Sleep Walk - Santo & Johnny

Sleep Walk is a beautiful instrumental from 1959 featuring the tranquil sliding steel guitar of the Farina brothers, better known as Santo & Johnny. This song has always been in the background for me and one that knows how to kick in during nostalgic moments. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a friend's covers band playing Sleep Walk at a local gig recently - they did a great job of it, too.

Sleep Walk featured as the recurring theme during the nightmare sequences in La Bamba, the 1987 movie about the life of Ritchie Valens. It never fails to slow me down and momentarily take me to a peaceful, reflective place.

Song for Guy - Elton John

Song for Guy

Elton John

Song for Adam

18/7/1974 - 9/11/1993

RIP

Life isn't everything.

Breezin' - George Benson

My iPod selected Breezin' as background music for my lunch time walk yesterday. It was a great choice; I enjoyed it three times in a row before returning to my desk. This instrumental is from the album of the same name and released in 1976 by jazz guitarist George Benson. It is pure listening pleasure as the main theme cycles over and over, with each iteration adding a tiny variation, an embellishment or a full on guitar jam.

Breezin' was naturally one of many highlights of George Benson's concert in Wellington a few years ago, and he pretty much played it note perfect. It's hard to tell what comes first with Benson's improvisations: vocals or guitar lines. His style of singing along to the improvised solos he plays shows that a guitar is as much a natural extension of Benson himself as his voice. It was absolutely delightful to see and hear all this from our seats just six rows away from the stage. It was even better when Benson introduced Stanley Banks, the original bass player from Breezin' who had been playing with Benson since the 1970s and is still a member of his backing band today.