Two albums of Laura Veirs'

These rainy days made me upload these two albums on my iPod again. Again, because there was a singer-songwriter period in my life, around February-March this year, when I listened to a lot of albums from this genre. It seems to be very nostalgic now.

Saltbreakers and Carbon glacier, both from Laura Veirs, who's a singer-songwriter from the USA. This style seems to be very simple but in fact it can be complex. There's a song (a queue of melodies) and you have to perform/arrange it somehow - but how? There are a million ways of it. This is the main reason for the fact that this kind of music isn't boring. I think on a good singer-songwriter album the songs are usually silent, I mean there is enough place left for each instrument to hear its details and good sound quality. And because of this simple elegance, there's an emphasis on the vocals. The singer can experiment with his/her voice and can show the most little details of it.

First I get interested in Laura Veirs' music when I read the following on Last.fm: she gets inspiration from her childhood memories, especially from the summer campings, etc. And yes, you can feel it while listening to it. The songs on these two albums are similar, but Saltbreakers is more pop-sounding than Carbon glacier. Carbon glacier wants to "be alone" a little bit. But it's not sad. It's a kind of melancholy, a beautiful melancholy which isn't connected with depressive feelings - just contemplation, questions about life and about what we're doing here, and I could continue this list for good. Saltbreakers has a little bit of indie feeling, too. The absolute hits on this album are Don't lose yourself and Wandering kind. On Carbon galcier I think the most beautiful song is Shadow blues. It starts in an uncertain mood and also stays until the end, and as the song plays it gets into a solemn, beautiful deepness.

Now I think these two albums are cool music for every kind of weather and season. I think Laura Veirs is talented and can take the advantages of this genre very well.

Visit her on Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Laura+Veirs

Shadow blues:

Leroi Jones

One of my reading matters for summer is going to be Blues people: Negro music in white America by Leroi Jones (his original name is Amiri Baraka). He's an afro-american writer and music criticist, his main field of interest were jazz and blues. He even stands against (besides of many things) the white jazz. This book is focused on the same topic mentioned below, the birth of blues and its circumstances, and not only the blues but also the less known styles from that era.

If you want to know more about him, visit wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroi_Jones

or his homepage:

www.amiribaraka.com

And an interesting thing: in the first post of my blog (Alabama) the words from the cover was a quotation by Leroi Jones.

It don't look like the Sun will ever shine (Lightnin' Hopkins - Country blues)

This post is pretty actual for this weather in Hungary. During my walk in the afternoon the rain made me think "It must be God who's spraying it."... it wasn't really rain, it was a fog-curtain full of water, moving as it would live, sometimes horizontally, and after that starting meandering strangely again... so with an umbrella you didn't get too much drier.

But it didn't steal my mood. I was listening to a blues album, the Country blues by Lightnin' Hopkins. Perfect choice for this weather, the title of this post is also a quotation from a lyrics of a track in which he asks: "What am I gonna do on these rainy days?" No drums, just guitars, and an elder, hoarse voice. A report from a time when world wasn't as running as nowadays.

And if we are at this topic, the blues, let's talk about it for a few moments. I think it's important to know its history, the circumstances of its birth to understand its meaning. Musically, the songs can be very similar, but only for the first time. I first get really interested when I read this a few years ago: the main topics are always these: the questions of freedom, "I wanna go home" - homesickness, "Our life is hard", "My love left me..." Straightly human and simple feelings, the same which I wrote about the old swing-standards: because of the simplicity, it's purely honest. Comes from the heart. From a blue heart, to use this meaning of the word. And one of the best things about it is that blues is very old and has a long history. Starting with the slaves from Africa, through work-songs and many other genres, spirituals, ballads, etc. - these all played a role in the evolution of blues (and seem to be very similar but there are important differences in the topics and time, it's woth to check it up).

Their circumstances were very bad, so the birth of blues was almost statutory.

Some days ago, I read a comment on YouTube, that blues can express human emotions the best way in music. There's something in it, and sometimes I feel it, too. And the summer is often connected with blues in my mind, especially on those days when the weather is hot and dry for a long time - that's the perfect time for listening to it. Even all the day in the background... the blues...

The picture above is from the same book I mentioned in "The cat" post, titled as "City folklore".

To know more about Lightnin' Hopkins, visit wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Hopkins

Rainy day blues:

I'm nervous

Now it's just a short thing: I found this funny video yesterday. It's the early Willie Dixon, a video which is half music, half acting. That's cool if someone is a professional in something, he can make joke of it, it won't make the quality worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQrQLvBQax0

The next few posts are going to focus on blues.

Jimmy Smith - The cat

I haven't known what should I write for the next post until this afternoon, when a sad thing happened to me. While I was walking, I saw a dead cat. I didn't know that it's dead, I just got closer to it (thinking that it's just lying on the pavement), but as I stepped beside it, I recognized the reality. This gave me the idea for this post: The cat.

Jimmy Smith has a professional talent to play loud, fast big-band things or slow and quiet ballads. Now it's the loud side of Jimmy Smith, whose nickname is often "Incredible" (as you can see it on the cover).

The cat is an 1964 record (originally Polygram but later Verve), and has two theme-songs (as often on Quincy Jones albums). The music is loose, it will make you forget your problems, because the melodies have carefree atmosphere. Because of the time when it was recorded, it's quite short but a great delight for a sunny summer day. And if we are at organ, a strange instrument which got into the jazz a long time ago - let's talk about it. There are some instruments in jazz which are rare. One of these is organ, whose one of the biggest masters was Jimmy Smith. I read an interesting thing in the book: Janos Gonda - Jazzworld (he's a Hungarian jazz musician and also a writer of several articles about this art). So he writes the following: as the organ got into the jazz, many pianists started playing it. But they were just playing piano - on an organ, there wasn't any difference in the way of playing. Except for Jimmy, who created a new own language for the organ, a new way to play it, making it an instrument which is slightly different to the piano.

See his page on the Verve website:

http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/artist/default.aspx?aid=2740

George Benson concert in Budapest

While I was taking a ride by my new bicycle with my friend yesterday, we decided to see George Benson: on the concert which is going to be held in the Budapest SportArena, on the 22th of July. It will be a great night.

Some of his live performances:

- Breezin':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QjTK0pL1go

- On Broadway:

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

- Affirmation:

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

- This masquerade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iHu8TvCV5I&feature=related

- Lately:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIUcrpgXATw&feature=related

- Give me the night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wear0apWHOI&feature=related

Hope he'll also play well-known songs besides his famous hits, for example Summertime (also mentioned in the "Summertime" post): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCaPno7QChY

or Take five: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn27IcAapPI

His official website: http://www.georgebenson.com/

Flora Purim - Stories to tell

When I first listened to this album, Flora Purim hasn't been unknown for me. First I met her on the album Chick Corea - Light as a feather (one of the greatest jazz albums, I suppose). Then I heard Flora Purim - Butterfly dreams. It was good, but I didn't become a fan - or I just wasn't in that mood... and now it's Stories to tell, which is a five star album.

To understand the qoutation from the back of the album: Airto Moreira is Flora's husband, and he is a drummer/percussionist.

"When Flora Purim and Airto Moreira moved to the United States from Brazil in the late 1960s, they brought something new to the samba-based music that North Americans had eagerly welcomed. Listeners discovered in Airto's percussion a harder edge to the bossa nova, and beneath the lovely surface of Purim's singing an urgency and a suggestion of modern urban pace that was absent from the languid sounds heard from the Gilbertos, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz, and Charlie Byrd, who had introduced bossa nova here early in the decade. In other words, Brazilian popular music was developing beyond "The girl from Ipanema", and Flora and Airto were on top of developments. This 1974 album is a beautiful progress report."

Yes, you can feel its roots, but it's a much newer kind of music. As my friend and I were sitting in the living room today, we used a word for it: exciting. Exciting because it's modern, and has the latin mood at the same time. The alternation of faster, cool rhythms, and the slower ballad-like compositions makes this album to an excellent choice when you feel a little bit of abstraction.

On the day when I last listened to this cd (approx two weaks ago), before lying down, I opened my window as a night-time routine in my room, and I was sitting on my bed in the darkness. No lights were on, because I didn't want to read, I was too tired. Outside there was wind, with a strange pulsating, sometimes it got harder and became slower again. I was just sitting on my bed, and watching as the wind was moving the curtain and felt its pleasant coldness on my legs. As I closed the window, I looked outside, and felt the smell of rain, coming from the distance, so it could rained somewhere near. It was so good and so calm, a pefect end for a day, which I cannot write with words, but there's a cool term for it created by myself: 5 minutes before lying down.

Casa forte:

Chet Baker - Chet

Welcome to lonely nights. To long, slowly passing minutes...

Chet Baker is at his best on this album. Now he doesn't sing but takes the trumpet to a higher level, as he "falls" into the deepness of the ballads.

As you can read it on the back of the cd, its subhead is The lyrical trumpet of Chet Baker. He dosen't just perform the songs, it comes from his heart, it's purely honest. There's a clever writing about it in the inside cover:

"The trumpet of Chet Baker is, above all, a lyrical instrument. Every musician, no matter how many different kinds of things he can do, has one area that is essentially home, where he functions most effectively and seems most comfortable. For one man this favored area of operation may be the blues, for another it may be dazzling up-tempo fireworks. For Chet, home is clearly the world of ballads - of good, sound standards that lend themselves to a leisurely tempo and to rich, melodic, and often moody interpretation. In such an environment, the romantic sound and conception that Chet possesses seems to flourish extraordinary well. And it is the kind of jazz that is to be heard throughout this album.

As many a musician and many a listener has discovered, the ability to play ballads involves much more than just being able to play slowly. To keep it pretty and at the same time to keep it jazz calls for a way of feeling and a way of thinking that not every jazz musician can master. But ballads properly played can be a most beautiful and moving musical experience, serving to refute two very pervasive and false cliches: the one that claims that jazz is all loud and hard and fast; and the corollary one that would have you believe that if isn't loud and hard and fast it isn't properly jazz."

The best time for listening to it is night and the best way is when the room is absolutely silent, so put it in your hifi, and not in your computer, and let it to take you somewhere else.

'Tis autumn:

Summertime

This post is a part of "standards", and I will always upgrade these posts when I have something new.

How could I draw summer if not with this standard? Summertime is by George Gershwin, from the 1935 opera: Porgy & Bess. It's one of the most known jazz standards, and many jazz musicians have performed it in many ways (that's what I love in jazz standards, the many possible ways of performance).

Summertime,

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich

And your mamma's good lookin'

So hush little baby

Don't you cry

One of these mornings

You're going to rise up singing

Then you'll spread your wings

And you'll take to the sky

But till that morning

There's a'nothing can harm you

With daddy and mamma standing by

Summertime,

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich

And your mamma's good lookin'

So hush little baby

Don't you cry.

Some albums on which you can hear it:

• Art Blakey Quartet - A jazz message
• Charlie Shavers - Complete Intimate Interpretations
• Chet Baker - The last great concert
• Duke Ellington - Complete Gus Wildi recordings
• Ella Fitzgerald - Pure Ella
• Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Porgy & Bess
• George Benson - It's uptown
• Jim Hall - The unreleased sessions
• John Coltrane - My favorite things
• Miles Davis - Porgy and Bess
• Ray Brown - Summertime
• Sarah Vaughan - Sarah Vaughan sings George Gershwin

Some videos - Summertime in the performance of:

• Bill Evans Trio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p_dHE5hQIA
• Billie Holiday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ddqniqxFM
• Chick Corea & Hiromi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2m4Oy9TWmo
• George Benson & Jill Scott: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCaPno7QChY
• Keith Jarrett: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9CjfpWq3M8
• Ray Brown Trio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9frgJdwYNC8