I know I am talking too much about Jazz, but after listening to “Stolen Moments” again just now, I couldn’t get enough of Bill Evans‘ piano (he is from Plainsfield, NJ, right next door to where my mother is from). In any event, I thought I would also share with you some of my other favorite jazz pieces as well: Continue reading
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This afternoon I was randomly listening to music in my Radio Blog Club playlist without paying much attention, and out of the blue I heard a flute and thought: hey, that’s Eric Dolphy. Then, I listened carefully and remembered that it was “Stolen Moments” from Oliver Nelson’s most celebrated album The Blues and the Abstract Truth. Not only does it in fact feature Eric Dolphy on flute, Nelson also showcases one of the best casts of jazz musicians all together: Bill Evans (one of my favorite pianists), Roy Haynes on drums, Paul Chambers on bass, and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. They are all out of this world on this piece.
If you’ve ever read Janet Fitch’s White Oleander, you’ll recognize the song “Stolen Moments” which features in the story. Unfortunately, Fitch gets it wrong by attributing the pounding and liberating trumpet sound to Oliver Nelson. I don’t mean to be pedantic or nitpicky, but you got to give the credit to Freddie Hubbard. Nelson is the band leader and plays the sax.
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Now that Radio Blog Club is up and running again, I can finally post one of his flute pieces. This is “Ode to CP”. Enjoy!
Filed under Jazz
For the past 10 days or so, I have had the great pleasure of having visitors stay with me (Manolo, then my Bro, then Manolo again). With people occupying all of my free time, I haven’t had much time to read or listen to music. It took me twice as long to finish Naguib Mahfouz’ The Beginning and the End than what it should have. And last night, while I began reading Nuriddin Farah’s latest novel Knots, I was thinking that I have to stop buying new music. I simply do not have time to fully appreciate so much music if I want to continue reading and maintaining a moderate level of sociability.
Well, tonight after having read about 75 pages of Knots, I decided to surf a little on the net. This turned into a bit of an error as I began searching to see what Eric Dolphy CDs were available on iTunes. Dolphy was a multi-instrumentalist who played the alto-sax, bass clarinet, and flute. Above all, I just cannot get enough of the sound of his flute. In particular, I love his album Out There with Ron Carter playing the cello. In my search (and gluttony for his jazz flute), I discovered two more interesting Dolphy CDs, Iron Man and Where? (with Carter as the band leader). So much for taking advantage of my time and saving money.
Unfotunately, I cannot find any good, quality videos of Dolphy on flute and radioblogclub is presently under re-construction. So, the best thing, is this video of a Dolphy performance on alto-sax with the John Coltrane Quartet.
On the flight returning to Madrid over Christmas, I was browsing my iPod in search of something to accompany my travels. I finally decided upon the album Duke Ellington & John Coltrane. The balance was perfect — light and playful at times and bold and experimental at others. Upon hearing the Duke’s classical jazz sound and compositions pushed to perfect extremes without going overboard by Coltrane’s soprano sax, I was reminded of a conversation I once had with a ballet dancer about how beauty and freedom can only be found when confined by limits.
Filed under Digressions, Jazz
A while back, I wrote about John Coltrane’s Ole. Now, I am testing to see if I can embed songs into my blog from Radio.Blog.Club. That way, I can also use music (not just videos, artwork, and pictures) to enhance the message I am trying to send through my posts.
By the way, this is my favorite Coltrane piece from the album of the same name with the incredible Eric Dolphy on flute, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Art Taylor and Reggie Workman.
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Since finishing The Idiot on January 2, I have since read Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley, Amin Maalouf’s Samarkand, Paul Bowles’ The Spider’s House, and The Last Friend, and on Tuesday night I began Amos Oz’s Fima. Yesterday, I just got a package from Amazon with two more books from Maalouf and another from Mahfouz.
Now, I am in a phase where I just can’t stop reading (mainly novels written by or about the Arab world). The problem is that I have trouble striking a balance between my passion for reading and my passion for music. And I can’t do both at the same time. When I listen to music, I can’t concentrate on reading. Furthermore, since Christmas, I have also purchased the following music:
Sam Rivers: Counters; Blue Mitchell: Things to Do; Carole King: Really Rosie; Dee Dee Warwick: I Want to Be with You; Terry Callier: Speak Your Peace; Johnny Cash: Walk the Line; Eric Dolphy: Out There, Last Date, and Outward Bound; Duke Ellington: Black, Brown and Beige, and Such Sweet Thunder; John Coltrane: The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions, The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Sessions Live, and Coltrane Live at Birdland; The Jazz Renegades: Freedom Samba; and Charles Mingus: The Great Concert of Charles Mingus.
It’s difficult to take advantage of the investment in words and sound all at once, and yet I don’t have the patience to stop surfing Amazon.
Filed under Digressions, Jazz, Literature
Not that anyone out there cares, but last weekend I kept having this voice in my head about someone playing many notes all at once because he wasn’t quite sure which one to play. Well, no, I don’t hear voices and I ain’t crazy. I knew that it was from a song and yet it was familiar from somewhere else. Then I realized that it was probably from a song by Koop and also from an interview I had heard with John Coltrane. And I was right. The song is “Soul for Sahib” from Waltz for Koop.
There are some set things that I know, some devices that I know, harmonic devices that I know that will take me out of the ordinary path if I use them. But I haven’t played them enough and I am not familiar with them enough yet to play one single line through them, so I play all of them you know trying to acclimate my ears so I can hear.
No, I have no idea what he means.
Filed under Jazz
I am at home for the holidays, and like in What About Bob?, I am taking a vacation from my problems. Not that I have so many real problems, but I have totally disconnected (yes, pun intended). I have received barely any work emails (or personal for that matter), and I feel as if all of the petite malaise have vanished from my body.
While at home, I barely do anything of consequence. I have not really allowed my body to adjust to jet lag, so I wake up almost every morning at 5:30 am. And although I wake up early, I never feel particularly tired. I spend my days eating and occassionally, I take a drive either through my home town, Potomac, Maryland, or I go into DC. I love to simply drive through the streets and look at the house, buildings and vegetation. On the East Coast, the vegetation follows the opposite life cycle as in Spain. In Spain, everything is green (although barely) in the winter and dry in the summer. Here, the trees are barren in the winter, and lush in the summer. The rest of the time, I spend with my parents, save some time I had with my brother (his girlfriend and Dixon), and a few visits with some friends. I have felt little to no interest in even boring the readers of this blog.
Because Christmas has passed, I no longer listen to Christmas Caroles, and am now back to Jazz. On these two videos, I am listening to John Coltrane’s The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions (“Greensleeves” and “The Damned Don’t Cry”, respectively). First, I am driving down 35th and P streets in Georgetown. In the second video, I am going through my favorite short-cut in Potomac along Kendale Road. As is obvious from both videos, I am not even much of an aficionado, but so is life.
Filed under Digressions, Jazz
Dhafer Youseff is one of my favorite artists, introduced to me by my friend Fadi. If interested, I particularly recommend Eletric Sufi.
Filed under Jazz
Grave Error 