Since becoming a bachelor-by-default, I have had the time to listen to my nice collection of DVD’s, not just as background music but seriously listening all the way through. I have even replayed my favorites over and over. Of the many genres I have played, I have settled on just a few. First of all, at this time of life I seek happy forms in order to create a pleasant mood. This more or less rules out many forms of music, especially classics, and love-lost themes among others.

Then too, relaxing music sends me to sleep, which is not the idea. So, after listening to perhaps 40 or 50 discs, I settled on a few genres: Dixieland, Boogie Woogie, Hispanic, piano and swing, for maximum happy mood-setting. Just now I have a record playing from Pete Fountain with Al Hirt when they finally managed to get together for a session.

My other obsession is with excellent trumpet playing, with the likes of Harry James, Bobby Hackett, Charlie Spivak, Manfred Mach, Tony Fisher, and Maynard Ferguson. Mach and Fisher were the principal trumpeters for Bert Kaempfert’s orchestra, which I rate way up there, as it, too, mostly had a happy sound.

Later on, when I feel saturated with the happiness crowd, I switch to piano players, and they cover all kinds of themes. One of the happy players is Floyd Cramer, with his “slip-note” or “bent-note” style. But I can’t stop there, I also love Roger Williams, Ronnie Aldrich, Peter Nero, Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson, to name a few.

In the past few years, I have discovered Spanish Guitar playing, and have enjoyed Luciani, Peter Mathers, and especially Armik. These guys are really special to me, and they evoke memories of the Costa del Sol and Flaminco dancing.

Finally, for so many reasons, I just have to resort on occasion to the world of swing, with Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Charlie Spivak, Vaughn Monroe, Stan Kenton, and a host of others. They, and the big band sound, are all but forgotten today, it seems, but not by me!

They all bring happiness!