The Autumn House

Beware Poets on My IPod

I've been spending time filling my IPod with poetry, mainly with poets from the Romantic Period. Some of them with actors interpreting the poetry, some of them with the poets themselves give the reading. I seem to prefer the reading given by the actors. Nicol Williamson reading William Blake's "The Tyger" sounds like an incantation read by his character Merlin in "Excalibur". While, Ogden Nash reading his own poetry sounds a lot like John Kennedy reading a speech, except not as motivating. But, one of the quotes Nash is known for goes something like," I'd rather be a good bad poet, than a bad good poet." As a matter of fact, I've known Ogden Nash poems since the third grade. My favorite was:

EDOUARD

A bugler named Dougal MacDougal

Found ingenious ways to be frugal

He learned how to sneeze

in various keys

Thus saving the price of a bugle

 

No, he's no Robert Frost, but a lot of the poetry I was exposed to then was a bit limerick-y. Hey, c'mon, YOU recite Coleridge's "Kubla Khan". The first few lines don't count since they are in "Citizen Kane". Anyway, "The Romantic Poets" is filled with British actors reciting Shelley, Keats, Byron, Blake and Wordsworth. It's definitely something I would recommend. The other series of CDs that I've picked up featuring poets reading their own work, I would recommend only if you're interested in hearing how the poet read his own work, but don't be surprised if you're a bit disappointed. I'll let you know how James Mason sounds reading "Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

While I'm On the Subject of Quotes...

There is this program on National Public Radio(NPR) called "This I Believe"  I don't actually listen to the broadcast, but I download the podcast from ITunes. (Actually, I hardly listen to "live" radio nowadays.) The program is based on a series of broadcasts in the 1950s by Edward Murrow in which ordinary people share core values and personal philosophies.

This one by Judith Jameson in particular caught my ear. This quote is something I completely agree with when applied to music. But, I could never have stated it so succinctly:

"We don't just want to thrill an audience with how many turns we can do or how high we can jump or raise our legs. Plenty of people can do that with practice. We need to share our truth. When a performance stands out, it's not just the arms and legs that stay in your mind. What you remember is the feeling you get from the performance, and that feeling comes from the dancers' expression of self." - Judith Jameson

"NI!"

Sometimes, I get to play interesting gigs. Most of the time the interesting gigs aren't interesting in the way I think they will be. When I played with the Wendy Reed Band this weekend, I hadn't realized the United Way function we were doing was an after-show thing for "Spamalot". None of the original broadway cast was on tour though(Hank Azaria and David Hyde Pierce left the show almost two years ago).

I played right next to the Holy Grail, or rather, the grail shaped beacon(Naughty, Zoot!). At the entrance to the party were these huge 10 foot-mock-ups of the famous Knights who say "NI!" or rather "Eckyeckyeckyeckypikangzoopboinggoodemzooowliziv". I'm quite sure that last statement makes my geekiness certifiable.

A penny for little Joshua Bell, sir?

This is a great article from the Washington Post about Joshua Bell busking during the morning rush hour. I wonder how much he would have made if he played "Brown-eyed Girl" or "Sweet Home Alabama". I wonder if more people started paying attention to people busking during their morning commutes after reading this article. I should warn any readers, the article is a long one. It also has some interesting sub-points. If the article doesn't wear you out you can read the 53 pages of reader comments afterwards.

When I lived in Boston, decades ago, I saw the exact scenes described in the article occur(with the exception that the good musicians were not the fantastic Bell). It has nothing to do with the music. It has everything to do with the situation. People are generally to busy to recognize what's right in front of them, unless they're told what's in front of them. For example, if there was a big sign that read "THIS IS THE WORLD FAMOUS VIOLINIST JOSHUA BELL" and pointing directly at him he may have made quite a killing. Or, maybe not. I'm pretty sure, though, that this is more a comment on the pace of life in the United States, and hopefully less of a comment on its culture.
Of course, they are often the same thing.

Kudos to the Gene Weingarten for such a fascinating read.

If I Have To Tell You Kids to Stop Playing that Illegally Downloaded Music a Fourth Time, I swear.....

The RIAA shows why it's winning the "Worst Company in America" contest (above, apparently, Halliburton) right here. At least, it does send the warnings three times. This apparently allows the students time to find friends with law degrees. This also sends the message, "Well, if you are not going to buy all of our music legally, then we are going to take the money from you(or your parents and teachers) anyway. So there! Take that Halliburton!".

The settlements are reported to be $4000 to $4500. So, using ITunes $.99 model, if you illegally download 4000-4500 tunes, you would break even. If you download even more, you would come out ahead. So, would that encourage students to download more or less?

Looks like Indiana University received about 28 of these notices. Ohio University received 50 and University of Mass.-Amherst received 32. Looks like IU has a bit of catching up to do, again. All the students named in the letters are identified through the IP address, which may already cause some problems. As if the IT departments of these Universities didn't have enough problems, it's up to them to match the IP address with the student involved. No spring break for IT employees.

Suing Mom, Profiting from a War it's all the Same?

A friend of mine, Darren, posted this on his blog. I think I could use a trackback here, but I'm still figuring out how to use those. So, I'll just post a direct link here.

I think its kind of interesting that profiting from a war is just one notch below suing Mom for letting her kids illegally download "Disco Duck". Actually, downloading "Disco Duck" should be the crime itself....

Gee, I hope this won't be put me out of the running for any future Grammies ;)....

Why Don't More People Know Who Kurt Elling Is?

I was a little busy over the weekend: my birthday, played for accountants, saw Kurt Elling at the Jazz Kitchen and played a somewhat impromptu solo performance and jam session during a benefit a Mickey's. I even bought new shoes(two pairs!). 

The most interesting part was watching Kurt Elling perform at the Jazz Kitchen. The owner, Dave Allee, had recently remodeled the stage area, so it sounded a little different than the first few times I had seen Elling there. But, it looked spectacular: all back-lit with blue cut-out flames. It almost looked like Kurt and his band were playing in under a blue volcano.

A formal gig for accountants at Hillcrest Country Club prevented me from dedicating the entire night. Actually, I only caught the last four or five songs starting with "Tanya Jean" and ending with "In the Wee Small Hours". Why more vocalists and people outside of jazz circles don't know who the seven time Grammy nominee is is beyond me. His recordings are great, but don't do him justice. See him live and you will hear what I mean. He is probably one of the most identifiable voices in jazz in the past ten years.

Laying Tracks at the Pop Machine

Today, I laid some tracks on a new CD project by songwriter Tim Considine at the Pop Machine in Broad Ripple, Indiana. All the tracks were really interesting: One sounded Beatle-ish, another Buffet-ish and yet another turned out to be Hornsby-ish. It was a good time for me, its much harder to think of 5 songs of original material in one idiom(jazz, country, gospel, whatever). When the styles vary, even a little, I feel like I can take a fresh approach. Also, I don't have to worry about repeating voicings, riffs or patches from song to song.

This is the first time I think I've ever been in  the Pop Machine. They recently co-wrote and co-produced the John Waite release "Universal Soldier" from the new CD "Downtown . . . Journey of a Heart". Adam White was doing the engineering/co-producing, taking a break from the group ESW. Some of the tracks that Adam played drums on sounded downright Steward Copeland-ish. Maybe I should find him some Octobans.....

Why I'm Afraid of Wynton Marsalis

It would be easy to say he's a better musician than me. That's a given. I DO mean better in every sense of the word: schooled, feeling, technique, story and all the other important things in music. Plus, he's not lazy. I kinda am. But, if he or his band were to share the stage with me, let say this Friday, I would bring nothing that he doesn't already have to the table. Everything I should be, with regard to musicianship, he is. So, it makes me feel like I let my whole world of music down. Plus, he has a killer website. He even has a brother who I really like. Actually, he has a few of them.

I guess the only thing I would be able to do if I were to jam with him and his band, let's say this Friday, is try to keep my ego from crying and learn the best I can from the masters. I haven't been part of jam sessions or cutting sessions for years. Guess it's time to break out the fake book. Thank god, Dave Andricik at the Chatterbox warned me this past weekend....

No More Back Problems for Roadies

I have lots of friends who are Electrical, Mechanical and Computer engineers. That, added to the fact that sometimes I play in "upper scale" restaurant and bars, means I get to see some neato technology at times. I saw this device once while I was playing at the D'Vine a Winebar in Indianapolis. Now, if they could make this into a piano keyboard shape, I could just bring a sheet of smooth plywood to the gig and play. Possibly, I could just borrow a table from the venue put this aerosol size can down turn on the laser display and play(using an computer and an amplifier). Added to some of newer products that companies like Bose puts out, it would save roadies(in my case, me) tons of back problems.

This would make reading sheet music a breeze. Mike Stricklin, the saxophonist on both The Autumn House and Club Bordeaux CDs sometimes uses his Macintosh to display fake book charts. But, if you could display them using this material, it would be much more ergonomic. The material holds the image without a charge and is not backlit. In other words, it looks like paper, but it is capable of being electrically altered to display another image, without need for another sheet of paper. Fujitsu has developed a color variation.