lennon

1975
Band on the Run - Paul McCartney
I'm In Love With My Car - Queen
Never Been Any Reason - Head East
By-Tor and the Snow Dog - Rush
Some Skunk Funk - The Brecker Bros. band

1976
Give Up the Funk - Parliament
The Boys are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy
(Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Öyster Cult
Peace of Mind - Boston
Carry On Wayward Son - Kansas
Song Within a Song - Camel
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot
Miami 2017 - Billy Joel
Magic Man - Heart
Dancing Queen - ABBA

1977
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - AC/DC
Threshold / Jet Airliner - Steve Miller Band
Aja - Steely Dan
Contusion - Stevie Wonder
Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
Slip Slidin' Away - Paul Simon
Watching the Detectives - Elvis Costello
Three Little Birds - Bob Marley
Paradise by the Dashboard Light - Meat Loaf
You Make Loving Fun - Fleetwood Mac
Feels So Good - Chuck Mangione

1978
Boogie Oogie Oogie - A Taste of Honey
Shadow Dancing - Andy Gibb
Mister Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra
Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? - Rod Stewart
Life's Been Good - Joe Walsh
In the Dead of Night - U.K.
Runnin' with the Devil - Van Halen
Walking on the Moon - The Police

1979
Can You Picture That? - Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem
The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band
Funkytown - Lipps, Inc.
Rapper's Delight - Sugar Hill Gang

Eighty Favorite Songs from the Eighties

I decided to make a playlist of 80 favorite songs from the 80s for a party in 2021. The idea originated with a conversation I had with Ken, the bass player in my jazz group, in which I put forth the proposition that Purple Rain was one of the all-time great albums of the 80's, and he said he was never particularly into Prince. This led me to try and make a list of the 80 best albums of the 80s. To me a great album has to have more than a few great songs. It has to have two great sides that flow from one song to the next without a clunker or weak spot in the mood and story that record is telling. Plus it should have a great album cover. I got off to a good start but once I got past 40 or 50 there was a long tail of maybes, and it started to feel kinda arbitrary. I went so far as google Rolling Stone magazine's list of top 80's, and let's just say it's ... idiosyncratic.

Maybe 80 songs would be easier. There were lots of great songs on the radio, and some came from great albums, some not, but it wouldn't matter. So the songs are a mix of genres including classic rock, prog rock, heavy metal, synth pop, jazz and Canadian content. I didn't put much planning into it, but I made a rule not to repeat the same artist, and I put the songs in chronological order. There was also a bias toward summertime party vibe. The list contains some are one-hit wonders, some huge smash hits, some deep tracks that have stuck with me over the years. Many I've learned to play and sing of the years, and have done in bands. All made an impression on me of kind or another at the time. As you can see, things kinda started as an extension of the 70's, seemed to to really heat up and get creative in '81-'84, then maybe jumped the shark a little in '85 or so. After that the center moved over toward jazz, and when it swung back in the late 80's the sound was pretty different. Or maybe my tastes just changed.

There's a few songs I wanted to add there were not on spottify, such as Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant, High Speed on Ice by Talas, and Got a Match? by Chick Corea Elecktric Band. Ah well. Of course there's lots of other great songs I left out; once you start you realize 80 is not that many for a whole decade. If I were to put more time into this, I'd probably drop a few and add a few others. So if you don't agree, go ahead and make your own list. Anyway with out further ado, here's my playlist.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7DQq0mGUzBfCjmPXSDcHEB

1980
Gaucho - Steely Dan
(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
It's Still Rock and Roll to Me - Billy Joel
Turn It On Again - Genesis
Back in Black - AC/DC
Battle Scar - Max Webster
Mr. Crowley - Ozzy Osbourne
The Electric Co. - U2

1981
Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
Three Views of a Secret - Jaco Pastorius
Stone In Love - Journey
The Voice - The Moody Blues
Burnin' for You - Blue Öyster Cult
Fight the Good Fight - Triumph
On the Loose - Saga
I Can't Go for That - Hall and Oates
Lunatic Fringe - Red Ryder
Elephant Talk - King Crimson
Waiting on a Friend - The Rolling Stones

1982
Run to The Hills - Iron Maiden
Rio - Duran Duran
Steppin' Out - Joe Jackson
Take It Away - Paul McCartney
Dance Hall Days - Huang Chung
Africa - Toto
Rock The Casbah - The Clash
Somebody's Baby - Jackson Browne
Sirius / Eye in the Sky - Alan Parsons Project
Subdivisions - Rush
She Blinded Me With Science - Thomas Dolby
Always Something There to Remind Me - Naked Eyes
Sole Survivor - Asia
Eminence Front - The Who

1983
Billy Jean - Micheal Jackson
Rock of Ages - Def Leppard
Gimme All Your Lovin' - ZZ Top
Let's Dance - David Bowie
Pride and Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan
In a Big Country - Big Country
Other Arms - Robert Plant
One Thing Leads to Another - The Fixx
Synchronicity I - The Police
Road Games - Allan Holdsworth
Rockit - Herbie Hancock
Relax - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
City of Love - Yes

1984
Hot for Teacher - Van Halen
I Want a New Drug - Huey Lewis and the News
New Girl Now - Honeymoon Suite
I Would Die 4 U - Prince
The Last In Line - DIO
Magic - The Cars
She Bop - Cyndi Lauper
One Night in Bangkok - Murray Head
Take On Me - A-ha
Perfect Strangers - Deep Purple
Boys of Summer - Don Henley
Just a Gigolo /I Ain't Got Nobody - David Lee Roth

1985
We Are the World - Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie
Walk of Life - Dire Straits
Guerilla Soldier - Gowen
Something About You - Level 42
Dream of the Blue Turtles - Sting
Freeway of Love - Aretha Franklin
Miami Vice Theme - Jan Hammer
Human Nature - Miles Davis

1986
Big Time - Peter Gabriel
Song X - Ornette Coleman
Trains - Steps Ahead
Billy's Saloon - Gamalon
Master of Puppets - Metallica

1987
Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley
My Heart Declares a Holiday - Earthworks
Minuano (Six Eight) - Pat Metheny Group

1988
When We Was Fab - George Harrison
In the New Age - King's X
Bonin' in the Boneyard - Fishbone

1989
Fight the Power - Public Enemy
Subway to Venus - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Wicked Game - Chris Isaak

Epic - Faith No More (1990, bonus track)

Greatest Jazz Singers of All Time

I recently put together a list of the greatest jazz singers of all time for The Global Jukebox, along with representative songs to showcase their greatness. It's been very enjoyable listening and curating the list, and I learned alot along the way. Originally I had wanted to do the top ten or maybe twenty artists, but it was hard to stop. I extended it out to thirty, albeit with fewer songs as you get on down the line. The list features both old and newer singers, spanning the entire history of jazz. Some central to the genre, others maybe coming in from neighboring forms such as blues or pop, but nevertheless great contributors to the legacy of jazz as an art form, and particularly to the vocals. It also really gets across the variety oh jazz styles out there and how it's evolved over time.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VZSjgb7157yUQ9KmrSvvd

1. Ella Fitzgerald – How High the Moon, I’m Beginning to See the Light (w/ Duke Ellington), My Romance, I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm, The Lady is a Tramp

2. Louis Armstrong – Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Jeepers Creepers, Cuban Pete, Hello Dolly, What Wonderful World

Bonus: Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Cheek to Cheek, Dream a Little Dream

3. Billie Holiday – Gimme a Pig Foot and a Bottle of Beer, Strange Fruit, Lover Man, Stars Fell on Alabama, God Bless the Child

4. Tony Bennett – (I Left My Heart) In San Francisco, Anything Goes (w/ Lady Gaga), There Will Never Be Another You (w/ Dave Brubeck)

5. Sarah Vaughn – Black Coffee, Lullaby of Birdland, Body and Soul

6. Johnny Hartman – Lush Life (w/ John Coltrane), My One and Only Love (w/ John Coltrane), Our Love is Here to Stay

7. Frank Sinatra – Fly Me to the Moon (w/ Count Basie Orchestra), Summer Wind, Luck Be a Lady

8. Dee Dee Bridgewater – Afro Blue, St. James Infirmary (w/ New Orleans Jazz Orchestra), Love from the Sun (w/ Theo Croker)

9. Kurt Elling – Nature Boy, Matte Kudasai, Steppin’ Out

10. Esperanza Spalding – I Know You Know, Cuerpo Y Alma, Funk the Fear

11. Gregory Porter – Liquid Spirit, Holding On

12. Chet Baker – Do It the Hard Way, Everything Happens to Me

13. Nat King Cole – Unforgettable, Smile

14. Shirley Horn – A Foggy Day, Makin’ Whoopee

15. Mel Tormé – They Can’t Take That Away from Me, The Christmas Song

16. Etta Jones – Bye Bye Blackbird, Etta’s Blues

17. Joe Williams - Five O’Clock in the Morning, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

18. Nina Simone – I Put a Spell on You, Mississippi Goddam

19. Bessie Smith – Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out, Devil’s Gonna Git You

20. Ray Charles – Mess Around, America the Beautiful

21. Joni Mitchell – Goodbye Porkpie Hat

22. Billy Eckstine – Oo Bop Sh’bam

23. Dinah Washington – Destination Moon

24. Jazzmeia Horn – Out the Window

25. Patti Cathcart (w/ Tuck and Patti) – I’ve Got Just About Everything

26. Dianna Krall – Peel Me a Grape

27. Bobby McFerrin – Thinkin’ About Your Body

28. Norah Jones – Don’t Know Why

29. Harry Connick Jr. – It Had to Be You

30. Etta James – At Last