Top 10 Favorite Bob Dylan tracks (and more)

On the occasion of Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday I’ve been spurred to look at my relationship with his music, one that began with exposure to songs of his that were mainstays on mainstream “classic rock” radio and then radiated in any number of directions since then. I am inspired by his tenacity of artistic vision (even when it changes, sometimes inconveniently). And I’m awed by his truly incredible catalogue of great songs, from earth-shaking protest music to evocative poetry to continuation of folk blues and gospel traditions to flat out catchy pop songs. And while some would say his voice is an acquired taste, I guess I’ve acquired it because I love that too.

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Top 10 Favorite Curtis Fuller Tracks

Curtis Fuller, who we lost this past weekend, is my favorite trombonist in the history of music. His playing is at once soulful, grooving, lyrical, harmonically adept, and technically agile and he was an underappreciated composer and bandleader to boot. I often find myself steering students towards his work to demonstrate how obstacles limiting one’s ability to “shred” needn’t prevent one from sounding great on fast tempos and/or in the company of those who can play with greater technical ease. In his case, in most of the recordings to which I steer people (including 1-9 on this list) the obstacles in question are due to the inherently cumbersome nature of his instrument, but it’s worth noting how much great music he made after he had surgery to remove a lung. For years I assumed that was a weird rumor because I kept going to hear him perform and marveling at how a sixty-something (and then seventy-something) year old trombonist could sound so good even with two working lungs. As a physically impaired jazz musician myself, this elevated Curtis even further in my own pantheon of inspiring figures.

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