ALZlive asked artist and music-lover Leopold Plotek about what he listens to when he needs a boost. Lee visits his 94-year-old mother regularly at a long-term care facility in Montreal. He isn’t always sure she knows who he is.
Lee was born in Moscow in 1948. But even though he has lived in Montreal for most of his life, the delight he takes in jazz retains the enthusiasm of someone from the Old World who has never stopped being bowled over by the musical energy of the new.
Some of these are happy songs. Some of them simply make Plotek happy because they are so inventive, so musical, and so good. If you want a play-list of jazz classics, you could do worse than to copy Lee Plotek’s chosen pick-me-ups.
Lee’s List
Chet Baker: Look for the Silver Lining
Al Bowlly/ Ray Noble: Love is the Sweetest Thing (1932)
Andy Bey: If You Could See Me Now
Cab Calloway: Wake Up and Live
Ella Fitzgerald: I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
Paul Desmond/ Gerry Mulligan: All the Things You Are
Erroll Garner: Penthouse Serenade
Benny Goodman: I’m Living in a Great Big Way
Johnny Hartman: Close Your Eyes
Coleman Hawkins and Django Reinhardt: Avalon
Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli: Begin the Beguine
Judy Holiday: What’s the Rush?
The Mills Brothers: The Song is Ended
Art Tatum with Benny Carter: Undecided
Art Tatum with Lionel Hampton: How High the Moon
Sarah Vaughan: Good Night, My Love
Ben Webster and Oscar Peterson: Perdido
Lester Young and Teddy Wilson: Our Love is Here to Stay
Check out ALZlive’s previous Good Tunes list.
We welcome your lists. Let us know the music that lifts your spirits when they most need lifting.
About the author
David Macfarlane