Grover Washington, Jr. - Inner city blues

One of the coolest things about music is the process when you get to know it. For me, who leaded me to this album was Marvin Gaye and which leaded to him was a Quincy Jones album. The line hasn't finished yet, it's a never-ending thing.

It was a summer afternoon not a long time ago when I first listened to this album, and that time I was ill - though getting better and better I swear, that music also healed me. Music can show again the power believed to be lost in us.

It's a cover album from 1972 and now you can enjoy it as one of Verve's Originals series. As many as two songs are related to Marvin Gaye, as you can also know it by its main title. Inner city blues and Mercy, mercy me - this latter in fact is not just Mercy, mercy me, it's a blend of it and the well-known What's going on, and the performance is very, very cool. Inner city blues is also nice, with the siren noise at the beginning and the fine melody as it comes in, and later gets stronger, faster, making experiences and creating a denser atmosphere.

The other cornerstone on this album is Billy Wither's Ain't no sunshine. The performance is absolutely perfect, keeping the original melody but adding Theme from "Man and Boy" to it, lengthening it. Here and at Georgia on my mind a beautiful string section works in the background which makes the music warmer.

It's really a must-have experience. One afternoon, one living room, shaded windows. The sunshine's just looming out there. And the first tones are starting to fill the room.

Mercy, mercy me:

www.ververecords.com

Across the 110th street

Today during my walk I was listening to the soundtrack of the movie Jackie Brown (by Quentin Tarantino) and realized again that how cool is the song Across the 110th street by Bobby Womack. It has a very nice lyrics which I hadn't noticed before. Again about the poor childhood, the circumstances, "anything I had to do to survive..."

First it was written for the 1972 crime-drama film Across 110th street but had become much more serious. Later it was also used for Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown.

Across 110th street:

Hear the original version with the opening of Across 110th street:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qXhFag9BVU

See the opening of Jackie Brown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BWA1T78WpI

Bobby Womack - California dreamin' / Across 110th street:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD2fTiwclMM

À Paris

Summer is trying its forces here, and for me the warm weather makes me listen not only to jazz, blues and nostalgic pop/rock songs related to summer, but also chansons. My favourite is an essential, À Paris by Yves Montand.

If a chanson can contain all of the emotions of the universe, it's one of those.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryH39k-Md54

(live) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0do-UYWZKoY

Also about Paris: Sous le ciel de Paris, Un gamin de Paris

Inner city blues

Inner city blues... when I first saw these words but haven't heard a second of it, I had been fascinated already. I didn't doubt about that I would like it. It was then when I got to know the genre soul, especially Marvin Gaye's What's going on, and see this song amongst the tracks.

Now it's one of my favourite songs and an always-coming-back melody in my head, during walks, on public transportation, etc. Those monotonic rhythms and its cool words are fantastic. Recently it didn't want to disappear from my mind, it was constantly floating there. Using this situation, I did a little research.

Inner city blues (Make me wanna holler) was written by Marvin Gaye in 1971 - the song depicted the ghettos of inner-city America as it discussed how the bleak economic situation would lead to someone wanting to holler and throw ones hands up (Wikipedia). The first adaptation is by Grover Washington Jr. on his album Inner city blues in 1972. Next, for example, by Sarah Vaughan on the album A time in my life in 1972 and by Gil Scott-Heron on the album Reflections in 1981.

Start to feel it:

the original, by Marvin Gaye:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeWF0LC3R2o

by Grover Washington Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk2-w2JMBIY

by Reuben Wilson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRfeFaCHOdU

by Sarah Vaughan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0hQ2vuUiFc

by Gil Scott-Heron:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drTjTE8MCBU

Pulp fiction - Music from the motion picture

Quentin Tarantino reinterpreted film music. His flicks wouldn't be those movies without those songs. He always chooses older songs, not actual hits. Well-known songs and less well-known ones which create perfect atmosphere for his films. What is this atmosphere like? Funny. Cool. Loose. Entertaining. Nice. Nostalgic. Romantic... and so on.

If you hear Pulp fiction, you immediately start to hum Misirlou in your head, but the soundtrack is much more. For example, I was introduced to the genre "surf" by Tarantino soundtracks. Bustin' surfboards and Surf rider are surfing with you for a short time, but there're Let's stay together by Al Green, Jungle boogie by Kool & The Gang, Girl, you'll be a woman soon by Urge Overkill, and the classic twist contest song, the You never can tell by Chuck Berry. And I haven't talked about the film excerpts which paint even more colours on this album. It's not a coincidence that Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta have been chosen for one of the fifteen greatest pairs of pop culture by Entertainment Weekly. Their memorable dialogues will always be with us, for example talking about the burgers in America and France, the morning scene when they murder the boys having breakfast, and Jules's monologue quoting from Ezekiel 25:17 which is the closer track of the album. Don't say what again, listen to this album...

...and if you liked it, start with the Jackie Brown - Music from the Miramax motion picture. That's my favourite Tarantino movie music.

Misirlou:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIU0RMV_II8

Jungle boogie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgynbFoA9to

Let's stay together:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiIC3A0ROM

Pulp fiction trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBfmBvvotE

Summer things

Summer just walked in - but I didn't realize it, because the weather is very strange in Hungary. But if I glance at the calendar I can remember that in one simple moment the 31st of May turned to the 1st of June and yes, that was the first day of summer. It's always an important day to me: the first and last days of each season. Now I just slipped into the summer. I regret.

But we don't have to wait long, summer will be here in its whole reality, and I can't help proposing albums which are connected to this season in my mind.

1. Pop: Pet Shop Boys - Actually
2. Pop: Roxy music - Avalon
3. Pop: Wham! - The final
4. Jazz: Modern Jazz Quartet - Porgy and Bess
5. Jazz: Dizzy Gillespie - Jambo caribe
6. Blues: Lightnin' Hopkins - Country blues
7. World/folk: René Aubry - Invités sur la Terre
8. Progressive rock: Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Love beach
9. Progressive rock: Camel - Breathless
10. Reggae: Bob Marley and the Wailers - Rastaman vibration

Books on the topic: jazz standards

I love jazz standards. I love their melancholic mood, their simple but expressive lyrics about well-known emotions, their ever-green property, the countless performances of them. This feeling reaches me very often, and I wanted to know more about these songs, more than its lyrics and nice melodies. The stories behind, the circumstances of their birth, the authors' thoughts. Jazzstandards.com helps me of course but I prefer reading in books, not on web. This site helps in this, too, because it offers a big range of books on this topic. With the help of Amazon's Look inside! function I chose the most interesting ones and maybe I'll read one of them in the summertime this year.

Listening to classic American popular songs

This book will be read by musicians because its main feature is sheet and lyrics of twenty-three well-known songs, like I've got you under my skin, Autumn in New York, Come rain or come shine, etc. It also gives some knowledge about harmony, melody and rhythm in the first part of the book, and you can listen to the songs as well on the cd attached to the book.

The NPR's curious listener's guide to popular standards

The main advantage of this book is that it doesn't only write about 100 songs, it also describes the songwriters, the performers, it defines the meaning of it and shows the whole evolution of this style.

The Great American Songbook: Stories of the standards

This book tells us the stories of the standards and their writers, such as: Night and day: Cole Porter, The way you look tonight: Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, Kind of blue, So what: Miles Davis - and many more (up to 29). It also presents songs which haven't got lyrics but became very, very famous.

America's songs: The stories behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley

It's like a history textbook: the chapters are periods of time (1910-1919, 1920-1929, ... , 1970-1977) and they are divided into years - with interesting, illustrative photos.

More:
American Popular Song: The great innovators, 1900-1950
The American popular ballad of the Golden Era (1924-1950)

There are a lot more but you wouldn't choose... and I didn't show the books which concentrate on only one writer.

Jean Michel Jarre concert review - Oxygene Tour

The concert I wrote about in the previous post was my second Jean Michel Jarre concert experience. The first was in 2008 November, called Oxygene Tour when he played the whole album from its first sounds to its last noises and additionally a few from Oxygene 7-13, and as a bonus, Oxygene 4 again. All of the songs were played on the original analogue instruments. That concert was slightly better than this World Tour - maybe just because that was my first experience or because I'm fond of Oxygene. I remember as the sound was better, though we were standing in front of the stage not too far, in a very good place.

There he played Oxygene 12 and besides Oxygene 2 (of course) it was my favourite period of the concert. In living version it's much better than on the album, and that song got a perfect video-mix playing behind the stage: fastened motions of nature (like flowers blossom and animal corpses get rotten), shots of animals, turbulences... it is wonderful. It totally matches to the music. So when I heard it at World Tour, I was very glad and it became one of my favourite moments of the two hour experience.

The other amazing thing was a speciality which was played only here, in Hungary. As JMJ told us, he was walking in the city and heard a street musician and he invited him to his concert. The result became awesome: an improvisative song by the hang drum and the concert devices. It had a very special atmosphere, watch it below.

Oxygene 12:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xSzn7tpEhg

Jean Michel Jarre and Norbert Pável:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc5ToA4GK0w

Jean Michel Jarre concert review - World Tour

One of the stages of his World Tour was Budapest, so tonight I saw the concert. JMJ said that it had been the first concert since his mother died so he dedicated it to her. It was powerful, really.

Surprisingly he didn't play any song from Téo & Téa or Metamorphoses, the songs concentrated on Equinoxe, Oxygène, and Rendez-vous - which isn't problem at all, I think. We got everything which is connected to his shows: laser harp, theremin, endless number of synthesizers - and a spectacular light show. No, this word is too small. It was shocking. The lights were showering the audience, making unexisting planes and surfaces in the air, in a great rhythym to the music - which, was very "large" sometimes. I dare to say too large, and too vivid, but as my thoughts kept rolling by during the concert, I felt it's right. He's French. Kraftwerk is German. You can see the differences in the way of their playing but it's totally all right. They were my absolute favourites in the secondary school fan-years so the concert was also nostalgic for me. Two hours of sounds, sounds which you hear and think they belong to him. It's fantastic. He created sounds and new atmosphere. I read an article few years ago where he was asked that You are often said to be the father of electronic music, what do you think? And he responded, I must be only the father of my child. But he really made something new.

My fave moments of the concert:

Oxygène 5 turning into an improvisative trance-thing

Oxygène 12 with the fantastic video behind

Equinoxe 4 with the nice original art inspired video

the song, when we could see incredible numbers from the wolrd

Equinoxe 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qop9Ms82FI8

Oxygène 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4HN4Kxju1c

Oxygène 4 + 12 (not Budapest):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWICdlD_85w&feature=related

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

Billie Holiday - Recorded from Carnegie Hall live

I was just thinking about what to listen to in this rainy and grey spring afternoon, and my decision happened to be ideal for this mood.

This special concert recording features short excerpts from Billie's autobiographical book, Lady sings the blues read by a narrator with a perfect voice which is absolutely suitable on this album, I reckon. I immediately peeked into it at Amazon and maybe I'll read it in the summertime.

With a cup of tea on the window sill I was staring out the window, daydreaming about what was and what will be and the beauty of music, while the rain was heavily knocking the glass in front of me. It was beautiful, indeed - music has a power like nothing, it starts thoughts in your head and writes on. On this album Lady Day sings the famous Lady sings the blues, Body and soul, Yesterdays, I cover the waterfront while we can peek into the interesting segments of her life. Lady sings the blues... yes, that's totally true. With her hoarse singing voice the ballads are very impressive and she absolutely lives the songs - and takes in them her pain, memories and desires. The older quality is ice on the cake.

I cover the waterfront:

The album inspired me and I watched another videos from her on YouTube, here are two songs: Autumn in New York, Good morning heartache (I'm looking forward to write about these two songs in the section standards, this year it will surely happen).

Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen, and I was three.

I was a woman when I was sixteen. I was big for my age, with big breasts, big bones, a big fat healthy broad, that's all. So I started working out then, before school and after, minding babies, running errands, and scrubbing those damn white steps all over Baltimore.

But whether I was riding a bike or scrubbing somebody's dirty bathroom floor, I used to love to sing all the time. I liked music. If there was a place where I could go and hear it, I went.

John Coltrane Quartet - Ballads

When I first heard the samples of this album on the internet, I wan't interested at all. It was strange to hear Coltrane playing in this style - but he felt its opposite when he was also said by others to be the best of the angry tenors as we can read on the original cover, which Impulse kept when it released it in the newer Impulse originals series.

The title perfectly and simply describes what we'll hear: ballads. Beautiful standards...

1. Say it (over and over again)

2. You don't know what love is

3. Too young to go steady

4. All or nothing at all

5. I wish I knew

6. What's new

7. It's easy to remember

8. Nancy (with the laughing face)

...which are good to hear again and again any times - that's why they're standards and get famous and have stayed alive. I think there's a few people who these songs don't take effect on. So to angry tenors he answered: I guess, they say that because I play the horn hard. Now he proves his abilities to this style, too, and maybe it was a need himself as well to do something lighter than his real, deeply serious music. It's a fanatastic album for silent and sensitive moments. Unfortunately it's only a little bit longer than half an hour, but it is worth to hear.

Gene Less writes about Coltrane the following:
Coltrane is, as a matter fact, one of the gentlest and quietest people I've met in jazz. And, two or three years ago, he was just about the shyest.
Now that he has become a study in effusive cameraderie. But he has emerged considerably from that cocoon of quiet in which he lived his off-stage life. He talks more now, he laughs more readily, he seems more assured.

Too young to go steady:


Listen to Naima.

Chet Baker - Deep in a dream

A long time passed by since I last heard Chet Baker's thin voice and trumpet play - so hearing it again was fascinating.
On this collection (Deep in a dream - The ultimate collection) he sings, plays and there are two short songs which are only singing: Blue room and Spring is here, these are nice colour patches on the album. Though I don't like collections or "best of" albums, this was created very well. The My funny Valentine vocal and its instrumental version opens and closes the album, making a nice frame to it, and the songs are in perfect harmony: slow and faster (like Summer sketch and Let's get lost), peaceful and melancholic (like Little girl blue and Alone together) melodies with different arrangements - but this doesn't make you feel confused, it makes the album multi-coloured and exciting. Shortly, it's a very nice collecting work and a portrait about Chet's sides.

Today I saw a Sex and the city episode in which Carrie's first Vogue article is unsuccesful and an elder collegaue comforts her while a jazz cd is being played in the background. He tells her that The only one who's sadder than you now is Billie Holiday. He could have said Chet Baker, too. Though it's another kind of sadness - a daydreaming, slowing, nostalgic sadness mixed with peace, and rarely delight... he really does it from his heart; he couldn't do in an other way. Listen to The wind below, one of the best songs on this album.

The wind:

Earlier posts related to Chet Baker:

Spring is here

Chet Baker - Chet

This land is your land

Up in the air surprised me in the pleasant meaning of this word. The movie had been nominated for several Oscars but didn't won any - unfortunately. That's something which could have been deserved at least one - in spite of the "big" films, which nowadays the Academy and people concentrate on. But it's not a movie blog so I make it short: it's 9 of 10 for me and a memorable and soon repeatable experience of the movies of third millenium.

Let's talk about its soundtrack. Now I concentrate on its intro again, with the landscapes photographed from the air and the mood and lyrics of the music in the background: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - This land is your land (on the album Naturally, 2005 - can you imgaine it?). The connection is perfect. As the lady keeps singing the lands of America (in the original song it's only in the first verse but the soundtrack is a modified version), we can observe them from the air, and the editing is absolutely perfect. The titles and rhythm is playful and set a cool starting atmosphere for the film. Do we need more? It's worth to watch its intro (below).

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnrDgLs8fQo&feature=related

Watch the movie:
http://stagevu.com/video/gdzexmdmaods

This land is your land:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeahROQ716M

The bear and the fox

I could have written "Tim Ten Yen and his magical world" as well but my favourite song by him is The bear and the fox (from the album Everything beautiful reminds me of You) with its child-story mood and nice melody. I see he's having concerts now, but I don't know how big his reputation could be. I think it's growing constantly.

Visit him at myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/timtenyen

The bear and the fox:

The bear and the fox live (poor quality):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwcfUFPpF1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpJqIwbnPG8

Isaac Hayes - Shaft

If you read this blog, you know how I got to know the main song of this album, it's a funny story (read it here). In that moment I immediately fell in love with it, so I clicked on Amazon to listen to the other songs and realized: I need it, it would be a great album on my shelf next to Hot buttered soul. Days passed by and soon I found the package in the letter box and it was a really notable moment when the first sounds filled the room. Since that moment it's a very close thing in my mind and an always re-appearing inspiration for humming in my daydreams.

It starts with the main theme of course. The melody and the arrangement is simply genious, but if you saw the first scene of the film where it plays in the background, that would be the time when the picture becomes complete in your head. That's the perfect score.

And there are many soundtrack albums which are only interesting because of the main themes. Now it's a nice exception, all of the songs are lovable. My favourites are Bumpy's lament and Ellie's love theme (and of course the main theme), but I can't help noticing again that blackish melody & mood combination which I always been surprised by, that strange difference to "other" music. It broadcasts something different, and it's usually the mix of feelings like (light) melancholy and peace at the same time, hope and looseness. As we walk through the scenes of the film by listening to the soundtracks, after the almost 20 minutes long Do your thing we reach the beautiful closing theme (The end theme) which is a shorter variation of the main theme. I have a special edition and it also contains a 2009 mix version of the main theme, so I have it after the closing theme - it's very good. I think it's not a coincidence that Isaac Hayes won the Oscar prize for the best soundtrack in that year, so this album is not "only" a soundtrack album. It's something more.

Ellie's love theme:

The intro of the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehg2EaYhoJs

Isaac Hayes winning the Oscar prize:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DEZy5ZEQTU

Earlier posts related to Shaft:
Theme from Shaft
Shaft

Empire State of Mind

There was a time when I was fond of hip-hop music, but that time passed by long ago. I don't really often like today's hits either, but there rare occassions when something keeps running in my head and I realize that it's quite good. Now Jay-Z did it to me with one of his latest singles featuring Alicia Keys: Empire State of Mind, or shortly New York. With the fascinating melody in the refrain and the nice New York related words in the lyrics it has been a cool colour patch in my days recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8

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