Category: Music

Rhapsody in Blue…

George Gershwin’s phenomenal blending of jazz and classical music, premiered at Aeolian Hall, in New York, on this date 80 years ago. Gershwin wrote it in three weeks, reportedly improvising some of the piano parts during the premiere.

You can hear an acoustical recording by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra made on June 10, 1924, by clicking here [RealOne Player]. That’s the composer, Mr. Gershwin, at the piano.

Rhapsody in Blue was one of NPR’s 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. You can listen to the NPR report here [RealOne Player].

The Mozart Buffet

NewMexiKen may have mentioned this before, but if you have a broadband connection and are at your computer anyway, The Mozart Buffet from noon to 1 MT on KBAQ in Phoenix is a delightful way to improve the ambience.

Some will rob you with a six-gun
And some with a fountain pen

Charles Arthur Floyd was born on this date in 1904. From a desciption of The Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd:

Charles Arthur Floyd, better known as Pretty Boy Floyd, was one of the last of the so-called Robin Hood outlaws in the tradition of Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and John Dillinger. He engaged in numerous bank-robbing exploits across the Midwest until federal agents and local police shot him down near East Liverpool, Ohio, on October 22, 1934–a feat which helped build the image of the modern FBI….

Neither highly intelligent nor polished, Floyd relied on his cool demeanor, shrewd cunning, and expert gun-handling ability, but he was also considered by those who knew him to be generous and honest. During the depression, many people saw banks as enemies and Floyd as a hero, and helped screen him from the police. Once he left a large contribution at an Oklahoma church–and no one reported his visit. He was known to drop in at country dances, dance with the prettiest girls, and pay the fiddler well. One story claims that he kept a rural school in fuel one winter. He attended church regularly, even during intense manhunts, and visited his father’s grave each Memorial Day, despite the risk of capture.

Court TV’s Crime Library has a multi-part biography of Charles Arthur Floyd: “Pretty Boy” from Cookson Hills.

In the end, Choc Floyd was betrayed. Not by a woman in red, as was Indiana bank robber John Dillinger; not by his own taste for blood, as was the mad-boy child “Baby Face” Nelson; not by a death wish that was Bonnie and Clyde’s. But, allegedly, by an ambitious protector of American Justice called J. Edgar Hoover who thought Floyd would be better a stepping stone to higher things if killed and not incarcerated. In short, America betrayed him when it forecast an end to its tolerance for wild oats to make way for progressiveness and modernity.

Choc, or Choctaw, was Floyd’s preferred nickname.

If you’ll gather ’round me, children,
A story I will tell
‘Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.

It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.

There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An’ his wife she overheard.

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.

Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.

But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.

Others tell you ’bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.

It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:

Well, you say that I’m an outlaw,
You say that I’m a thief.
Here’s a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.

Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered
I’ve seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won’t never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

Lyrics as recorded by Woody Guthrie, RCA Studios, Camden, NJ, 26 Apr 1940

The day the music died

On this date in 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson were killed when their chartered aircraft crashed. Richardson, who had a cold, talked Waylon Jennings into giving up his seat.

The feud that never was

NewMexiKen shouldn’t I suppose attempt to ressurect Antonio Salieri on this, Mozart’s birthday, but it seems he—Salieri—is making a bit of a comeback. According to a December article at Guardian Unlimited, “Next year the renovated La Scala in Milan is to reopen its doors with the work Salieri wrote for its very first performance back in 1778. And now Cecilia Bartoli has recorded an album devoted to his music.”

This article and other sources seem persuasive in saying that while there was competition between the upstart Mozart and the established artist Salieri in Vienna, there was cooperation, too; that is, what transpired between them was typical office politics.

As the Guardian Unlimited article notes:

…Mozart’s death, as one respected musical journal wrote, was almost certainly caused not by poison but by “arduous work and fast living among ill-chosen company”.

It was only after Mozart’s demise that Salieri began to have any real reason to hate him. Unlike that of any before him, Mozart’s music kept on being performed. Cut down at the peak of his powers – and with the added frisson of whispered rumours that he might have been murdered – he became the first composer whose cult of celebrity actually flourished after his death.

Salieri, however, had outlived his talent. He wrote almost no music for the last two decades of his life. Instead he spent time revising his previous works. He did have an impressive roster of pupils: Beethoven, Schubert, Meyerbeer and Liszt – not to mention Franz Xaver Mozart, his supposed adversary’s young son. But the composer who had once been at the vanguard of new operatic ideas was not necessarily teaching his students to be similarly innovative…

Of Mozart’s death, the story is more complicated:

So how did this respected musician become the rumoured murderer of the great Mozart? Nobody knows for certain. But in his final weeks Mozart is reported to have believed he had been poisoned, and had gone so far as to blame hostile Italian factions at the Viennese court. People put two and two together and pointed the finger at Salieri. And who could resist a story this good? Certainly not his fellow composers. There are mentions of it in Beethoven’s Conversation Books. Weber, Mozart’s father-in-law, had heard it by 1803, and cold-shouldered Salieri ever after. And 20 years later it was still doing the rounds; Rossini joked about it when he met Salieri in 1822.

As the rumour gathered strength, all denials only served to reinforce it. Then, in 1823, Salieri – hospitalised, terminally ill and deranged – is said to have accused himself of poisoning Mozart. In more lucid moments he took it back. But the damage was done. Even if few believed the ramblings of a confused old man, the fact that Salieri had “confessed” to Mozart’s murder gave the rumour some semblance of validity.

Another interesting assessment of the Mozart found in the film Amadeus can be found in an essay entitled The Amadeus Mozart: Man or Myth?

Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart…

was born in Salzburg on this date in 1756. Theophilus—or Gottlieb—or Amadé means “loved by God” As an adult Mozart signed Wolfgang Amadé Mozart or simply Mozart. In the family he was known as Wolfgangerl or Woferl.

A delightful Mozart web site is Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, complete with music while you browse. Among other things, the site has an analysis of the truth and fiction in the wonderful film Amadeus. (It’s “Amadeus, an apologia” when you open the Biography section. The site is structured in a way that prevents a direct link.)

Fiction or not, watching Amadeus seems like a wonderful way to celebrate Mozart’s birthday.

Django Reinhardt…

was born on this date in 1910. Reinhardt was the first hugely influential jazz figure to emerge from Europe — and he remains possibly the most influential European to this day. Play Jazz Guitar.com has some interesting background.

A violinist first and a guitarist later, Jean Baptiste “Django” Reinhardt grew up in a gypsy camp near Paris where he absorbed the gypsy strain into his music. A disastrous caravan fire in 1928 badly burned his left hand, depriving him of the use of the fourth and fifth fingers, but the resourceful Reinhardt figured out a novel fingering system to get around the problem that probably accounts for some of the originality of his style. According to one story, during his recovery period, Reinhardt was introduced to American jazz when he found a 78 RPM disc of Louis Armstrong’s “Dallas Blues” at an Orleans flea market. He then resumed his career playing in Parisian cafes until one day in 1934 when Hot Club chief Pierre Nourry proposed the idea of an all-string band to Reinhardt and Grappelli. Thus was born the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, which quickly became an international draw thanks to a long, splendid series of Ultraphone, Decca and HMV recordings.

The Red Hot Jazz Archive has some on-line recordings of the Quintette of the Hot Club of France.

In stores February 10th

Norah Jones has a new album coming out, Feels Like Home.

Like the first album, Jones imbues the music on Feels Like Home with country, pop and jazz colors. Unlike the quiet, balladic mood of Come Away With Me (which she once characterized as “mellow”), Jones varied the tempo on the new album to reflect the evolution of her live performances. “I’m very proud of my first record, but I was ready for something a little different,” she says, then jokes, “This time it’s not quite as mellow. But it’s still pretty low-key.”

NPR’s All Songs Considered will let you listen to a track here.

The Battle of New Orleans…

was fought on this date in 1815.

Major General Andrew Jackson’s army of between 6,000 and 7,000 troops consisted chiefly of militiamen and volunteers from southern states. Because of slow communications, news of the peace treaty between Britain and the United States that had been signed at Ghent (Dec. 24, 1814) did not reach the United States in time to avert the battle, in which Jackson’s troops fought against 7,500 British regulars who stormed their position. So effective were the earthworks and the barricades of cotton bales with which the Americans had fortified their position that the fighting lasted only half an hour, ending in a decisive U.S. victory and a British withdrawal. British casualties numbered more than 2,000 (289 killed); American, only 71 (31 killed). News of the victory reached Washington, D.C., at the same time as that of the Treaty of Ghent and did much to raise the low morale of the capital.

The anniversary of the Battle was widely celebrated with parties and dances during the nineteenth century, especially in the South. More recently it was commemorated in the “Battle of New Orleans,” as sung by Johnny Horton and others.

Battle of New Orleans
by Jimmy Driftwood

In 1814 we took a little trip,
along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
and we fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a comin’,
There wasn’t ’bout as many as there was awhile ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Oh we looked down the river and we seen the British come.
There must have been a hundred of ’em beatin’ on a drum.
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring.
We stood behind our cotton bales and didn’t say a thing.

Old Hickory said we could take ’em by surprise,
if we didn’t fire our muskets till we looked ’em in the eyes.
We held our fire till we seen their faces well,
then we opened up our squirrel guns and gave ’em a little…Well….we…

….fired our guns and the British kept a comin’,
There wasn’t ’bout as many as there was awhile ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We fired our cannons till the barrels melted down,
then we grabbed an alligator and we fired another round.
We filled his head with cannonballs and powdered his behind,
and when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

We fired our guns and the British kept a comin’,
There wasn’t ’bout as many as there was awhile ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Who are these people?

The New Yorker lists a dozen favorite CDs from 2003. How out-of-it NewMexiKen feels.

Basement Jaxx, “Kish Kash”
Vic Chesnutt, “Silver Lake”
Dizzee Rascal, “Boy in da Corner”
Kelis, “Tasty”
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, “Hearts of Oak”
The Libertines, “Up the Bracket”
Shelby Lynne, “Identity Crisis”
Van Morrison, “What’s Wrong with This Picture”
OutKast, “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below”
The Shins, “Chutes Too Narrow”
Sidestepper, “3 a.m. (In Beats We Trust)”
The White Stripes, “Elephant”

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

The Miami Herald: Biggest pop tune of all time is back

Before White Christmas, the holidays meant traditional carols and religious hymns. After it, secular tunes became part of the fiber of popular culture.

Rosen estimates 125 million copies of the three-minute song have been sold since it was first recorded in 1942.

”Is there another song that Kenny G, Peggy Lee, Mantovani, Odetta, Loretta Lynn, the Flaming Lips, the Edwin Hawkins Singers and the Backstreet Boys have in common?” writes Rosen. “What other tune links Destiny’s Child, The Three Tenors and Alvin and the Chipmunks; Perry Como, Garth Brooks and Stiff Little Fingers; the Reverend James Cleveland, Doris Day and Kiss?”

And Crosby’s performance marks a turning point in the music industry.

”It marks the moment when performers supplant songwriters as the central creative forces at least in mainstream American pop music,” he told NPR in 2002. “After the success of White Christmas, records become the primary means of disseminating pop music, and they replace sheet music. And the emphasis shifts to charismatic performances recorded for all time and preserved on records….

Some facts about the “hit of hits”:

• Bing Crosby first performed White Christmas on Dec. 25, 1941, on NBC’s Kraft Music Hall radio show.

• Crosby first recorded the song for Decca on May 29, 1942. He rerecorded it March 19, 1947, as a result of damage to the 1942 master from frequent use. As in 1942, Crosby was joined in the studio by the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers.

• The song was featured in two films: Holiday Inn in 1942 (for which it collected the Academy Award for best song) and 12 years later in White Christmas.

• Crosby’s single sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and was recognized as the bestselling single in any music category until 1998 when Elton John’s tribute to Princess Diana, Candle in the Wind, overtook it.

• Irving Berlin so hated Elvis Presley’s cover of White Christmas that he launched a fierce (and fruitless) campaign to ban Presley’s recording.

Ira Gershwin…

was born on this date in 1896. Older brother of composer George Gershwin, Ira was one of the great lyricists of the 20th century. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his lyrics for Of Thee I Sing (1932). Among Ira Gershwin lyrics — A Foggy Day, Fascinating Rhythm, Funny Face, I Got Rhythm, The Man I Love, Oh, Lady Be Good, Summertime.

The Official George & Ira Gershwin Web site is nicely done and includes a jukebox.

Endless carols torture staff

From the Herald Sun

An Austrian trade union has claimed the repetitive playing of Christmas carols in department stores is “psycho-terrorism” for salespeople.

From morning to night, week after week, the same Christmas music was played in department stores over and over again, Gottfried Rieser, of the Union of Private Employees, said.

“Many staff in the retail sector suffer psychologically from it. They get aggressions and aversions against Christmas music. On Christmas Eve, with their families, they can’t stand Silent Night or Jingle Bells any more,” he said.

NewMexiKen is with the union on this one. Bah Humbug!

Coleman Hawkins, Father of the Tenor Sax, …

was born on this date in 1904. Listen to his seminal recording of Body and Soul [RealOne Player file]. As writer Len Weinstock noted,

Hawkins himself didn’t think there was anything outstanding about his Body and Soul saying “it was nothing special, just an encore I use in the clubs to get off the stand. I thought nothing of it and didn’t even bother to listen to it afterwards”. But the solo, two choruses of beautifully conceived and perfecly balanced improvisation, caused an immediate sensation with musicians and the public. It is still the standard to which tenorists aspire. A parallel can be drawn between Hawkins’ Body and Soul and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address . Both were brief, lucid, eloquent and timeless masterpieces, yet tossed off by their authors as mere ephemera.

Lincoln well knew what he had done at Gettysburg, but it’s a nice analogy even so.