DIGITAL TO ANALOG CONVERSION

Day 76. Saint-Saëns and the Beastie Boys.

Posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 10:22 pm in Classical, Rock / Pop by josh

There were two albums that I bought as a kid that made my parents concerned. The first was ‘License to Ill’ by the Beastie Boys (followed by ‘Appetite for Destruction’ about a year later). I find it ironic that , 25 years after the first Beastie Boys album came out (and lewdness laws were created due to behavior at their concerts), that I think it would be hard to find a group of more artistic and politically involved individuals. They’ve created some ground-breaking work, and in many ways came of age along with MTV (certainly using the music video as an artistic vehicle with as much importance as the songs themselves). I remember listening to that record with my friend George as a kid (and George also introducing me to what was probably influencing the Beasite Boys as well… thanks George! I still remember hearing NWA on a tape deck outside your house!).

They were also part of one of my favorite music SNL memories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tondtut3dOc

I remember seeing this with my friend Colin, and both of our jaws just dropping. What a rad moment (no matter how staged it may have been).

But the only Beastie Boys I have on CD is ‘The Sounds Of Science’, the two disc compilation they put out in 1999. It’s a good set, and my Beastie Boys vinyl is still in fine condition in case I was to hear all of ‘Paul’s Boutique’. But it is some of the extras on this disc that are just great. Their version of ‘Benny And The Jets’ with Biz Markie is one of the most brilliant and funny covers I’ve ever heard (violating the law that ‘a cover shouldn’t imitate the style of the original’ – but doing it in a brilliant fashion, even including the sound of a crowd cheering in the background).

The other discs ripped tonight were the complete Saint-Saëns symphonies with Jean Martinon. The third (‘The Organ’) has some great moments and deserves to be his best knows symphonic work, but my favorite is his second in A minor. The orchestral forces are small compared to the large romantic orchestral forces of the 3rd Symphony and the piano concertos, but along with that comes a nostalgia for the music written for smaller orchestras. Parts of the piece sound more like something Mozart would have done, and points even have some contrapuntal writing that is surprisingly clear and simple. But there are some striking dissonances in the piece and some very effective drama, all while clocking in at around 22 minutes. For a romantic symphony, it is almost a miniature, but taken out of its historical context I think it has some real strengths over his other symphonic works. The opening arpeggios let you know right away that this is a classical work, and the main theme (treated fugally) is lots of fun. But after Beethoven (and Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schuman and Brahms) the 7 minute LONG movement feels brief and succinct. Not that I have anything against long and developed… just that for some reason the proportions and material of this symphony have always captured my attention in a strange way. And playing it now (after not hearing it for MANY years) I’m glad to see that my impression of it is still intact.

Tags: Beastie Boys, Saint-Saëns
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Day 75. Dowland.

Posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 7:33 pm in Celia, Classical, Mira, Tamiko by josh

I learned from my friend Don (who studied guitar as an undergraduate) that Downland’s lute works are quite popular with college guitar students since the English lute was a much more standardized instrument then the continental companion. Six strings, tuned like the modern guitar with one exception (the G string was on F-sharp). When I learned this I remember thinking ‘Ooooh! I bet I could play those!’ before realizing that it is this exact thought that all those undergraduates think too. Having long ago put the guitar down (except for the occasional jazz strumming and playing) I thought this might be a good way to get back into some playing. I thought this a year ago… and I DO still think I will get to it. But it is a bit saddening how hard it can be to just get going again sometimes. Time is short, and while I have the best intentions, when it comes down to it I just might not be a guitarist anymore. I’d rather spend the time with the kids, or relaxing with Tamiko, etc. I’m sure I’ll get back into it eventually, and when I do a decent classical guitar and Dowland will surely be a good place to start.

Today I imported the Complete Downland set on L’oiseau-Lyre. This is a 12 disc set with more ‘Lachrimae’ and Lute music then you can shake a stick at. Every known version of the ‘Lachrimae’ is on here, and there is something about it that reminds me of Chubby Checker doing multiple versions of ‘The Twist’ (then ‘Let’s Twist Again’ then ‘The Twist (1986)’ etc. etc. etc.). Downland may have beaten Pachelbel to the title of ‘First One Hit Wonder’ by a century or so in my book. And, like most one hit wonders, there is so much more when you dive in beyond that first piece. Pachelbel’s body of works are pretty great, and Dowland certainly does not disappoint either. I mentioned some time ago that the girls have pretty much fallen asleep to Arvo Pärt’s ‘Fur Alina’ since they were newborns, but with Mira I also would mix in Dowland’s Lute Music during her night time bottle (along with some late Beethoven quartets and Bach’s ‘Art of the Fugue’). She really liked Dowland though, and his body of lute music is fairly large (across 5 of these discs!) so I had a good amount of repertoire to become familiar with while also becoming familiar with the new baby girl. After some time, Celia also took to Dowland and asked to have a Dowland disc burned for her to play at night, and while I still get my nightly ‘Fur Alina’ from Mira’s sound monitor, ‘Can She Excuse’ and the ‘Queen’s Galliard’ stream out of Celia’s.I learned from my friend Don (who studied guitar as an undergraduate) that Downland’s lute works are quite popular with college guitar students since the English lute was a much more standardized instrument then the continental companion. Six strings, tuned like the modern guitar with one exception (the G string was on F-sharp). When I learned this I remember thinking ‘Ooooh! I bet I could play those!’ before realizing that it is this exact thought that all those undergraduates think too. Having long ago put the guitar down (except for the occasional jazz strumming and playing) I thought this might be a good way to get back into some playing. I thought this a year ago… and I DO still think I will get to it. But it is a bit saddening how hard it can be to just get going again sometimes. Time is short, and while I have the best intentions, when it comes down to it I just might not be a guitarist anymore. I’d rather spend the time with the kids, or relaxing with Tamiko, etc. I’m sure I’ll get back into it eventually, and when I do a decent classical guitar and Dowland will surely be a good place to start.

Tags: John Dowland
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Day 74. Pink Floyd.

Posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 10:24 pm in DAC Project, Rock / Pop, Tamiko by josh

So – quite a week. Hopefully can get BACK into the DAC routine, and also starting a new exercise one. Spring is here, and the dark months are behind us for now (in terms of both actual sunlight and some of Tamiko’s professional drama that seems to finally be wrapping up).

There is also darkness ahead here in Tacoma though… Roger Waters will be bringing ‘The Wall’ here this fall, so I went and dug out a few Pink Floyd discs for tonight. And being a teenager from Roseville in the 90s, I certainly remember hearing LOTS of Pink Floyd. Whole album sides on 93 Rock, my friend Josh singing out ‘Mother do you think they’re going…. to break… my balls???’, laser shows at the Crest and I could keep going. But – I think my biggest Pink Floyd memory / association comes through Tamiko. And not because Tamiko was the biggest Pink Floyd fan… her boyfriend Matt (who she dated before me) was. Matt and I had our lockers next to each other. Both the same year at Roseville High, and met during band camp the week before school started. He started dating Tamiko a few weeks into our freshman year, and I started dating a good friend of his around the same time. Matt was HEAVILY into Pink Floyd. Matt and Tamiko broke up during a band trip at the end of our freshman year, my breakup a few weeks after that, and it was Tamiko and I that were there for each other. Though I haven’t talked to Matt for a long time, we actually remained friends through high school (as did he and Tamiko to an extent).

So – 20 years after all this, almost half of that working in a record store where some form of Pink Floyd would come up every few weeks, what do I think about when I hear Pink Floyd? I still think about Matt. The laser shows, ‘Meddle’ blasting in the back room of Tower and classic album sides are certainly there, but they have faded with time as well… but I still think about this 14 year old kid who’s locker was next to mine, and who’s girlfriend I started dating (and eventually married) a few weeks after they broke up.

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Day 73. Beethoven and Bach.

Posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 8:38 pm in Celia, Classical, Mira, Tamiko by josh

Though I just finished with the complete Bach box set, something that isn’t represented in that collection at all is the lute-harpsichord. Like it sounds, the instrument (pictured above) is basically a cross between the two instruments – a keyboard instrument with gut strings and the body of a HUGE lute. There is a good amount of research that suggests that Bach actually composed quite a bit on and for this instrument that basically disappeared by the late 1700s, and that his ‘Lute Suites’ were actually for this instrument (and not the more commonly found baroque lute). About a year ago I discovered a recording on eMusic of the lute suites performed on a replica lute-harpsichord and downloaded it, and was immediately struck by how different the instrument was from the harpsichord. It is a beautiful sound, more resonant then a lute (and able to sustain notes that would otherwise be deadened on a lute when a change of fret was needed) and less harsh then a harpsichord. The lute pieces on this recording (in Naxos with Elizabeth Farr) are beautiful. There are a handful of other recordings out there with the instrument (including a recording of the Goldberg Variations) that I hope to find someday soon.

This was also a recording I played quite a bit to help Mira sleep when she was still a newborn. She also liked Dowland quite a bit, as well as late Beethoven quartets. So as the little girl needed a little cuddle tonight (she’s is getting over a nasty croup cough) I put the late Beethoven quartets on (the A minor, op. 132) that I have on my computer (The Lindsays recording) and just held her for a bit. She’s so much bigger now… both her and Celia amaze me daily. And I’m glad that when they aren’t feeling well, that their daddy can still hold them for a bit with some Beethoven or Bach on in the background, and some imbedded memory helps remind them that everything is ok.

Last night Tamiko had a bit of hamster in her head as well… a video that Mira really like with Elmo and Ricky Gervais was running through her head, and the annoying parts of the song had Tamiko’s head spinning. I told her about how the late Beethoven quartets used to put Mira to sleep sometimes, ran downstairs to get my iPod and put them on… sure enough, Tamiko was out in about 5 minutes and I listened to the rest of the C-sharp minor quartet while holding her.

I’m so lucky.

Tags: Beethoven, J.S. Bach
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Day 72. John Lennon, George Harrison and The Beatles.

Posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 10:23 am in Rock / Pop by josh

Yesterday was the 40th Anniversary of Paul McCartney publicly acknowledging that The Beatles had, indeed, broken up. The exact point where that happened is probably just about anybody’s guess, but April 10th, 1970 was at least a moment where the pop world could start coming to terms with the official breakup. I wouldn’t ever be alice in a world with The Beatles playing together, and I remember the news of John Lennon being shot when I was 5. I also remember the REALLY sad ‘Free As A Bird’ that was released with the first Beatles Anthology album (the virtual Beatles reunion that reeked of Jeff Lynne production standards… ugh, that was horrible). And of course – last year’s remasters (stunning) and the Guitar Hero version of the Beatles. The virtual Beatles all playing ‘Back In The U.S.S.R.’ together especially made me chuckle. I remember joking to my friend Colin ‘so – to win do you have to break the band up by the time you are learning the licks for Abbey Road?’.

Tonight’s rips are mostly in honor of what mostly happened near the end and after The Beatles’ official career. Among the re-issues and re-masters of the past few years, the ‘cleaning-up’ (or rather the ‘de-Spectoring’) of ‘Let It Be’ has been a high point for me. ‘Let It Be… Naked’ is a beautiful disc. And while the Phil Spector production of the original is just that (and can be appreciated in all that Phil Spector crazy), hearing some of these songs in more of a ‘Get Back’ form is amazing. I even like ‘The Long And Winding Road’ now (a song that basically just bugged me before). One of my favorite George songs also stands out… ‘I Me Mine’ is a great song on both versions, but the ‘Naked’ version feels cleaner to me. Which leads to ‘All Things Must Pass’.

George Harrison’s first solo album out of the gates. After years of only being allowed 3 songs per Beatles album (a number written into their contracts) and with the Beatles often not taking his song writing very seriously (hence ‘Only A Northern Song’), George had lots of material stored up… and this 3 LP release showed it. George’s songs tended to be the most beautiful ones in my opinion, and this album shows that ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ are not songwriting luck. ‘My Sweet Lord’ is a stunning song, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was written around the same time as ‘Here Comes The Sun’. During my masters degree I took a class on music theory and rock music and we read a great article about ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and how the song brightens in timbre (like a sunrise) as the song goes on, and ‘My Sweet Lord’ seems to have a similar feeling to it. At the same time there seems to be an argument in the song, bringing Eastern philosophy and religion into closer contact with Western philosophy and religion (certainly something the Beatles did in the mid-60s, though this is something that seemed to stay much more visible with George throughout his life).

The Lennon compilations also seem to take the trajectory that he and Yoko were on by the end of The Beatles and extends it. The Phil Spector sound (if not his actual production) are all over the earlier tracks. John, always the 50s rocker (in comparison to Paul’s tin-pan alley influences, George’s blues / folk influences and Ringo’s, well, Ringo-ness) also comes through. There is plenty of homage in John Lennon’s work (his recording of ‘Stand By Me’ being one of the most perfect covers in rock history in my opinion), and there is an amazing amount personal expression that had already been a long part of his songwriting (‘Glass Onion’ and ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’ being two obvious examples of this). ‘Beautiful Boy’, ‘Watching The Wheels’, ‘Dear Yoko’, ‘Oh Yoko’ and ‘Cold Turkey’ all show his inner love and inner demons as well. Through his music, John may have been the most intimately known of the Beatles. His politics were very public. His relationships were very public. And his problems were very public. Perhaps this is part of the reason his shooting is something that sticks out in my mind. Not because at 5 years old I knew anything about this, but because when he was killed, such a sizable portion of the public felt like they were losing someone that they actually knew, that even a 5 year old kid could see that someone that his family seemed to know had just died.

I actually only have one Paul McCartney album (which I actually forgot had until just this moment – so I didn’t rip it yet) and don’t have any of Ringo’s. With Paul, his solo work (and even a good chunk of his Beatles stuff post ’67) just doesn’t interest me. This isn’t an absolute distaste… ‘Back In The U.S.S.R.’ is one of the best rockers around, but come the musical revolution I think it would be hard not to take the guy who wrote, performed and continued to perform ‘O-bla-di O-bla-da’ and not make him stand against the wall. And as for Ringo, inspire of the fact that Ringo has long been my favorite Beatle, I think he strikes me most as performer. If there was a Beatle that probably suffered most from the cessation of touring after ‘Revolver’, I think it was probably Ringo. His constant tours with his ‘All-Star Band’ are something that I still hope to catch sometime. But every time I’ve heard a Ringo Starr studio track, it seems like what would make them special is missing. ore then anyone else in the group, I get the sense that Ringo’s ego fed off surrounding himself by great musicians, and he just kept doing it all the way into the present.

Heading back to the early 60’s now, the last set of discs I ripped tonight were the Beatles BBC Sessions discs (and for me, this is it on the Beatles front – I never picked up the Anthologies, preferring to respect the idea that what was released was released for a reason, and digging up alternate and un-perfect versions of songs by a group that crafted the modern recording studio would just be un-fun). The BBC Sessions, on the other hand, are the Beatles in the early days, having what sounds like lots of fun. They are on one hand very much rising stars at this point, but at the same time they have already reached a level at stardom at this point that would give them repeated appearances on the BBC (complete with listeners sending in requests for songs). Some of the dialog between the show’s host and The Beatles is kept intact as well, and it is these bits of dialog that I find most entertaining. These cheeky Liverpool youth are having fun, and when they play you get the sense that they are having a good time playing to an audience that isn’t drowning out the music. While the first few albums are pretty close to playing live, actually hearing the Beatles play live is fun. They have a great energy, and they show that they are great performers live. The only other example of this that I can really think of are the films that were shot on the rooftop of Abbey Road for ‘Get Back’ (which became ‘Let It Be’). Again you see them playing as a group and get to hear what they are doing (since the screaming crowds didn’t know to show up) and you can see that these four guys had a very natural musical gift.

Like a few other artists that I have already written about, there isn’t a time in my life that I can remember without also knowing that I knew about The Beatles. My earliest form of ear training was dad asking if I could tell whether it was John or Paul singing a song. So it is an interesting bit of reflection to realize that, 40 years after the ‘official’ break-up, that at 35 I wasn’t alive at all for The Beatles. But that is part of the magic of recordings, isn’t it? Once they are down (in any form), they really do become a time-capsule of sorts. At this moment I’m listening to ‘Watching The Wheels’, listening to John talk about life after The Beatles and how he comes to terms with the change of fame. It feels so immediate on the one hand, but on the other I am listening to a ghost’s memory.

Tags: George Harrison, John Lennon, The Beatles
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Day 71. Bach box boxed.

Posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 1:58 pm in Classical, Mira by josh

17 days. 155 discs. over 45 GB of disk space. The complete works of J.S. Bach is done. The box set is now packed away. Let’s see what box set Mira requests next.

Tags: J.S. Bach
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Day 70. Rachmaninov.

Posted on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 10:30 pm in Classical by josh

Tonight’s sets saw a huge amount of Rachmaninov – two box sets featuring performances by Vladimir Ashkenazy (symphonies and symphonic pieces in one, concertos with solo and piano duo pieces on the other) along with a single disc of his two piano trios. The late romanticism of Rachmaninov now is a bit of soft-spot for me though it hasn’t always been. I think it is important to keep in mind that many of his most important works were composed while Webern is experimenting with glistening orchestral clarity and Stravinsky was was writing his most daring ballets. Rachmaninov’s music was something I was snobbish about when I first started to take composing seriously… I saw it as derivative and schmaltzy. My opinion changed while I was at Cal and got to play the ‘Symphonic Dances’. After the first rehearsal or two, I felt like my suspicions of Rachmaninov were mostly confirmed. But as we got closer to the concert, I became more and more fascinated by the piece. After moving to Seattle I started some work on a set of piano pieces. Though they owe more to Ravel then to anyone else, I spent quite a bit of time listening to more and more Rachmaninov as well. The disc of piano trios is probably my favorite disc out of the discs I ripped tonight. The voicings in some of the melodic writing as well as the harmonic presentation is spaced quite wide sometimes. Surely this had quite a bit to do with the composer’s large hands and his unique ability to spread chords out quite a bit. At times they sound almost bell-like (and a little like Arvo Pärt). Some of the writing for the violin and cello also resembles some of the wider spacing of Ravel’s trio. By the time I started graduate school, my opinion of him had changed completely, but as the years went on though I listened less and less to him. Should be fun to return to some of this over the next day or two.

Tags: Rachmaninov
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Day 69. Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Posted on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at 10:38 pm in Jazz by josh

‘Kind of Blue’ was the second jazz album I bought, and it is still one of my favorites. And both of the stints that John Coltrane had with Miles Davis produced some stunning work. The two contrasted each other in some very nice ways – the lyricism of Miles’ trumpet against the much more rapid and harmonic playing of Coltrane. The ‘Complete Columbia Recordings from 1955 to 1961’ captures this second time the two men played together (and also sees Cannonball Adderley, Red Garland, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelley and others during this time span). It leaves the cool jazz of the Prestige years behind and forges ahead with hard-bop, then into the modal experiments of ‘Kind of Blue’, wrapping up with a beautiful recording of ‘Someday My Prince WIll Come’. There are also a few live recordings on the box set, and the energy of Coltrane live (and his endurance) certainly drove Miles Davis creatively, though it also drove him mad. In a book of jazz anecdotes that I have, someone asked Coltrane (with Miles sitting next to him) how his solos get to be so long, and Coltrane stets to the point of saying that he just doesn’t know how to stop them. Miles leans forewarned and sees ‘you take the fucking horn out of your mouth!’. Strangely enough, after hearing this quote I began to hear that this is exactly what Miles Davis would do at times.

I can’t possibly write about how brilliant these recordings are. And there is something very special about the relationship you hear between Davis and Coltrane, undeniably two of the greatest jazz artists of the 20th century. The partnership basically ends with Miles Davis kicking Coltrane out of the band a second time, reportedly for drug use. Some stories I’ve heard had Miles doing this in hopes of getting Coltrane to kick his habits. And others talk about the deep regret Miles Davis had after Coltrane’s departure. While I can’t find the actual quote, one that was told to me by a friend sticks in my mind. While hearing Roland Kirk play 4 horns at the same time and make beautiful contrapuntal melodies, someone supposedly leans over to Miles and says ‘man – could you imagine having someone that can play like that?’ and Miles replies ‘I did once… I did’.

Tags: John Coltrane, Miles Davis
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Day 68. James Brown.

Posted on Monday, April 5th, 2010 at 9:44 pm in Mira, Rock / Pop by josh

So, Mira’s gravity towards box-sets continues tonight with ‘Star Time’ by James Brown and the complete Columbia Miles Davis / John Coltrane box-set. As Mira pointed out, both are red. I’m saving the Miles Davis for tomorrow (I’m still working on the Bach box as well)… so tonight is about James Brown.

‘The Hardest Working Man In Show Business’ certainly could put on a show. At least that’s what I heard. I had three chances to see James Brown, and blew it each time. My dad saw him in the 70s, and told me about how he would be calling out directions to the group (catching their mistakes!) and dancing the entire time, only to finally crumple to the stage in exhaustion. Of course – this had long been part of the act. Someone comes off from the side, with a purple cape and drapes over the Godfather of Soul, who slowly begins to rise up and sing the word ‘Please’ over and over again before kicking off the end of the show. I would have loved to have seen that.

And while I ‘I Got You’ and ‘Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine’ certainly deserve to pop recognition that these two songs have earned, it is ‘It’s A Man’s World’ and ‘King Heroin’ that I think are really two of the most important songs in his career… for very different reasons. ‘It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ with its soulful singing and string orchestration quite possibly is the foundation for an entire generation of R&B and Soul. Would there have been a Barry White without this song? Isaac Hayes? I imagine there would have been, but this song places a high bar for the artists who follow to reach for. And what is amazing is that they do… Where in most jazz traditions there is competition between choruses, competition (and pushing others to higher heights) often comes between singles. And I would be surprised if James Brown wasn’t conscious of this himself. The fact that ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ is his second version of this song (the original was ‘It’s a Man’s World’… big difference) even shows that James Brown pushed himself. The original would have been a great soul song on its own. But the addition of the larger orchestra and more fleshed out string parts makes the second version stand out. And James Brown often came back to his songs to try a different feeling with them. He recorded this one again on ‘Soul On Top’ (in a pretty amazing big band version), and there are multiple versions of ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag’ and even ‘I Got You’. It’s great that this box set contains a few of these multiple versions so you can hear how his thinking changes as the times change (even if the times are only over a year or two!).

‘King Heroin’ is a different beast all together. It is dark. Really dark. And you get a sense that many of the horrors described in it are from personal experience. Over an bluesy groove James Brown personifies the evils of the drug, and what it can drive a man to do… he isn’t singing, he isn’t quite rapping, but he seems to be preaching. And while I’ve steered fairly clear of drugs and addiction (apparently Nancy Reagan’s appearance on a very special episode of ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ did the trick for me), I have a feeling that hearing the four minutes of James Brown telling me what the drug can drive me to do until it leaves me dead would have worked pretty effectively. It is of course sad that James Brown’s last couple decades had him falling in and out of addiction, but I imagine I’m not the only one that is haunted by this song and the lessons it conveys.

My favorite song by James Brown of all time though is ‘Get It Together’. During the course of the song’s nine minutes, you get James Brown singing as strong as you’ll ever here him sing, the launch into director mode… he challenges the horns to keep up with his directions, pulls them out and brings them in one at a time to build up a groove, the finally you just hear him tell the engineer to go ahead and ‘fade it on out’ cause he’s ‘outta here’. The song gives the appearance of James Brown getting a group together to play the song, then spends two-thirds of it deconstructing not just the group and his dynamics with them, but even reveals the unmentionable: that there are other in the studio creating the song that we are hearing, and that even THESE people are under the control of James Brown. Of course, this is really the magical part of James Brown – here was a guy that was obviously a control freak. And he works it into his entire act. Yet the result almost always has a feeling of spontaneity and excitement. What his players had to practice wasn’t the exact musical parts over and over again – I imagine the hardest part about playing with James Brown had to do with the fact that you would’ve had to pay attention to him every moment. The sense that his players were ready for anything, and James could ask for anything, gave his music a level of excitement that is rarely seen live anymore, and is even rarer for the current state of the recording industry.

Tags: James Brown.
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Day 67. Jimmy Smith.

Posted on Sunday, April 4th, 2010 at 9:23 pm in Jazz by josh

I have a live Jimmy Smith disc on right now (‘Cool Blues’) and DAMN it is smoking. Art Blakey is on a few tracks, Tina Brooks and Eddie McFaden on others. And while I fell in love with Jimmy Smith the first time I heard him, hearing this kind of playing really reminds me why. This disc is from 1958, and it is just astounding how tight these guys are playing together. This is two years after he signs with Blue Note (and basically is introduced to the jazz world) and here he is playing with Art Blakey like they are old pals.

For those who don’t know Jimmy Smith’s music, his story is almost mystical. He starts off as a piano player until he hears Wild Bill Davis playing organ in the mid-50s or so. He goes out and buys an organ, rents a warehouse and basically locks himself inside for a year or so, then emerges onto the Philadelphia jazz scene. He is discovered almost immediately by Blue Note, and records over 40 sessions over the next 8 years (with the disc I am currently listening to among them). Many are live, and quite a few are in Rudy Van Gelder’s studio. But there is a consistency in the performances that reveals how hard he works.

The other thing that often surprises first time listeners of Jimmy Smith’s music is that, for the most part, there isn’t a bass player on any of the discs. He plays the bass lines mostly with the pedals of the organ or with the left hand of the keyboard. There is an amazing level of complexity in just HIS playing, that when the others come together with him it can hurt to think about everything that is being held together by just a few human beings. It’s better to just go with the groove, and the groove is what is the strongest element of Jimmy Smith’s music. It has probably one of the strongest shuffles for players from his generation, and it goes well with the toe tapping he has happening to play the pedals.

Tonight I ripped ‘Cool Blues’, ‘Open House’, ‘Prayer Meeting’ with Stanley Turrentine, ‘Home Cookin” and the companion discs ‘House Party’ and ‘The Sermon’ (which both basically come from the same sessions). I think ‘The Sermon’ is probably one of the top 10 jazz albums ever made, and the title track is a 20 minute tour de force that feels more like a jam session at points. Each player takes a pretty long solo, and seems to be outdoing whoever came before them. Most of the other tracks from these sessions are standards or Charlie Parker tunes which seem to be the warm-up parts. All the tracks on these two albums were recorded over two days, and I get the sense that there weren’t many takes of any of these… we’re just hearing what happened while the tape was rolling, and it’s good. These sessions also see Art Blakey and Tina Brooks playing, as well as Lee Morgan and Curtis Fuller. All of these guys were Blue Note staples, and as I think I have mentioned elsewhere, certainly any of them could have been the headliner for their own albums or shows. It’s a shame that musicians (and the labels they are associated with) tend to keep much more to themselves now. Stax Records for instance got along for a couple of decade with a house band that brought in different lead singers for their albums, and Blue Note had a whole building full of jazz musicians that they could pull together to play on each others albums. Just doesn’t seem to work that way anymore.

Tags: Jimmy Smith, Rudy Van Gelder
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Day 76. Saint-Saëns and the Beastie Boys.

Day 75. Dowland.

Day 74. Pink Floyd.

Day 73. Beethoven and Bach.

Day 72. John Lennon, George Harrison and The Beatles.

Day 71. Bach box boxed.

Day 70. Rachmaninov.

Day 69. Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Day 68. James Brown.

Day 67. Jimmy Smith.

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