https://modestwalrus.com/tags/jazz/Recent content in Jazz on Modest WalrusHugoen-usSun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://modestwalrus.com/music/what-a-wonderful-world-by-louis-armstrong/Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://modestwalrus.com/music/what-a-wonderful-world-by-louis-armstrong/<h2 id="why-i-reacted-to-this-song">Why I Reacted To This Song</h2> <p>This has to be one of the finest, most perfectly built musical arrangements ever recorded.</p> <h2 id="original-by-artist">Original by Artist</h2> <div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden;"> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" loading="eager" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5-xybHaNQHo?autoplay=0&amp;controls=1&amp;end=0&amp;loop=0&amp;mute=0&amp;start=0" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border:0;" title="YouTube video"></iframe> </div> <h2 id="about-this-song">About This Song</h2> <p>&ldquo;What a Wonderful World&rdquo; arrived in 1967, one of the most turbulent years in American history, with the Vietnam War escalating past 500,000 US troops, the Summer of Love colliding with the &ldquo;Long Hot Summer&rdquo; riots, civil rights tensions boiling over, a widening generational and counterculture divide, and Martin Luther King Jr. speaking out against the war. Songwriters George David Weiss and Bob Thiele wrote the song specifically for Louis Armstrong, then a 66-year-old jazz legend crossing into pop, as a deliberate antidote to the darkness of the era. Armstrong was uniquely positioned for it: respected across both Black and white audiences, known more for joy than for political messaging, and seen as a bridge between generations and races. Weiss and Thiele wanted his distinctive, weathered voice, shaped by decades of struggle and triumph, to carry a message of hope that would land as genuine rather than preachy.</p>https://modestwalrus.com/music/round-midnight-by-thelonious-monk/Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://modestwalrus.com/music/round-midnight-by-thelonious-monk/<h2 id="why-i-reacted-to-this-song">Why I Reacted To This Song</h2> <p>Thelonious Monk is one of the great jazz pianists. His approach to the instrument is unlike anyone else; angular, unpredictable and completely his own. &ldquo;&lsquo;Round Midnight&rdquo; is the song that defines him and it demanded a reaction.</p> <h2 id="original-by-artist">Original by Artist</h2> <div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden;"> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" loading="eager" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IrAfjW5qiyo?autoplay=0&amp;controls=1&amp;end=0&amp;loop=0&amp;mute=0&amp;start=0" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border:0;" title="YouTube video"></iframe> </div> <h2 id="about-this-song">About This Song</h2> <p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Round Midnight&rdquo; was written by Thelonious Monk around 1944 and has since become one of the most recorded jazz standards in history. The title captures the mood perfectly; a piece that sounds like the loneliness and stillness of the late-night hours. Monk&rsquo;s harmonic language was ahead of its time, full of dissonance and surprise, and nowhere is that more apparent than here. Miles Davis, Coltrane and countless others have covered it, but Monk&rsquo;s own recordings remain the definitive versions.</p>