One benefit of being at the beamline by myself is getting to listen to music. At the moment I seem to be leaning towards Kenny Burrell, in particular the album Midnight Blue.


Coming from Texas there’s a ready connection to how I first managed to get introduced to Burrell’s music (through this particular album). Stevie Ray Vaughn made a great recording of “Chitlins con Carne” that I listened to quite often as a kid. It’s a great song to play by yourself too. You can add the melody and the 8th notes from the bass line together, toss in a couple of chords in places and you get a really smooth stream of notes out; Melody, rhythm, and harmony all together. It was only one step from the liner notes of that album to Burrell’s music. This has got to be one of the best blues-jazz albums ever. Good stuff.