A Couple of Random Meanderings for your pleasure:

One of our favorite new shows is Reaper. Every episode is hilarious, with a cast FULL of great characters, along with a hottie or two for good measure. What else could one need? How about a Satan character that is PERFECTLY cast. Ray Wise, cast as Satan, was outstanding from the very first episode. I said so during that first episode too. The guy is uncanny good. You should watch it.









Anyway, remember a long time ago when I talked about Funerary Violinists ?? Of course you don't because it was a long time ago (10/06), and you don't pay attention, so I gave you a link to go back and read about it. VERY INTERESTING STUFF, I might add.

Anyway, a couple of things have made me think of that recently. Remember the movie Chocolat, with Johnny Depp as a gypsy? There is a sequel book out by that author. I think the subject is .... shoes.... then I was reading somewhere about a group of gypsy musicians named The Cook Trio. It's a very fun listen for those who love the sound of acoustic guitar, as you know I do. The flouncy melodies and hoppy rhythms are a real treat. These guys are masters of their instruments. Here's a bit about the genre:

It’s nearly impossible to tell the story of the Cook Trio without telling the story of Django Reinhardt, born in Belgium in 1910 and raised in a gypsy camp outside Paris. The first truly influential Jazz artist to originate from Europe, and arguably the first to successfully highlight the acoustic guitar in what had hitherto been a horn-driven, decidedly Black American genre, Reinhardt’s unique guitar work remains beyond reproach and nearly impossible to copy. A fire cost him the use of two of his fingers on his left hand, forcing him to adapt his style to accommodate his handicap through an intricate fingering system, turning a limitation into an inimitable asset. The percussive strumming style of the “Gypsy Jazz” he helped create with his popular Quintette du Hot Club De France during the ’30s and ’40s is the only form of Jazz whose origins are found outside America.

So that's a bit of an "On My Hard Drive" bonus for you today.

And now for something completely different: a quick thought on the happenings in eldo-RAY-do, Texas: They have the wrong people in custody. Early in the press coverage of this whole thing, I said to ThatOneWife that I hadn't seen one single man from the compound being interviewed, ushered out, or being in front of a judge about any of this. Then a day or two later, there were these three dudes, looking like a cross between the Three Stooges, the Keystone Cops, and Our Gang (you know, Spanky, Buckwheat, and whoever else...), they were talking to the press about the whole thing. The one guy opened his mouth and actually said - "umm... last I heard... up til just a very short time ago... it was legal to be married to a 14 year old in Texas."

WTF??

What about being married to four or five of them at the same time?? What about keeping your children so completely in the dark that they can't identify their own biological parents, their birthday, or state how old they are? One of the press reports stated that an authority asked one of these young girls how old she was, and she looked at her "husband", and after a few seconds of thought, THE HUSBAND said, "you're 18." Again, WTF? A 14 year old should be worrying about who she is going to the junior prom with, not about whether her fourth child is going to be healthy. This makes me SICK.

When you are breaking federal law be being married to more than one person at the same time, you should be convicted of that, and put in prison.

One last item: CROCS are still as ugly as the underside of a manhole cover.

That is all.

On My Hard Drive: Holly Cole

And a couple of bonus items before we get down to business: late last year I found my self drawn to a set of three albums on my hard drive, called Verve Remixed, 1, 2, and 3. These are albums of clubby dancy music, remixed using the familiar riffs and snippets from the extensive Verve Music catalogs - Verve has a large Jazz set, and these albums are wonderful listening, if you can deal with BEAT. But I'm not talking about of the soft-headed, light-stick twirling, mind-numbing club music we all are familiar with (on a second-hand-smoke kind of basis) as we drive down the road. I'm talking about dance music intermingled with familiar phrases and trademark sounds from the jazz world. I decided to do a little searching, and ended up also buying albums by The Brazilian Girls, Eddy Meets Yannah, and one or two others... if you are interested in world-beat music with a twist, there is a starting point for you.

Now to the matter at hand: Holly Cole. I friend of mine gave me her CD called Don't Smoke in Bed several years ago. At the time I was a recording engineer, and theater sound designer, and I was blown away first by the production values on that CD - the sonic quality was stunningly good, and second, by the fact that this was simply a trio, Cole (voice), Aaron Davis (Piano), and David Piltch (bass).

This is a WONDERFUL CD filled with surprises. Her online biography notes that Cole has the ability to wend her way through a song in a very unique and meaningful way. And that is certainly the case here. One my all-time favorites from her is "I can see clearly now..." It's a familiar song to us all for sure, but the key change in the middle is OUT.OF.THIS.WORLD. The song NEVER fails to move me. Seriously.

There are similarities between this album and the album from fellow Canadian kd lang (Cole is from eastern Canada, and lang is from Alberta, in western Canada), called Drag. Both are albums about smoking songs, and torch songs. There is even some cross over between them, in that the song Don't Smoke In Bed is on both albums. (kd lang is another one of my favorites.)

Anyway, there are other gems on this album for sure. One of the other highlights is a song called The Tennessee Waltz. Again, a familiar and traditional song for sure. But her rendition is heartbreaking. The album came out in 1993, and as I was looking her up a month or two ago, I noticed that there was a new album out from her. So, of course I had to get it downloaded, pronto. As expected, I was not disappointed. not only are the songs great, but I am a SUCKER for a well played Baritone Saxophone (in addition to a long list of other instruments: Acoustic guitar, upright bass, bass trombone, etc.), and this album's first song features a wonderful bari solo. The new album is called simply, Holy Cole. And it's great. You should get it.

On My Hard Drive: Herbie Hancock, Naturally 7

First things first: My brother sent me a youtube link the other day, you should watch it:



The group is Naturally 7, and when I first watched the video, I was Tres Impressed. They are a group of 7 guys doing a cappella covers of mostly 80's pop songs. Then I did some other looking around and found out that they do lots of concerts and have a few albums out, etc. Frankly, they are very talented, but if you're going to amount to more than a novelty, you're going to need to have some original material, and a recording/distrubution deal. Just my $0.02. But they ARE very talented, and if you LOVE that Phil Collins tune like i do, it's a fun watch.

Okay, on to the next item. Herbie Hancock has been on my hard drive for a very long time. He's had a career spanning five decades, and has done just about everything. He first got attention by winning a local competition at 11 years old and performed in front of (I believe it was) the Philadelphia Symphony, but I could be mistaken about the specific Symphony - and I just don't have the time or energy to look it all up, because it really doesn't matter to this whole thing.

From there, he continued to pursue music but was convinced that he needed to have a "real" career to pay the bills, and let music be the hobby. He went to school in Engineering, and from what I remember, gained an engineering degree. he said recently in an interview with Studio 360, that music really just chased him down, and made him do it. All of a sudden he was a musician. This gave me pause to think for a bit - I think many of the most successful musicians of our time have found themselves bound, compelled to make music, like a Holy Calling, rather than practicing with an eye toward that career path. At least that's what I think - those who have that special something inside them, that can't be contained, which simply MUST be let out, find themselves drawn toward performing. They are so prodigious, because their talent runs so deep, so natural, that they somehow just become the vessel of their own music. Like I said, that's what I think, and perhaps I cast this sort of prodigious talent in a spiritual or soulful light because that's what it takes to make it really come out - a connection with an inner gyroscope that simply must spin its circle, with or without your permission. In a nutshell, it chooses you, compels you, you don't choose it. If you would like to question that philosophy, you should spend about 4.5 seconds watching American Idol, and then you'll believe me.

In the late 50's and early 60's Hancock was a late-coming member of the famed Miles Davis Quintet, along with Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, and Tenor Saxophonist George Carter. This incarnation of the Quintet tackled the repertoire of the earlier Miles Davis Quintet, but with a more highly developed sense of rhythm and harmony. Many of the songs from this prolific recording era are now standards played by almost every single jazz combo today who is even a little bit serious.

From there, Hancock composed a slew of other now-standards that are also as oft-played as those Davis tunes. After redefining the way a jazz rhythm section interacts with each other, with the music itself, and with the soloists, he was one of the first jazz pianists to adopt technology, and synthesizers was a natural flow from that, with his engineering degree. he says most musicians were scared of that stuff - too many buttons, not enough vacuum tubes, he said. But this was indeed a world with which he was very familiar. At the same time, he developed a love for funk. Unlike many of his contemporaries, his melodies are accessible and easy to recognize. You certainly know a few of them, even if you don't know they're written by him.

And to that note (if you'll pardon the pun) - he introduced a generation of young kids, like me, to funk, while he was writing music for the Saturday morning cartoon, Fat Albert, starring Bill Cosby. Much of that original music is captured on an album named Fat Albert Rotunda, and it's a fun ride in the way-back machine. Many of us know his music, even if we don't realize it.

Like many musicians who have had a 45 year career, he's done just about everything, including now the seemingly mandatory album of duets with other musicians from other genres - that album is Possibilities, and it's better than you will expect. It has duets with such artists as Annie Lennox, Christina Aguilera, John Mayer, Sting, Paul Simon and Santana. It's a pretty good listen.

More recently he did an album of songs by Joni Mitchell, called River. In interesting side note: Hancock reports that when he first played with Mitchell, several years ago, he was surprised by how easily the jazz genre came to her. She told him that she originally wanted to be a jazz musician, but decided to pursue the folkish route we are familiar with today. She said she felt like it would be a better outlet for her lyrical writing. Seems like a pretty good choice. Although I have not listened to the album, critics like it.

I wanted to highlight a specific album though: Head Hunters. It was released in 1973, and was labeled as "fusion" by the critics and reviewers, at term hated by die-hard jazz musicians, even today. One critic was particularly harsh, and wrote a bad review of the album shortly after it was released. 25 years later Hancock ran into that critic backstage at another event, and the critic apologized, saying, "I was wrong about that album." Hancock's response was simply, "I know."

One track I wanted to draw some attention to is Watermelon Man. This tune, in its original form was first released on Maiden Voyage, in 1965. It became a classic for its simplicity and memorable melody (something for which Hancock has become famous over the years). It's a standard learned by all young jazz players who begin to learn about latin rhythms. I've played it myself many times. One of the four tracks on Head Hunters is a new version of Watermelon Man. It's rhythms are bent and twisted into a new form, and the song still retains its original integrity as a standalone song. it is said that if a song can be interpreted in many different styles, it is a fundamentally good bit of writing. (This is something for which Sting has also become known for.) Anyway, that song is worth the price of the album and is a fun listen, even if you aren't familiar with its original incarnation.

On My Hard Drive: Sara Tavares

Sara Tavares

People who know me know that I am a sucker for the well-played acoustic guitar. Especially the nylon stringed classical guitar. There is something so utterly sexy about a well-executed acoustic solo. Especially, it seems, when said solo seems out of place, as if it should have been an electric guitar or something. There are one or two Rolling Stones tunes that have that exact setup. Along with MANY others as well.

But anyway, I heard about Sara Tavares on the radio a week or two ago. She was doing a live interview in support of her new album, her third, called Balancé. She is from the Cape Verde region, and the album mixes african and brazilian rhythms in a way that makes everything seem just fine in the world.

Then she played her guitar. And I pulled into a parking lot and wrote her name down. She is a very talented player, and has both song-writing chops as well as a mastery of the acoustic guitar.

She talked about how the title track came to be. In Brazilian culture, the concept of "balancé" means that there is some sort of soothing rhythm to a life well-lived. Many of the songs on the album prove this to be true. Besides Balancé, the other striking song for me is "One Love".

The album is full of complex yet simple textures, and Tavares shows herself to be a master of these rhythms, her guitar, and a certain amount of her own brand of "balancé".

You should check her out for sure. I know you'll agree.

Busy Times

So, I've been letting this place slide a little in an effort to concentrate on some work things getting done on time. One of the issues I have with this time of year is that everything gets more difficult, with people wanting their stuff done before the end of the year, there is also more time pressure on my personal life, with concerts, gift-buying, getting other gifts into the mail, planning a little fete between Christmas and New Years, etc. And then there's the inevitable head cold that shows up. Great.

All this does nothing very good to my general grinchiness for this time of year, either.

In general, it gets to the point where it paralyzes me for a while, and it's hard to care about many of those things...

But that's okay, I'm coming out of it now, and things are looking up. I have more energy, physically and emotionally. Which is why I am back here now.

So, on to some other things then. The Lehi/Frank Gehry project got a big spread in the weekend paper here again this week. Which brings me around to this. It's a little announcement for our own modern home project in the Salt Lake Valley. It's a soft launch right now, but as I get a couple of other things done shortly, I'll make it a much bigger deal. For now, it's a web site - and from there it will spring-board to a bigger presence in this town.

There are more things going on, and I'll post more design-related stuff tomorrow, along with a very good "On My Hard Drive" thing as well...

Until then, then.

On My Hard Drive: Jaco Pastorius, d. Sept 21, 1987

So time to get this done and posted - it's been sitting here for a bit now.

Jaco Pastorius died on September 21, 1987, 20 years and a few days ago. I was going to write a post about him to commemorate his passing. So here it is.

Jaco Pastorius was one of those kids with too much energy and teachers who didn't know how to channel it. He was good at sports, particularly baseball, and that held his attention for a while. His brother gave him the nickname "Mowgli" after the Rudyard Kipling character, and in recognition of his unbridled energy. Jaco would later establish his music publishing company as Mowgli Music.

Pastorius started his musical career as a drummer (following in the footsteps of his father Jack, a stand-up drummer) but when he was 13, he injured his wrist while playing football. The break was so severe it caused calcium to build up in his wrist and required corrective surgery. After that he was never able to hit a snare drum properly again. At that time he was in a nine-piece horn band called Las Olas Brass (which covered popular material of the day by Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, James Brown and the Tijuana Brass). Rendered unable to play the drums, he decided to fill in the spot left open by the recently departed bass player.

As Pastorius' interest in jazz grew, he developed a desire to play the double bass. After saving money for a considerable length of time for the purchase of a double bass, he found that the instrument could not stand up to the Florida humidity. One morning, his double bass was "in like a hundred pieces" as he put it. Deciding that to replace it would be too expensive, he instead pried out the frets on his Fender (traditional electric bass), and filled the fret holes with wood putty.

And that's where the story gets interesting.

Pastoruis is regarded as having changed forever the way jazz was played on the electric bass, and is credited with the popularity of the fretless electric bass.

In 1975, Pastorius met up with Blood, Sweat and Tears drummer Bobby Colomby, who had been given the green light by CBS records to find "new talent" for their jazz division. Pastorius' first album, produced by Colomby and entitled Jaco Pastorius (1976), was a breakthrough album for the electric bass. Many consider this to be the finest bass album ever recorded; when it exploded onto the jazz scene it was instantly recognized as a classic. The album also boasted a lineup of heavyweights in the jazz community at the time, who were essentially his stellar back up band, including Herbie Hancock, David Sanborn, Lenny White, Don Alias, and Michael Brecker among others. Even legendary R&B singers Sam & Dave reunited to appear on the track "Come On, Come Over".

Soon after that, Weather Report bass player Alphonso Johnson gave notice that he would be leaving to start his own band. Pastorius was happily invited to join the band where he played alongside Joe and Wayne Shorter until 1981. It is with Weather Report that Pastorius made his indelible mark on jazz music, being featured on one of the most popular jazz albums of all time, the Grammy-nominated Heavy Weather. Not only did this album showcase Jaco's stunning bass playing, but he also received a co-producing credit with Joe Zawinul and even plays drums on his self composed Teen Town.

For you who are unaware, Pastorius pioneered a whole new way of thinking about the bass in ensemble situations. Up until that time, the bass was the timekeeper, partner of the drummer, and a general harmonic background figure.

Jaco heard something entirely different. He brought the bass forward, played soaring, dancing, staccato, melodic solos in the higher ranges, and brought sounds out of the instrument no one had ever heard before, as a third melodic voice.



He toured in 1982; a swing through Japan was the highlight, and it was at this time that bizarre tales of Jaco's deteriorating behavior first surfaced. He shaved his head, painted his face black and threw his bass into Hiroshima Bay at one point. That tour was released in Japan as Twins I and Twins II and was condensed for an American release which was known as Invitation.

His increasingly erratic behavior began to affect his musical career, and he was eventually dropped by Warner Brothers. He had to be pulled off stage during the 1982 Playboy Jazz Festival due to drunkenness, prompting an apology to the crowd by MC Bill Cosby.

Both of his Fender basses were stolen shortly before he entered Bellevue hospital in 1986. In 1993, one of the basses resurfaced in a New York City music shop, with the distinctive letter P written between the two pickups. The store told Bass Player magazine it was brought in by a "student" of Jaco's, and the asking price was $35,000.

His final address was at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After sneaking onstage at a Carlos Santana concert September 11, 1987, he was ejected from the premises, and he made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida.

What then happened was clouded with discrepancy. After reportedly kicking in a glass door after being refused entrance to the club, he was engaged in a violent confrontation with the club bouncer, Luc Havan. Pastorius was hospitalized for multiple facial fractures and gruesome disfigurement to his face, including the probable loss of his right eye and right arm, and had sustained irreversible brain damage. He fell into a coma and was put on life support.

There were initially encouraging signs that he would come out of his coma and recover, but a massive brain hemorrhage a few days later pointed to brain death. His family decided on a majority vote to remove him from life support, even though his second wife Ingrid was against the decision. Pastorius died on September 21, 1987, aged 35, at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, his heart continuing to beat an agonizing three hours after the plug was pulled.

The two fastest reviews you'll read all week:

Okay, first one:

We went to see Spamalot over the weekend... it was great - we were thinking about going to LV to see it over Thanksgiving, and we were also thinking about going to NYC to see it, and one or two others as well.... but we decided to see it here, now.

The comedy was true Pythonesque, and it was timed perfectly - there were the killer rabbits, the Frenchmen, the minstrels... it was funny.

"Always look on the bright side of life." Words to live by.




Then, second item: We went to see the Dave Brubeck Quartet last night. He turns 87 in December, and wanted to come, thinking he might not make it out again. He is aged - he's thin and old. But still plays very well. The Quartet was great, and after one or two songs, they got the "ensemble" feel going, having ironed out kinks not intonation and being able to hear each other. Bobby Militello on Alto Saxophone and flute was particularly prodigious and I enjoyed his playing a lot. A couple of drum solos by Randy Jones, although stellar, went on just a tad too long, but that's okay. Michael Moore was on bass, and was also a great player.

The concert was a benefit for the GAM foundation here, producer of a yearly series of concerts called Jazz at the Sheraton... the foundation was in trouble a year or two ago, and there were several artists that came to the rescue, along with a private donor or two, who helped rescue it, and I'm really glad they did. We really like their concerts.

On the way home we wondered if they ever get tired of playing "Take Five", the song for which they are probably most famous. We also had a chuckle during the concert when we commented to each other that instead of mixing the audio monitor feed for the band, the two guys on the side of the stage were really there to provide emergency resuscitation should it be needed in a hurry.

Lots of Blue-Hairs in the audience.

RIP: Luciano Pavarotti

O Sole Mio - He was famous for that song, among a raft of others. Elvis once heard an English translation of the song, and recorded a version for release in 1960. The song?

It's Now or Never.

It was a number one song in 1960.

You will be missed. Your life transcended your identity. You were my hero for lots of years, and now you are gone.

I've written about you before. You are still the measure of talent in your field, and forever will be.

Farewell, and congrats on a life well lived.

On My Hard Drive: Sting

Yeah, you knew it would show up here sooner or later. I'm a pretty big Sting fan. His first album after the Police broke up was Dream of the Blue Turtles, and it's still in my top two or three Police/Sting Albums of all time.

With his first album, Sting broke away from the driving rhythms so loved by Stuart Copeland. (It has been written that during rehearsals, Copeland's drum kit would start out at one side of the room, and by the end of rehearsal, it had moved about 10 feet, just from him beating the crap out of it.)

Anyway, Blue Turtles went more to Sting's jazz roots, and he picked up some notable jazz musicians to help, most notably Kenny Kirkland on piano and Branford Marsalis on Saxophone.

The compositions are all wonderfully well written, and there are some surprises on the album as well. The biggest mind-boggler is the stunning cover of Hendrix's Little Wing. The original Hendrix recording is not much longer than 2 minutes, nothing more than an unexplored thought, some might say. Sting's cover of the tune is more than 5 minutes long, and totally does the original justice, if not one-upping it. I tried to find a video of that specifically, but could find none. So, you're going to have to go and spend .99 at the iTunes music store - money well spent without a doubt. It gives me the chills every single time I listen to it. There are some incredibly beautiful textures there, produced by things like Bass Clarinets, instruments one would not readily associate with a Hendrix cover.

Interestingly, Sting was about 20 years old, and was writing/playing for a jazz big band. At the time, he had been writing and arranging for the big band, at least one new tune per week for more than a year - his harmonic and writing skills were well honed. (This eventually became a major problem for Police bandmate Copeland's fragile yet large ego.)

The first large rock act he saw live was Hendrix. He described the experience as having the roof of his entire life blown off, and a new world of energy and possibilities opened up to him that night. He subsequently moved with his wife and little son to London, and met Stuart Copeland, a wild-eyed American 19 year old who beat the crap out of his drums, wore big sunglasses, had influential relatives, and had an uncanny ability to produce different tempos simultaneously in each of his four appendages. Their first recording was Roxanne, which Sting wrote, inspired by a Cyrano De Bergerac movie poster he saw on his walk home one night. The rest, as they say, is history.

This video is from the tour that was done in support of The Dream of the Blue Turtles album. This song is a little bluesy thing, not appearing on the album. The band had been arguing over money at the time, and this was put in the show as a lark. It's called Down So Long. Enjoy!!

On My Hard Drive: Harry Connick Jr. - Oh, My NOLA

I guess this is kind of a concert review as well as one in the non-regular series of posts called "On My Hard Drive"...

Harry Connick Jr. was in Salt Lake last night, and I’m glad it’s close to Father’s Day, because that was the excuse I used.

This tour is in support of two albums, Oh, My NOLA, and Chanson du vieux carre. Both albums were released on the same day, but Chanson was recorded pre-Katrina, and NOLA was recorded post-Katrina.

While NOLA totally showcases Connick’s abilities as an arranger and vocalist, Chanson is an brilliant example of his bandleader/arranger chops. I have a major jealousy complex with Connick. Besides HAIR ENVY, he SUCKS for lots of other reasons too: when he was 22 he single-handedly arranged the music for the Billy Crystal movie, When Harry Met Sally, he’s married to a super-hot chick, former Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre, is a respected actor - he was actually named a "promising new actor" in 1990 in Screen World magazine, has recently acted in a revival of The Pajama Game on Broadway, took piano lessons from Ellis Marsalis, father of jazz greats Wynton and Branford... the list goes on and on. Oh, and he can SING. His lightheartedness reminded me of what a sober Dean Martin might have been like, but then I read today that Connick has been dubbed the Vice-Chairman of the Board, referring to Sinatra’s nickname, Chairman of the Board. Sinatra himself respected Connick’s voice, and always called him "the kid."

Anyway, the concert... the band with Connick was a regular 11 piece band with 3 each of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, a drummer and a bass player. All of these players ended up playing at least one solo on the evening, and each was obviously top tier, without a doubt. These guys SWING, and swing HARD. The setup was all top of the line, with each musician getting his own dedicated mike (and expensive recording mics at that). It took about two songs before it was all dialed in properly from the sound board - as these things usually do. When you do one show per night in a venue, you have to use the first two tunes to get it all fixed up, because the presence of an audience in the room almost negates any sound balancing that was done prior to opening the house for the audience. Things like elevation, humidity, etc, have a big effect on what sound does in space, and you really have to be sharp to dial it in fast.

Obviously, practically the entire evening was filled with the music of these two albums. About three or four songs into the 100 minute set, Connick introduced a guest artist, Lucien Barbarin, a trombone player. Let me just say right here that unless you have experienced the melody of "Summertime" literally WEEPING out the end of a trombone, swirled and stirred about with the skilful aid of a plunger mute, well, you haven’t really heard what a trombone can do.

Barbarin is a Louisiana-based musician, as one might have expected, and has played on other Connick albums, as well as The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration (also On My Hard Drive), and with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, among lots of others.

The concert was better than what I was expecting. The music was beautiful, it grooved, it swung, it rocked, it kicked. Connick showed himself to be a great showman, a good band leader, a good writer and arranger, and adept at the self-deprecating audience banter.

If this tour happens to make a stop near you, and you like this type of thing, you should make the effort to get out there and see this one.

On My Hard Drive: Steven Sondheim, Bernadette Peters, and Mandy Patinkin

A couple of posts back I noted that I have been in a bit of a funk lately, and then I let it be known that it is primarily due to business partner issues I am having right now. I'm not going to go into more than that, but that's where I am.

Driving down the road today, I saw an old green VW bus, with a sticker on its back that read: "No Bad Days." Yeah, I wish I could do that. Oh, how I wish I could do that.

Anyway, when I get in a funk, I seem to pull out a particular piece of theater, with which I have a connection, love, and understanding. And when I do, the kids scurry out of the room in every direction, and ThatOneWife rolls her eyes. To her credit, it was she who found and bought me the DVD. Damn, I love that woman.

So, without further ado, Sunday In The Park With George.

I used to work in theater as a sound designer. This was at a time when sound work was moving from the background of theater production to getting a program credit just like a lighting designer or costume designer might. I was good at it, too. But working from 2-10 every night, including weekends, was pretty rough.

Anyway, I have done sound for pretty much every single large scale Broadway musical you might think of: Music Man, I can't even count the times. Man of LaMancha, several. Fiddler on the Roof, also multiple. Joseph and his blah blah coat, more than three. Oklahoma, Sweeney Todd, Kiss Me Kate, Annie, Oliver, West Side Story, Fantastics, the list goes on an on. Usually, these were bigger productions, with more than 15 wireless mics, and full orchestra, off stage in another room, along with a full complement of appropriate sound effects. I've also done my fair share of acting too. I know my musicals.

I first saw this production on VHS not long after it was produced. Sunday In The Park With George opened on broadway in the middle 80's and ran for more than 600 performances. Both Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters are widely recognized as the preeminent interpreters of Sondheim's music and lyrics.

You see, Sondheim has the reputation of writing the lyrics and music for the script, not just in a particular key, or with a particular common chord progression, like, say, Rent's Seasons of Love...

Anyway, this is not that. Sondheim's music is tailored to the show's setting, and doesn't necessarily follow a usual melodic or chordal pattern. Sondheim is musical and dramatic genius. This play won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize, and both Peters and Patinkin were tony-nominated for their performances.

Anyway the show revolves around the work of artist Georges Seurat (1859-91). He always said he "wanted to get through to something new - a kind of painting that was my own." He astonished the world with only a handful of bold and richly colored canvases. His most famous creation, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," is a capture of Parisians who frequented a particular park on the weekend, under the shadow of the then under construction Eiffel Tower. Here he perfected a technique of painting that came to be known as Divisionism, or Pointillism, although Seurat himself preferred to be called a "Chromo-Lumarist". The technique consisted of small dots of pure color, mixed by the eye of the viewer. When seen from a distance they blend to reveal a world of dazzling hues of light.

So that's the background. The play itself grabs each element of this painting and animates it so the artist can interact with it. Of particular note is the lady with the umbrella in the foreground of the painting. She is the co-star of the play, played wonderfully by Peters. She is Seurat's mistress and model, and through her, we discover Seurat's insecurities, inabilities, failings, travails, and triumphs. He works for weeks on the top hat of the other main character in the painting. The hat is a metaphor for the things we do to escape from dealing with the things that are eating us up in our own lives. The alcohol of an alcoholic, if you will.

The high point, musically, in the play comes just before the end of the first of the two acts. In the sequence, Dot, the model, leaves Georges, and his song, Finishing The Hat, at times lamenting her loss, and at the same time cursing her presence in the fore of his mind, is gut wrenching and heartbreaking. It makes me cry every single time I hear it. Then the music segues and Dot comes back to give him one more chance to try to at least communicate with her, to at least TELL her what he feels, but he won't. He just can't. Her song, We Do Not Belong Together, interspersed with his protestations is equally devastating. A truly beautiful theater moment, and a valid example of Sondheim's musical and dramatic genius. The crushing emotion is palpable.

The second act continues on, one or two generations later, but both Dot's and Georges' progenitors exhibit the same character flaws, now under the scummy shadows of the Eiffel Tower, after the Industrial Revolution has changed the face of Paris. The show comes full circle, but we (I) never really get past that critical flaw of escaping reality in other things.

If you want a little culture, you should get this onto your Netflix list. Just sayin. It's not for everybody, especially not my kids, apparently, but if you like theater (this is a recording of the actual stage performance), you owe it to yourself to see this show.

On My Hard Drive: Bobby McFerrin

Before you start with me, stop right there.

You all remember Bobby McFerrin from his 1988 release of "Don't Worry Be Happy."

That record pushed him into the limelight, garnering Grammy's that year for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Somethin' like that anyway. He also had a project called Voistra, although I can't find a web link for it anywhere at the moment.

However, he is, and has been for a long time, a musician with considerable chops. And the voice thing has only served to separate him in the "very unique" category.

I wrote about McFerrin Some time ago in connection with Chick Corea, and I'm going to again. In that original post, I wrote about the TV series Corea does on HDNet... but McFerrin and Corea have been collaborators for a long time, performing at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 2001, (watch that video) and many other venues as well over the years. He has also performed with other musicians as well, notables here are Yo Yo Ma. Their 1999 album, Hush, is worth a listen, if not a buy. Its most notable cut is the one entitled Grace, a lovely winding study on the intricacies of the human voice, the subtleties of the cello, both stretched across the canvas of the pentatonic scale we usually think of in terms of "oriental" music. You can check that track out right here in its entirety.

The album I wanted to note today though is called "Play" and is also a collaboration with Chick Corea. The track worthy of mention there is the first one, Spain.

Watch Part One
Watch Part Two

This is from the HDNet series I mentioned earlier. Bella Fleck (who plays in Salt Lake this summer) is a master banjo player (I KNOW!), and has made a name as one who takes the banjo out of the box - I guess, figuratively AND literally speaking... I digress. He appears in this video, but not on the album.

"Play" is a live performance album and features McFerrin and Corea without Fleck.

If you like teh jazzzz, you should check out any one of these three musicians. All three are known for unique performance styles, and together they offer something quite out of the box ordinary, and very enjoyable.

On My Hard Drive: Tower of Power

Tower of Power started out in the 70's in the East Bay area of northern California. They were principally a horn-based funk band. Over time, they got so good that they were contracted to play backup on recordings by MANY of the music industry's iconic figures.

They've shuffled members through, including vocalists, but have maintained the super-tight horn section sound that has made them famous over the years. Here they appear live playing one of their signature songs: What Is Hip. I saw them about 10 years ago in a little bar in New York City, where it was shoulder to shoulder standing room only, and LOUDER THAN HELL. I was AMAZED at the horn section. I had never heard anything so polished in a live setting. A couple of years ago they came to the Salt Lake City Jazz Festival here, and they were equally good. We packed up all the kiddies and took them to see it. To varying degrees of enjoyment. I was very fun though. The name says it all - it's a towering wall of huge sound, live, or recorded.



Check them out here

Cell Phone ring tones

This has been my cell phone ring-tone since the day I got my phone, about a year ago.



The intro is funky and catchy, and EVERYBODY knows what it is when they hear it... It's a funny conversation starter, and makes people laugh most of the time.

Come to think of it, they might just be laughing AT me. Hadn't thought of that before.

On My Hard Drive: Miles Davis

In addition to being an Architecture Nerd, I am also a Jazz Dork. I have the luxury of being able to listen to music throughout my day, and it's almost always Jazz.

Miles Davis died when I was a college student, and it's one of those days when you remember the time and place you heard that it had happened. I have this memory from when John Lennon was killed, and when Elvis died as well. Anyway, I digress.

This is from the album Kind Of Blue... The video here is from 1958 and features John Coltrane as well. I listened to this yesterday, and thought it might be time for another installment of this ocassional little ditty we call "On My HardDrive."



For the record, other installments are listed here for your listening pleasure:
John Clayton - Nature Boy
Sly and the Family Stone
Wynton Marsalis - Cherokee

James Brown

The world is a slightly more sane place with his passing... the Godfather Of Soul will be missed.

And yes, he was "On My Hard Drive."

Really, who else could pull off that outfit??

I'm Just Sayin.

On My HD: Moulin Rouge

This is another in an Occasional Series of junk that resides on my hard drive, but which you might also find interesting, entertaining, or otherwise generally offensive...

Actually, Moulin Rouge isn't quite it, but here's the rest of the story:

I was listening to The Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra's live recording at MCG. The third track caught my attention - again. It does every time I listen to it.

It's called Nature Boy, and if you know the movie Moulin Rouge, it is the main theme song from that movie. Incidentally, that movie is one of my favorite romantic movies of all time, and if you're not familiar with it, I would recommend a little Holiday time project for you. It's worth it. And if you're in my general age bracket, and like music, you'll get a real charge out of all the music. The challenge is to see if you can name all the original songs/artists that are excerpted in the movie. Fun stuff - love that movie.

But back to this recording. John Clayton, whom I've yacked about a lot on this site, is a MASTER of the upright bass. Not only is he an amazing jazz player, improviser, composer, and arranger, but he was a classical player before he was a jazz player. This makes him a far better bow player than most of his colleagues. On most of his albums and in almost every live concert he plays, he pulls out the bow and treats the audience to an amazingly beautiful classical-style bass solo. Most of the time, they make me all squishy inside, and this one is no exception. Get yourself onto the iTunes music store, spend your .99, and grab a copy of that song.

It'll make you all squishy inside too. I promise.

Series: On My Hard Drive

Some of you know that I am a digger of the funky. This started several years ago when a co-worker introduced me to a "Funky Friday" radio show on a local access radio station. Back then is was full of this sort of stuff, but has since devolved into the host doing "shout-outs" sent in from people trying to make contact with loved ones in jail/prison. I kid you not. Too bad.

I have much funky on my hard drive. This is one of my favorites. Sly and the Family Stone were one of the best true funk bands, and Family Affair was one of their (many) bests. And you just can't help but move with the grove (baby).

Blue Men in Red State

We went to the Blue Man Group concert last night - fun times had by all... crappy telephone picture captures all, and at the same time, nothing.

We sat next to an older dude and his wife, who had the requisite yellow squishy ear plugs in even before the show started.

For those who care, Blue Man has been around for a long time - I first read about them when they were a local theater phenomenon in, I think, Chicago. Their show was a lot more "variety" oriented then, as opposed to the drumming fun that it is today. They did a lot with paint blown from the mouth, and liquids of other types as well... much of the audience went home wet. Very much the visual arts show indeed... this was in about 1992-93... since then they have become more of a franchise commodity, with a permanent show in Las Vegas, along with touring shows as well. Interestingly, the audition process to get on the show has a lot to do with body type and head shape. I wouldn't make it on either of those limitations - I am my own Blue Man Group. Fans of the (now cancelled) TV show Arrested Development will get a chuckle out of the very mention of Blue Men...

Anyway, it was a LOT of fun. One lady went home with a Chinese take-out box full of about 30 "used" marshmallows as a reward for agreeing to have her credit card charged with $4000 to purchase the home study course of "How to be a rock Mega-Star."

Thanks to ThatOneWife for getting the tickets for our birthdays...

:)

A Name That Keeps Popping Up:

I've been reading the Sting autobiography. Because I like him. I saw the Police live in the fall of 1981. It was my second or third big rock concert. When we left the concert, ears ringing, we went to a midnight viewing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and threw our toast. But I digress.

In the book, Sting talks about early influences when he was playing jazz in the area where he was born. He notes that at that time, in the late 60's and early 70's, that area was pretty insulated, and nobody of note ever came there. That changed when he went to a concert at the college by Jimi Hendrix. To Sting, the world had just changed from black and white, to color. I can only imagine. But I digress. Again.

One of the other early performances he saw was a jazz combo that included one Chick Corea. And therein lies the title of this post. Chick Corea has been a keyboard player for a long time. He came and played a concert at the same college where Jimi Hendrix had played only a year or two earlier. Sting notes that this was as cathartic an experience for him as Hendrix was at the time. I have heard Corea music for many years, always on the outskirts of my usual listening. I always seem to put him in the same category as Pat Matheny: Somewhat inaccessible to the general listening public. The result of music in this category, in my view, is that most of us listen to that stuff, and think, what the hell was that...? But that's okay. It's very complex and cerebral. Not exactly hum-along-with-it music. Some would call it noise, and unfortunately, many people categorize most jazz music the same was as a result.

Then I was searching around HDNet's programming for the next two weeks (because several of the concerts I had recorded on the TIVO got erased when we were taping the US Open tennis stuff.... bummer...) I digress, for the third time.

Anyway, as I was searching around I noted a program called Chick Corea Duets: Bobby McFerrin. So I programmed it and looked forward to seeing what those two would come up with. It was very interesting, and I quite enjoyed it.

Further along in Sting's book, he notes being influenced by what Miles Davis was doing in the days between his Bebop stage and the Cool stage. The Seminal recording in this area is Bitches Brew. It represents the flagship of the jazz/fusion era. The album is interesting, and for most people, will fall into that Chick Corea/Pat Matheny category of cacophonous noise that demands the front of your mind, not the back. Sting notes that he was introduced to Miles around this time. He was known as Sting by then. Interestingly, Chick Corea plays on this album as well. Go figure. There are 7 songs on a 2-disc set. With the exception of only one song, they are all more than 11 minutes long, with the longest clocking in at 27 minutes.

Sting had a funny anecdote about that meeting: When the two met, Davis asked him if he could speak French. He replied that he could. Davis handed Sting a piece of paper and asked him to translate it for him. Davis then put him in a vocal booth in the studio, and told him that when he pointed to him, he should yell into the mic what he wrote on the paper. Apparently it was quite crude, and never made it onto the album. Instead, at the end of the last song on the album, Feio, Davis himself is heard talking the song out in a more lighthearted way.

Thought you'd be interested - sorry if you weren't. I will refund the little bits and bytes you used to download this page if you like.