So I started listening to Verve's "Jazz in Paris" 75-CD set this weekend on my Rhapsody account. I started with the first three discs, the first two of which were of a Louis Armstrong concert. Though sold individually, they really should be listened to together because they're arranged to play back-to-back without interruption. The concert itself is a great showcase of Armstrong as a singer, arranger, and band leader. Other singers also performing added a nice variety to the whole thing.
The third disc was the soundtrack for a French film done by Miles Davis (the soundtrack, not the film). Critics have described the music as definitive for the style of the film it was written for, with Davis improvising in the studio as he viewed the various scenes for which he was composing. I'll need to read more about the movie itself, in addition to watching it, but the music is very recognizable to the modern listener as it's been regularly emulated in movies and TV since. I guess it's one of those things where you have to hear it. Think "swank" and "slinky" without being "loungey". The version of the album on Rhapsody had a bunch of alternate takes on it, so I edited my playlist to leave them out and listen to the original album in its original order. All in all, not a bad Saturday.
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