Music: Yenne Lee

Once again, I am put in my place, but I am OK with that. Autumn Leaves in the perfect setting. Just audio poetry!

There are a few ‘simple’ jazz standards for guitar, one of them is Autumn Leaves. It is a straightforward chord progression that is not too difficult to master.

But, jazz standards are meant to be the scaffold that the artists then go on to build their particular flair and interpretation. That is where it gets interesting, and sadly, my knowledge of the fretboard, and exotic chord phrasing fails me.

I CAN play the main melody of this piece, I just can’t do justice to all the open space it makes for me.

Then I stumble across this phenomenal performance, filmed in NY’s Central Park, in autumn, and my jaw hit the floor.

Yenne’s phrasings and fills are perfectly balanced against the main motif, and her command of the nylon string guitar, her ability to effortlessly modulate the tempo and attack of her playing is top shelf, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t listen to this three times in a row.

It is THAT good.

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