A new song from the upcoming Neil Young tribute Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol. 2 – Out of the Blue, which comes out in November. This is a cover of “Like a Hurricane” by Kentucky rock band My Morning Jacket, featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Continue reading »
It’s no surprise that “The Boys of Summer” is Don Henley’s most covered solo song. Though it wasn’t actually his biggest radio hit at the time – that’s “Dirty Laundry” – it has endured far more, due in part to its distinct video and its perennial popularity: It is his most streamed song, and it’s not even close, but there have also been at least two very prominent covers over the decades. Continue reading »
Michael Sarian is a Canadian-Argentinian trumpeter who has been performing jazz in the US for over a decade. He is currently signed to famed trumpeter Dave Douglas’ Greenleaf Music. Though a jazz cover of a trip hop song might seem slightly weird to some, throughout the genre’s history jazz artists have made it a habit of pop covering hits. It’s become less common as jazz has gotten more and more avant garde and esoteric but it’s still a standard part of many jazz musicians’ repertoires to have at least one cover of a pop song. Due to its sound, Portishead‘s”Glory Box” lends itself to a cool jazz approach and that’s mostly Sarian’s approach on his new version. Continue reading »
A stark ballad that briefly explodes into a rock jam buried deep in Pearl Jam‘s fourth album No Code – their first album not to go multi-platinum – “Present Tense” is a deep cut. It is their 37th most streamed song – so maybe it’s a little less deep than this No Code fan assumed – but it doesn’t seem to have an official cover by anyone (according to SecondHandSongs). That is, until last year. Continue reading »
Lunar Noon, the project of San Francisco-based musician Michelle Zheng, have released a mesmerising cover of Massive Attack‘s hit “Teardrop.” Continue reading »
Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Laura Mering) is a professional singer-songwriter from Pennsylvania who is currently based in Santa Monica, CA. She is best known for her emotive, Baroque-pop-sounding album, Titanic Rising. Mering chose “When You’re Smiling” for the soundtrack of Nat Geo’s new series, titled A Small Light. The single-season show is about the life of Miep Geis, a Dutch writer who aided in hiding Anne Frank and her family.
“When You’re Smiling” is an extremely popular jazz standard that was first written in the 1920s. It’s been done by jazz greats like Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, and Seger Ellis. The older versions have a heavy backbeat and brushes on the drums, vocal scatting, and oftentimes, understated muted trumpet. Weyes Bloods’ version is as light as a feather, with an elegant harp, and harmonically rich piano. But forget the instrumentals! It’s the vocals that bathe everything in beams of golden light. From the layered “mmm”s and “ooo”s that flow seamlessly from one to the other, to the plainspoken, floating verses, this cover is breathtaking. As the tune comes to a close, the harp and piano descend down the royal staircase of a scale.
Be sure to also check out these other classy jazz covers!