written by

Joseph Li

Pianist and Coach
Donny Hathaway: You’ve Got a Friend

Donny Hathaway: You’ve Got a Friend

Though this song isn’t a Donny Hathaway original, I agree wholeheartedly with Jack Gulielmetti’s sentiment in his earlier piece for NYFOS on “Someday We’ll All Be Free” – I really, REALLY love him, and likely could have made the entire week about him and his songs. I...

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Nina Simone:  Little Girl Blue

Nina Simone: Little Girl Blue

The original Rodgers and Hart tune from their mostly-forgettable musical Jumbo (featuring a flightless elephant unlike the one featured some years later in Disney’s 1941 animated film Dumbo) is a lovely tune. Nina Simone made it irreplaceable 23 years later....

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Cassandra Wilson: Death Letter

Cassandra Wilson: Death Letter

The original version of this song was called “Death Letter Blues” – it was written and performed by Delta blues artist Son House in 1965. The two versions each give me very different types of chills – the Son House original feels like a declamatory primal sob, whereas...

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Lianne La Havas: Elusive

Lianne La Havas: Elusive

This week’s selections have a recurrent theme embedded in the lyrics or the music: space. Space in a musical or relational context, and often both at the same time. Back in my 20s, studying in New York, and in the midst of one disastrous relationship after another, I...

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Keith Jarrett:  My Wild Irish Rose

Keith Jarrett: My Wild Irish Rose

I’ve always viewed my journey with jazz and improvisation akin to someone’s journey with the game of golf – each year, I hope to suck just a little bit less than the previous one. And what’s the most common answer I would get when I asked jazz musicians how to get...

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