The 20th Century saw a revolution in music listening as the radio gained popularity worldwide and new media and technologies were developed to record, capture, reproduce and distribute music. The focus of art music in the 20th was characterized by exploration.
Claude Debussy has become well-known and respected for his orientation towards colors and depictions in his compositional style. John Cage Arnold Schoenberg, and Igor Stravinsky,were all deeply influential composers in 20th century art music. Jazz music evolved and became a significant genre of music over the course of the 20th century, and during the second half of that century, rock did the same.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Take it easy
Eagles (commonly referred to as "The Eagles") are an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in the early 1970s. With five number-one singles and four number-one albums, the Eagles were among the most successful recording artists of the 1970s. At the end of the 20th century, two of their albums, Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 and Hotel California, ranked among the ten best-selling albums according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The best-selling studio album Hotel California is rated as the 37th album in the Rolling Stone list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and the band was ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[1] They are also the best-selling American group ever, with Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 being the best-selling album in the U.S. to date.The Eagles also provided the theme tune for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, with a song called Journey of the Sorcerer.
The Eagles broke up in 1980 and were disbanded for 14 years, but reunited in 1994 for Hell Freezes Over ("For the record, we never broke up. We just took a fourteen year vacation."). They have toured intermittently since then, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
On June 8, 2007, Don Henley announced at a concert that a new album, Long Road Out of Eden, would be out on October 30, 2007. This will be the first full studio album by the band in 28 years (1994's Hell Freezes Over was a mix of live and new studio tracks). The Eagles are also planning a tour throughout 2008 after the release of this album.
http://eaglesband.com/
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Black Rebel - Muddy Waters
Waters’ approach to the blues underwent a dramatic metamorphosis after moving to Chicago, where he befriended and played with such estimable figures as Big Bill Broonzy and John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson. Waters switched from acoustic to electric guitar in order to be heard over the din of patrons at the clubs he played on Chicago’s South Side. After a few false starts, Waters’ recording career began in earnest soon after pianist Sunnyland Slim introduced him to Leonard Chess, co-owner of the Aristocrat label (later Chess Records). Working at the famed Chess Studios on South Michigan Avenue, Waters cut many of the greatest recordings in the blues canon. He developed a fruitful team approach to record-making with producer Leonard Chess, bassist/songwriter Willie Dixon, and various musical associates.
Waters was a fierce singer and slashing slide guitarist whose uncut blues bore the stamp of his mentors, Robert Johnson and Son House. For his own part, Waters served to mentor or at least launch many prominent blues musicians, many of whom went on to careers as bandleaders in their own right. The list of notable musicians who passed through Waters’ band includes harmonica players “Little Walter” Jacobs, “Big Walter” Horton, Junior Wells and James Cotton; guitarists Jimmy Rogers, Pat Hare, Luther Tucker and Earl Hooker; pianists Memphis Slim, Otis Spann and Pinetop Perkins; and drummers Elgin Evans, Fred Below and Francis Clay.
In addition to his musical legacy, Waters helped cultivate a great respect for the blues as one of its most commanding and articulate figureheads. Drummer Levon Helm of The Band, who worked with him on The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album and at The Last Waltz, had this to say about him in a Goldmine magazine interview: “Muddy taught us to take things in context, to be respectful, and to be serious about our music, as he was. He showed us music is a sacred thing.”
Waters, who remained active till the end, died of a heart attack in 1983. He was 68 years old. In the years since his death, the one-room cedar shack in which he lived on the Stovall Plantation has been preserved as a memorial to Waters’ humble origins.
Discography
The Best of Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill Broonzy
Muddy Waters At Newport, 1960
Folk Singer
The Real Folk Blues
Muddy Waters Brass and the Blues
More Real Folk Blues
Electric Mud
After The Rain
Fathers and Sons
Muddy Waters Sail On
They Call Me Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield aka Muddy Waters Live (at Mr. Kelly's)
The London Muddy Waters Sessions
Can't Get No Grindin'
London Revisited with Howlin' Wolf
Unk In Funk
Woodstock Album
Rolling Stone
Rare and Unissued
Trouble No More Super Blues
Live at Jazz Jamboree '76
His Best, 1947 - 1955
Muddy Mississippi Waters
I'm Ready
Hard Again
King Bee
Muddy and the Wolf
The Plantation Album
One More Mile
Paris, 1972
Goin' Way Back
A Tribute to Muddy Waters
Buddy Guy, John Hiatt, Keb Mo and others sing the music of Muddy Waters.
Hoochie Coochie Man
The Lost Tapes
The Golden Anniversary Collection
http://www.muddywaters.com
Waters was a fierce singer and slashing slide guitarist whose uncut blues bore the stamp of his mentors, Robert Johnson and Son House. For his own part, Waters served to mentor or at least launch many prominent blues musicians, many of whom went on to careers as bandleaders in their own right. The list of notable musicians who passed through Waters’ band includes harmonica players “Little Walter” Jacobs, “Big Walter” Horton, Junior Wells and James Cotton; guitarists Jimmy Rogers, Pat Hare, Luther Tucker and Earl Hooker; pianists Memphis Slim, Otis Spann and Pinetop Perkins; and drummers Elgin Evans, Fred Below and Francis Clay.
In addition to his musical legacy, Waters helped cultivate a great respect for the blues as one of its most commanding and articulate figureheads. Drummer Levon Helm of The Band, who worked with him on The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album and at The Last Waltz, had this to say about him in a Goldmine magazine interview: “Muddy taught us to take things in context, to be respectful, and to be serious about our music, as he was. He showed us music is a sacred thing.”
Waters, who remained active till the end, died of a heart attack in 1983. He was 68 years old. In the years since his death, the one-room cedar shack in which he lived on the Stovall Plantation has been preserved as a memorial to Waters’ humble origins.
Discography
The Best of Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill Broonzy
Muddy Waters At Newport, 1960
Folk Singer
The Real Folk Blues
Muddy Waters Brass and the Blues
More Real Folk Blues
Electric Mud
After The Rain
Fathers and Sons
Muddy Waters Sail On
They Call Me Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield aka Muddy Waters Live (at Mr. Kelly's)
The London Muddy Waters Sessions
Can't Get No Grindin'
London Revisited with Howlin' Wolf
Unk In Funk
Woodstock Album
Rolling Stone
Rare and Unissued
Trouble No More Super Blues
Live at Jazz Jamboree '76
His Best, 1947 - 1955
Muddy Mississippi Waters
I'm Ready
Hard Again
King Bee
Muddy and the Wolf
The Plantation Album
One More Mile
Paris, 1972
Goin' Way Back
A Tribute to Muddy Waters
Buddy Guy, John Hiatt, Keb Mo and others sing the music of Muddy Waters.
Hoochie Coochie Man
The Lost Tapes
The Golden Anniversary Collection
http://www.muddywaters.com
Friday, October 12, 2007
Astor Piazzolla - Adios Nonino
"Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla was born on March 11, 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, only child of Vicente “Nonino” Piazzolla and Asunta Mainetti. In 1925, the family relocates to New York City until 1936 with a brief return to Mar del Plata in 1930.
In 1929, when Astor is 8 years old, his father gives him his first bandoneon which he had bought at a pawn shop for 19 dollars. Astor studies the bandoneon for one year with Andrés DÁquila and he makes his first record, Marionette Spagnol; a phonograph disk (non commercial) at the Radio Recording Studio in New York on 11/30/1931.
He plays on some second rate tango orchestras until 1939, when he realizes his dream of playing bandoneon within one of the greatest tango orchestras of that time; the Anibal Troilo orchestra. “Pichuco” was one of the best bandoneon players, and Astor always considered him one of his masters.
Between 1950 and 1954 he composes a series of works, clearly different from the conception of tango at the time, and that further define his unique style: Para lucirse, Tanguango, Prepárense, Contrabajeando, Triunfal, Lo que vendrá.
One of the prizes he won at this composition contest was a scholarship from the French governement to study in Paris (where he goes in 1954), with Nadia Boulanger, considered the best educator in the world of music at the time. At first, Piazzolla tries to hide his tanguero past and his bandoneon work, thinking that his destiny is in classical music. This situation is quickly remedied when he opens his heart to Boulanger and he plays his tango “Triunfal” for her. From then on he receives a historic recommendation: “Astor, your classical pieces are well written, but the true Piazzolla is here, never leave it behind”
After this episode, Piazzolla returns to tango and to his instrument, the bandoneon. What was once a choice between the sophisticated music or tango, now would be sophisticated music and tango, but in the most efficient way: to work the structure of sophisticated music with the passion of the tango. In Paris, he composes and records a series of tangos with a string orchestra and he begins to play the bandoneon while standing up, he puts one leg on a chair, a trait that would characterize him on the music scene (Most bandoneonists play sitting down).
Towards the end of 1989 he dissolves his group and continues playing solo with string quartets and symphonic orchestras. Until August 4, 1990, in Paris, when he suffers a stroke. After almost 2 years of suffering the consequences of this incident, he dies in Buenos Aires on July 4, 1992. "
Taken from http://www.piazzolla.org
In 1929, when Astor is 8 years old, his father gives him his first bandoneon which he had bought at a pawn shop for 19 dollars. Astor studies the bandoneon for one year with Andrés DÁquila and he makes his first record, Marionette Spagnol; a phonograph disk (non commercial) at the Radio Recording Studio in New York on 11/30/1931.
He plays on some second rate tango orchestras until 1939, when he realizes his dream of playing bandoneon within one of the greatest tango orchestras of that time; the Anibal Troilo orchestra. “Pichuco” was one of the best bandoneon players, and Astor always considered him one of his masters.
Between 1950 and 1954 he composes a series of works, clearly different from the conception of tango at the time, and that further define his unique style: Para lucirse, Tanguango, Prepárense, Contrabajeando, Triunfal, Lo que vendrá.
One of the prizes he won at this composition contest was a scholarship from the French governement to study in Paris (where he goes in 1954), with Nadia Boulanger, considered the best educator in the world of music at the time. At first, Piazzolla tries to hide his tanguero past and his bandoneon work, thinking that his destiny is in classical music. This situation is quickly remedied when he opens his heart to Boulanger and he plays his tango “Triunfal” for her. From then on he receives a historic recommendation: “Astor, your classical pieces are well written, but the true Piazzolla is here, never leave it behind”
After this episode, Piazzolla returns to tango and to his instrument, the bandoneon. What was once a choice between the sophisticated music or tango, now would be sophisticated music and tango, but in the most efficient way: to work the structure of sophisticated music with the passion of the tango. In Paris, he composes and records a series of tangos with a string orchestra and he begins to play the bandoneon while standing up, he puts one leg on a chair, a trait that would characterize him on the music scene (Most bandoneonists play sitting down).
Towards the end of 1989 he dissolves his group and continues playing solo with string quartets and symphonic orchestras. Until August 4, 1990, in Paris, when he suffers a stroke. After almost 2 years of suffering the consequences of this incident, he dies in Buenos Aires on July 4, 1992. "
Taken from http://www.piazzolla.org
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Pat Metheny on Kenny G
Question:
Pat, could you tell us your opinion about Kenny G - it appears you were quoted as being less than enthusiastic about him and his music. I would say that most of the serious music listeners in the world would not find your opinion surprising or unlikely - but you were vocal about it for the first time. You are generally supportive of other musicians it seems.
Pat's Answer:
Kenny G is not a musician I really had much of an opinion about at all until recently. There was not much about the way he played that interested me one way or the other either live or on records.
I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like Grover Washington or David Sanborn, but was not really an advanced player, even in that style. He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble - Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music...
Read full interview on Jazzoasis
Pat, could you tell us your opinion about Kenny G - it appears you were quoted as being less than enthusiastic about him and his music. I would say that most of the serious music listeners in the world would not find your opinion surprising or unlikely - but you were vocal about it for the first time. You are generally supportive of other musicians it seems.
Pat's Answer:
Kenny G is not a musician I really had much of an opinion about at all until recently. There was not much about the way he played that interested me one way or the other either live or on records.
I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like Grover Washington or David Sanborn, but was not really an advanced player, even in that style. He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble - Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music...
Read full interview on Jazzoasis
The Police
The band Police is founded on 1977 by Gordon Sumner(Sting) after he realize the only love of his life was music rather than being a teacher. At the beginning they planned to create a sound which is full of guitar solos and simple like the guitar is not the front end of their music, short, melodic opposite to power trio's.
Their first hit was "Roxanne" but also "So Lonely" and "Message in the Bottle"(which I'm listening in the background right now) has become popular, three hits on the first album is not so bad ! Most of the compositions and lyrics are created by Sting with a different usage of English (instead of ring he uses "wrapped around my finger")
Sting started to search a new and rich sound with the album "Ghost Machine". Keyboards, grift armonies, kind of jazz, more progressive and the result is collected on the album "Dream of the Blue Turtles".
They've created more refined, more jazz and sofisticated sound with Omar Hakim on drums, Branford Marsalis on Saxophone. Jazz on "Moon over Bourbon Street",classical ambience on "The Russians", funk sound of "If you love somebody, set them free" and new age sound on " We work the black seam together" was so nice.
Anyway The police was the most important Brit band that ever...
Discography:
1978, Outlandos d'Amour
1979, Reggatta De Blanc
1980, Zenyatta Mondatta
1981, Ghost In The Machine
1983, Synchronicity
1986, Every Breath You Take (The Singles)
Video : Walking on the Moon
Their first hit was "Roxanne" but also "So Lonely" and "Message in the Bottle"(which I'm listening in the background right now) has become popular, three hits on the first album is not so bad ! Most of the compositions and lyrics are created by Sting with a different usage of English (instead of ring he uses "wrapped around my finger")
Sting started to search a new and rich sound with the album "Ghost Machine". Keyboards, grift armonies, kind of jazz, more progressive and the result is collected on the album "Dream of the Blue Turtles".
They've created more refined, more jazz and sofisticated sound with Omar Hakim on drums, Branford Marsalis on Saxophone. Jazz on "Moon over Bourbon Street",classical ambience on "The Russians", funk sound of "If you love somebody, set them free" and new age sound on " We work the black seam together" was so nice.
Anyway The police was the most important Brit band that ever...
Discography:
1978, Outlandos d'Amour
1979, Reggatta De Blanc
1980, Zenyatta Mondatta
1981, Ghost In The Machine
1983, Synchronicity
1986, Every Breath You Take (The Singles)
Video : Walking on the Moon
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