James Moody's "Moody's Mood for Love"

A great video of saxophonist/flautist/composer/bandleader James Moody giving a playful and animated performance of his composition "Moody's Mood for Love" with Dizzy Gillespie and a rather sober United Nations Orchestra. I can only imagine that given the presence of Gillespie and Moody, the musicians were too terrified of messing up to even crack a smile during the song.



And from blackademics.org an instructive August 15, 2008 interview with then 82-year-old James Moody. (Sometimes you really need a musician to interview another musician, still the young interviewer admirably keeps recouping, staying open, and going forward with the interview). Informative and humbling. Note Moody's comments about why he doesn't like gospel: