A silvery day

Some days are made for staying home and digging back into an artist's deep catalog. And many thanks to holiday staycations for supplying such days. Not to reduce a life's work into a few hours of concentrated listening, but there's great pleasure in letting a full personality unfold as the hours pass. Hard bop heavyweight Horace Silver had no shortage of memorable tunes, but this one caught my ear and help tight with the grip of a crying newborn.

Horace Silver — Kathy

Unsalted peanuts

You think you've got enough music from awesome blind piano players, do you? Well, friend, you do not. Valerie Capers was a sidewoman for several bebop and Afro-Cuban notables, but seemed to have had little of a headlining career for herself. Which is a shame, as today's tune should amply demonstrate. It makes me want to invent a new Peanuts gang character and go sledding in some cartoon snow. Who's with me?

Valerie Capers - Kenne's Soul

What summer evenings should sound like

At the end of a long, draining, decidedly ungroovy weekday, you want something easy like the proverbial Sunday morning. This will do nicely. Can't go wrong with members of the Dap-Kings, Budos Band, and Antibalas. Classic sounds done right and cooked up in my own fine borough. Say yeah.

Menahan Street Band - Make the Road By Walking