ー英会話講師の英語日記ー　札幌英会話スクールSTEP UP（札幌駅、大通駅徒歩５分）

Silver, Monk and Davis

2017年6月30日 (金)

Recently I have been listening to jazz while I work on my translations. It helps me relax and focus because it isn’t too high-energy. I grew up listening to Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington, but recently I have been focusing more on a different kind of jazz.

These three were pioneers in the jazz world, but I feel like their music is often almost closer to dance music – it’s often lively and energetic, sometimes even frantic. It’s party music, early evening music, music for a drive along the coast. Of course they have some slower songs, but for me they usually fall somewhere closer to big band than smooth jazz.

I have been into Horace Silver for quite a while, though I discovered him after becoming an adult. He, along with Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis are much more my style now. Their works mostly came later – around the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s – in the golden age of jazz.

This is night music, soulful music, music to enjoy with a glass of brandy and some chocolate. It puts me in just the right mood for reading and writing, but sometimes I like to just stop and soak it all in.

I have some students who are interested in jazz, and they have influenced me to listen more.

I hope you can find the time to enjoy this uniquely American musical culture.