It's been a bit of a wild week. Stuff, and lots of it happening. Besides the usual list of must-do's, we had a hell of a music night on Wednesday. No way in the world I would not see the end of the 12-12-12 Concert, so I started yesterday on 3 hours of sleep. Throw in a trip to NYC last night for a live show and this morning, a Friday no less, is not all sunshine and rainbows.But it's still time to get a little music out.
In today's episode of The Song Remains the Same, we have a very popular title. I know of at least ten songs with it, and because the genres are so varied, I'm putting up four different songs with the same title.
Song of the day is: Hold On
First up:
Pearl Jam : "Hold On"
Tom Waits: "Hold On"
Wilson Phillips "Hold On"
Kansas "Hold On"
Cast your vote, suggest another version of "Hold On" or go away quietly. It's Friday, do what you feel.
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While I wait to see if I get the present I really want, I've decided to give myself a gift. The gift of music. I'm giving myself a rock concert. Last week's 121212 Concert...ha. I've invited some of the best of all time, even a few who are no longer with us, and yes, they've agreed to sing a song or two for my big day.
Bobby Darin was a singer, song-writer, actor and political activist. As a singer, he crooned, he did folk, he did rock, he did country...he did it all. And except for a bad heart which he knew meant he would never be an old man, he could have done so much more.
Now my parents Nativity set is quite old, they had been married for 63 years during the last Christmas season and I think it might have been a second hand set when they bought it. As such, some of the pieces have been replaced or...fixed. For example, if you look closely at the picture of the lambs, you might notice one of them has a toothpick where his leg should be. Apparently, there was a field amputation and the leg was replaced with an ill-fitting prosthesis. It ain't pretty, but after all these years, that sheep is still standing. My Dad and I had a mini tradition concerning the Nativity arrangement. He would always place the cow and donkey outside of the manger. And every year I would come over and explain to him that I thought they should be inside to help keep the baby Jesus warm. It was a silly exchange which both of us knew would take place, and one that I missed very much this year, as I regained my old job of tree decorator and Nativity arranger.
"So what are you going to do with your life...move to Nashville and write songs?" Uh, why not. The story goes that a teacher in his upstate New York high school spoke those words to Marc Scibilia out of frustration. Could be he took it as the incentive he needed, because that's exactly what he did a month after graduation. Now, at the age of twenty-six, Scibilia has been writing, singing and recording ever since.
Luciana Souza is arguably the most impressive jazz singer working today. Four of her solo recordings have been nominated for Grammy awards, and she has managed to forge an instantly identifiable individual sound while still working across several disparate musical styles. Late August brings the release of two new recordings—her first in three years—that feature jazz standards on the one hand and classic Brazilian bossa nova on the other.
Souza was born and raised in Sao Paolo, Brazil, by parents who were musicians and composers. Literally exposed from birth to the initial flowering of the Brazilian bossa nova spirit, she came to the US at 18, attended Berklee for her BA and then earned a Masters in “jazz studies” at the New England Conservatory. She is authentically Brazilian and utterly jazz, utterly American at the same time.
Well, let me recommend something in a husky yet pliant singing voice, good with a ballad like “Midnight in Harlem” but also game and glorious on an Elmore James blues like “Rollin’ and Tumblin’”. Let me suggest that such a voice—owned and used with authority by the lovely Susan Tedeschi—is just the ticket to getting your temperature rising. It growls and shouts as necessary but is equally capable of a caress. And this quality, of being multifaceted in a world that prefers pigeonholed pop stars who sing the same song over and over again, it’s too rare lately. It’s great.
There are a couple of trends that might be teased out of this list. Only one record (Mehldau’s Ode on Nonesuch) is on a “major label”. Even Blue Note and Verve have taken turns toward safer material. There is also not much to choose from in thrilling vocal jazz right now. Mainstream singers such as Diana Krall and Esperanza Spaulding (the latter’s Radio Music Society was a very good jazz record that merely sounded like a pop record) did fine work in 2012, but jazz singing remains weirdly handcuffed by “The American Songbook”. Cassandra Wilson released a record that got beyond it, but hardly her best, and the more-than-affable John Pizzarelli covered Tom Waits and Elvis Costello. But these records weren’t quite in my top ten.
(Read the entire article here: The Best Jazz of 2012)
Last month I got the chance to interview the brilliant John Pizzarelli, singer and seven-string jazz guitarist. He just wrote a memoir that is by turns hilarious and insightful. 
The suits came from the idea I had from way back that when you go to work you put on a jacket and tie. I still can’t stand the idea that somebody would go on television to report the news without a tie. If you’re going to tell me that somebody got blown up, what, you were too lazy to put on a tie? In my band, we wear a suit and tie. We want to express that we care about what we do. We take it seriously.
Otis Redding was only twenty-six years old at the time of his death. In his brief time in the music business, he became one of the era's most influential singers, and was one of the music acts responsible for getting the "soul" sound out to broader audiences. He appeared at the legendary Monterey Music Festival in June 1967 alongside, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Mamas & the Papas, the Who and a host of others. After the show, he and legendary guitarist Steve Cropper wrote what would be Redding's only #1 song. "Dock of the Bay" hit the charts after his death, offering a lasting tribute to a man who's influence is still strong 45 years after his death.
I can't even believe so many years have passed since a baby girl was born in a hospital in New York City. A tiny human being who has brought nothing but joy and pride to her family. A child who so quickly grew into a teenager and now a woman. Someone who has always treasured every one of her crazy relatives...though some more than others, but I won't name names. As she has loved us, we have cherished her. Through movies and dog shows, from carrying on family traditions to creating new ones together, it has been a joy to share them with her. Two of my greatest delights have been taking her to her first rock concert and then to her first Springsteen concert...a mandatory education for a Jersey girl. To you, my beautiful niece, I wish that every bit of happiness you give to others, comes right back to you. Love you MC.
FETEN - RARE JAZZ RECORDING FROM SPAIN 1961 - 1974 (VARIOUS ARTISTS)
But upon his death, my reaction is less as a critic than as a grateful fan. For me and many others, his was the first music that opened my ears. But it was more than that: he sometimes lacked subtlety, but Brubeck taught many of us to love the whole idea of passion and abandon in our lives.
And, because he is a very interesting interpreter, Elling gets at these tunes in singular ways. The opener, “On Broadway”, works from a delectable seven-note lick that underpins the whole tune in a hip and slightly menacing way. The lick (for bassist Clark Sommers and guitarist John McLean) weaves through a strange time signature, with a couple extra beats breaking up the groove every few bars, and it rides atop electric piano comping from Hobgood—not his usual axe. It’s a good reading of the tune, no doubt, even framed by a bunch of street sounds and voices (people telling Elling they don’t want to hire his ‘ooo-bop-a-doo’ vocal talent, ironically).