for those among you seeking aural ecstasy, check out "african marketplace" by the great abdullah ibrahim. he recorded the album under his alias dollar brand. track three, "the wedding" is just beyond description. it is also easy enough to play on the whistle.
kevin m. wrote:[ On a more serious note-I read that the great jazz Drummer, Elvin Jones died last week at the age of 76.
He was an integral part of the 'classic' John Coltrane quartet.
I really hated to see Mr. Jones go. The Coltrane "classic" quartet made music that I scarcely can believe was made by mortals. I listened to those recordings compulsively for about five years. The drumming on the CD Crescent is unbearably good.
I have a videotape of a long interview with Elvin Jones. He tells one of my favorite stories about music in general and jazz in particular. After Coltrane left Miles Davis' band and started his own, Miles came to one of Coltrane's shows and then went backstage to talk with Coltrane. Miles Davis commented on one of COltrane's interminable solos. Coltrane told Davis that he couldn't figure out how to end his solos. Miles Davis said, "Just take the horn out your mouth."
Moonstreams, by Grover Washington, Jr, (jazz sax) or Dance of the Gypsy Queen by Eoin Duignan (Irish low whistle). Hard to choose between the two, but both qualify as indescribably beautiful.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which is least known--Montaigne
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light
--Plato
for those among you seeking aural ecstasy, check out "african marketplace" by the great abdullah ibrahim. he recorded the album under his alias dollar brand. track three, "the wedding" is just beyond description. it is also easy enough to play on the whistle.
Actually, 'Dollar Brand' was his original stage name. I think that 'Dollar' is short for Adolphus. He changed his name to Abdullah Ibrahim when he converted to Islam.
That bit of pedantry—he wouldn't regard it as trivia—just gives me an excuse to agree with you that this man makes wonderful music. And, yes, I play his tunes on whistle a lot as well as on piano and concertina. My favourite record from a couple of dozen I love is African Sketchbook.
African Marketplace is really good too. I think it was the first released specifically for the American market. I was really amused when I read the cover notes for the first time. I cracked up laughing when I read the translation of the track Woza Mtwana. It was rendered (from memory) 'come children' but much closer would have been 'arise children.' That is nicely ambiguous between get up (after waking), rise from the dead (like Jesus) and have an uprising. I think the ambiguity was almost certainly intentional but perhaps a bit 'hot' for the American public in the '80's.
g'day wombat,
mighty useful information about old abdullah there.
thank you kindly
"MY LITTLE RED SHOES" by Charlie Parker also works a treat on the whistle, 'though the basic melody is all that i ever play. The extemporizations are a bit tricky for my generation
chas wrote:I think the archetypal "inexplicably beautiful" is Tom Waits. Songs like The heart of Saturday night, A soldier's things, or Better off without a wife. I think a kid from Popcorn Behavior put it well: Tom Waits makes beautiful music from ugly parts.
Tom Waits. Just knowing Tom Waits exists makes me feel better about the world. 'Martha' and 'On the Nickel' can both make me cry. Rod Stewart should have been beaten within an inch of his life for that cover version of 'TTB'.
And whether the blood be highland, lowland or no.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.
Dollar Brand/abdullah Ibrahim is a great musician-I was lucky enough to see him play live,round about 1980,with the great alto saxist Carlos Ward(who had played with Coltrane in the 60's).
Also,on the same double bill that night was Ornette Coleman with his electric band 'Primetime'.
What a night that was!
Other 'Jazz' concert memories include two consequtive nights of the Sun Ra Arkestra in the mid eighties (big band featuring THREE trap drummers,and the GREAT Saxists John Gilmore on Tenor- he taught Coltrane a thing or two, Marshall Allen on Alto,and vocalist June Tyson.
The band were like a cross between ancient Egypt and a sci-fi 'B' movie(!),and played EVERYTHING from 1920's Fletcher Henderson charts to Hip Hop.
Also, a clearly drunken Dexter Gordon,arriving on stage hours late from Copenhagen,slurring that he was "Bringing the coals to Newcastle" and then proceding to play an absolutely BLISTERING set on Tenor and Soprano.
Strangly enough,I rarely listen to Jazz these days :roll:
Johnny Cash singing 'Hurt' - which I think was written by Nine Inch Nails's Trent Reznor. That video is so hard to watch. The thing as a whole, video, song, and Cash's expression of it are of Waits-level, terrible, beauty.
And whether the blood be highland, lowland or no.
And whether the skin be black or white as the snow.
Of kith and of kin we are one, be it right, be it wrong.
As long as our hearts beat true to the lilt of a song.
buddhu wrote:Johnny Cash singing 'Hurt' - which I think was written by Nine Inch Nails's Trent Reznor. That video is so hard to watch. The thing as a whole, video, song, and Cash's expression of it are of Waits-level, terrible, beauty.
I agree absolutely. I can't spew enough praise for that recording and the video was the most artistically courageous video I've ever seen. I still remember the first time I saw it. The moment at which Cash, sitting alone at the dining table with that enormous banquet of food in front of him, sings "you can have it all--my empire of dirt" while pouring a glass of wine over the food with that trembling hand......my stomach dropped to the floor.
You're right, "Hurt" is a NIN song. Reznor said he saw the Cash video and was overcome.
Speaking of inexplicably beautiful music and Johnny Cash: He did a cover of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." I couldn't imagine him doing that song. But it is an amazing recording as well.
Montana wrote:Thing of beauty, music of yearning: music from the Pas de Duex section of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.
And for emotionally compelling, Wagner's "Liebstod" from Tristan and Isolda is not bad...
I can certainly agree with Tchaikovsky. Beautiful!!!
"Let low-country intruder approach a cove
And eyes as gray as icicle fangs measure stranger
For size, honesty, and intent." John Foster West
Anything from "Punch Drunk Love" especially "He Needs Me" (taken from Altman's "Popeye")
..and since Elvin Jones just died and Coltrane was mentioned earlier in this thread...
"Naima" (ahhhhhhhh!)
Randy Newman and Tom Waits are excellent for this thread, on account of the inexplicable thing. Randy Newman is a terrible singer and one of my favorite singers. He's also the world's most bipolar songwriter in the sense that nobody writes funnier songs and nobody writes sadder songs.
Tell us something.: I love Emer Mayock, Matt Molloy, Jean Michel Veillon and Michael McGoldrick playing. My favourite flute makers are Hammy Hamilton and Solen Lesouef
For non singers I put forward Peter Hammill, he's a great composer of love songs (Ophelia, If I could), but also strange ballads about almost everything, from existential void to politics & social themes (Cockpit, Stranger Still, The Uncouncious life, The Second hand). .. but he lacks that non chalant side of Randy Newman; I think his work lacks some sense of humour
I've got more, but I'm saving them to make a really looong thread
evening all,
