So I have been really busy at work the last few months and I have been letting things slip a little – sorry about that. I am still busy(which is great) but one positive side effect (other than being able to pay the bills) is that I get to listen to a lot of music. I became used to using music as white noise back in college when there was so much activity going on in studio that you needed something to help block out the games of tape ball sounds of everyone else being hard at work. When it comes time to simply lower my head and crank out some designs and details, I like listening to my music … but I don’t like futzing around constantly looking for the right songs and organizing elaborate play lists, etc.
No, I pick a genre of music and move on. My focus the last few weeks has been jazz with a heavy dose of artists from New Orleans (Mardi Gras is coming up you know…)
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Allen Toussaint –St. James Infirmary
If I could play the piano, I might want to play like Allen Toussaint (also known as ‘Mr. New Orleans’). He is very smooth, light on the keys and almost everything he plays sets a mood. He has also played for just about everyone that ever was, has had about a billion of his songs remade by people like Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The O’Jays, etc. (I could keep going). He was also the guy who produced the classic ‘Lady Marmalade’ by Patti Labelle – as a result, Allen Toussaint can walk into any room anywhere and pretty much call scoreboard.
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Branford Marsalis – Cherokee
I love Branford Marsalis a lot. It all started when he played on Sting’s first solo album ‘The Dream of the Blue Turtles’. That band was amazingly good but despite being surround by world class talent, Branford was the brightest star – something even Sting recognized because he carried Branford onto his next several albums. Despite his odd turn as the band leader for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (a job originally made cool by Doc Severinsen and The Tonight Show Band when Johnny Carson was in charge), Branford is THE guy.
For good measure – here you go, an acoustic version of Sting and Branford performing Roxanne.
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John Lee Hooker – Boogie Chillen
John Lee Hooker has all sorts of things about him that made him an interesting character. One that never ceases to amaze me was despite being a prolific lyricist, he was illiterate. There is some debate on the year he was born – 1917 being the most widely accepted – his recording career did not begin until he was 31 years old. He had been knocking around for a while and his manager at the time passed around a demo tape that contained the song he might be most famous for recording – Boogie Chillen. Talk about coming out of the gate strong.
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Big Head Todd & the Monsters – Boom Boom Boom Boom
I have to admit that I have my wife to thank for being a fan of Big Head Todd & the Monsters. I was familiar with his music (which was pretty good) but it wasn’t until she made me go see him live in concert did I dial in to the fact that he is a fantastic guitar player. I mean really good. I thought it would be interesting to put up Big Head Todd version of the second most popular song written by none other than John Lee Hooker. Schwinggg!
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Ray Charles – I Don’t Need no Doctor
Taking a little detour out of the Louisiana and the Mississippi delta, it’s time for a little Ray Charles. A pioneer in fusing gospel, rhythm and blues and one of the first to actually make it sound good. Ray Charles was listed on #10 on Rolling Stones list of 100 Greatest Artists of all time and #2 on the List of Greatest Singers of all time and there is no shortage of people who think he might be the most important American musical figure. There are songs that everyone knows but there are so many really great songs that he recorded it was hard to list just one. I picked this one because I don’t think many people have heard it before.
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Peter Herbolzheimer – Stone Cockattoo
If anybody knows who Peter Herbolzheimer is they deserve a cookie. The list of renown German jazz trombonists starts and ends with him. I owe any knowledge I have of Herbolzheimer to my good friend Ben DuBose who had a few albums titled ‘Fatman Tribute to Swing’ and Fatman Tribute to Boogie’ that I got copied onto cassette tape when I was in high school. These two albums are probably on my desert island listand are worth ordering from some random record house if you can ever locate them. I couldn’t find any songs off those albums on youtube but Stone Cockatoo is pleasantly funky.
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Buddy Rich Big Band – Birdland
A true musical prodigy, Buddy Rich was billed as ‘the world’s greatest drummer’ and despite having died in 1987, he probably still holds that tile. Buddy Rich started playing the drums at 18 month old and at the height of his childhood career was the second highest paid child entertainer in the world. He couldn’t read music and he didn’t pratice – in fact, he would have another drummer sit in a play the sheet music the first time, memorize it after hearing it that one time and then take over. His dexterity, musicality of playing style, speed and smooth execution are considered “holy grails” of drum technique and have been considered next to impossible to duplicate. Decades before he died, he was clocked at 20 drum strokes per second, a speed that modern day drummers are only now beginning to approach.
Buddy was a bad ass.
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