What Are You Listening To?

[musket]

In classical music, we have a nice little historical arch - medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, etc, and it can be useful for beginners to use it as a sort of map to what they are listening to. With jazz I don't have that.

I have heard some that I did enjoy. Some twenty years ago there was a movie titled Albino Alligator, a thriller set in its entirety in a nightclub. The sound track featured some marvelously atmospheric jazz. And I rather liked Claude Bolling's classical/jazz mashups. Also some of the composers you point out, particularly Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and American in Paris. Milhaud I don[t know well - I have been intending to explore his work a bit. Last but not least, I like Matisse's jazz series.

So perhaps getting into jazz is a nice little project to work on - I listen to music while doing art anyway.

Same thing with jazz. There is a historical arc, starting in the 1920s (though some people would say earlier, with the advent of ragtime) in New Orleans. At present, jazz is pretty moribund.

 

[stlukesguild]

Yes... and the arc of the history of Jazz is certainly far more accessible to the beginner than that of "classical music". Classical Music spans from the Middle Ages (with the development of musical notation) through the middle of last week... nearly 1000 years and a vast array of styles, forms, and genre. Honestly, you could garner a good introduction to Jazz... or most popular musical forms... through Wikipedia and YouTube.

But then I ask... did you really come to appreciate Classical Music... or Art for that matter... by chronologically exploring the historical arc? I surely didn't. I was listening to Tchaikovsky... and even Philip Glass... well before I had even heard of Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Leonin or Perotin.

 

[stlukesguild]

At present, jazz is pretty moribund.

We could probably say the same of most popular music with few exceptions.

 

[Iain]

That Ken Burns Jazz series was a welcome distraction over the festive period.

 

[stlukesguild]

I liked that series... like most Ken Burns' efforts... even though I was already well dug into Jazz by that time.

 

[stlukesguild]

Just listening to a couple of unabashedly gorgeous recordings that I know Brian would enjoy:

Can you get more lush than Beecham and Sibelius? The CD includes a few other works including Tapiola.

I began with this Sibelius kick with disc 4 from this set which included Symphony 7 (again), Finlandia, The Swan of Tuonela, and Tapiola (again! ). Another brilliant recording.

And now I'm on this... which is a brilliant recording/performance of a work previously unknown to me.

Every time the subject of Sibelius comes up I find myself wishing he had a bit of Wagner's ego so that he might have simply told the Modernist critics who dismissed him to just shove off. Him and Rachmaninoff. I would loved to have more by both of them... but then that's true of most composers that I admire. More Mozart? More Schubert? More Beethoven? More Wagner? Yes please. Hell... even more Brahms.

 

[brianvds]

And here I thought you said you were not too wild about Sibelius. But of course, that's all relative - liking Bach (or Wagner) more does not have to mean you hate Sibelius.

I discovered Kullervo a year or three ago; it's a marvelous work. And I would agree on those modernist critics. On the other hand, as I noted before, I greatly prefer his earlier work anyway. Plus, like everyone else, the fourth symphony left me mystified.

 

[Iain]

Bought Garage Goodies Vol 1 in the 80s for the DIY aesthetic of its cover. Bubble Car is a favourite.

You aren't so Smart after all!

 

[Nufocus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkUpfw4Hf3w&feature=share

 

[Nufocus]

 

[stlukesguild]

I just finished with grades and online lessons for tomorrow. I started at noon and finished after 8... on my day off.

 

[Iain]

One for K.

 

[laf.art]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkUpfw4Hf3w&feature=share

Particularly love: While my guitar gently weeps, beautiful

 

[laf.art]

Bought Garage Goodies Vol 1 in the 80s for the DIY aesthetic of its cover. Bubble Car is a favourite.

You aren't so Smart after all!

Can see Dave Woody painting Bubble car

 

[Iain]

That was my thoughts exactly! ha. Maybe he did? He probably bashed it out between takes. On the album there is an anti-vietnam song, of course it was written years after the end of that war. There is also a track from one of Billy Childish's incarnations, Thee Milkshakes, I believe.

 

[laf.art]

Just read that vinyl is having a resurgence at the mo. So hold onto your oldies
Never heard of Thee Milkshakes, will have a look

 

[Iain]

Too late. I jettisoned them and, incidentally, my best threads on moving. Chucked the wrong bag out, the DumbF! Not that they would fit me now. Too much "water" under the bridge.

 

[laf.art]

Doubt it was water. Well it is said that whatever you haven't used/worn in the previous 2 years is not needed anyway. So maybe it was just your sub conscious getting rid of stuff you don't need

 

[Iain]

Don't let my conscious mind off the hook! Anyhow, we're stretching the thread...Don't forget the Kirsty McColl/Cerys Mathews number. J'adore.

 

[stlukesguild]

My wife just got home after spending several sleepless days at the younger daughter's home after she had yet another baby. Seven! As might be expected, my wife was exhausted... and frazzled. So I picked up a couple of bottles of wine... we'll both sleep well tonight... and I played nothing but mellow jazz and old pop records: