Two of Portishead guest DJd on All Songs Considered a few weeks back. They brought in a varied combination of music that was important to them as a band and were mocked playfully for including Noel Harrison's cover of Michel LeGrand's 'Windmills of Your Mind' in the list. They defended this track by describing it as a sonic experience that displays orchestration techniques and studio production that is no longer available to us today and is 'perfectly of it's time'. This has stuck in my mind because I feel that we often lack language to describe all of the hidden forces of what makes music 'great' to us and they kind of hit on something there. It is a bit of a paradox: in order for a song to become timeless it needs to be of it's time. It is this perception that enables us to connect with the some old songs - ignoring the shifted tides in production, language and themes while we attack other songs for these same failings. If a song is not speaking of it's own time with honesty and energy it will never speak to another time. OK now I'm confused and I must stop.
'Third' is worth listening to as well.
Back when I was but a wee lad growing up in Rochester New York I used to play piano in a society orchestra called The Len Hawley Band. It was made up of a mix of local jazz musicians, down-on-their luck lounge buskers and top talent from Eastman School of Music. The band's mission was to keep an audience dancing no matter what. We played an eclectic and often crazy mixture of styles from a vast heap of fake books that Len carted around. We did not take a lot of breaks and often did not get fed. These were not easy club date gigs for the faint of heart and the Eastman kids often had a hard time getting through them. Some would show up for their first gig, go outside for a cigarette after the first set and never return. One exception was a drummer named Tom Nazziola. He rocked those gigs. He could play anything on drums and also played a mean piano and was a very capable rock singer. He really knew how to spin gold from straw. Tom has ended up becoming a serious composer. He heads up The BQE Project - a chamber ensemble that performs original Film scores. I recently got to see them perform to Buster Keaton's hilarious "Battling Butler" at Lincoln Center. Tom has composed a vibrant, carefully synced score that sounded both modern and thematically appropriate. It is a rare treat to watch a great old movie on a big screen accompanied by a live chamber band performing an original score. I would highly recommend checking out one of their performances if you get a chance.
Well it is that time of year again. Winter blahs. Even with the pathetic warm winters that NYC has been serving up lately, February finds me lusting for sun and hammock. There are things about this album that works to cure these ills for an hour. First of all I love the cover. It was taken by Pete Turner, a fellow RIT alum who recently put out a book of his Jazz record cover photography. Turner shot a lot of timeless covers and this one is one of his most evocative. The second thing is that it is produced in 1967 by Creed Taylor - the founding father of the 60s bossa nova explosion. It sounds fantastic. This is V.S.O.P. bossa. Then there is the actual music. It is the rare combo of lush orchestral lounge cheese and subtle songcraft that makes me think of international airports back when air travel was still sexy. This is not elevator music but it gets close enough to scare the casual listener. The thing is, this would not work in a department store. Jobim's music is not particularly happy. This is not Jimmy Buffet-esque 'tropical party music'. When I listen to this record I think of a more lonely, sophisticated hot place. This is a Graham Greene novel not an MTV beach party. Now if i could just find this place on the map!
Jazz piano has lost one its Jedis with the passing of Oscar Peterson on Sunday. Peterson was one of the pianists who really excited and inspired me about the potential of jazz piano when I was most at risk of giving up practicing the piano for sensualist teenage pursuits. Critics who have dismissed OP as merely a domineering master technician have clearly not spent a lot of time listening to the joyful and electric trio communication that is revealed on recordings like 'The Trio' [1973]. Peterson had such a huge technique that he could slip into cruise control and still wow a crowd but this is a 'problem' most pianists only wish they had. I intend to see the New Year in with Night Train on my turntable. There are albums where jazz pianists are being sorta bluesy and there are albums where blues pianists are being sorta jazzy ... then there is Night Train. Tasty. Thank you for the music Mr. Peterson.
A friend of mine recently forwarded me a few out of print records that his jazz pianist uncle, Collin Bates played on. Colin Bates was an Australian pianist who moved to the UK and played with pretty much everybody there during England's postwar 'swing renaissance'. Two of these records are George Melley recordings. Melley, who just passed away, was England’s version of a top Vegas showman and these recordings are very fun to listen to if you have any appreciation for the humorous, boozy side of Dixieland. The other is a trio recording entitled 'Troubadour' where Bates shows that he possessed a broad talent and could conjure up many styles in one song. His powerful and subtle musicianship would have surely put him on the short lists on this side of the Atlantic. Be on the lookout for these records. Meanwhile here is a great video of Bates performing with Bruce Turner's jump band.
Listening to James Booker, half crazy and in the final years of his hard life make spine tingling music on this horrible saloon upright takes the term ‘it is a bad craftsman who blames his tools’ to a new level. These recordings were taken from hundreds of hours of tapes from Booker’s ‘77-82 solo piano performances at the Maple Leaf bar. He dances effortlessly all over the style map from Chopin-meets-gypsy to Spanish influenced boogies and seems simultaneously possessed by what seems to be both demon and angel these performances. Booker is a master at setting up seemingly untenable grooves and making them work without letting them box him in a corner. He creates a sublime paradox of lightness and rock hard percussiveness that seems to defy the laws of piano physics. There is only a smattering of drunken applause at the end of a lot these performances. Many great moments in music come and go without anybody noticing. It is the curse of an art form that exists so stubbornly in present time. Recordings are often bad representations of what was happening in a room – especially a live performance with a personality of this size. Despite all of that, we should be grateful that someone set up a cassette deck on this particular mixing board.
My Highschool had was a music ‘listening room’ with a bunch of tapedecks, record players, reel-to-reels and library of jazz records and tapes. It was a hidden and underutilized place. Only me and a few other megamusicnerds ever used it and I was usually in there completely alone. I used to hide out in there to wearing headphones in the dark to avoid the wrestling unit in gym and anything else I thought was uncivilized and humiliating. One of my favorites discoveries from these secret escapes was Brecker Bothers self-titled 1975 album. What was this? Jazz? funk? I’d never heard anything like but I felt it was crazy cool music. I clearly needed to get to know these Brecker brothers. I was trying to figure out not only how jazz ‘worked’ as a language and, like any teenager. I was also trying to figure out what kinds of music I was into. I trusted my newfound Jazz idols to help steer me through the miasma. If a jazz musician that I liked was credited as a session player on a record, [ANY record] that was generally a good reason to buy it used and check it out. Michael Brecker was one my favorites for this game of musical treasure hunting. I would spend a lot of time at used record stores looking for stuff that he played on. It didn’t matter what the artist was – I was looking at the sideman credits. I found some great pop music this way – following the Brecker trail. Franz Zappa, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, the list is endless. I also discovered Steps. Steps served as proof to me that it was possible to create something like fusion that has some balls and didn’t sound like hotel lobby background music. I wore those records out. My adult relationship with Michael Brecker has been more focused on his own recordings. The quality of these records is almost universally phenomenal. If you have not any Michael Brecker albums, you really should pick one up. Start with this one and proceed. There is one final album coming out in a few months that Michael managed to record last summer even though he was pretty sick. Based on the little snippet I was fortunate enough to hear it is a thrilling and moving final performance and I am looking forward to hearing the rest.
I have had this CD lying around for a while and finally listened to it. What a refreshing blast. This Brooklyn band is really doing oldschool soul/funk right. The band is as relaxed-tight and Tower of Power. There is neither ensemble overplaying nor any gratuitous displays of individual instrumental virtuosity. Sharon Jones is a powerfully musical soul singer who has not bought into the post-Maria Carey vocal ‘stylings’ that has made a whole generation of female R&B singers sound like they got signed out of the same wedding band. This CD is recorded warm and analog dirty – just like the old records. I am going to check out more of the stuff on the Daptone label because this is the real deal.
Two of Portishead guest DJd on All Songs Considered a few weeks back. They brought in a varied combination of music that was important to them as a band and were mocked playfully for including Noel Harrison's cover of Michel LeGrand's 'Windmills of Your Mind' in the list. They defended this track by describing it as a sonic experience that displays orchestration techniques and studio production that is no longer available to us today and is 'perfectly of it's time'. This has stuck in my mind because I feel that we often lack language to describe all of the hidden forces of what makes music 'great' to us and they kind of hit on something there. It is a bit of a paradox: in order for a song to become timeless it needs to be of it's time. It is this perception that enables us to connect with the some old songs - ignoring the shifted tides in production, language and themes while we attack other songs for these same failings. If a song is not speaking of it's own time with honesty and energy it will never speak to another time. OK now I'm confused and I must stop.
'Third' is worth listening to as well.
Back when I was but a wee lad growing up in Rochester New York I used to play piano in a society orchestra called The Len Hawley Band. It was made up of a mix of local jazz musicians, down-on-their luck lounge buskers and top talent from Eastman School of Music. The band's mission was to keep an audience dancing no matter what. We played an eclectic and often crazy mixture of styles from a vast heap of fake books that Len carted around. We did not take a lot of breaks and often did not get fed. These were not easy club date gigs for the faint of heart and the Eastman kids often had a hard time getting through them. Some would show up for their first gig, go outside for a cigarette after the first set and never return. One exception was a drummer named Tom Nazziola. He rocked those gigs. He could play anything on drums and also played a mean piano and was a very capable rock singer. He really knew how to spin gold from straw. Tom has ended up becoming a serious composer. He heads up 
Well it is that time of year again. Winter blahs. Even with the pathetic warm winters that NYC has been serving up lately, February finds me lusting for sun and hammock. There are things about this album that works to cure these ills for an hour. First of all I love the cover. It was taken by Pete Turner, a fellow RIT alum who recently put out a 
