12 posts tagged “music”
I am excited to be able to own a hand made Rob Allen bass. I love the super elegant one knob / no pickup design, fretless sound, and beautiful woods used in this instrument. It also feels good to support a company where the guy that makes the product is the guy who answers the phone when you call.
Now I have to practice so that I live up to the instrument. It is no good to be the guy with the nice gear that can't play!
PS - Don't you think it will look classy next to one of these someday?
Easy Tiger is the new album which I pre-ordered from iTunes and have been playing constantly. It's like country without the boots and truck... He's somewhere between Nick Drake and Bob Dylan with a bluegrass thing going on. Ryan Adams' music is hard to pin down and that is part of what is so great about it. There is so much diversity that I can't recommend a representative track, you'll just have to buy the album.
Ryan seems like the type of singer that should be seen live, and preferably in a smoky bar with sticky floors in the middle of nowhere. He is coming to The Moore at the end of the month which is close enough. Lisa and I are really looking forward to it. If there are tickets left, you should come too.
This week I treated myself to my first new music album in a while, Robert Glasper's In My Element. I first heard Robert Glasper on NPR a few days ago and it really caught my ear.
I've often been interested in combining jazz music with funk / hip-hop music but it is an elusive combo. Good jazz is often sophisticated and complex and good funk and hip-hop are often honest, raw, earthy, and physical. Unfortunately, many musicians combine them and loose the sophistication as well as the honesty and physicality. What they end up with something, well... smooth.
What struck me about Robert Glasper is that he seemed to be combining genres without loosing the good qualities in each. This album is definitely a jazz trio record, but it is fun to hear hip-hop and other styles mixing with the jazz. Unlike other artists, he isn't bringing in turntables and samplers, but rather tipping his hat to other genres using the jazz trio format.
In the NPR interview, Glasper said that he didn't want to talk about his influences, but rather wanted to have a "Glasper" style in the same way that there is a "Monk" style or "McCoy" style.
Of course, having Glasper fail to point out his influences makes me listen for them even more. I don't know about you, but when I listed to this record I hear a similarity to Gonzalo Rubalcaba, especially the way the trio interacts. There is definitely a Keith Jarrett influence on the piano playing. And, does anyone else hear a connection to Vince Guaraldi?
Anyway, check it out. I think a lot of different people will appreciate this album, regardless of what you normally listed to. I'd like to know what you think and what influences / connections you hear in the music.
Testing 1, 2, 3... Is this thing on? (sqqquueeeeel)
Oh, I guess so! OK, this post goes out to all my friends who read this blog.
iTunes has been putting some pretty great music on-line for free over the past couple months and I want to make sure that no friend of mine is missing out on free goodness.
You may say, "well I tried downloading the Single of the Week once, but it was a hip-hop track I didn't like." My tip to you is that the Single of the Week is only one third of the free music available each week, and often it isn't the best third.
Besides the Single of Week, iTunes also has a Discover Download track and iTunes Latino track for free each week. Both of these tracks are particularly good this week and a high percentage of them have been keepers recently. There have been classical, pop, singer-songwriter, dance songs... All kinds of great stuff.
The easy way to find all the free songs is to scroll near the bottom of the iTunes music store home page and find the "FREE ON iTunes" box. The free music tracks are usually the first 3 in the list, followed by some TV episodes and misc other stuff that I don't care about, but you might. The new free songs are posted every Tuesday, so put a reminder in your calendar to visit the iTunes store each week and grab the new songs, OK?
Just one of those things you have to see for yourself...
What are some of your favorite, forgotten albums that have stood the test of time?
Submitted by PeterGibbons.
So many to choose from...
I don't know if it's forgotten, but Joshua Tree by U2 has stood the test of time as well as anything in my collection. So good, I don't even know what to say. Brilliant front to back. Most bands would kill just to have one song as good as the weakest song on this record (I can't even pick a weakest). Every time I hear it, I want to quit everything, be a rock star and use my stardom to save the world.
This album has been on my wish list for the past 10 years. I can't count the number of times that I have been in a record store with it in my hands only to put it down for something else on the way to the checkout stand.
Coltrane, in general, is on this other level and I'll admit, is sometimes challenging to listen to. I think the key is that Coltrane is terrible background music. You have to engage with your whole mind or it just doesn't sit.
I always liked the freak out avante garde stuff at the end of his carreer. This album isn't there yet. We start to hear the "outside" jazz creeping in but it is anchored in very standard songs. Like a balloon that could fly away at any time but is still tied to the wrist of a child.
