Anniversary of John Coltrane's birth with Naima

Today, it's an important day because of two things: usually it's the day of the autumnal equinox (but now in 2009 it's the 22th), and it's 83 years ago the same day when the jazz-giant saxophonist, John Coltrane was born. He was stepping ahead on one way, but he got very far on it. I often wonder what would be if he didn't die at age 40 - did he get more far? And can somebody get more far?

Let's remember him with a beautiful ballad written for his wife, Naima, by the classic Coltrane quartet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ywkpVJ624

Few days at the weekend house... Kuupuu - Unilintu

"Where's the frontier between music and noise?" is an always coming-back question in my mind, and this album, Unilintu from 2007 by the Finnish Kuupuu is a good topic about it. It's something very new, very brave, and very experimental, which result is a meandering noise-mass with some sometimes-appearing music. And we can talk about rhythm, too, a special kind of rhythm, a rhythm made of sounds and vocal elements. From using natural sounds to distorted instruments, the whole atmosphere is unique. Kuupuu's strange and often dissonant vocals / childish singings are beautiful, and scary - at the same time.

I was in the weekend house the last two days, and in the night yesterday it was a perfect choice to upload myself spiritually. Because this album needs solitude and silence - and silence is an important word on the album, too, because the songs sometimes just crawl out from the silence. Listening to it the following thoughts came to my mind: Is this what we achieved in music? How can somebody make such extreme music? And, as the best song on the album, Myrskylaulu got to its end, I walked out to the terrace, then down in the garden, to look up and watch the early-autumn night sky, with the uncertain chill of it. Later, when Lohtulaulu started, with its mentioned scary dissonant voices, I need to go back inside the house, because the atmosphere was getting to be unpleasant. These voices seem to be coming from eternity, or beyond death, or maybe from the long, long past. Maybe it's a Finnish folk song or nursery rhyme, I don't know, but that's the best, when I don't know much about it, it's more exciting and unique. There's many more notable moments on the album, for example the song Mustaruhtinaan laulu which sound is very similar to some nose-trumpeters' sound, maybe it's that.

Chilly autumn nights in solitude? Try it.

Visit her on Myspace: www.myspace.com/kuupuu

Visit her official website: http://www.lurtta.com/

Lohtulaulu:

Al Di Meola - Elegant gypsy

The first meeting with Al Di Meola was very pleasant, because I've heard his name a lot of times before (Return to forever...) but I haven't known anything about the music. So if you see some unknown cds at home, let's take a try, you wouldn't know, perhaps that will be your favourite music.

Maybe his most famous album, Elegant gypsy from 1977 is a cool place where Di Meola can prove his virtuose talent. His instrument, the electric guitar has a very easy abilitiy to create harder, wilder things. Fortunately, he don't exaggerate this, only does when it's needed, at emphasized parts - and if we reached this topic, the whole arrangement is very good and logic. So Meola can be soft and also wild with his guitar. Starting with Flight over Rio in a mood which matches to the title, the album gets a harder intro, but in the second track, which is my favourite, Midnight tango, he gets more silent and the guitar and electric piano make a special beautiful atmosphere. But it seems to be that he's the kind of musician who likes progressivity in music, a good example for this is in Midnight tango at 2:31. I like those wild virtouse circles with the guitar very much. Later at a point he shifts to acoustic guitar and play a beautiful song, Mediterranean Sundance, which has got very famous. With its mediterranean mood and energic guitar sounding can take a real effect on us.

Watch its live performance by him, Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cadbYIzhqQ

(there are many more versions of it)

Midnight tango:

And an interesting thing: when I first heard the bass melody in Flight over Rio from ... I immediately remembered one of my old favourites, a Hungarian electronic band, called The Carbonfools, and the song Ushanka. You can listen to it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lgcthUTWX4

Inland empire & Sinnerman

This is the first post with the label: film and music (where good films and good music meet).

It's the movie Inland empire, directed by David Lynch in 2006. Now, I would keep the analysis of it for film experts and real fans, but to sum up, it's an extremity. Extremity by maybe every part of it. At a point I don't care about the storyline yet (if we can talk about it), I was just fascinated by the pictures. Let's get fascinated you too, if you dare, or if you are in a very special mood, with its almost 3 hours length. And in the ending scene, and behind the cast information, with well-known song of Nina Simone, Sinnerman, full of energy. Its original version can be found on the album Pastel blues, a little bit more than 10 minutes of pure enjoyment. We can also hear a remix version of it in the film.

Watch the final scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I--LvUEWADo

Sinnerman by Nina Simone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6_BWNzThJY

Listen to Four women, which is also by Nina Simone.

Sophie Zelmani - Love affair

The softest and most fragile singing voice I've ever heard is Sophie Zelmani's. She's a Swedish singer-songwriter, and kept to be one of the world's shiest stars. After releasing her first album, she claimed that she won't give any interviews or concerts. Of course, things happened differently.

Love affair from 2003, with an autumn-feeling cool photograph cover, is a sensitive, beautiful and melancholic world. And sometimes it isn't happy and isn't sad, just something between these. September tears, the first song, like an intro introduces us this kind of music where the feelings are the most important. The pleasant acoustic arrangement is perfectly matched to Sophie's thin voice in the whole album, and because of that it isn't a loud music, we can hear clearly the little parts of her voice. Sometimes these little parts make the whole music unique. It's interesting that her voice can be serious and strict in Truth, but the softest in Fade, which is the most silent song on the album. My favourite is To know you, listen to it below.

When you happen to be emotional in September, choose this one.

Visit her website:
http://www.sophie-zelmani.com/

To know you:

Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' else

Let me introduce you one of the 25 best Blue Note albums, and also the album on which we can hear the best performance of the standard, Autumn leaves. It's always exciting when the biggest names work together: a historic event, and probably the result will be unrepeatable. Now the big names are: Miles Davis (trumpet), Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone), Art Blakey (drums), Hank Jones (piano) and Sam Jones (bass).

I often think about the word perfection, especially in music. Can we talk about it? Does a perfect performance exist of a standard? I don't know, but listening to Autumn leaves on this album, I feel the perfection. Everything is on its right place, in a right mood, in a right rhythm, and so on. They don't just play at the same time, they play together, and feel each other. And there's enough place for the parts, they don't make it too fast, which is very positive. Starting with Miles' clear, dry trumpet voice, the contrast will be Cannonball's warmer and lighter saxophone melody. In the whole track, Art Blakey stays in the background, just to create an even more softer atmosphere for this standard. And in the end, we can hear Hank Jones' beautiful piano solo. After the main theme, everything get silent, and the piano cries its monologue, to start the introducing theme again, which leads us out of the song.

But don't think that it's an outstanding album just because of this track: listen to Love for sale, for example, with its nice delight and cool rhythm. I always say in myself that cool music = cool melody in cool rhythm - to make it simple, and it seems that they feel it, too. The last track, Allison's uncle is also a story: that day, when they recorded it, Cannonball's brother, Nat Adderley's daughter was born. Its other title is Bangoon. I would praise this record for a longer time, but the main meaning appears by listening to it.

This is a must-hear album for fall. Perfect choice for example in the morning on an autumn day, when you cook in the kitchen, and you hear it from the living room. The early morning autumn sunlight is floating into the room. Personal experience.

Autumn leaves:

Gabor Szabo - Spellbinder

Gabor Szabo (1936 Budapest - 1982 ~), the jazz guitarist comes from Hungary. It's good to feel that his name is as big in jazz as many more American musicians' name.
Now I chose Spellbinder, this attractive album by him for these early-autumn days. Shortly, to sum up this album, I would say: well-known songs translated to a new, light musical language sealed by Szabo's personal style. It seems that he's fond of the Sinatra family and standards, because of the familiar tracklist:

01. Spellbinder
02. Witchcraft
03. It was a very good year
04. Gypsy queen
05. Bang bang (My baby shot me down)
06. Cheetah
07. My foolish heart
08. Yearning
09. Autumn leaves / Speak to me of love

From the original liner notes:
In a conversation concerning this album, Gabor added: "I never intend to sit down and play music that's bad or commercial; but on the other hand, I do not intend to stop playing tunes I like - wherever they come from - just to fit in with whatever is 'avant-garde' and 'in' that moment. These are all songs to which I'm attracted, and so long as the results are aesthetically satisfying to me, I don't care whether some rule maker thinks they're not 'proper' to jazz. After all, music is - or should be - self expression."

His guitar voice is unique and friendly, and compatible with a wide range of moods. I use the word friendly, because there are some kinds of music which you hear and think it's nice, it comes from the heart, and totally honest. You feel it friendly. And, to see the compatibility, just listen to the nice sounds of Witchcraft, and after that, the more serious and deeper It was a very good year. If you listen carefully (for ex. at 1:54), you'll hear cool and technical slides in the guitar melody. Unfortunately it's very short, but also very expressive, with its new rhythm by Chico Hamilton's drums and Ron Carter's bass. I also recommend to you Frank Sinatra's version of it, where you can hear the effective lyrics, and strings which almost cry. Later, in Bang bang there's an additive acoustic guitar solo in the melody. They emphasized the "bang-bang" part with the cool rhythm and volume differences, which made an attractive result. Here, we hear Szabo singing, too. His singing voice is clear and simple, perfectly matching to the melody, and there's a little accent in it, or something else, which makes it unique. We can also hear his easy-flowing vocals in that kind later song, Yearning. And in the end, he plays Autumn leaves and Speak to me of love together, as he used to do. This version of Autumn leaves is a good example about how to express something only with one instrument.

It was a very good year:

Autumn leaves

The time has came for this post at last - a post which I've waited for months. It's autumn, and the song, Autumn leaves, the evergreen melody and jazz standard. Written by Joseph Kosma in 1945, lyrics by Jacques Prévert, and American lyrics by Johnny Mercer in 1947. Originally it's a French chanson, titled Les feuilles mortes (The dead leaves).

A song, where beauty meets melancholy, performed it almost a million times, in a million ways.

Some examples:

Autumn leaves on albums:

• Ahmad Jamal - The legendary Okeh & Epic recordings
• Barney Kessel - Autumn leaves
• Ben Webster - There is no greater love
• Bill Evans - Portrait in jazz
• Bobby McFerrin - Play
• Bobby Timmons - In person
• Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' else
• Chet Baker - She was too good to me
• Chick Corea's Akoustic Band - ~
• Clark Terry - Portraits
• Duke Ellington - Indigos
• Erroll Garner - Concert by the sea
• Eva Cassidy - Songbird
• Frank Sinatra - Where are you?
• Gabor Szabo - Spellbinder
• Jacky Terrasson - Smile
• Jim Hall & Ron Carter - Alone together
• Joe Henderson - Four!
• Joe Pass - Unforgettable
• Keith Jarrett Trio - Still live
• McCoy Tyner - Today and tomorrow
• Nat King Cole - The unforgettable Nat King Cole
• Paul Desmond - Summertime
• Sarah Vaughan - Crazy and mixed up
• Stan Getz - The complete Roost recordings
• Steve Kuhn - Pianists on the Sunnyside
• The bird and the bee - Live from Las Vegas at the Palms
• Tierney Sutton - Blue in green
• Wynton Marsalis - Marsalis Standard Time, Vol. 1.
  

Autumn leaves on the Internet, performance by:

• Bill Evans Trio:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRhVI7cpcS4
• Eva Cassidy:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSXYu-3r1S8
• Keith Jarrett Trio:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io1o1Hwpo8Y
• Les Baxter:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_Kip2xphM
• Nat King Cole:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnp58oepHUQ
• Wynton Marsalis and Sarah Vaughan:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZbI2VZF9K8

The chanson, Les feuilles mortes in the performance of

• Yves Montand:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOsVVeojMZs
  

Learn more about it on

http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-0/autumnleaves.htm

The falling leaves
Drift by my window
The falling leaves
Of red and gold

I see your lips
The summer kisses
The sunburned hands
I used to hold

Since you went away
The days grow long
And soon I'll hear
Old winter's song

But I miss you most of all
My darling
When autumn leaves
Start to fall

Since you went away
The days grow long
And soon I'll hear
Old winter's song

But I miss you most of all
My darling
When autumn leaves
Start to fall

Hanne Hukkelberg - Blood from a stone

Hanne Hukkelberg is a Norwegian singer-songwriter. I have known her two earlier albums, with its strangeness and the strong intention to make experiments, so when I first saw this new third title few days ago, I got interested immediately.

I had many feelings and expectations about what will I hear... that familiar northern tone... but in the end it changed. This is a newer Hanne, who exited that deep introspective world - as she says: "and i find it really relieving to make this sort of non introvert music now. this is a record more direct, more loud and from the hip. lyrically as well." But this exiting is partial. Until the half of the album we meet nice songs, with some rock-indie touch, but they didn't tell me any more, I missed that old excitement, crazyness, weirdness as earlier - though, besides it - they show some signs of life and loosening, more carefree moods. Especially the song Blood from a stone, which became the single, is the most "new Hanne" song on the album. The video is perfectly like Anna Ternheim's To be gone, you can watch it on her website, see the link below.

So when we get to Salt of the Earth, the mood changes and those older memories wake up in our minds. From here the tracks feature more aggressive and introspective feelings, with dissonant vocals and sounds created by anything. I mean, she likes using kitchen obejcts or other tools to play it in her music. See the lyrics menu on the website, there you find detailed informations about it. In other words, as we get to the second half of the album, the circumstances of the creation are cleaner: "i’ve been sitting on an island north for the polar circle, Senja, and composed songs for my new album which is called “Blood From a Stone”. this took about seven months, and the rest of the year 2008, i spent recording it all in Propeller studios with my regular producer Kåre Vestrheim." Fortunately, in the last track we can also hear Norwegian lyrics.

Have yourself this adventure, which is probably just a stage in a longer trip.
http://www.hannehukkelberg.com

Salt of the Earth:

Maybe... John Mayall - The turning point

A few days ago I realized something. Something which is maybe my own imagination, and the result of my adoration towards the season: autumn.

The colour of sunshine has changed. It's more pale than earlier.

There are more and more leaves on the ground, which is also very dry.

Maybe there was a thin cloud on the sky - like a veil, that's for the colour.

Maybe there wasn't any rain for a long time, that's for the leaves.

Maybe.
Or maybe not.

So I felt that I must choose a last album for this summer, because it's gone. I need something with which I say goodbye.

The turning point is also an album which I got to know by a casette in that mentioned weekend house. It's a live performance, recorded in 1969 and a great album. Mayall's guitar and harmonica melodies are perfect for a later summer day. A lot of emotions mix between the tracks, from joy to contemplative parts, that's what I like in music, and here - in blues. And if we are at blues, it's the moderner blues. The tracks aren't only another interpretations of the blues-circles, these sometimes exit the genre, especially where there's a progressive feeling in them. For example, in my favourite song on this album: California. With its 9:31 minutes length it's something which builds up as we go on, as we are leaded into the song: first the cool bass-pattern (which stays until the end, and always repeates), and the immediately appering melancholic, fascinating guitar sounds (4:39!)... plus Mayall's singing voice, matching perfectly to this mood. So hard to share or Thoughts about Roxanne are also good examples for this longer, evolving type of blues.

Goin' back to California
So many good things around
Don't wanna leave California
The sun seems to never go down.

California:

Did you see me coming?

It's Pet shop boys' new single, a light song for the end of this summer. They kept their basic style and atmosphere but with their new album, Yes, they redefined the genre "pop". Yes is an incredibly good title for an album and perfectly matches to the list of their album names, which are all one word long. Visually - besides the developments - the new style belongs to the Fundamental-Minimal style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hy4bT0ESfc&hd=1

Here's an other video by them, a live performance at the Brits Award, a ten minutes long medley, where their cool hits mix very well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OAlTWrNN6o

The three best Weather Report albums

There are different grades in musical talents. Somebody - after learning it - can play a song well. Somebody can write new melodies, and make a complete song of it. And somebody can create a quite new, exciting thing, almost a new genre, music which we hear and say: Yes, it must be that. Maybe this is the description of the word "unique".

Weather Report belongs to this last category. It's hard to find any band or musician who is similar to it, usually we read that it's for example Chick Corea's band, Return to forever. Both are jazz, jazz fusion, usually called jazzrock, but these genres are always disputed. Be that as it may, Weather Report was a world-wide known "supergroup" (making their greatest albums in the seventies). I mean that the band members are also big names in their personal carreers. The pianist/keyboardist Joe Zawinul, the saxophonist Wayne Shorter and for example, the bassist Miroslav Vitous or Jaco Pastorius. By the way, this is one of the coolest band names I've ever heard.

Now I've picked three albums which I suppose to be the best albums: Sweetnighter, Black market, and Tale spinnin'. I had a dilemma about Mysterious traveler, but that will be another post.

Sweetnighter from 1973 (as many albums of their's) starts with a longer, faster, evolving song, then calms down in the second song, which is usually a slower, more silent thing. Here the first is the 13 minutes long Boogie woogie waltz, with the sometimes-appearing cool bass melody of Vitous, and the undefineable saxophone parts of Shorter. This music always changes, evolves then the instruments find each other again to express melodies in a very unique way. After it, Manolete immediately leads us to somewhere else in a spanish mood. Listen carefully at 2:24, when a new rhythmic part starts, I like it very much. Later we get to the track next to last, it's Will, my favourite song on this album. Starting with a light drum pattern and the fine electric piano by Zawinul, it gets a little bit louder but stays intimate until the very end of it. Shorter's longly lingering sounds create an unforgettable mood.

Black market from 1976 is perfectly like its cover: vivid, varicoloured, and there's also a little bit of mistery behind that lake - and the songs - as on the other albums, like a constant flavor of Weather report. The first song, Black market is very friendly, especially because the carefree melody by Zawinul. And, as I told you earlier, the second song is usually a calmer thing. Cannon ball is beautiful at first, but sometimes it becomes serious and louder - with typical Weather report melodies. It's typical because when you hear it, you say: it must be Weather report. A cool part: at the start of the third track, Gibraltar, the noise of the big ship - it creates a strict atmosphere. Then everything gets silent for a while and after it immediately comes the louder part. After it we get to my favourite track on this album, Elegant people, a beautiful song, starting with one of the coolest melodies in "my musical life". For me, Hernandnu, the last track is the most connected with mistery. That melody has an uncertain feeling, but not in a negative way.

Tale spinnin' from 1975 maybe concentrate less on the melodies. Fast starting, then something else: Lusitanos, with the always coming back shift in emphasis, melodies, moods. It can be beautiful, contemplative, strict and uncertain at the same time, this is also a typical Weather report attribute. My favourite song on this album is Badia, a silent, slower expression. I've always liked in music when a song starts almost silently, then the little parts connect and we gradually get in that mood. The beautiful melody sometimes has an additional, slightly hoarse vocal, too, which is ice on the cake. And at 2:42 we meet the unexpected new fast part - to keep it exciting. In the end, Five short stories is an interesting improvisative dialogue between Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, closing the album.

There could be many more interesting things about these albums, but I think it's enough to be curious about the band.

Black market: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7fOetV0ha4

Badia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xDPJwIYz_E

Cannon ball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkKw7mDmIIg

In memoriam Cseh Tamás

It's nearly a week ago that Cseh Tamás, the Hungarian composer, guitarist and singer died. A big loss in the Hungarian music and especially for the age of my parents.

He was special. Lyrics was very important in his music - fiction, and I think often real stories - he usually mixed the speaking (that kind of story-teller speaking) with the singing and the result was quite unique. His singing voice was also interesting and this, paired with beautiful melodies and more that twenty albums and many film themes made him a real character.

The next lyrics is a part of the Hatvanas évek (The sixties), and I translate it for you, to understand, but I do it against the grain.

A hatvanas években nyár felé tetőzött az ifjúsági probléma.

Emlékszem nap mint nap hajóval átmentünk Almádiból Siófokra.

Ó a régi, ó a Balaton, régi nyarakon, bár nem volt vitorláshajónk.

Ó a régi, ó a teraszon, ültünk nyarakon, úgy néztünk végig a tavon.

In the sixties around summer the problem of youth culminated.

I remember we traveled to Siófok from Almádi all of the days.

O that old, o the Balaton, in old summers, although we hadn't any sailboat.

O that old, o on the terrace, we sat in old summers, we glanced over the lake.

The comments of these videos are all about the sadness of Cseh Tamás's passing.

Hatvanas évek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG6INjVFWdM

Budapest:

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

Few days at the weekend house... Just a song before I go

Weekend house. I think for all of those who spent their summers in a weekend house, it became a new expression, an other world, where the time isn't like in the city. For me, that house up on the hill above the lake-side city, Balatonalmádi is a real treasure and quite a big part of my brain, where my memories settle. It's a feeling which contains many little things: asking my father answerable and non-answerable questions about the sky, gardening with my grandfather, taking a trip to the mountain, sitting on the terrace as the night fall down, watching the summer night sky and the stars, the long, rainy days with the noise of the water pouring down from the eaves just next to my room outside, the childish fears caused by strange noises from the garden - most of these remained -, the camp fire and frying bacon, and the "Sounds of the night" which was a personal show created by me and my cousin, performed it to our parents but mostly for ourselves... just to pick the most important memories.



Few years ago, when none of our casette-players worked yet at home, we brought our casettes down to the weekend-house, where we can listen to it. One of these casettes is a Crosby, Stills & Nash compilation, made by my father many years ago. I hadn't known about this band before, but two years ago, when I first listened to it, it became one of my favourite casettes, and on every holiday it's a "must-hear" casette there.

Crosby, Stills & Nash (often called shortly as CSN) and later, when Neil Young joined the group, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) was a rock/folk band, making most of their well-known songs in 1969 and the seventies. Their best albums are Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), Déjà vu (1970), and CSN (1977).

Just a song before I go is a track from the album CSN, a short, slower song with a little melancholy. Written by Graham Nash, just in 15 minutes en route to an airport. It's my favourite, that mentioned casette starts with it. I remember listening to it in my room, lying on my bed, as the afternoon sunlight break its way into my room through the shades - "I had to be alone".

The original version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRP6GR35bQE
A live version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Ji8HzTQl4

Album version:

Ella Fitzgerald - Clap hands, here comes Charlie!

By its selection and compilation, it's a perfect vocal jazz album. Because it shows gladness and melancholy, also vividness and slowness, and contemplating-carefree moods as the songs pass by. That's what I like in these records, this kind of variegation.

Starting with the fast Night in Tunisia we can easy be fascinated, and after that, too, because then comes the slow, beautiful ballad, You're my thrill, and a nice song, My reverie (one of the best songs on this album). Later we meet the happy shouting Jersey bounce, or the well-known and well-titled Good morning heartache, which melts up in melancholy and beauty, to paint some more colours on the album.

But this variegation wouldn't work without a very varicoloured voice. Ella was a great talent, it's not coincidence that they called her "First lady of song". Yes, she can be wild, she can shout in happiness, wake up your mind: "live!", laugh on something, or slow down and almost cry while singing.

To prove it better, here are some words quoted from the inner cover:

"Ella Fitzgerald has no competition. The most universally admired popular singer in the world, she represents one of the fortunate cases when talent translates into popularity and productivity. ...

Clap hands, here comes Charlie, a collection of tunes with varying degrees of jazz relevance, has ever since 1961 been just about the most treasured by Ellavationalists. ...

Ever as emotionally deep as she is swinging, her voice brimming with contagious, enthusiastic energy, her ptich perfect and her time beyond approach, I think she's modestly misidentified the proper recipient of applause: we should be shouting: Clap hands! Here comes Ella!"

They call it the Jersey Bounce
A rhythm that really counts
The temperature always mounts
Whenever they play the funny rhythm they play

It started on Journal Square
And Somebody heard it there
They put it right on the air
And now you'll hear it everywhere...

Good morning heartache:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZEq8H8cTNc

Hear samples of the album on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Clap-Hands-Here-Comes-Charlie/dp/B00000477N/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1249464455&sr=8-3

Shoreline

I first got acquainted with this song in the performance of Anna Ternheim, who's a Swedish singer-songwriter, one of my favourites in this genre. She made it very simple, but this simplicity has a cause. With the clear piano sounding she made it more serious than the original version. I didn't even think that someone else wrote it. And when the harmonica starts (on the album version), it creates a fascinating feeling for me, which don't want to stop - yes, it plays for a long time, in a monotonic way.

Later I noticed that it originally belongs to a Swedish indie/emo band, called Broder Daniel, and it's very far from the acoustic version. In spite of that the genre "rock" isn't my favourite, let alone emo, I like this version, too, because that great melody has the same effect on me as in the version of Anna Ternheim. And the melody of singing has little changes, which are good, I think.

ever since I was eight or nine

I've been standing on the shoreline

always waiting for something lasting

loose your hunger, you loose your way

get confused and you fade away

oh this town

kills you when you are young

oh this town

kills you when you are young

I'm not the boy I used to be

this town has got the youth of me

all eyes turn hollow

from the work of sorrow

standing on the paving

by the office building

they've got so much to do

never time for you

we are shadows

oh we're shadows

shadows in the alley

you die when you're young

you die when you're young

you die when you're young

Broder Daniel version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djLRO8wjdKw

Anna Ternheim version:

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

George Benson concert review

This concert was held in the Budapest SportArena at the 22th of July, and was a part of "The European Tour". Mr. Benson and his band did a great job, a two hours long show, introducing us to the world of smooth jazz. I'm not really interested in this genre, but I liked the concert very much, it matched with my actual mood. There were some expectances by me, for example the song "The ghetto", "Breezin'", or "Summertime/Take five" which are two classic song and I saw it on youtube, in his earlier performance. Unfortunately he didn't played them, but amongst the tracklist there was for example the well-known song "On Broadway", "Give me the night", and a very interesting version of the old jazz standard, "Nature boy" (you can hear it on the album: In flight).

So Mr. Benson - with his thin moustache, with his fascinating singing voice and with his almost singing guitar - proved that he's not only a great musician, but an effective performer, too. He also told us that he spent a lot of money and saw a lot of beautiful girls in Hungary.

A part of this concert:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMwBPAF7i-8

Kraftwerk concert review

I had the honour to visit Balaton Sound festival (which is an electronic music festival at the coast of the lake, in Hungary), for one day, especially to hear and see the performance of one of my favourite groups and the group which has taken the biggest influence on me in music, I think. It's Kraftwerk, the well-known german electronic band, which is usually named as the "pioneer of electronic music". Yes, it isn't just an exaggeration, because any time they released a new album (after a long, long waiting time), they produced something which is brand new and we couldn't hear before. The clean, minimalist arrangement are the basis in their songs - and the word "perfection" is always connected with them in my mind.



This word is suitable for describing the concert, too. The songs were very similar to the songs of the concert 05 05 24 which was also held in Hungary (and that was my first Kraftwerk concert), but there were little changes, just a little, to improve the quality. I think only the biggest fans could realize it. For the first time I saw the performance of Showroom dummies, an extremely cool remix version of the original album song, and the Computer love, which was also new for me. Unfortunately they didn't play the song Airwaves which I saw on youtube, from another concert, and it's very good. But it's hard to write more about the concert, because the audio-visual effects only works when you're there. See the links below.

I suppose they won't come again here, because of the rare concerts and their age, but the hope dies last...

Visit their minimalist website: http://www.kraftwerk.com/

Some concert videos:
Radio activity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zymSXKoME60
Showroom dummies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB1DDvU8Y0E
Autobahn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWcuP4PaKtY&feature=related

The police - Reggatta de blanc

It was so hot today that I had to choose an old favourite, an album from the summer two years ago, when I used to listen to it. If I created new weird tags, I would stick a "we broke up and there's a new life coming" tag on it. Yes, there are some kinds of music which you have to listen to forget, to feel free, to get happier and carefree. Police did a great job for this aim - perhaps these properties take effect only on me, I don't know it for sure... but take a try if you feel it.

Many of us don't know that Sting - before his private music-making - was the leader of the rock group, The police. But I go further: he started his career as a jazz bassist. So go back in time: if you know what is Sting's music like, Police will be different. It was simple, cool, free, and sometimes funny, totally vivid, and full of energy. One of my favourite is Reggatta de blanc (and the three best albums are ~, Synchronicity, and Zenyatta mondatta).

Sting's mid-high toned voice suits well on the music which is based on cool rhythms and drum patterns. And there's a slight touch of reggae in their tracks, making it interesting. The album starts with the well-known Message in the bottle, to set on the mood, but later a few slower songs also appear: for example my special favourite: The bed's too big without you, which is a nice expression by the words and there's a cool bass melody in the whole track. And in addition, the album features Walking on the Moon and Bring on the night, too, not mentioning some funny stuff as On any other day, which's lyrics is the following:

There's a house on my street

And it looks real neat

I'm the chap who lives in it

There's a tree on the sidewalk

There's a car by the door

I'll go for a drive in it

And when the wombat comes

He will find me gone

He'll look for a place to sit

My wife has burned the scrambled eggs

The dog just bit my leg

My teenage daughter ran away

My fine young son has turned out gay

Cut off my fingers in the

Door of my car

How could I do it?

My wife is proud to tell me

Of her love affairs

How could she do this to me?

My wife has burned the scrambled eggs

The dog just bit my leg

My teenage daughter ran away

My fine young son has turned out gay

And it would be ok on any other day

And it would be ok on any other day

Throw down the morning papers

And spill my tea

I don't know what's wrong with me

The cups and plates are in a

Conspiracy

I'm covered in misery

My wife has burned the scrambled eggs

The dog just bit my leg

My teenage daughter ran away

My fine young son has turned out gay

And it would be ok on any other day

And it would be ok on any other day

And it would be ok on any other day

So this album mix these things, and this is what makes it great, a great leisure for a summer day.

Message in a bottle (live Earth):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QfoBHH8_Pk

Walking on the Moon:

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

The bed's too big without you (special live version):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24w_2OAg-fU

My baby shot me down

All of my close acquaintances know that I'm a fan of Frank Sinatra but today I've chosen a song by his daughter, Nancy. During my walk in the afternoon, I was listening to the album: Gabor Szabo - The spellbinder which is a new purchase, thanks to my friend who spent his holiday in Berlin. So Gabor Szabo performs the same track on the album in a very cool and attractive way, but it isn't the perfect timing to write a review about the whole album - I keep it for early autumn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Xl0Qry-hA

We can also hear it in the film: Kill Bill directed by Quentin Tarantino. It was "re-discovered" as a theme song of it.

I like its lyrics because it's a childhood memory:

I was five and he was six

We rode on horses made of sticks

He wore black and I wore white

He would always win the fight

Bang bang, he shot me down

Bang bang, I hit the ground

Bang bang, that awful sound

Bang bang, my baby shot me down.

Seasons came and changed the time

When I grew up, I called him mine

He would always laugh and say

"Remember when we used to play?"

Bang bang, I shot you down

Bang bang, you hit the ground

Bang bang, that awful sound

Bang bang, I used to shoot you down.

Music played, and people sang

Just for me, the church bells rang.

Now he's gone, I don't know why

And till this day, sometimes I cry

He didn't even say goodbye

He didn't take the time to lie.

Bang bang, he shot me down

Bang bang, I hit the ground

Bang bang, that awful sound

Bang bang, my baby shot me down...