Click on the link here for Audio Player – MJQ – Philharmonie Hall, Munich – July 14, 1988 – DW
There’s always room for MJQ, especially on a Sunday. And considering the craziness of the week, a nice reminder that there is always musical help in tuning out the madness.
This week it’s an MJQ concert from Munich, recorded on July 14, 1988.
A few colleagues have remarked in the past that The Modern Jazz Quartet had been at it so long and that their style was so in-place that they had grown stale over the years. I beg to differ. There are times when the message is so strong it doesn’t need constant revision and exploration. MJQ fashioned a unit that was perfect, with a style that was exclusively theirs. Listening to an MJQ album or a concert is a lot like reading a good book – you read it more than once and there are always new things to find.
And that is the litmus test – does it hold up over repeated listenings? In MJQ’s case – yes.
But you may be new to this group – the great thing about a legacy like The Modern Jazz Quartet’s is the constant influx of new listeners, new discoverers. People who come up to you and say “hey – have you heard this?”
You nod and grin and know the future is safe.
And so it is on yet another Sunday.
Enjoy.
