Why this tune?
This week I’m revisiting “Isfahan,” which I shared in 2021 at around this time of year to mark the birthday of its composer Billy Strayhorn (Nov. 29). I added a piano track to the solo recording that the fine bass player Joel Bennett posted to the long-running Facebook group Jam Of The Week. Musicians have been posting their own recordings and creating virtual small-group collaborations on the group for years, long before many of us discovered the
potential of virtual collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Strayhorn gave this piece the title “Elf” when he wrote it in 1963, but it acquired its final title as part of the Far East Suite, which Ellington recorded in 1967, inspired by the band’s 1963 tour of the Middle East and South Asia, including Isfahan in Iran. It’s a beautiful and complex tune that is fun and challenging to play.
Tunes On Tuesday Reel
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Full track
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 