Wednesday, August 18, 2004
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glisten: Blue CD 3
Juan - This version doesn't remind me at all of "Undergound." Coltrane's solo is awesome.
Brian - And then the same song…”Coltrane-ized”. Starts out familiar, with the tune up front….first time on the cd that the voice is no longer vocal, but instrumental. Of course, we veer wildly (?) into Coltrane area…the song’s original melody rendered into unrecognizable, brilliant, skronk, wheeze, beats ‘n’ bashes, almost falling apart, then finding it’s way back (slight return). Genius. How exactly does one follow this?
Rob - Mmm.. good stuff. Perfect for dancing around the house too, kinda like Calvin and Hobbes when they slide around the floor, just letting go to some good music =)
Pastor - It is nice to hear soprano sax played well and in its lower register as opposed to Kenny G style aural corn syrup.
This is a real fairy tale of a piece, a guided tour through a 'Trane-y childhood wonderland. Coltrane pulls this same slight of hand with his versions of "My Favorite Things" and "Chim Chim Cheree" to make the song unmistakably and forever his. There's an elation and joy to the playing that speaks to windy orange Sundays. Utterly rhapsodic and one of his nicest cuts.
Coltrane was so ridiculously prolific and so much rare and live material is in print that it's difficult to know where to get started if you never really listened to him much. May I respectfully submit "My Favorite Things", "Giant Steps", "Kulu Se Mama" and "A Love Supreme" as some reasonable starting points?
'Trane is one of my ten or fifteen favorite musical artists; I've got maybe twenty-five albums and I'll pick up anything I can find that I don't already have. If you haven't dug the man before, start now; life is too short.
Buy "Coltrane, Live at Birdland", commonly regarded to be his best professionally recorded live set, from Amazon.
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Visit the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church at it's new temporary location in California.
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Listen to this forty-five minute interview with Coltrane, circa '58. It's an interesting thing to hear the man speak; you expect him to have the voice of God, y'know?
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Read this interview with 'Trane biographer, Lewis Porter.
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There are LITERALLY dozens upon dozens of Coltrane fan pages on the web. Here's three to get you started, all featuring online music to listen to: A Tribute to John Coltrane, The Official Coltrane Site and the NPR feature: John Coltrane, First Impressions.
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Brian - Slow waaaayyyy down. Now where’s that Artie Shaw album I just saw sitting around…..Anyway, we’re sad again. A bit jarring, but I see where we’re going…”blue” can be a shitload of things…and we seem to be in the “jazz” part of the cd…some of america’s oldest and most original musical forms taking up the first fourth of the cd. (just wondering, though…is substituting jazz for “blues” cheating? No? yeah, guess not). Well, I like the song…Not love, not hate. Fits its’ placement…draws us back down.
Rob - I played the clarinet in high school, so hearing it played well is something I can appreciate. Relaxing track, almost puts me to sleep.
Pastor - How is he doing that tremolo type effect on the sustained notes!? His chin must be going up and down like when you vibrate a ruler on the edge of a desk. It is so regular and even! I also like how the horns are really distant sounding in the mix. Like Sidney was playing and the horn guys happened to be passing by outside and decided to play along. Didn't Sidney Bichet also play soprano sax?
He sure did, well enough to teach it to soprano sax legend Bob Wilber.
That wild wiggly New Orleans Jazz tremolo really is somethin', eh?
Buy "The Best of Sidney Bechet", an excellent introduction to the legendary clarinetist's oeuvre, from Amazon.
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Explore the online branch of the Sidney Bechet society.
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Read Red Hot and Jazz's Bechet bio. Scroll down to listen to his rare version of "The Sheik of Araby", a multi-track recording from 1941(!) featuring Bechet on every instrument.
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Listen to the Bechet NPR profile.
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spiffy
Laurence Lessig is guesting out his blog at the moment; luckily his guests are just as interesting as he is. Stop by.
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A special note to Radio Free Sauble: It's not spiffy to hotlink musicblogs tunes. I would've contacted this guy directly, but there's no contact info on the blog, so I'm just hoping he checks his referrers.
I appreciate anybody's interest in th' Hut, really I do; but even in a best case scenario you're only sapping my bandwidth.
Could everyone just link to the blog and not the songs, please? Thanks.
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Here's some new blogs I've been frequenting: The WOW Report, My Escape From Entropy, Agony Shorthand, Que Sera Sera, Hottpants (I think us boy musicbloggers should all pick out a few girlie blogs and stalk them like the ubergeeks we are. Seems appropriate), One Louder, Beatmixed, Just Us and masamania.
Now playing on a screen near you.
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Swung by Seraphim just posted the ultrawicked Skinny Puppy "You Got Served" video.
Don't just watch it. Live it.
"Word..."
