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WICHITA LINEMAN ~ Glen Campbell
II. ALLEGRETTO — Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 (1811)
COFFEE CANTATA ~ Johann Sebastian Bach
THE GREATEST
ALONE TOGETHER ~ Chet Baker
LOUIS ARMSTRONG ~ 1958 Newport Jazz Festival
DM-2045 Recommends: I AM THE VERY MODEL OF A SINGULARITARIAN by Charlie Kam
HAPPY EARTH DAY
In celebration of EARTH DAY I've posted 3 beautiful videos by the talented Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sørgjerd.
THE MOUNTAIN features Sørgjerd's stunningly beautiful time lapse photos of the Milky Way, captured earlier this month atop El Teide, the highest mountainpeak in Spain.
Set to music by Italian pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi ("Nuvole Bianche" from his album Una Mattina), the video offers a view of our earth and heavens like none I've ever seen.
THE AURORA pairs Sørgjerd's images of a brilliant Aurora Borealis display over a national park in Norway with ethereal film music by Lisa Gerrard and Hans Zimmer ("Now We Are Free" from their collaboration on Gladiator).
Gerrard's otherworldly voice, as she sings to God in her invented language, seems to me the perfect sonic complement to the mysterious aurora.
THE MARKET juxtaposes video of the Maeklong and Damnoen Saduak markets in Thailand with Katie Noonan's cover of the Gnarls Barkley hit "Crazy."
I remember the floating markets from my travels in Thailand and Cambodia. It's intriguing to see one of them again through the eyes of a visual artist, especially when accompanied by music with such a fascinating provenance:
- The piece began as "Nel Cimitero di Tucson," an Italian movie theme created by the Reverberi brothers for a 1968 Spaghetti Western.
- Half a century later, Gnarls Barkley (the American duo of Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green) reinvents the piece, adding lyrics and a new hook.
- Their single "Crazy" becomes a spectacular international hit, spawning over 30,000 downloads in the United Kingdom, placement in popular films, and dozens of other versions by artists all over the world.
- Australian singer Katie Noonan puts her own spin on the song, and this recording is the version selected by the intrepid photographer from Norway to underscore his colorful footage from Thailand.
Follow Terje Sørgjerd on Twitter.
THE AURORA by Terje Sørgjerd, Music: "Now We Are Free" by Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard
THE MARKET by Terje Sørgjerd, Music: Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" as performed by Katie Noonan
THE MOUNTAIN by Terje Sørgjerd, Music: "Nuvole Bianche" by Ludovico Einaudi
SUBCONSCIOUS LEE ~ Tristano at the Half Note
TENNESSEE WALTZ ~ Patsy Cline
RHAPSODY IN BLUE ~ The Dmitri Matheny Group
MAHNA MAHNA ~ The Muppets
BERT KAEMPFERT ~ Afrikaan Beat
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ~ The Braids
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ~ Jake Shimabukuro
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEXTER GORDON
INVENTION & INNOVATION
I'm studying Bach's two-part inventions, and am reminded of something John LaPorta pointed out to me years ago at Berklee.
J. S. Bach was reputedly a great improviser at the keyboard. Sadly, we'll never hear him. But the contrapuntal lines in his Inventions & Sinfonias, in terms of their structure and cantibile quality, are remarkably like those found in the Charlie Parker Omnibook.
That is, Bird and the architects of bebop (far from the bon sauvage stereotype) were such accomplished musicians that they could improvise at a blistering tempo with a melodic logic comparable to Bach's.
Compare, for example, this Bach invention, performed by Glenn Gould, to this performance of "Koko" by Bird & Diz.
You dig?
~DM
LIKE A SURGEON ~ Art Farmer plays "Softly"
THIS is a terrific example of my mentor's beautiful flugel sound and brilliant approach to improvisation. From the Creed Taylor film Rhythmstick -- Art Farmer, Romero Lubambo and Airto perform "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise," with an introduction by Dizzy Gillespie. ~DM