Slim Gaillard & Slam Stewart - 08/23/11
Since my mum is spending the summer in England, she decided to leave me with her car until she returns. It's a wonderful piece of a machinery, a Toyota Avalon which, aside from its considerable mileage, shows little signs of aging. It accelerates nicely off the line and feels good in
the curves -- it's certainly a world apart from my 1990 Plymouth Sundance, which threatens overheating when it sits in traffic for too
long. It's been the most worry free auto I've driven in years, until last night...
You see, Vanessa got this car while she was living in Southern California, and it was with her throughout her extended stay in Desert Hot Springs. Though she put a lot of miles on it, much of its existence has been parked, on asphalt, in the middle of a desert. I hadn't thought about it till I was driving home last night, and our Portland skies decided to open up on us. Driving up towards the Fremont Bridge, I finally decided that I needed to turn on my windshield wipers, only to find that they're lousy!
They're all dried out and cracked, and totally inefficient in handling Portland rain. Ah well, I guess she probably hasn't needed them much where she was living. :)
Today's song comes from the great work of Slim Gaillard and Slam Stewart. Some of you might remember Slim's name from tunes I've featured in the past, with his playful style and unique singing language (which he called vout). Today's song, however, has no vocals at all. It does have a lot of great instrumental work though, including an opening solo which is among my favorite tap solos. The track is called Beatin' the Board, and It's a great listen for this lovely Throwback Tuesday.
Beatin' the Board - Slim Gaillard and Slam Stewart
1938 - Flat Foot Floogie
Jazz - Oldies
Track Length - 3:05
Right Click to Download
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