I'm going to assume you aren't familiar with Jonathan and Darlene - most folks aren't. And I just have to tell you a story.

The idea is that Darlene sings off key and her time is really bad, but it's sort of ok because Jonathan's time is awful too. Jonathan is one of those lounge players who like to display their technical mastery by taking the riff out into very dangerous territory. The problem is that he has no idea how to bring it back. So sometimes he stumbles back, and sometimes he just ignores it and starts from scratch again. It's truly hilarious stuff. They won a grammy for comedy a number of years ago. The kicker is that Jonathan was, in reality, Paul Weston, a superb pianist, and Darlene was his wife Jo Stafford who has perfect pitch.

A couple of years ago, I made a tape of their 'Greatest Hits' album and brought it to work. Gerard, a guy I worked with was also a jazz fan, but he'd never heard of Jonathan and Darlene, so I gave him the tape and told him to listen to it in the car on the way home. Unbeknownst to me, he had a client coming in during the day and was going to drive him to the airport. The next morning, I was sitting at my desk, when I sensed heat and shadow behind me. I turned around, and there was Gerard, veins bulging, eyes popping, his hands at his sides in fists, and he screamed at me, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?". I swear, without a word of a lie, I fell off my chair laughing. If it's been any funnier, I'd have died on the spot from lack of oxygen. Apparently on the way to the airport, he mentioned the tape to the client and put it in to play. His first reaction was that it wasn't in right. So he ejected it and put it back in. Then he decided his tape deck must have a problem, so he put in another tape and it played ok. They tried listening to a couple of songs, and finally gave up.

Unfortunately, it's one of those "you hadda be there's". I can still see his face and I'm actually laughing as I type.

>Cool. Thanks for the tips.
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>>You know, a person could spend days coming up with names, but a few that I think really have to be mentioned that so far don't appear to be on any of the lists: MJQ (one of my alltime favourite groups), Paul Desmond, Jessica Williams.
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>>If you go for 'out there' meters and times, find something by Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. Their 'Greatest Hits' album is a good one, and pick up on pianist Jonathan Edwards' patented 7/4 bars. And you'll love Darlene's vocal stylings. (This is a joke that it is absolutely worth being in on).
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