Happy Birthday!

It was precisely one year ago when I wrote the first blog post of my life. Since I didn't know anything about it, I continued... and liked writing very much, so it turned out that this would be a blog where one or two posts appear every week. Now it's over eighty but it still contain so little amount of good music which I know, so I hope this blog will stay alive for years.

That first post was about John Coltrane's Alabama. Then it took an incredible effect on me, and it hasn't changed till today. It's in my top5 ever-heard songs (man, that's quite a good topic for a new post).

See the first post of this blog:
Alabama

Let me celebrate this day with Pet Shop Boys' Birthday boy.

Quincy Jones - You've got it bad girl

If the standard says it might as well be spring, I'll say it might as well be summer - at least here, in Budapest, where I live. Spring has arrived very quickly and everything started to live again.

I've known this album for approximately one year. It gave me some very fine moments and also inspiration to my own music. As we could get used to it Quincy adapts movie themes and the songs are supported by clever and cool arrangements. Summer in the city is the slow-midtempo intro song which gives the album a fine start. It broadcasts something warm, something mysterious which remains at least until the half of the album. There something happens, the arrangement becomes wilder, somehow harder and funkier. It is Stevie Wonder's Superstition which changes the mood. But my favourite song is Tribute to A.F. which starts with a perfect daydreaming-melody and evolves into a very nice and loose music with cosy lyrics. To sum up, it's the second best album of Quincy's behind Smackwater Jack. And the harmonica player is not else as Toots Thielemans.

Daydreaming and I'm thinking of you
Daydreaming and I'm thinking of you
Hey baby let's get away let's go somewhere far...

Summer in the city (Lovin' Spoonful):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWXcjYNZais

Summer in the city (Quincy Jones):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd9wMHKMj6E

Tribute to A.F.:

Concerts coming

It's only a few days ago when I got to know that Pet Shop Boys and Jean Michel Jarre, two of my old half-nostalgic favourites will come to my country: PSB to BalatonSound in summer, JMJ to Papp László Budapest SportArena, in May. There was no question in my mind about going or not. As you can see it in this blog, I follow PSB's life every now and then, and I was glad to see them on VoltFestival maybe three years ago. Now Yes has come out and there are lots of new concert videos which make me very curious. About Jean Michel Jarre: being a fan of him started in secondary school, such as of Kraftwerk, these two were the coolest music which we could imagine with my best friend with whom I shared a desk in the classroom, and if we even listened to many other music nowadays, it would be a huge effect on us maybe for good. I had the chance to see his concert last year, that was the Oxygene tour, where he played the whole album from its first sound to its last, and songs from Oxygene 7-13 as well - on analogue devices. And now it's the World Tour, with which my old dream will come true.

PSB in your living room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rEVeyDukGE
(visit mypricelessgig.co.uk)

Watch PSB concert videos in older posts:
Did you see me coming?
Yes

About the JMJ World Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJLm0jHh4b0

JMJ playing Oxygene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kQEvGmnkCQ

Marissa Nadler - Little hells

Conversation between two young men in early spring, 2009, as the first strange sounds fill the room.

- See? It's very fresh, it has been released in February*.

- Oh. If the world is like this today, I would...

I don't really remember what he said but it was some kind of negativitiy I think. It isn't surprising: the first sounds of Heart paper lover on Marissa Nadler's Little hells are not too friendly (* - I always think that the music being made in a year or decade shows the feelings of that milieu and not just the product of somebody's soul/mind). But later it changes, and melt into a strange mood which is melancholic, yes, but also hopeful and sometimes peaceful. The atmosphere is painted very well by the songs. This album is another fruit of my 2009 winter/early spring singer-songwriter research-era. Marissa Nadler is a singer-songwriter from America and has a very special voice and singing technique: it's depressing, but soft and enchanting. I don't listen to her music too often, but every now and then it can take a nice effect on us - related to our actual feelings and the season. Last.fm says the following: Nadler writes strange, yet classic, melancholy songs. Her voice is often bathed in a wash of reverb and space echo and creates a ghostly, atmospheric feeling to the music.

She also has a blog, visit it at: http://marissanadler.blogspot.com/

Little hells:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziLDpVYXwXg

Ghosts and lovers (live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvPdNCbUq5c

Bobbi Humphrey - Blacks and blues

It was a great discovery for me at Amazon in the autumn, when I found this album. Bobbi Humphrey? I've never heard about her.

And it's the same story again. When you have many favourite melodies, and hear the new one, it shockingly touches your heart and became a top-x one. The first impression was in Harlem River Drive, as the black chorus comes in and they sing a beautiful melody. Later, when Humphrey doesn't just play on flute, she sings as well, it's a perfect match to the slightly hoarse men's voice. The whole album is great. I don't know how but all the melodies broadcast some kind of piece and not real happiness... just the feeling of happiness. It's hard to describe, it needs to be heard: do it below and give yourself to this world, it'll surely make your day. It made my days as well and so strong that it also inspired me to make a new part in my own long song. A black reportage from the past.

From the cover:

Bobbi Humphrey. Where's she coming from? Where's she going to? If we're straight on our priorities, you'll be listening to her album while I tell you about some of the answers...
First principle: she's positive energy. Black energy, a black woman leaping oceans and continents at a single bound. With positive strength of purpose.
Further, she's black purity. Hear that in her intonation. Without trickery. She knows the gimmicks, scorns to use 'em. Rather, she'll face you and relate what's in her heart, faithfully and incorruptibly.

Harlem River Drive: