10+10 Fishermen Against the Wind. 16)
Silent Night Johnny "Bowtie" Barstow.
Larry Goldings is really good: a jazz keyboardist in love with Monk, he has worked with people like Scofield, Bley, Methenyā¦. And quite a few others (I recommend you look for āSaudadesā in a trio with Scofield and DeJohnnette, with whom he even won a Grammy).
In short, he's really talented.
One evening ā weāre in the mid-90s ā Larry goes to the Angry Squire in New York to check out one of those āopen micā nights where āamateurs take the stage.ā
Now, I donāt know if it was a coincidence or if Larry had gone specifically for him (who had become a bit of an attraction at those nights), but there, Larry meets āourā Johnny āBowtieā Barstow.
Johnny is a professional computer programmer (and this ā I swear ā is all I know about him) and a part-time singer.
Heās a revelation.
Larry brings Johnny to his home studio and, for two years, records and arranges everything he sings.
This results in āA Bowtie Christmas and More,ā a collection of Christmas carols and āall time classicsā recorded both in studio and live.
It was incredibly difficult to choose what to let you listen to: āBowtieāsā interpretations are all mind-blowing, and I honestly canāt say whether the effect of Christmas classics is more disorienting or less than a āGirl From Ipanemaā or āAs Time Goes By.ā
But Larry believes in it, and so does Bowtie.
And the more I listen to it, the more I start to believe in it tooā¦
A serious critic like J. Kellman has compared him to Coltraneā¦.
Could it beā¦
