What Are You Listening To?

[Artyczar]

Thanks John. Well, if I had anything to do with it, I would have had you LOVING the drums and playing into a pillow, not on a rubber drum pad. A pillow had zero-action and makes you better once you do play on something that has action (a snare drum). I used to teach young drummers. You would have blown that other guy away in no time. I would have had you learning to use your fingers, not so much your wrists or arms. I would have given you my secrets. It's more about strong fingers and hands, not wrists. Mike Martin wasn't utilizing proper muscles! And if you can count, you can learn rhythms of all kinds. I'd show you. And rhythm is a strangely spelled word, yes.

Rickie is one of my musical heros and always was/will be. She has an original creative process that I do respect. However, she was also one of the most difficult people I've worked with. She is an eccentric character for sure.

 

[ZenDruid]

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.

I had a similar experience growing up, my folks exposed me to a lot of jazz and swing. My favorite, Benny Goodman's Sing, Sing, Sing with that classic Gene Krupa drum solo. Still gives me chills. I'm also a Brubeck fan, Take Five particularly but who can not like that?

 

[john]

Thanks John. Well, if I had anything to do with it, I would have had you LOVING the drums and playing into a pillow, not on a rubber drum pad. A pillow had zero-action and makes you better once you do play on something that has action (a snare drum). I used to teach young drummers. You would have blown that other guy away in no time. I would have had you learning to use your fingers, not so much your wrists or arms. I would have given you my secrets. It's more about strong fingers and hands, not wrists. Mike Martin wasn't utilizing proper muscles! And if you can count, you can learn rhythms of all kinds. I'd show you. And rhythm is a strangely spelled word, yes.

Rickie is one of my musical heros and always was/will be. She has an original creative process that I do respect. However, she was also one of the most difficult people I've worked with. She is an eccentric character for sure.

If only you were my drum teacher my life would be different.

I'm not surprised that Jones is eccentric.

One of these might be fun to play with. https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=electronic+drum+set&crid=1M5R3HTMQVCI6&sprefix=electronic+drum,aps,93&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_15

 

[john]

A few years ago I tried to learn keyboard and recorded this in one 1/2 hour session, off the top of my head, three tracks on a cheap keyboard. Recorded the bass line then layered on top two more. It was fun. But again learning keyboard, especially when , ahem, older, is hard. So after a month of messing with it I don't mess with it anymore.


Flawed

click for music | jdemmer

angjohn.wixsite.com

 

[Artyczar]

If only you were my drum teacher my life would be different.

I'm not surprised that Jones is eccentric.

One of these might be fun to play with. https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=electronic+drum+set&crid=1M5R3HTMQVCI6&sprefix=electronic+drum,aps,93&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_15

Wow, I never realized those were less than $1000 bucks. I don't know if I could ever get used to playing those, but I do have concerns about making noise and don't like to disturb my neighbors. I just don't know if I could deal with not having a real hi-hat. That phantom pedal thing is creepy.

 

[Artyczar]

A few years ago I tried to learn keyboard and recorded this in one 1/2 hour session, off the top of my head, three tracks on a cheap keyboard. Recorded the bass line then layered on top two more. It was fun. But again learning keyboard, especially when , ahem, older, is hard. So after a month of messing with it I don't mess with it anymore.


Flawed

click for music | jdemmer

angjohn.wixsite.com

I like it! Good arrangement John.

 

[chaffee2]

I actually own the Alesis Surge mesh kit and love it, it is weird with the hihat pedal but you adapt...the heads can be tightened/loosened like a standard drum but they just can't match the snap bounce of a regular skin. Still, sooooo much fun and QUIET. I only play with my headphones. There are many demos on YouTube if you're interested...

 

[Artyczar]

I can think about it. I did a little bit, but then it takes up the same amount of space as my drums. Maybe more (I have a very small jazz-type kit). I could just deaden the heads with tape and towels, cutting down the sound if I really wanted to play. I just have to find the space. And the inkling.

 

[stlukesguild]

For over half-a-century (recorded in the early 1950s) Walter Gieseking's recordings of Debussy's Preludes have been deemed as the standard by which all others are measured. As one critic wrote of the recordings:

"Listening to Gieseking playing Debussy is to be at the water's edge, sight unimpeded by any mist rising from the surface of the pond, gazing upon a reflection of the moon that is not hazed in by clouds."

The analogy to the fluidity and shimmering nature of water is perfectly suited to Giesking's recordings of these Impressionist masterworks. Certainly, more recent recordings surpass this one in terms of sonics. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's recordings are my favorite among the more recent... but this remains my "go to" for Debussy's Preludes.

 

[Aspenman]

I’m listening to ABBA these days - good music to paint to

 

[Hermes2020]

View attachment 17538

For over half-a-century (recorded in the early 1950s) Walter Gieseking's recordings of Debussy's Preludes have been deemed as the standard by which all others are measured. As one critic wrote of the recordings:

"Listening to Gieseking playing Debussy is to be at the water's edge, sight unimpeded by any mist rising from the surface of the pond, gazing upon a reflection of the moon that is not hazed in by clouds."

The analogy to the fluidity and shimmering nature of water is perfectly suited to Giesking's recordings of these Impressionist masterworks. Certainly, more recent recordings surpass this one in terms of sonics. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's recordings are my favorite among the more recent... but this remains my "go to" for Debussy's Preludes.

I own Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's "complete" Debussy piano works and agree with you about him. I also have the wonderful equivalent Nelson Freire recordings. Are you familiar with them? They also appeal to me greatly as performances and are well recorded. Here is his La cathédrale engloutie.

 

[stlukesguild]

No, I've never heard... or even heard of Nelson Freire before but I will surely give him a listen.

Another master of Debussy (and Ravel) is Samson François. Both this...

... and his Ravel box set has sat on my desk next to my computer and CD player for years as I play them so often.

 

[Hermes2020]

Oh yes, I know Samson Francois. I quite enjoy his Gaspard de la nuit, even if I find the Scarbo movement too jazzy and quirky for my taste.

Edit: I probably didn't make that very clear: I love Gaspard unconditionally, but I think Samson Francois makes Scarbo sound like Gershwin.

 

[stlukesguild]

Well... Francois was a big Jazz fan.

I'll move back further from Jazz... toward Late Classicism and Early Romanticism:

The "Archduke" by the Beaux Arts Trio and the "Ghost" by Stern, Istomin & Rose

I might state that "chamber music" (quartets, trios, quintets, etc...) may be the classical genre that I turn to least. This is not to say that I dislike it... but rather that I am far more likely to turn to opera, lieder, choral, and other vocal music, symphonies, concertos, and even solo instrumental (piano sonatas, Bach's suites for cello, etc...). Perhaps I am more drawn to this genre at present due to the need for a degree of quiet living out of a hotel room at present and need to consider my wife taking many naps as she recuperates from COVID.

 

[Hermes2020]

Differences in taste is an interesting topic, stlukesguild; I guess there have been dissertations written on the reasons. There seems to be a significant overlap in our sensibilities, but interestingly, my music of choice is the chamber music of Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, and Ravel, with the occasional Bartok and Takemitsu. I recently got hold of the Kodaly Quartet's complete Haydn string quartets and I'm becoming more familiar with Haydn's elegant chamber music. I am not often moved to listen to vocal music, but I love Schubert lieder and the Mahler song cycles. I am not a great opera fan, apart from Mozart and Wagner.

 

[john]

I love Art of Noise, and Debussy, so I bought this CD. I like reworks of classical pieces. Firstly because they are always worth reworking, and second because I usually find them more interesting.

 

[Desforges]

Discovered these two guys only last week. I would pay to sit in that room as an old crow.
2CELLOS, DRUMMER and ?

 

[stlukesguild]

Differences in taste is an interesting topic, stlukesguild; I guess there have been dissertations written on the reasons. There seems to be a significant overlap in our sensibilities, but interestingly, my music of choice is the chamber music of Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, and Ravel, with the occasional Bartok and Takemitsu. I recently got hold of the Kodaly Quartet's complete Haydn string quartets and I'm becoming more familiar with Haydn's elegant chamber music.

Beethoven, Mozart, and Takemitsu... as well as Brahms, Haydn, and Schubert rank among my favorite composers for chamber music.

I am not often moved to listen to vocal music, but I love Schubert lieder and the Mahler song cycles. I am not a great opera fan, apart from Mozart and Wagner.

Schubert and Mahler... followed by Richard Strauss are my favorite lieder composers... but I listen to a great many other classical songs. Mozart and Wagner... as different as they may be are also my favorite opera composers... followed again by Richard Strauss... and many others.

 

[stlukesguild]

Cannonball Adderley's classic Somethin' Else showed up on one of my Jazz feeds on Twitter and I knew I had to give it a listen again. Some years back I would listen to it quite often in the studio.

After that... well I just had to keep with Cannonball for the next few albums:

Cannonball Adderley was an interesting performer and one of the giants of late 50's and 60s Jazz. His parents taught at Florida A&M University and he graduated with a music degree from the same school. He played with Ray Charles in the late 1940s and then took a position teaching as a high school band teacher in Fort Lauderdale. He moved to New York in 1955 to seek graduate studies in one of the New York music conservatories. Sitting in with Oscar Pettiford at the Café Bohemia he caused a huge stir with the New York Jazz scene announcing him as the heir to Charlie Parker. He joined Miles Davis' band in 1957 and recorded with Davis on the albums Milestones and Kind of Blue in 1958. Davis returned the favor recording with Adderley on Somethin' Else, (also from 1958... what a year!) and fellow Kind of Blue performer, Bill Evans, recorded with Adderley on Know What I Mean? in 1962. Sadly, he died young at age 46.

 

[stlukesguild]

And now I'm headed off in a different direction:

This disc is a collection of works for saxophone and piano by modern French composers:

Fernande Decruck
Claude Delvincourt
Pierre Sancan
Paule Maurice
Alfred Desenclos
Charles Koechlin

I honestly haven't even heard of any of them with the exception of Charles Koechlin whose works I quite admire. So far, I've only listened to Decruck's Saxophone Sonata in C-Sharp Major... and I quite like it. In spite of following the more classical sonata form, it is quite Impressionistic.