Quote of the Day (David Remnick, on DJ Jonathan Schwartz)

“The pauses suggest an ego—or, better, an assurance that you, the listener, will wait. It is the assurance of a horn player—Miles Davis on ‘All Blues’—who comes in at his own sweet bidding, knowing that the waiting is as much a part of the music, the desired atmosphere, as the phrase that comes next. And that is what [WNYC-FM deejay Jonathan] Schwartz is selling—not one record after another so much as the creation of an atmosphere in which the Great American Songbook is, in his view, properly tendered and absorbed. He casts the spell of steady rain at night, languorous autumn afternoons. Now it is 1964. The Stones have issued their début record. But that is elsewhere. Norman Simmons is at the piano. Carmen McRae sings ‘I’m Going to Laugh You Right Out of My Life.’”— David Remnick, “The Talk of the Town-- In the Studio: Glad To Be Unhappy,” The New Yorker, November 4, 2013

In addition to David Remnick’s fine “Talk of the Town” profile of Schwartz (pictured), by all means check out the 75-year-old deejay’s 112 favorite CDs associated with the Great American Songbook, from The New Yorker’s Web site. Better yet, read Schwartz’s evocative 2004 memoir, All in Good Time.