A blog featuring whatever I fancy, often on the Christian faith but not exclusively
Showing posts with label jazz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jazz. Show all posts
La La Land
We went to see the famous La La Land this week. My wife was talking about this film well before all the hype and the Oscar nominations. I went only because of all the talk about it. One of my sons came too.
I was a little sceptical knowing it is a romantic musical but it kept my attention and made me think and I enjoyed the score (chiefly jazz). I don't ask much more of a film than that to be honest. As to why this is such a successful film I have no real idea. The dancing and the singing are okay no more, the acting fine. The story is fairly predictable in some ways but with a post-modern twist. It helps you to think through again this whole matter of talent and desires and celebrity and God's providence. It's nice to be an old person watching it rather than a young one still wondering quite how it is all going to pan out. Not that I don't struggle still with the whole matter of using one's gifts and the temptation to simply do what is popular. At least the opening question of the Shorter Catechism (What is man's chief end?) and its wonderful answer (To glorify him and enjoy him forever) gives us all a head start on that one.
The film is a 12A because one of the main characters swears a bit. he film would be better without the irrelevant swearing. One fears that film makers don't like a U certificate because people will think it is just for kids.
The film was good but we all thought one of the highlights was when a little group wandered into the cinema and sat down only to realise they were in front of the wrong screen. Poor show on the part of Vue Cinemas.
10 Jazz Trumpeters
2. Bix Beiderbecke 1903-1931
3. Nat Gonella 1908-1988
4. Dizzie Gillespie 1917-1993
5. Humphrey Littleton 1921-2008
6. Miles Davis 1926-1991
7. Chet Baker 1929-1988
8. Kenny Ball 1930-2013
9. Herb Alpert b 1935
10. Wynton Marsalis b 1961
(Not a big interest of mine but this film about Chet Baker is coming out soon)
They must know
I watched University Challenge last night as I try to do on Mondays. There was a question about woodwind instruments. I think the starter for 10 must have been Gabriel's oboe, which was quickly guessed. Knowing I am a big fan (I guess) they then played a clip of House of the King by Focus (which delighted me no end for some reason). Pan pipes was the inexplicable wrong answer (which no doubt left the question setter chuffed as I suppose the flute is being played by Van Leer in a slightly unorthodox way). They failed to get alto sax (Ron Crotty on Take Five I think) as they said Tenor Sax. They did recognise Acker Bilk's clarinet on Stranger on the Shore.
Akkerman at the Stables
Out at The Stables Milton Keynes last night to see Jan Akkerman and his band put in a sterling performance. I thought we'd get more of the new album but although he began with three numbers from it (Freewheelin', Minor Details and Blind baby - ie blues, jazz, bluies) and opened the second half with the superb Mena Muria (the Moluccan anthem) it was mostly the old stuff that we got and that was probably wisely judged.
So in the first half we had a curious version of the Zebra, a realtively short version of Tranquiliser and the well loved Paul Weller number You do something to me. The second half was pretty much given over to old Focus numbers - Answers Questions, Focus 2 (superb), Anonymous and a long version of Tommy, finishing off with the obligatory Hocus Pocus (still able to squeeze new life out of that somehow) and Sylvia. For the encore we had fine versions of Streetwalker and Pietons.
There is something slightly sterile about the Stables venue but this highly competent performance won through and certainly left the audience of around 250 very pleased. Copies of the new CD were available and, as you can see, the big man was obliging with his autograph. He was in hospital with a stroke recently and has finally given up tobacco after many warnings. Hopefully that will keep him perfroming into his seventies.
New Akkerman Album
I've been trying to find time to listen to the new Akkerman CD and am slowly getting to know it. The first thing that strikes you about the album is the quality of the guitar sound. The high standard of the equipment, the way it is recorded and above all the skill of the guitarist himself combine to make it quite a striking thing. It is also good to have a real band playing real instruments. Akkerman has produced a lot of unreleased tracks using his computer to back him, there is something slighlty unsatisfying about it. No such danger here. Joy and The Arrogant Frogs feature smokey trumpeter Eric Vloeimanns.
I did see one review complaining about the way the guitar is recorded. I don't think this is a mistake but something deliberate. This is Jan Akkerman and Band not two or even four musicians collaborating. Much as we may long for the Focus days, they are pretty much gone (certainly as far as Akkerman is concerned).
Because it is an instrumental album and chiefly blues and jazz on a first listen I thought the tracks sounded quite similar to each other in some ways and nothing really moved me. I have learned, however, with Akkerman not to go on first impressions. Part of the problem, I'm sure, is that I listen to so much pop music that I'm quite lazy. A little more effort had me drawn first to the closing track Mena Muria and then Kharmah Chantallah, both possessing the sort of lyrical quality I like best in Akkerman. Next it was As Long as you're near and then the subtle Love Train, a simply amazing track that really does grow on you. I'm currently getting into Searching for Angela. The opener Free Wheeling does what it says on the tin and is excellent as is Minor Details. Joy threw me at first as I expected something different but that one is a grower too.
So even at this stage we can see we have an album well worth hearing, even if it takes a little while to appreciate.
Mobilea
I sometimes get hooked on a song. Currently it's the subtle and mesmerising post-Akkerman track Mobilea by the Dutch band Brainbox. Here is a live version from last year featuring Rudy de Queljoue and Jan Schuursma on guitars with the world's greatest drummer Pierre Van Der Linden. Singer Kaz Lux makes the introduction.
Glenn Miller Sound
That last blog prompted me to check on the Glenn Miller sound. In answer to the question "What did Glenn Miller discover by accident?" I found this entry here.
Well, it wasn't really by accident. Like most "luck" it occurred because he was well-prepared.
During his time as an arranger for the Ray Noble orchestra, he developed an arranging style that carried the melody on an alto sax and trumpet playing a musical third apart, with harmony provided by the tenor sax.
Unfortunately Noble's trumpeter was unable to play some of the higher notes (due to a lack of ability, NOT an injury as shown in the 1954 movie with Jimmy Stewart). Miller rescored the harmony by replacing the trumpet with a clarinet. The result was an almost organ-like blend that was instantly recognisable and became known as the "Miller Sound".
That special arranging style was helped immensely when Miller formed his own band and hired Wilbur Schwartz to play clarinet. Schwartz had a full, "broad" tone that few other musicians could match, and it produced a more robust sound.
For the first couple of years Miller had the blend amplified by addition of a second alto sax to the melodic line, but around the start of 1942 he switched the harmony to one alto and one tenor sax, creating a deeper voicing as is heard on performances of that period (e.g. "Moonlight Mood").
When he joined the Army Air Force in late 1942 and formed the AAF Orchestra he was unable to bring Wilbur Schwartz with him, so the clarinet part was assigned to Michael "Peanuts" Hucko. Hucko was an excellent musician but never had the same tone as Schwartz; however the reed blend was maintained by an expanded sax section (SIX reeds) and frequent accompaniment by the string section.
Shortly before his disappearance, Maj. Miller said that he felt he was becoming trapped by listeners' wishes to keep hearing the reed blend, and he tried to move the orchestra's sound in a different direction. The long-suppressed commercial recordings that he made with Dinah Shore in late 1944 have only the barest hint of the reed sound.
Of course, we will never know what more we would have heard, had the Major's plane made it to Paris on that terrible afternoon in December.
Tomorrow's Dankworth
Johnny Dankworth the British jazz musician died recently. His was a name I was always aware of (mainly through my dad) though not at all up on his music. It is only with his death that I have learned that the theme tune to BBC's technology programme of the sixties and seventies Tomorrow's World - a tune I always liked -was by Dankworth. This is the whole piece. If I remember rightly Tomorrow's World would be on at 7 pm on a Thursday immediately before Top of the Pops - a good hour that used to be (although we had a regular visitor around then every week who would always talk to my mam right through most of the hour).
Focus by Focus
This is the original self-titled track by Focus. Last time I saw Focus van Leer did the vocal. I was 10 in 1969.
Book Buys May
The main bit of book buying in May was at the Assembly bookstall where I got the following:
I also bought the Dan Walker thing from Day One. They sent me a free copy so I gave mine to a boy in the congregation. I'd already bought 10 of the Jonathan Holdt one mentioned here, which we are reading on Sundays as a family bit by bit. I notice that a member of the congregation who bought a copy has started to come Sunday evenings. Yes, I also got the John Blanchard travel guide I mentioned here for reference.
In May I also bought these two online:
Then there were three secular books. I love the Thames Hudson New Horizon series (translated from the French) and have several volumes. It is quite an old series now so you sometimes see them going cheap. I saw the one on jazz somewhere and bought it and the one on Shakespeare in the NPG. Then at some other point I was in a charity shop and saw the Neil Gaiman book Coraline. I rarely read children's books but as it's out as a film I thought I'd buy it and read it. It's well written but not really my cup of tea now nor would it have been as a child. Fantasy/horror is not really my thing.
TWTWTW
I must admit I'm half glad that the snow has come as I'm incredibly busy at present. It started last Monday with an evening committee meeting for the London Inreach Project in Covent Garden. Prior to that the day was fairly easy. Managed to go for a run round the park. On Tuesday I was out all afternoon continuing to pursue the matter of where the Evangelical Library should move to. As reported, I spent Tuesday evening at Grove Chapel listening to jazz.
Wednesday was dominated by my regular visits to take services at Spring Court and Heath Grove Lodge (on Philippians 1 and Jonah 4). In between that I popped into central London to meet up with my good friend Chris Buckingham. In the evening it was our regular midweek meeting (looking at Deuteronomy 18).
In the midst of all this I found myself sheltering from the rain with my i-pod on. A live version of Sylvia (my all time favourite) came on and although I've listened to that song thousands of times it struck me once again how good it is. As I looked up there was the word Sylvia across the road in front to me (good job I'm not religious, eh?).
By Thursday I had so much to do I had to get up an hour earlier. I fitted most of it in, including writing a tract, preparing various other things and an afternoon Greek session at LTS on participles and the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount. In the evening we had our bi-monthly church members meeting. It's always a good time but I wish we could have more present.
On Friday I was in Welwyn at the EMF lecturing on JWs and Mormons. I had some business at a bank near Goodge Street en route home plus a visit to Finchley to read from Lloyd-Jones' masterful Preachers and preaching with Richard Raven a student at LTS who is one of our mentoring students. (He preached for us yesterday and quite acceptably too). We celebrated Dylan's birthday in the evening with fahitas and krispy kreme doughnuts. Also that evening, of course, it was the clubs for children and young people where I spoke about this current ad on the buses suggesting there is no God and we had a quiz.
Saturday morning we were giving out tracts in Golders Green in the bitterly cold wind - not the best weather for it. In the afternoon most of the family went to Aldenham Country Park and had a nice time there despite the cold.
Sunday morning I preached in the Welsh church, as reported. The three older boys were in Childs Hill to hear Richard. We went for a walk in Kenwood in the afternoon. I took communion in the evening adn then Richard preached on Psalm 145.
Heavenly nightclubness
Went with Rhodri last night to see the Heaven in a night club presentation at Grove Chapel. We'd hoped to bring someone along but he couldn't come. Travelling south of the river is always an adventure with me but we were only 10 minutes late and in time to see the whole concert.
Apologetics professor (and that's what he looks like) Bill Edgar (piano) has been making these sort of gospel angled presentations using mostly jazz and spirituals for years. He was accompanied by two fine young African Americans on vocals and saxophone. The concert was followed by a question time, which we could not stay for. A number of things bothered me (I'm not a jazz fan I discover - the two blues numbers were like oases; they were too quiet; they didn't seem to sweat, no drums, the setting, a white man telling us about African Americans and their struggle, etc, etc). One just hopes that someone was helped. I'd be very surprised if anyone was genuinely hindered. The idea is much like the Steve Nicholls book on Blues mentioned here a while back. Probably a book works better but a concert is the logical extension. May be a change of venue would have been enough. Ah, Brady you old fuddy duddy.
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