For a most elegant soundtrack for this post, press the little arrow thingy, dig the opening precious notes from Joan's piano and arrangement of "When I Fall In Love", and continue reading. (The audio is loading slowly. It's about 2:48 long. Enjoy!)

I was oh too eager to gush to Joan when asking if she had time to chat on the show,

"I'm just totally digging the new disc and have been playing it a lot on the show the last month or so that it's been in our library. The arrangements are awesome, thoughtful, inventive...all those things. And your playing is so right with them...really beautiful stuff on "When I Fall In Love" and your Ellington-ish tinkles on "...'A' Train".

Let me know what you think and we'll make it official!"

It is. Ain't we lucky!

I already had a soft spot for "When I Fall In Love"...hard not to with a most beautiful melody and lyrics like "When I fall in love, It will be forever. Or I'll never fall in love." And then to hear it in the solo piano intro Joan plays. I just love music that has such sweetness as this does. And arrangements that add interesting features to tunes...like the space of silence Joan includes in each phrase as the ensemble comes in and seems to sigh the sigh of love. Or the beautiful line she plays at the end of this blog post's soundtrack, which Joan says is a quote from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde"...I could swear I've heard played by Monk or some other Jazzer...any hints Joan? Whatever, it sounds soooo good. I believe I got introduced to this song from some pop-ster in my formative years...maybe Luther Vandross or someone...but soon experienced the Nat King Cole version. I wonder if there was a particular version that Joan likes or was inspired by?

We'll probably play this tune during the interview and then something like her own totally cool angular tune opening the disc, "Spherical", to end the interview. Speaking of Monk, I'd speculate (wow, how risky) that the tune is titled for Thelonious Sphere Monk.

Some linkage to while away the hours:

http://www.joanstilesmusic.com/ : Spartan web site, with no bio, but an MP3 of "Spherical" and some Real Audio of other tunes. Disc review text and links, too.
11:40:38 PM