Nikki Yanofsky: "Lullaby of Birdland"

This girl is captivating. She's only 17 years old and she sings like she's been listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Etta James, and Louis Armstrong since the womb. Her affectation and ornamentation are just perfect. Her voice is simply beyond her years. For all my love for Norah Jones and her queenship over modern jazz, Nikki is perched on the edge of her seat, ready to take over as soon as the mainstream U.S. music audience notices her.

Nikki's career began at age 12, when she sang in the Montreal International Jazz Festival -- the youngest headliner ever. She's Canadian, so she sang at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Two albums released (2008 and 2010), but so far she's getting way less attention in the States than in ol' Canada. I guess the music scene up there is slightly more jazz and talent than gangsta rap and Rebecca Black.

Speaking of Rebecca Black, if she's the sort of young artist the U.S. is producing, and Nikki is what Canada is producing...well, damn it all to hell, I need to learn French and move up-continent.

It's fun to find these in-studio recordings too; they feel so up-close and personal. The song itself was written in 1952 in reference to Charlie "Bird" Parker, and it charted in 1954 thanks to Ella Fitzgerald. Enjoy.

Flight of the Conchords: "Business Time"

It's Friday, so I tried to find a live version of Rebecca Black's new smash hit, cleverly titled "Friday." No dice. I guess her agent isn't letting her tour yet.

So instead we'll go with something that was actually intended to be funny: New Zealand folk-parody duo Flight of the Concords. Bret McKenzie and Jemain Clement have been performing together since they met in college in the late '90s, singing about everything from love to robots to racist dragons, and have developed a devoted following. They gained recognition on the comedy circuit and eventually landed a BBC radio series, then a Comedy Central gig, which led to an HBO series and more albums, tours and the like. In 2007 they won a "Best Comedy Album" Grammy for their EP "The Distant Future," which includes this song.

I saw Bret and Jemaine perform at a sold out show at Northwestern in 2009 and they're fabulous -- never completely dropping the characters that they've created, which are ridiculous and somewhat delusional. They're even more fun live than they are on their TV show, which is amusing but sometimes goes off on the deep end, even for me.

I don't usually listen to music for lyrics, but of course in comedy that's the whole point. Jemaine's delivery of his proposal to make love to his wife is hilarious. His delusion surrounding the scandal of a fairly mediocre night at home is a great example of effective, concise comedy writing. I'll never look at business socks the same way again. Enjoy.

"Business Time," performed by Flight of the Conchords.
Original on Flight of the Conchords' "The Distant Future" (2007).

P.S. I really, really hate that Rebecca Black song. I feel bad that a thirteen-year-old is catching so much flak for trying to follow her dream, but I think the whole situation raises a legitimate debate about how we view the music industry and the rise to fame in this country.