Editor's Note: Eyeing the New Year

At the start of this past week, friends and work associates asked if we were going away for the holidays. Not a chance. The thought of delayed flights, long tarmac waits, helping two big guys on the plane duct tape some drunk fool to his seat, watching a SWAT team board to drag someone off who had a meltdown and spending nine hours in the air each way didn’t seem all that appealing or rewarding.

Instead, for the next week, we’re going to visit New York (where we live), enjoying the city in all its frosty glory. On Friday night, eight inches of snow is forecast. It's the first true winter the city has experienced in about 10 years. Watching sled-riders while sipping hot cocoa at Central Park’s Pilgrim Hill is a must.

We’re looking forward to sleeping late; long walks through Central Park; lunches in SoHo, Chinatown and the Upper East Side; and spending time with family and friends in the city. And posting at JazzWax, of course.

To give you a sense of Manhattan’s magical qualities this time of year, here’s WNEW-AM’s winter jingle, when the radio station was still around keeping pop music fans sane…

What I streamed this past week and loved:

The Assassin (2025)—This British series was created for Amazon Prime and has the sweet-and-sour drama-comedy flavor of Killing Eve. It tracks a hit-woman and her son trying to escape a hit put on her. (AMC via Amazon Prime)

Here’s the trailer…

Hell or High Water (2016)—Before Landman, there was this drama film directed by David Mackenzie and wonderfully written by Taylor Sheridan. Starring Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Gil Birmingham, the movie tersely follows the exploits of two bank-robbing brothers in dusty Texas. (Hulu))

Here’s the trailer…

Chuck Israels, the bassist in the second Bill Evans Trio, sent along a note following my post on his National Jazz Ensemble recording of Evans’s Very Early:

“Hi Marc, Bill [Evans] was a guest soloist on Very Early—doing me a favor (he wasn’t paid). And I’m glad you felt my orchestration and arrangement of his song was orders of magnitude better than others. I was striving for an intimate familiarity with its rhythms and textures being one. Lee Konitz also just volunteered to play.

“By the way, among the NJE personnel was the amazing Steve Brown—the best guitarist no one’s heard of. No one plays the blues better than Steve—no one.”

Thanks, Chuck! Here’s Deep, from The Steve Brown Quartet: Live at Carriage House Cafe (Ithaca, N.Y.), in October 2012, with Chris Persad (tp,flhrn), Dino Losito (org), Steve Brown (g) and Danny D’Imperio (d)…

Are you a JazzWax subscriber who upgraded to paid this past week? Thank you so much for your support. Your generosity means the world to me. Welcome to six days a week of JazzWax and 24/7 site access.

If you aren’t a paid subscriber, here’s what you missed: the Chuck Israels Orchestra in 1975 playing Bill Evans’s Very Early, with Evans on piano as a guest soloist; Glenn Miller: The December Broadcasts; and possibly Paul Desmond’s only recording with the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Upgrading is easy: Find the “Upgrade to paid” button on any post or in the “Manage subscription” section of your account settings. Give it a click, choose a paid plan. Then you can sign in to JazzWax.com any time of day or night and enjoy. Thanks in advance.

Give JazzWax as a gift to family members and friends who are curious about jazz but need a helping hand figuring out the landscape and finding artists who suit their taste.

And lastly…

Here’s Helen Merrill: Bossa Nova in Tokyo (1967) will brighten your day…

Here’s Buddy Rich—eight drum solos on video…

And finally, a Sleigh Ride you won’t soon forget…