In the pocket and out of it.

I watched most of the Grammy's and at the risk of sounding old and crotchety there weren't a whole lot of people who really deserved to be called musicians let alone receive an award for it. Seriously, there were some terrible lows when it comes to performed music. We won't even go into how wrong Chris Brown's performance was, on SO many levels. Not that his ex-girlfriend did much better...

But, no one wants to dwell on mediocrity, right? So this post is all about great musicians doing what they do when they are at their best.

There is a term that is important that you all know. It is called "in the pocket". It's a musical term, often used in jazz that means that moment when all the instruments/musicians are totally in sync with each other and seem to feed off of each other's talent. You can feel it, it feels like the groove is totally locked in and all you want to do in response is move to the beat.

Here are a few examples of songs I believe are "in the pocket".

You'll just have to click on the link to hear this first one, I can't get it to play on my blogpost, but it's worth the click, my friends.

Peter Fox Haus am See
That's right, that's German reggae you just heard. Rock it, Peter Fox, Rock it. Incidentally, I think my life would be a lot better if I was followed around by a drum line.

How can I talk about groove without mentioning Stevie Wonder? This is one of my favorites, and incidentally one of the first songs Jeff and I danced to at our reception.

And finally Kurt Elling and All Jarreau prove that yes, you can still groove when there are 5 beats in a measure.

May more of your day be accompanied by music that is "in the pocket".