JSngry

Como was in the house when I was a kid (and I mean, like as far back as I can remember, ages 3&4). Him, Frankie Carle, and glenn Miller got played a LOT, especially when I got laid down for a nap (which I seldom actually took). Most of that stuff didn't survive the trip to pre-adolescence, much less adulthood, but Como did. Como's Golden Records & Como Swings have had a place in my collection since I left home, and they still get played. But only recently have I began a deeper dive to see what else was there. Turns out there's a LOT, not all of it to my liking, but yes, the guy was a damn good singer. Sinatra and others brought the drama and shit, but what really strikes me about Como now is his total lack of malevolence. And that's a rare quality, then and now (perhaps especially now). Still, I was totally unprepared to find these three records, all of which appear to have been hits. 1955-56, on Elvis' label. One would expect that there would be some mockery, some condescension, even some outright hostility. But no! They got people in the band who seem to had, at the least, some real Swing band experience (or more than some), so, you know, let the people swing, right? No reason not to! They're having fun (and why not?!?!), and again - a total lack of malevolence. So yeah, I dig Perry Como. Still!

Not a straight face to be found, but not any rolled eyes either. Moral of the story - Have people who can swing play on your records, have a vocal group who knows how to not NOT swing, then get out of the way, sing the damn song, have fun with it, and let it take care of itself.

Maybe it's planted propaganda. Because from time to time some people would carp about Sonny Greer, but nobody ever carped about the bass players, going back to Wellman Braud...

I'm not at all averse to doing a "total immersion" thing on any music that I want to let into my personal interior ambiance. This would be a conscious choice...usually. Sometimes the hooks (not in the pop sense) get set and I get reeled in.

I've got two box sets (Sony & DG) of The Rite Of Spring that will witness to the contrary! And when we talk about "regular ambiance", I take that to mean what is going on in my head, because otherwise there is no such thing as "ambiance". That is a perceived (ie - internally created) process and concept, not an absolute one.

They don't make it mellow.

I kinda want to posit that a great drummer can't really carry a lesser bassist, but a great bassist can carry a lesser drummer. Duke never really had to worry about either.

Burper Sexton - Livin' Off the Trotline

I think it's only fully experienced for as long as you really, openly listen to it. Otherwise it's just one more environmental stimulus, no different than any other noise, really. 4:33 was making a point about that. To just pay attention and not assume. To assume about what you "hear" is to tell yourself a lie And you can listen to it long after it is done "playing"...things don't get "stuck in your head" nearly as much as you keep listening to them. Thus, the hook, and all that comes (and doesn't come) with it. Simplify or condense?

And you know, once you get outside of certain geographical boundaries, even Cage & Feldman still seem "left field". From my experience in jazz, it seems to me that the way to go is to stop angsting out about ever being "mainstream. Just accept and embrace that you're underground, and then focus of growing your underground as best as able. If you can keep doing that, sooner or later you stand a good chance at reaching a critical mass, which translates into a buzz, and so forth and so on. It helps if you have a good advocate, but one person making noise is not enough. It's the sound of one hand clapping. Of course, this may well not happen until after you die, but if you're not ready to deal with that...take up painting or something, eh?

Fear is a powerful tool.

Love their video. Shame it got pulled from rotation.

Amply funded for now... I've yet to go to an opera, and we have a world-class theatre here. I'm not really "a fan" of opera as a whole, but kinda feel like I owe it to myself to have the experience at least once. Those tickets are HIGH, though....

Fine music, yes, very fine. I got those on CD a few years ago, and with no small effort. Had to find a Germen website that didn't seem to do a lot of English, and had to send CC info via email! But all went well, product delivered, no ID hacking, and they seemed to be happy to do it. Good people!

He certainly did more than just be doc Seversen's long-sideburned medallion wearing TV drummer, that's for sure.

The DSO has (and has had) a policy of both comissioning new works and playing "modern" music on their programs. It's not exemplary, but if you go, you will here it. They've upped the ante under Fabio Luisi, who has made a commitment not just to the programming and the commisioning, but also to spotlighting women composers and composers of color, both from the past and the present. You still have to slog through a buttload of the "traditional repertoire", which I was happy to heat once. But they keep recycling it every few seasons, for obvious reasons. It puts butts in the seats. Old, rich, white butts. Not that there's anything wrong with that. What you can do - and we have done - is to vote with your pocketbook. We're transitioning into two fixed incomes come next year, so our subscribing for an entire season is over. but we still like going, the band is REALLY good these days, and has been for a while. So we subscribed, but just for a limited number of concerts. I made it a point to select the concerts that had new/unfamiliar works on the program, and told them that when setting the subscriptions up with the phone rep. And I told her to pass it on that this is why I was deciding what I was deciding. Now that COVID is hopefully semi-contained(???), I'd like to start engaging with a well-established local "New Music" chamber society called Voices Of Change. This looks like it could be fun: https://www.voicesofchange.org/events Ultimately, though, if you like it, support it in whatever way you can. If all you can do is pull coattails, pull coattails. And if you can make a gig or three, make them gigs. Sponsorship is always going to be beyond our means, but buying some tickets here and there will hopefully never be. Show them that if they play it, you will come.

This is a REALLY good record. And this was more than unexpected surprise: Who knew?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Ok, I just read the linked article...this guy sounds like he's somewhat isolated from the world of music at large and seems to be wondering why. His comments about film music being the "new classical" are interesting, though, even if the few recent movies I've seen have been scored with an overtly poppish mentality. Then again, I don't really engage in movies any more.

Yeah, the 20th Century (and definitely the 21st) was all about the broadening influence of "non-Eurocentic" awarenesses. Even/Especially in "Europe" But Elliot Carter...man, that guy is not at all "Eurocentric", imo. He's just brilliant, period. And the energy of his music feels "American" enough to me.

When dealing with popular tastes...a same impulse, perhaps - I know a LOT of people who love "sad" movies but can't stand "sad" music. My hunch is that the physics of music is the physics that most penetrates the human psyche, so people are at their most guarded/defensive when it comes to sound. The other senses (with the possible exception of taste) allow for a bit of processing once received. But sound goes straight to the brain, the deepest levels of it perhaps. Sound waves/vibrations. Or maybe its just that music as a whole has become a medium of mass propaganda. "The industry" has no interest in independent thought, much less complex thought. Or maybe it's just that people like to look but not to be touched. I don't know. Maybe their lifes are complex enough as it is and they don't want it to get even more complex if they can avoid it.

Dean Faddell - Murky In the Morning

Earline Scalp - I Won't Pray For You This Time

What Marshall Royal (and then Bobby Plater) was to the top, Charlie Fowlkes was to the bottom. And not just withe the section, sometimes the whole damn band. The best writers for the band knew this, and the not-best learned it. Attention should be paid, so please do!

A prime example of "producer porn" Chastise me in the water of the holies. I like it. A lot. Even without he interlude/intro.