What Are You Listening To?

[Artyczar]

St. Luke, I sure hope your wife does not have Covid, despite being vaxxed. Some vaxxed people have been known to get it. Scary! Make sure she's okay.

I always liked Brubeck. I like a lot of jazz, but I always go blank on this thread, and Hannah kinda hates it so I don't listen to it often. I grew up listening to a lot of jazz with my dad, who was a big Krupa fan. I actually got him into Buddy Rich and a bunch of other stuff. It took him a long time to get into more contemporary jazz, like Miles. He only liked his straightforward stuff. He was more of a big band guy. He played drums too, and the vibes, but not very well. He enjoyed himself though. That's all that matters. He started playing in the Army band before he went to battle in WWII. He was a radio operator in the very last tank brigade that went into north Italy. I don't know why I mention that, maybe because I was proud of him for enlisting when he was still underage, and then reenlisting again.

I played a lot of jazz when I was in music school--not like Berkley or anything. It was a "vocational" music school MI (Musician's Institute) before they became an official college that offered real degrees. I was the youngest student to have ever entered at that time, so it was intimidating. Also, I was among the first three non-male students (drummers).

You had to be in the upper 5% to be able to get into Big Band and I got there in my 2nd quarter, so I got less intimidated and got some respect. I accredit that to my dad's influence.

Anyway, he liked Dave Brubeck too and was never able to get that famous 5/4 time signature no matter how many times I tried to show him. "That does not swing naturally," he'd say. "No, it doesn't, Dad. That's why you have to count." And that's probably why he couldn't get into Miles's weirder stuff.

 

[stlukesguild]

St. Luke, I sure hope your wife does not have Covid, despite being vaxxed. Some vaxxed people have been known to get it. Scary! Make sure she's okay.

Yes. I've read that Omicron is some 70 times more contagious than the Delta variant. Our older daughter's twins both caught COVID at their preschool which was then closed for a couple of weeks. Their mother had it and didn't even know. The antibodies showed up in the COVID test she had when the two girls came down with it. It is usually less severe among children and healthy younger people... especially if they are vaccinated. But not always. Our hospitals are bursting here... even though we don't have one of the moronic governors banning mask and vaccine mandates to gain political points. My school district will be operated online for the first week back from Winter Break... and possibly longer. My wife sounds better today but I'm insisting she gets tested. The tests are in short supply but she can schedule through my insurance.

I always liked Brubeck. I like a lot of jazz, but I always go blank on this thread, and Hannah kinda hates it so I don't listen to it often.

A lot of my students... who've grown up listening almost exclusively to Hip-Hop and R&B have a harder time with Jazz than they do with Rock, Classical, or Country. This initially surprised me. I thought they would get into the rhythm... but I suspect it may be a problem with the length of the song structures, the improvisation as opposed to the steady beat, and maybe even the way in which Jazz frequently pushes the boundaries on tonality. Personally, I found it easy to get into coming from a background of Rock, Country, and Classical music.

I grew up listening to a lot of jazz with my dad, who was a big Krupa fan. I actually got him into Buddy Rich and a bunch of other stuff. It took him a long time to get into more contemporary jazz, like Miles. He only liked his straightforward stuff... Anyway, he liked Dave Brubeck too and was never able to get that famous 5/4 time signature no matter how many times I tried to show him. "That does not swing naturally," he'd say. "No, it doesn't, Dad. That's why you have to count." And that's probably why he couldn't get into Miles's weirder stuff.

The entire Time Out LP was an interesting experiment. The liner notes, which you may know, read:

"Should some cool-minded Martian come to earth and check on the state of our music, he might play through 10,000 jazz records before he found one that wasn't in common 4/4 time.

Considering the emancipation of jazz in other ways, this is a sobering thought ... and an astonishing one. The New Orleans pioneers soon broke free of the tyranny imposed by the easy brass key of B-flat. Men like Coleman Hawkins brought a new chromaticism to jazz. Bird, Diz and Monk broadened its harmonic horizon. Duke Ellington gave it structure and a wide palette of colors. Yet rhythmically, jazz has not progressed. Born within earshot of the street parade, and with the stirring songs of the Civil War still echoing through the South, jazz music was bounded by the left-right, left-right of marching feet."

Brubeck was inspired by the non-Western music he had heard while on a State Department-sponsored tour of the Middle-East. He was struck by the unusual time signatures he heard in Turkey. Time Out includes works in 3/4, 5/4, 6/4, and 9/8. Ironically, Brubeck's record company wasn't hip on his experimentation and insisted he release a more conventional record first. When Time Out came out it was panned by the critcs, but went on to become the first Jazz record to sell one million copies while Take Five went on to become the biggest selling Jazz single ever. I was always struck by the contrast between the sense of "swing" and the more experimental aspects of Brubeck's works with Paul Desmond's gorgeously smooth sax. Desmond, by the way, composed Take Five, and revived the 5/4 time signature in the song Take Ten which begins his solo LP of the same name.

I always thought that Time Out had one of the coolest covers.

 

[Artyczar]

It does.

Well, I LOVE hip-hop and it's one of my favorite forms of music. It's unfortunate that some of your students don't take to jazz, since all music derives from other forms. (hip-hop mostly coming from reggae, actually). I've played in many hip-hop bands and was considered a hip-hop drummer for the most part. I got hired in that genre almost exclusively, or funk/R&B-type sessions. I recorded a lot of loops used in hip-hop (beats) tracks--long ones, short ones, whatever the song called for. Many of the rap bands I recorded with did almost all improvisations. It was all off-the-cuff/freestyle rap. We did a lot of live tracks, and it was a blast. Lots of jazz/funk sampling...Some of my best memories ever.

 

[OleKobe]

Love Ray's nostalgic songs on this album. My wife and I saw The Kinks with friends in 1993, not long before Ray and Dave finally had enough of each other. Well past their prime but still the best show I ever witnessed.

 

[Terri]

Lots of jazz/funk sampling..

...so that was you on the drums, Ayin?!?

That sounded great!

 

[Terri]

I always thought that Time Out had one of the coolest covers.

I grew up staring at that album cover. My dad played that record a lot. He (and, until she started having us kids, my mom) worked in radio/TV back in the golden years. He came home with stacks of 45s and we listened to all of them.

 

[Artyczar]

That's all we had to do back then was stare at the album covers and read every word on them. I actually loved that, using our imaginations about the band and the music and relating it to the cover and whatever other pictures that might be on the back or the sleeve.

 

[Artyczar]

...so that was you on the drums, Ayin?!?

That sounded great!

Thank you! Yes, that's me.

Here is me with Rickie Lee Jones: Here and here.

 

[Terri]

You are so badass.

 

[Artyczar]

You are so badass.

 

[stlukesguild]

Unfortunately, my wife did have COVID. I thought I'd be quarantined as well, but my school directed me to remain at work as long as I had no symptoms (especially a fever) and continue to wear a good mask (N-95 or KN-95). She is coming out of it now: no more coughing or congestion... and she will be able to get her booster early next week. It did wipe her out for a while. She was often sleeping 12 or 15 hours a day.

Returning to the focus of this thread... this morning I'm listening to Mozart's piano trios... after having heard part of the trio in C-Major the other day on the radio while driving to work. Of course, I selected the recording by Anne Sophie-Mutter... one of the finest living violinists... and one of my favorite classical soloists.

The radio announcer drew attention to the manner in which Mozart's trios don't follow the usual manner of the violin and cello acting as backing for the solo piano, but rather, each instrument takes turns as the soloist. These works are elegant and sophisticated pieces perfect for a cold, gray Saturday morning... and still surprisingly innovative.

 

[Artyczar]

Glad your wife is feeling better and is getting her booster. I got mine yesterday after thinking I had Covid the last week, but I didn't. I was resting and sleeping like a log all week (resting up) just in case I had a cold or something else. I was clear to get my booster and feel okay today, thank goodness.

My arm hurts though.

 

[stlukesguild]

I was resting and sleeping like a log all week (resting up) just in case I had a cold or something else. I was clear to get my booster and feel okay today, thank goodness.

My arm hurts though.

Tell me about it. I took a nasty spill last week slipping on the ice... and I don't think it hurt any more than my arm did after the vaccines.

 

[Artyczar]

Yeah, what is with that? It's like a tetanus shot! Yet it's such a tiny needle.

 

[Terri]

Yeah, what is with that? It's like a tetanus shot! Yet it's such a tiny needle.

Well...a couple things and then the thread hijack should end. First off, there are different injection angles for different kinds of substances being injected. Vaccines are usually given IM (intramuscular) which is a 90 degree angle straight down into the muscle. Some medications can be delivered subcutaneously which is at a 45 degree angle, not trying to reach the muscle, and generally don't ache as much. Subdural (think TB skin tests) needles barely slip under the skin tissue at a slim angle, maybe a 15 degree angle, which is not nearly as painful.

When getting the Covid vaccines, our arm muscles definitely react as though they've been deeply stabbed by a needle because, in fact, they have been. It hurts.

Also, the vaccine itself is seen by the body as a foreign substance/protein/antigen and our bodies immediately begin to surround it and react - fighting back to this outrage! - which manifests itself as inflammation around the site. It hurts.

/hijack

 

[laika]

My wife and I saw The Kinks with friends in 1993, not long before Ray and Dave finally had enough of each other.

Haha! "Apeman" was playing on one of my Pandora stations when I saw this!

 

[laika]

I was clear to get my booster and feel okay today, thank goodness.

I got sick as heck from the booster.

Anyway, yeah, I must've also heard Brubeck as a child (where, I don't know) because it has always felt familiar, but it never gets old.

 

[chaffee2]

Love some good a cappella, these guys, (Straight No Chaser), did a quite remarkable cover of a 90's grungy rock tune, "Creep".
Transformed it in this wonderful Beach Boy-esque blend....outstanding.

Being a drummer myself, certainly not of artyczar's level, and vocal percussionist, I like to listen to The Beatbox Collective do their thing, here's a neat demo...

Tim

 

[stlukesguild]

I'm a huge fan of Schubert lieder. I must have 15 different recordings of the Wintereise but with my wife napping now after coming down from COVID I can't go with a sung version but rather an all-instrumental interpretation of some of the lieder by the marvelous cellist, Mischa Maisky. Again, it is a good selection for a cold gray winter day. We took the dogs out earlier this morning to get a little exercise. It was 15 degrees... not the favorite weather of Raphael, our little Dachshund/Jack Russell mix.

Although he seems quite happy about getting out and getting some exercise:

Now I've moved on the my "required" Bach for Sunday selection:

 

[john]

Thank you! Yes, that's me.

Here is me with Rickie Lee Jones: Here and here.

So cool. Thanks for sharing that. Really enjoyed listening to that. She's up there in my ratings. She is like a definition of cool.

Well I played drums in sixth grade long enough to realize while I may have had rhythm - which BTW rhythm is really weirdly spelled word -, I also had no discipline or attention span to learn the rudiments and reading music was really hard, and Mike Martin had strong wrists and was way better than I was, so why humiliate myself, and my stupid practice pad was really boring. Maybe if I had one of those new synthetic digital drum pads that sound like whatever you want them to. And you could tape stuff and run loops and multiple tracks.