Music I like

One of the funk bass greats has left us today. Marvin Isley was responsible for laying down the law for the crossover hits that kept the Isley Brothers on the radio for much of the 70s. Here are some great live Soul Train performances from 73-4.

I can almost always pick Ellis even when he is doing ’strictly rythym’ percussive accompaniment as he does in the lead off here.  We will miss his clean, hard driving swing and unpretentious playfulness but we have lots of great records to listen to and I am sure OP is glad to see him up there in Jazz Heaven.

I stumbled across this post on boing boing about the Mary Kaye Trio. I have heard this excellent singing group in various compilations but did not realize that she was the founder of the Vegas lounge show itself. These late night shows were credited with greatly expanding the success of the nascent casino industry by creating the party atmosphere that kept people awake and gambling the night away.  I had no idea. I am once again humbled by the interweb. Mary Kaye was one impressive lounge singer:

• She was a Spanish guitar virtuoso and played the first fender Stratocaster. The 1954 Mary Kaye model is one of the most valuable models in existence.
• She is descended from Hawaiian royalty in the line of Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii’s last reigning monarch.
• In 1961, the trio were paid the $250,000 for a 22-week gig at the Sahara – that is $1,7M in modern dollars.

Still feeling like we have evolved to a higher plain of consciousness now that Celine rules the City of Lights? Then there is no hope for you.

magna tweaking until the cows come home

Rudy Van Gelder is considered to be the vital ‘fifth Beetle’ on a zillion of the best jazz records ever made. Though he considers himself strictly a recording engineer, the Van Gelder sound is as signature as any great musician’s. Have you ever mucked about trying to get his sound or even kinda sorta his sound on a direct to 2 track session at home? I have and it has not been pretty. I have come to the conclusion that there are 3 main reasons for my failure:

1. I don’t have his mikes and it is almost impossible to find out what his mikes are. He uses decoys in photos.
2. I don’t have his room nor do I have his understanding of room acoustics.
3. I am not Rudy Van Gelder.

If anyone can help me overcome any of the above please get in touch and I will try again.

Here is a 2008 NEA jazz interview of the man himself.

Tavern on the Green 1934

I am saddened that Tavern on the Green will be closing. I was a founding member of a Tavern house band that performed jazz there regularly in 1998 – 2001. They were sometimes brutal gigs but they paid the rent and kept my fingers warm while I was in grad school. I was fortunate to work with excellent musicians who couldn’t help but make serious music even when nobody else seemed to be listening.  Tavern was no longer exactly cool nor was it a haven for foodie hipsters but that is what made ultra special – one of those vanishing old New York places that had so much history that it did not give a damn. Like a proud old silent movie actor, Tavern loudly (and sometimes drunkenly) reminded you of it’s heyday and ignored its obvious decline and increasing irrelevance.  There was soul underneath all of those layers of kitsch that made it not at all embarrassing to be overtaken by the in-your-face romance of all of those ridiculous lights and mirrors. No matter how mediocre the food and unglamorous the clientele, somehow Tavern was still a place Grace Kelly might pull up to in a horse drawn carriage at any minute. We played some mean Cole Porter for her on those nights I can assure you.

The subversive geniuses at Hobnox have just released one of the most musical browser based synths I have ever played. Nudge enables you to step-enter 8 sounds into a looping 4/4 grid. The grid is pentatonic instead of full chromatic but there is still a surprising amount of creative flexibility. It is as fun to just throw a lot of stuff in there and then reduce it down as it is to carefully build things up one piece as a time.  You can adjust volume and pan for each sound and set the master volume and tempo. Once you are pleased with your little creation send it on to your friends with the included permalink or embed the player on your site like I have below. This thing is dangerously addictive if you have a synth problem.

Before American child rearing became neurotic and consumerist there was a time when we produced some really sophisticated, whimsical children’s television. Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop is one of these strange and charming experiments. Hoagy Carmichael shares the music with the excellent funk band  The Stark Reality and there is some seriously trippy animated musical notation and melancholy photographs of children playing. I find the whole combination very reassuring.

I found a very good podcast of vinyl rips of out of print 60s bossa nova. There are some gems here but even when I am not blown away by a particular song, I love the way this stuff was recorded.

Anyone who knows me well knows that this is one of my favorite standards. I have been working on it since I was about the same age as Billy Strayhorn when he first started writing it – 16. It is a very subtle and difficult to play really well. I think I can finally do it pretty good justice now on a good day. One of my favorite straight instrumental performances is by Phineas Newborn Jr. A tragic genius of jazz piano plays a tragic song written by a tragic genius songwriter. What could be better?

For vocal versions it is Johnny Hartman with the John Coltrane Quartet. Of course.