What Are You Listening To?

[stlukesguild]

I've been listening to a lot of Jazz over the past two days... including Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, and Bill Evans:

Today I've been listening to a good deal of Country & Bluegrass (Hank Williams, Emmylou Harris, Bob Wills, etc...) on Spotify.

Now... as usual on Sunday... I'm listening to J.S. Bach. This might be an ideal disc for Brian... if he can find it on YouTube:

This recording is a transcription of Bach's solo works for violin for the clarinet.

 

[brianvds]

Off the beaten track for a bit, with a nostalgic trip to the 1990s, when I was a student, and for a while there, among my friends, Rodriguez was wildly popular:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2IchvXqOz1Fvfi1gNTw2uZQ26AZzcJNb

Funny thing is, in his own country, he is virtually unknown. He made an album or two, none of it sold, and he disappeared. Unbeknownst to him, he was a smash hit in South Africa. A bunch of folks here eventually tried to find out whatever happened to him, and it became the subject of the fascinating documentary Searching for Sugarman, which I notice is (at least for the moment) on YouTube, albeit with irritating French subtitles:

He eventually did a tour of South Africa, and his concerts all sold out. It remains something of a mystery why he would become so wildly popular in one place and remain so obscure in another.

 

[stlukesguild]

Brian; unfortunately Sony won't let us see this video in the US, greedy bastards!

Arguably the best solo recording by any of the former Beatles.

 

[Nufocus]

Listening to cats having sex in my back yard.

 

[stlukesguild]

Yoko Ono?

 

[brianvds]

Fun little video:

12 Days of Christmas but each verse is more ATONAL​

I could guess only some of them. StLukes will likely get full marks.

 

[brianvds]

And continuing my StLukes-inspired exploration of jazz:

 

[musket]

Joe Pass is one of those modern jazz guitarists who doesn't move me. I appreciate his skill but his stuff is tepid.

I much prefer old school bop, of which my old friend the late Eddie Diehl was one of the last masters. Eddie was out on the road with Brother Jack McDuff for many years, the only white guy in the band. One of the very few who was considered white only on the outside by the black jazz community. He was in his late 70s here.

His chord melody style was also outstanding.

 

[brianvds]

Joe Pass is one of those modern jazz guitarists who doesn't move me. I appreciate his skill but his stuff is tepid.

When I was a teen, a friend visited me once; I was listening to a Beethoven symphony or something. At one point, I whistled along with the tune. He was astonished: how on earth could I possibly recognize tunes in there? To him, not from a classical background, it sounded all the same. Another friend was amazed that I had no trouble distinguishing Bach from Beethoven, even in music for solo piano. How could there be various, recognizable styles in classical music for solo piano? It sounded all the same to him, but he actually quite enjoyed all of it too.

I am currently in the same position with regards to jazz: I cannot tell different artists' styles apart; it all sounds "jazzy" to me. In the case of the Joe Pass, I rather liked the intricate little patterns - I seem to particularly enjoy that aspect of jazz. But I don't think I could begin to tell the various artists apart based on their style of playing. Will have to listen to much, much more before I'll be able to do that.

 

[musket]

The best way to do it far as the evolution of jazz guitar goes is to start with Charlie Christian, who played with Benny Goodman. He did have antecedents--Eddy Lang, Carl Kress and others--but he was the ground breaker. His tone and style are instantly recognizable-- very much rooted in the blues tonality but far more sophisticated melodically. This is bop guitar in its infancy. The first task for most aspiring jazz guitar players is to learn all Charlie's solos.

 

[Iain]

 

[Dave Woody]

Yep.....I grew up in SA in the 1970's and Rodriguez was as big as Zep, Sabbath etc.

A few gigs I went to that I will name as ' classic moments' were Miles Davis, Tutu tour.
Saw him twice, the second time we had seats behind the band at his Cardiff gig, that was special.
He came on stage late and seemingly reluctantly.... he left and after 10 mins came back on stage
in new apparel...and spent the night facing us.

The Police .... 1985
2001, in San Francisco we saw a gig which included: Neil Young; REM; Billy Idol; Dave Mathews Band;
Pearl Jam; Tracy Chapman.

 

[stlukesguild]

A few of the final musical selections of 2020:

 

[OliveOyl]

He’s been in our lives in one way or another for a long time so we just watched this new doc...ZAPPA.

With his views about censorship, freedom, corporations, government and other types of cultural stupidity, I wonder what he’d make of our current days of IDIOCY?

 

[joe1It]

I didn't realize you talked about Sugar Man, I have now read brianvds post of December 7th,

years ago I saw a documentary film called Sugar Man,
I had never heard him before, I did not know any of his canzzone, the documentary tells the story of him, the author had heard the album, became a director goes in his tracks, reconstructs the story,
one of the strangest stories he has ever heard,
yes, it's the movie that Brianvds posted, right, it's a very nice documentary, incredible story
he hadn't sold until the 90s in South Africa, I don't remember if the sales boom was of pirated copies or for some reason he lost the rights, I think his music was depopulated perhaps when his music arrived in South Africa when there was a block due to political situation and they didn't arrive all the artists, many artists, a lot of music, his came and depopulated, it became like a flag,
I pass among people as pirated copies, in any case he did not get a euro and did not know of his success until they found it, while his music had not received recognition and he had had to leave the music, do something else, or in any case not perform continuously , until the relaunch, the film, the story, in the years 2012, 2013.

you won't understand much of what I wrote but the film is very nice and tells the story

 

[joe1It]

He’s been in our lives in one way or another for a long time so we just watched this new doc...ZAPPA.

With his views about censorship, freedom, corporations, government and other types of cultural stupidity, I wonder what he’d make of our current days of IDIOCY?

Frank Zappa ,
a few years earlier I also saw a documentary about him in the same channel, collections of some interviews, cool.
perhaps more than directly I got to know his music indirectly, at least initially, one of the Italian groups that for a period I often listened to really referred to him.

Happy New Year to all .

 

[Nufocus]

Mark Knopfler Telegraph Road (Sevilla 26.07.2015)

 

[stlukesguild]

This recording along with Yo-Yo Ma's recording of the Cello Suites sealed my passion for Bach. In my teens and early 20s I was a member of the Columbia Record Club. They would send out flyers about their latest choice of music (to match whatever musical genre you chose). If you didn't return the postcard quickly enough, they sent you the record. That was how I got both this LP and that of Ma's Cello Suites. I had an old crappy pressing of Gould's first performance of the Goldberg Variations... a recording that was in many ways responsible for the mid-century revival of Bach's music. The two recordings are very different... with the opening and closing aria in the later recording played extremely slow. I can't say which version is best... but I am certain that no recordings surpass those of Gould... in spite of my owning perhaps a dozen or more.

 

[brianvds]

This recording along with Yo-Yo Ma's recording of the Cello Suites sealed my passion for Bach. In my teens and early 20s I was a member of the Columbia Record Club. They would send out flyers about their latest choice of music (to match whatever musical genre you chose). If you didn't return the postcard quickly enough, they sent you the record. That was how I got both this LP and that of Ma's Cello Suites. I had an old crappy pressing of Gould's first performance of the Goldberg Variations... a recording that was in many ways responsible for the mid-century revival of Bach's music. The two recordings are very different... with the opening and closing aria in the later recording played extremely slow. I can't say which version is best... but I am certain that no recordings surpass those of Gould... in spite of my owning perhaps a dozen or more.

Perhaps, one day, they'll remaster the recordings so as to remove all the humming and howling.

 

[stlukesguild]

Well... after playing with Blob Opera for entirely too long I'm back to Bach. This time I'm listening to the violin sonatas accompanied by harpsichord and/or viola da gamba by three of the finest Baroque specialists. The disc contains an intriguing version of the famous Toccata and Fugue for violin as opposed to organ.