Posts of interest to me: cooking, shaving, politics, science, cats, movies, books, ….
Jo Stafford was a great singer of the era of songs I most enjoy, and the comic reprise to her singing career, the stylings of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, are wonderful of their kind. The NY Times has a very nice obituary, well worth reading.
Jack in the Netherlands writes:
The Rosenberg Trio consists of Stochelo Rosenberg (lead guitar), & his cousins Nous’che (rhythym guitar) & Nonnie (acoustic bass). They are Gypsies who live in the Netherlands. The first YouTube clip shows the Trio playing the Duke Ellington/Juan Tizol tune, “Caravan”; the second shows Stochelo playing the same tune at the same break-neck, breath-taking speed, but with different improvisations. Only Stochelo & the rhythym guitarist are shown; whoever the latter is, it’s not his cousin Nous’che. None of the 3 Rosenbergs can read a note of music. There are several other clips of the Rosenbergs available on YouTube. I have seen them play in person 4 times.
At least in terms of the effects on the audience:
Music can soothe the savage breast much better if played by musicians rather than clever computers, according to a new University of Sussex-led study.
Neuroscientists looked at the brain’s response to piano sonatas played either by a computer or a musician and found that, while the computerised music elicited an emotional response — particularly to unexpected chord changes — it was not as strong as listening to the same piece played by a professional pianist.
Senior research fellow in psychology Dr Stefan Koelsch, who carried out the study with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, played excerpts from classical piano sonatas to twenty non-musicians and recorded electric brain responses and skin conductance responses (which vary with sweat production as a result of an emotional response).
Although the participants did not play instruments and considered themselves unmusical, their brains showed clear electric activity in response to musical changes (unexpected chords and changes in tonal key), which indicated that the brain was understanding the “musical grammar”. This response was enhanced, however, when the sonatas were played by musicians rather than a computer.
This is one weird instrument—but it does have a nice sound, and an even nicer outdoor ambience when installed.
Apparently it’s the wood more than the varnish:
One possible reason that Stradivarius violins sound so exquisite is that they are made from low-density wood, hewn from trees that struggled to grow during the “little ice age” around 1650. By treating spruce and sycamore with a fungus that causes decay, researchers have produced lighter wood with similar resonant properties to Antonio Stradivari’s instruments (New Phytologist, DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02524.x).
Not sure whether I number guitarists among my readers, but this is interesting in any case. Via Gearlog:
At least according to this post on MakeUseOf.com. I’ve just joined, so I don’t have any experience yet of my own. But take a look—it sounds good, at any rate.
Molecular and statistical genetic studies in 15 Finnish families have shown that there is a substantial genetic component in musical aptitude. Musical aptitude was determined using three tests: a test for auditory structuring ability (Karma Music test), and the Seashore pitch and time discrimination subtests. The study represents the first systematic molecular genetic study that aims in the identification of candidate genes associated with musical aptitude.
The identified regions contain genes affecting cell extension and migration during neural development. Interestingly, an overlapping region previously associated with genetic locus for dyslexia was found raising a question about common evolutionary background of music and language faculties. The results show that musical aptitude is likely to be regulated by several predisposing genes/variants.
“The identification of genes/genetic variants involved in mediating music perception and performance would offer new tools to understand the role of music in human brain function, human evolution and its relationship to language faculty”, says the leader of the study, Dr. Irma Järvelä from the University of Helsinki.
Or so this post says. And I’m listening to one now. Pretty good.
Just happened across a nice profile of Vernon Duke. It begins:
THERE is something so improbably consoling about the sadness at the heart of the best Vernon Duke melodies. This redemptive afterglow could be a consequence of sheer melodic sophistication. Duke knew how to construct a song, elegantly, with surpassing craft and harmonic flair. Yet the earned wisdom behind the sadness in his music transcends flair and craft and goes beyond sophistication.
It’s not that the songs are even inherently unhappy. ”Autumn in New York,” ”April in Paris” and ”I Can’t Get Started” — to name Duke’s most identifiable trio — inhabit an emotional realm uncommon in the American popular song canon, that of dry-eyed ballads of unusual poignancy. The melancholy induced by these songs, while hauntingly seductive, is never glum.
Nor was Duke remotely a sad kind of guy. An aristocratic White Russian emigre turned Broadway songwriter, he seems to have had a rather good time of it all, dressing with notorious dash and, in a polyglot of languages, charming chorus girls and theatrical producers alike. Duke knew everybody, from his dearest friend, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, to Picasso and Chanel, Balanchine and Jean Cocteau, and even an antic young serviceman whom Duke discovered during World War II, Sid Caesar.
Moreover, alongside his prodigious Broadway output, from the 1920’s into the 1960’s, Duke enjoyed a parallel career as a classical composer. Under his given Russian name, Vladimir Dukelsky, he turned out ballet scores, concertos, sonatas, art-song cycles and at least three symphonies for the world’s most celebrated orchestras and conductors.
No embedding, but you can see it here. I love songs that use names as the lyrics—for a wonderful example, “Tschaikowsky”, sung by Danny Kaye in the 1941 Kurt Weill-Ira Gershwin musical “Lady in the Dark,” the book of which was by Moss Hart and based on his experience in psychoanalysis.
The video at the link is a campaign video by a friend of TYD.
I first became aware of the Modern Jazz Quartet late in high school. MJQ, as fans titled the group, was established in 1952 by Milt Jackson (vibes), John Lewis (piano, musical director), Percy Heath (bass), and Kenny Clarke (drums). Connie Kay replaced Clarke in 1955. It was a great group and lasted for years. They disbanded in 1974, but reunited for some concerts in later years.
Here’s a John Lewis composition, “Django”:
And another: “Bags’ Groove” (Bags was Milt Jackson’s nickname).
I can understand Britney wouldn’t sing one, but where are they? The question is raised in this post:
So here I am, working my day job and expressing my white boy anger by rocking out to some Rage Against The Machine and I had one of those classic thoughts, “a band like this would never make it in todays market.” And then it hit me. Hard. I couldn’t think of one popular protest song. Not one. I will be the first to admit I am not very knowledgeable about current pop music so if someone knows one, please, correct me and I will be happily wrong about this. But here we are, 5 years into a war that is extremely unpopular with the public and I couldn’t think of one anti-war song that is played on the radio. No Fortunate Son. No Blowing In The Wind. No Give Peace A Chance.
More at the link. But he’s right: it’s a strong contrast to the Vietnam War, when protest songs filled the airwaves.
Hilly out, flat back. Stopped by our good liquor store to see if they had Fee Brothers Orange Bitters. No. Bitter, indeed. But then I found on Amazon a set of Fee Brothers Bitters: Peach, Orange, Grapefruit, Lemon, Mint, and Old Fashioned Aromatic Bitters, all from West Indies.
I was accompanied by Jo Stafford—for example:
After she retired, she and her husband Paul Weston worked up a comic duo “Jonathan and Darlene Edwards,” playing and singing with determination and a tin ear, as a party gag. People loved it and talked them into recording. (Greatest Hits I and Greatest Hits II.)It’s quite enjoyable once you know it’s a gag. I couldn’t find much, but here’s Jonathan Edwards showing his chops on the piano:
Thanks to Jack from the Netherlands for suggesting this:
For more like that, do a YouTube search on Olivier Lancelot. And here’s Stephanie Trick playing James P. Johnson’s Carolina Shout:
The Netherlands, of course, is the great biking nation—and Steve of Kafeneio has a good post about how he found a Dutch bicycle that’s made in the California. And why not? If there are the Pennsylvania Dutch, why not the California Dutch. (PS: I know that the Pennsylvania “Dutch” are in fact “Deutsch”—I’m in the process of reading Page Smith’s fascinating two-volume book A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution.)
Decided to do an errand, so walked to the Pacific Grove Library to return a book. Total time walking: exactly one hour. Not only was library closed (César Chávez Day), but they had also locked the drop-in box. So I carried the book back home. Not a bad walk, though: sunny, slightly cool, light breeze. I listened to Hank Jones.
Here he plays “Willow Weep for Me,” Carnegie Hall, 6 April 1994:
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