What about MK including it occasionally in his forthcoming solo tour, perhaps with Chris Botti guesting? Wouldn't that make for a wonderful world!
Indeed, isn't it about time that Mark tried out a brass section on stage? I mean, I really do enjoy his Celtic- and folk-tinged material (sorry to bang on about it but I like this style more than the DS-based stuff - most of you will disagee but it's my taste and that's the way I respond to what I hear) but one could put forward an arguement that Mark's guitar-playing is well-suited to some jazzy arrangements. OK, this is what I might call soft jazz (lounge-style perhaps but no mere elevator music) but it's a lyrical sound, gentle on the ear and it involves a subtle but firm control of tempo and mood - all wthin Mark's capabilities. It's a bit less forgiving on vocal inaccuracies but Mark could cope with that. Overall, it might stretch Mark a bit but, apart from personal inclination, I see little reason why he should not try it out.
Emulating and extending what tends to be termed "the great American songbook" tradition might just be the sort of challenge to stimulate his creative juices.
Finally, I'm not much up on current jazz musicians, so Chris Botti was new to me - even though he has been around for years, won Grammys, recorded many albums and played with a range of musicians, including some I've seen and enjoy. This is a failing on my part, which I will seek to rectify in the coming months. Most jazz trumpters these days owe some kind of debt to Miles Davis and I suspect the same is true of Botti. One of my musical regrets is not seeing Miles Davis live as I love his material, from "The Birth of the Cool" period, up through those Prestige albums with one word titles, then "Kind of Blue" (still selling quite well decades on) and albums he made with Gil Evans. These CDs are played almost as often as Bob Dylan's here.
Just as Dylan has brought me to other musicians who might otherwise have passed me by, so MK has had the same effect in this case.
