It’s a dark, rainy night here in Minneapolis, a perfect backdrop for the music of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the kind of jazz that feels as if it’s always being played at midnight somewhere in the world.
As you can tell from these examples, Roland Kirk was an innovator not only in the music he played, but in how he played it. His ability to harmonize on several instruments at once brought a whole new meaning to the phrase “one man band.”
A few weeks ago a group of us were out to catch The Gaslight Anthem at The Cabooze. There were three opening bands, a situation that normally doesn’t portend good for any of them, but the quality was surprisingly high, and the stand-out was a british guy with a guitar, Frank Turner. When you’re stripped down to one instrument like that, what overwhelmingly counts are the songs, and Frank had a pocketful of good ones. definitely someone to keep an eye on.
So, on this Saturday morning, a few good songs from Frank Turner, with the expectation that there will be many more to come.
Two Fridays in a row now life has interrupted blogging, with the Friday music blog taking the hit. So we need something good to make up for it. Here for the weekend before Halloween is a Minneapolis band, Atmosphere, leader of the Twin Cities and Minnesota hip-hop scene. What’s that, you say you didn’t know Minnesota had a rap scene. Well, you can’t ask for a better introduction than Atmosphere.
The state of Texas has brought us a host of good music, from Bob Wills to Buddy Holly and beyond. The “and beyond” part is a fairly apt description of Lyle Lovett, who is usually labeled a country singer but whose oeuvre extends well beyond the boundaries of country to incorporate styles from folk to swing, gospel and rhythm and blues, all mixed in with a wicked sense of humor. Plus, he’s got great hair.
I wish I could post his classic my-girl-done-me-wrong-song “God Will” with its chorus of
God will (forgive you), but I won’t, God does but I don’t,
That’s the difference between God and me,
but it’s not available as a video. Instead, here are a couple more examples of Lovett’s range as a songwriter, the rocking “I’ve Been To Memphis”, and the how-long-is-this-sermon-going-to-last gospel of “Church.”
The Gaslight Anthem are usually described as a punk band from New Jersey, but as you can tell from their adaptation of Woody Guthrie’s “Red At Night” their roots run much deeper than that. The music they make touches on punk, but owes as much to the classic sound of Springstten and the E Street band as it does to the Clash.
The Gaslight Anthem will be here in Minneapolis tomorrow night, and I’ve got tickets. I’m expecting a night of good, new-fashioned, energetic rock ‘n’ roll, no matter what label anyone puts on it. meanwhile, here’s couple more cuts to warm up with.
John Lennon playing word games in a folk-rock mood, The Byrds at their most psychedelic, that’s the song-writing tradition Robyn Hitchcock works out of, and he’s made a career of combining smilingly surrealistic lyrics with catchy melodies and jangly guitars.
And who can resist a classic good-night ghost story?
You can take Frankie Valli or any of half-a-dozen doo-wop singers, for my money the best falsetto of the sixties belonged to Lou Christi, with a voice that didn’t just ask for your attention but demanded it, and a gift for melody that made it all work.
‘The Gypsy Cried” is an early effort, you can hear the doo-wop influence right out front. Lou Christie would have his biggest hits, though, with a sound that combined Phil Spector with Motown and, in the case of “Lightnin’ Strikes”, a guitar solo that any garage band would have been proud to stumble upon, all wrapped up in stories of romance crossing the line into sheer lust. It hardly gets more sixties than that.
The 2009 Kennedy Center Honorees were announced this week, and in addition to Mel Brooks and Robert De Niro, three of them are musicians.
Grace Bumbry is not only a breaker of barriers, she is one of the finest opera singers of her generation. And as this clip from the film version of Carmen shows, she is one of the few great opera singers who can also act.
Dave Brubeck is a jazz giant. Best known for “Take Five”, the rhythmically adventurous tune that actually made it to the top of the pop charts, he continues to compose and perform to this day. Here he is doing “Blue Rondo a la Turk”, a classic composition that is one of those pieces that every young jazz musician learns to cut his or her teeth on.
Last, but not least, Bruce Springsteen. Back in the mid-70’s when I first started attending rock concerts, rock bands almost invariably performed their songs exactly as they appeared on record. Springsteen broke the rock performance mold in many ways, and in doing so established himself as the greatest performer of his generation. Here he is a few short months after the release of Born To Run, with a version of “Thunder Road” that defied expectations, and helped set a new standard for what would be expected of rock bands from then on.
