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Challenge #10: Big Mood (Board)

CHOOSE SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND CREATE A MINI MOOD COLLECTION OF THREE (or more) ITEMS THAT EVOKE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT IT. You don’t have to limit yourself to visual media, or collect the items into a special format like a square (though you can if you’d like).

I'm not exactly a visual person, so the mood board is kind of out, lol. I went with music instead.

Anyone who has ever watched Hey Arnold! knows that when it comes to music for it, it's all about the jazz. So here are some tunes!

(1) Jordu by Irving "Duke" Jordan

Here is the version by Clifford Brown and Max Roach. This upbeat song, or at least parts of it, could definitely have been background music for an episode.

(2) On Green Dolphin Street

This beautiful, bittersweet song, written by Bronisław Kaper, was actually the soundtrack of the 1947 historical drama/disaster film Green Dolphin Street (there's a ton of drama in this, but it actually has a happyish ending), and although the movie soundtrack is performed in a more straightforward orchestral classical style the song became a jazz standard. There are many great versions of the song, but I like this one a lot. Though there is lots of truly laugh-out-loud humor in Hey Arnold!, there are also many poignant and some truly heart-breaking moments in the show, too. I think this melody captures that mix very well.

(3) L'il' Darlin' by Neal Hefti

A definite choice for adult Helga and Arnold.

The Count Basie Orchestra recorded and performed this song as an instrumental, which you can listen to here. It's a gorgeous tune and arrangement. And so sexy for our favorite OTP.

John Hendrix later wrote lyrics to the song, and his jazz vocalese trio Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross recorded and performed the sung version with Count Basie. You can listen to their version here. The lyrics are as perfect as the tune (of course Arnold is the kind of man who likes to stay home in the evening, if he's with Helga), and Annie Ross's solo in the middle is *chef's kiss*.

And while that trio was terrific, I also want to link this performance of the song by the Seattle Academy Onions, a terrific high school jazz choir. This performance is from over a decade ago, but it's a fantastic arrangement of the song and really worth listening to, especially if you like jazz choirs and vocal ensemble music generally.

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