Happy Friday!

I was working on this newsletter as the earthquake rumbled -- all is well here and I hope the same with you!

So last week before the gig with Ted Nash's Big Band at Dizzy's (so glad I got to see some of you there!) I got to asking saxophonist Chris Lewis what he’s listening to. It’s to him I owe thanks for this week’s musical inspiration...

Juice

Puech Redon's “Sensitive” 2022 (Languedoc, France) is a peachy/tangerine in the glass - it's zero visibility cloudy, which speaks to the unfined and unfiltered nature of the wine. And it’s the nature of this wine that is the star — Cyril Cuche, proprietor and winemaker, has put in all the work cultivating the soil as much as the vines themselves -- and that what results is simply pure, pleasurable expression.

White florals breeze out of the glass (it’s 100% viognier), and the gentle citrus fruits — perhaps a hint of papaya — give the full texture of the wine the perfect amount of zip. It's like an orange creamsicle in the best possible way.

At 11% alcohol this one is easy to drink — it's very easy to forget how hard it is to let the grapes and the land speak this clearly through a (albeit cloudy) glass.

I’d love to recommend something like this in case you can’t find it, but this cloudy/orange category isn't my usual wheelhouse. I'll leave it to the expert, Doreen Winkler at OrangeGlou!

Jazz

The tune of the week is from Rosa Passos & Lula Galvão’s self titled 2023 duo album — I chose the song “De Conversa em Conversa” by João Gilberto to exemplify the energy, ease and idiosyncrasy that make this entire recording great.

The dialogue between the two musicians is so natural, and Passo’s vocals on this track in particular charm me to no end. The way she trails off some phrases with a purr, and punctuates her lines with rhythmic insouciance give the song an inwardness, sophistication and humor that has me listening again and again. And again.

The entire album is masterfully unmanipulated — the songs seem to sing themselves, and feel effortless. Of course, that just means you’re listening to masters of the art, rooted in the heritage of bossa nova and freed by incredible technique.

How lucky are we to savor the wild fruits of an art form that has been tended so well?