It’s dad’s birthday. Not my biological dad – that was a few months ago.
My musical dad. My most profound musical influences – my musical mom and dad – are Alice Parker and Gene Puerling. Today Gene would have been 87 years old.
We celebrated last year when his archives were acquired by the University of North Texas, where they can be used by scholars for generations. Today I simply want to remember his exquisite, singular musical mind with this gorgeous setting of “Try To Remember”.
Gene’s legacy is obvious in virtually every jazz vocal arranger currently at work, and to my mind no one has been able to transcend his work the way he transcended his predecessors.
But we keep trying – just as he did, always pushing harmony further and further afield.