Saturday, June 16, 2018

Simon Nabatov - Tunes I Still Play (2018)


Beginning of 2017 I was invited to play several concerts on the 2nd International Festival of Improvised Music in Taiwan, taking place in November of that year. 

The album „Tunes I Still Play“ is a live recording from the gorgeous new National Taichung Theater, from the „Black Box“ to be exact (a smaller hall for chamber music). 

This release contains all 11 tunes I played that evening, so essentially it’s a double album. 

As the title suggests, I played some tunes I have been playing in solo concerts since two decades, if not longer. The program includes music of Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, Bill Evans, Brazilian songs, and my own.

While I’ve been mostly performing more „adventuresome“ kinds of music, there is no way I wish to ever sever ties to the repertoire I grew up with, or picked up along the way. 

It’s good fun for me to see how, over the years, some essential elements of the interpretations stay, and others mutate, morph, disappear and generally behave in unpredictable ways - which is what improvising is about, I believe…

1. "Skippy" Thelonious Monk 09:41
2. "Lady Sings The Blues" Herbie Nichols 07:59
3. "Nene" Ernesto Nazareth 05:38
4. "Pannonica" Thelonious Monk 08:57
5. "Na Baixa Do Sapateiro" Ary Barroso 09:38
6. "2300 Skiddoo" Herbie Nichols 08:34
7. "Qualquer Coisa" Caetano Veloso 07:53
8. "Time Remembered" Bill Evans 07:50
9. "Oska T" Thelonious Monk 05:50
10. "Itapo" Simon Nabatov 09:33


Recorded live November 11 2017 in the „Black Box“ of the 
Taichung National Theater, Taiwan 
at the 2nd Taiwan International Improvised Music Festival 
organized by Nicole’s Creative Artists Agency Co.,Ltd 
Recorded by Guan-Lin Chen