16 posts tagged “music”

It's funny how music can jog your memory.  I was just talking with a friend of mine whom I haven't seen in a while.  She told me she was on a bus Saturday night, and her iPod played a song I had recommended her, after which she couldn't stop thinking of me.  It was very flattering, but it got me thinking about how certain songs bring me back to specific periods of my life, especially if a certain girl figured prominently into what was going on with me at that time.

I first noticed it in sixth grade, when I had a big crush on a girl, and Magnificent Bastards' "Mockingbird Girl" made me think of her every time it came on the radio (I was listening to WAAF a lot at the time).  I've since gone back and listened to that song, and it kind of sucks.  In college, when I started to get involved in my first serious relationship, which coincided with my introduction to My Bloody Valentine, I listened to Isn't Anything and Loveless as much as possible so I would have a frame of reference for the memories.

This is just my interpretation, but it seems to me that Chassidus explains why music is so universally moving.  Chassidus teaches that when one reads a book, for example, a bond develops between the reader and the author, perhaps as small as a favorable opinion.  A favorable opinion may progress to curiosity, mild interest, fanship, and so on.  Regarding music, however, the Alter Rebbe famously said, "If words are the pen of the heart, then song is the pen of the soul."  While words may be understood according to one's own ability, music connects on a level higher than understanding, cutting through directly to the soul.  Perhaps this is why my Grandma always calls nigunim Jewish Soul Music.

Bobby Darin sounds positively square next to Ben E. King.  The first thing I noticed is that in the chorus, Darin resolves to the root of the tonic chord.  King drops down to the third, which sounds a little hipper.  King phrases behind the beat and takes some liberties with the melody, adding drama and strengthening the narrative voice.  Darin sounds relaxed, but rather unimaginative, although it's probably just as well he doesn't plead like King.

Anyone else ever notice Lynyrd Skynyrd is kinda shaky about keeping time?  I can only cite "Free Bird" and "Tuesday's Gone" as examples, since those are the only two Skynyrd songs I really listen to, but in both tunes the band seems to exhibit the same tendency to rush a little bit.

John Scofield has a new record coming out on Emarcy, and it looks fantastic.

The album finds Scofield once again in the company of what he calls his "A-Team" - bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart. [. . .]
Joining the trio is a four-part horn section featuring Roger Rosenberg on baritone sax and bass clarinet, Jim Pugh on trombone, Lawrence Feldman on tenor sax and flutes and John Swana on trumpet and flugelhorn.
(source)

Scofield's reputation as a hip alternative to the piano has been well documented since the 1970s, in ensembles ranging from saxophone/guitar/bass/drums to trumpet/guitar/bass/drums to trumpet/saxophone/guitar/bass/drums.  As far as I know, this is his first outing in a medium sized, guitar-only group.

If this sounds at all interesting to you, bassist/composer Alexis Cuadrado cut a record, Visual,  with a sextet of similar instrumentation (alto sax/ten sax/tromb/gtr/bass/drums) that I highly recommend.  If you're feeling adventurous, Nels Cline has a sextet record of Andrew Hill compositions, called New Monastery; the sextet includes cornet, clarinet, and accordion.

I think I'm developing a taste for Lynyrd Skynyrd. I was watching My Name Is Earl the other day, and there's a scenewhere Jason Lee sings "Free Bird" to Norm Macdonald (brilliantly cast as the son of Burt Reynolds). I had barely noticed that for all the flak it gets, "Free Bird" is pretty nice tune, when it dawned on me that I was hearing the tune for the first time. I've been aware of the song's "Stairway to Heaven"-like reputation since I was 13, when my friend Jeff and I found "FREE BIRD" carved into a desk in our English classroom.

It's implausible enough that I'm 24 and I had never heard "Free Bird" until a week ago, but it's compounded by the irony of all those scholarly musical pretensions I've been passing off as expertise. This is even sillier than that time I found out Buster Poindexter is really David Johansen.

I just happened upon a gallery of photos from a Rilo Kiley/Nada Surf concert I went to with Barak, Julie, and Marissa.  Nada Surf didn't impress me, but Rilo Kiley really knocked me out.  The band was tight; Blake, in particular, exhibited some solid, versatile technical facility as a guitarist.  Perhaps even more impressive was seeing him play his ass off without showboating.  He and Jenny also charmed the hell out of the audience.  They're very charismatic and have a ton of presence.

In related news, I spoke to Julie the other day, and she's recently engaged to her boyfriend.  Congratulations, Julie.

I think Mendy's wedding is this week.  When I ran into him at 770 a few weekends ago, I think he told me it's on the 28th.  I'd have written it down, but it was Shabbos day.  As I recall, that was the Shabbos when someone threw a whole bunch of trash in the cholent.

What are your top 10 most-played songs currently?

1. "So It Seems" by Chris Cheek
2. "Ice Fall" by Chris Cheek
3. "The Wing Key" by Chris Cheek
   
   

   Vine
   
   
4. "A Forced Escape Canoe" by Ben Davis
   
   

   Ben Davis - Aided & Abetted - 11 - A Forced Escape Canoe
   
   
5. "Vine" by Chris Cheek
6. "Naked as We Came" by Iron & Wine
   
   

   Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days Demos - 02 - Naked As We Came
   
   
7. "Those Bold City Girls" by the Shins
   
   

   The Shins - KXCI Tucson - Those Bold City Girls
   
   
8. "Box of Rain" by the Grateful Dead
9. "Every Bitter Drop" by the Posies
   
   

   Everybitterdrop
   
   
10. "Roll Truck Roll" by Laura Cantrell
    
    
    

    Laura Cantrell - The Hello Recordings - 02 - Roll Truck Roll