What are you listening to?

I always enjoy the throat singers. What is the name of the instrument the snake charmer is playing?

Dinner with Puccini -- Various operatic arias by Puccini. An excellent CD, one of my favorites. I like Puccini. ld:

Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians (CD). Good ol' fashioned, toe tappin' country music. Lotsa good tunes.

Clappa yo' hands! ld:

I was just listening to a Louis Prima recording of "Robin Hood" from the 1940s. I hadn't ever heard that tune before. There's so much stuff from that era that's new to me!

VegasGeorge said:

I was just listening to a Louis Prima recording of "Robin Hood" from the 1940s. I hadn't ever heard that tune before. There's so much stuff from that era that's new to me!

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Louis Prima was goin' strong when I was a kid. I always liked him; he put out a lot energy. He was popular with the grown-ups. Fast dancing was big then. ld:

Smithsonian Folkways American Roots Collection --Various Artists. Good CD some good blues, some old timey tunes and various country music by famous groups and artists. ld:

The Very Best of James Galway. The first CD is great; the second is only good. His "Carnival of Venice" is one of the best I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot of them (including mine). I really like this CD. I don't play it often because I want it to be fresh when I do. He has a beautiful tone--clear as a bell.

Beautiful! ld:

A lot of jazz lately:

Horace Silver - Doin' The Thing Live At The Village Gate
Horace Silver - Six Pieces Of Silver
Donald Byrd - Mustang
Donald Byrd - Blackjack
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage

mikelz777 said:

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A lot of jazz lately:

Horace Silver - Doin' The Thing Live At The Village Gate
Horace Silver - Six Pieces Of Silver
Donald Byrd - Mustang
Donald Byrd - Blackjack
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage

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I never heard of Silver or Byrd, but I think I know of Herbie Hancock. What do they all play? ld:

Down Up Dick said:

I never heard of Silver or Byrd, but I think I know of Herbie Hancock. What do they all play? ld:

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Horace Silver plays piano and Donald Byrd plays trumpet. Herbie Hancock plays keyboards. I like his early stuff before he went to electric keyboards, when his stuff was piano based and he was more jazz-centric. It's the same for Byrd, I like his early stuff that was jazz and not his later stuff when he went more fusion and pop.

Horace Silver was an influence on Steely Dan. You know that very distinct opening piano riff on "Rikki Don't Lose That Number"? That is a direct lift from Silvers' "Song for My Father". I think the same song may have been an influence on Steely Dan's "FM" as well, specifically the part where they sing "FM" sounds very similar to how the the trumpets end the phrase in "Song For My Father". It's kind of cool to listen and compare to hear the influences. Check out "Song For My Father" by Horace Silver on YouTube and then listen to Steely Dan's "Rikki Don't Lose My Number" and "FM" on YouTube and see if you can hear the influences. Silver's song was released in 1964. Steely Dan's were released in 1974 and 1978.

Herbie Hancock, isn't who I thought he was. I think I've just heard his name. I don't really know any of 'em. You must really be into jazz. It's a wonder that you can even find the tunes you want to hear. You must be really well versed in it too. You ever think of writing about it or somethin'? ld:

Reverend Gary Davis - "Pure Religion and Bad Company" IMHO the greatest bluesman and ragtime guitarist of them all.

Compilation : "It Came From Memphis - The Legendary Sounds of Memphis" (2CD)

The Girl From Ipanema -- The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook. Great CD! Stan Getz, Sarah Vaugh, Billy Eckstine. Charlie Byrd and Astrud Gilberto just to name a few of the artists. Terrific!

A comfortable chair, a glass of wine or maybe brandy, soft lights -- ahhh . . . ld:

mikelz777 said:

Horace Silver plays piano and Donald Byrd plays trumpet. Herbie Hancock plays keyboards. I like his early stuff before he went to electric keyboards, when his stuff was piano based and he was more jazz-centric. It's the same for Byrd, I like his early stuff that was jazz and not his later stuff when he went more fusion and pop.

Horace Silver was an influence on Steely Dan. You know that very distinct opening piano riff on "Rikki Don't Lose That Number"? That is a direct lift from Silvers' "Song for My Father". I think the same song may have been an influence on Steely Dan's "FM" as well, specifically the part where they sing "FM" sounds very similar to how the the trumpets end the phrase in "Song For My Father". It's kind of cool to listen and compare to hear the influences. Check out "Song For My Father" by Horace Silver on YouTube and then listen to Steely Dan's "Rikki Don't Lose My Number" and "FM" on YouTube and see if you can hear the influences. Silver's song was released in 1964. Steely Dan's were released in 1974 and 1978.

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Just listened to Horace Silver's "Song for my father". There is no doubt in my mind that Steely Dan has pinched his riff. I'm sure Horace's family are aware of this.

today listened to my brother in law's music for the first time since I became a little music literate. I was really impressed despite it him playing a guitar!

Down Up Dick said:

You must really be into jazz. It's a wonder that you can even find the tunes you want to hear. You must be really well versed in it too. You ever think of writing about it or somethin'? ld:

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I am really into jazz. I'm sure I must have mentioned it before but I have over 1500 discs worth of jazz alone. I'm probably more oriented to albums than I am individual songs but you're right, sometimes it's difficult to find things that I want to hear. Just recently I was in the mood for some organ based soul jazz and I wanted to listen to a specific CD but I couldn't remember the name of the guy who did it because he was fairly obscure. I could see the cover shot in my mind but I couldn't remember the name of the CD either. It took several days before it finally came to me, Charles Kynard - Soul Brotherhood.

I have toyed with the idea of writing about jazz but I can't imagine in what capacity. I wouldn't see it as anything academic or scholarly because I'm not really qualified for that. It would be something more casual, maybe something geared towards those who are interested in jazz but just getting started in exploring jazz or maybe something like a blog where I just have a running commentary on what I'm listening to as I explore the collection I've built up over the years. I don't know who would read it, I've never encountered anyone in my face to face life that is in to a wide variety of music like I am.

Down Up Dick said:

The Girl From Ipanema -- The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook. Great CD! Stan Getz, Sarah Vaugh, Billy Eckstine. Charlie Byrd and Astrud Gilberto just to name a few of the artists. Terrific!

A comfortable chair, a glass of wine or maybe brandy, soft lights -- ahhh . . . ld:

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Your description of a comfortable chair, a glass of wine or brandy, soft lights and your mention of Jobim immediately made me think of the perfect album for that scenario: Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, a wonderful album.

Was listening to the Zac Brown Band "Foundation" CD in the car this morning. Recently bought the new vinyl Gary Clark Jr Live double album but have also dug out Abbey Road because the uke class is learning "Octopuses Garden". Said class is having time out for a week as the teacher is in Australia where James Hill is conducting a seminar for ukulele teachers among other things.

We've come a long way, the first record player I encountered needed to be wound up by a handle and had steel needles. When I retired last year (july 4th I also retired my seventies stereo gear and bought a new turntable and amp. These days I can play the iPod over the stereo as part of my wireless network. Magic really. Still makes me shake my head sometimes.

mikelz777 -- if I was gonna write about jazz I'd maybe pick a bunch of organists and compare and contrast them. I don't know anything about them at all, and I wonder how many others do. Maybe if you worked up an article like that you could sell it to one of the organ companies.

You seem to know about a lot of pretty obscure artists. Perhaps one of the jazz magazines would buy an article about some of the old jazz artists and how they helped to make jazz what it is now.

Anyway, if you like to write and have nothing better to do it might be interesting. ld:

Fred Ukestone said:

Just listened to Horace Silver's "Song for my father". There is no doubt in my mind that Steely Dan has pinched his riff. I'm sure Horace's family are aware of this.

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I found this in an article about music plagiarism which was kind of interesting:

In a 1980 Musician magazine interview, Steely Dan co-founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker got themselves into a bit of hot water with a sarcastic answer to a question about the title track to their new LP, Gaucho. Confronted with the overwhelming musical similarities between their song and a half-decade old tune called "Long As You Know You're Living Yours" by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, the ironic songwriters quipped, dismissively: "We're the robber-barons of rock and roll." Fans of Steely Dan might have been charmed by Fagen and Becker's usual flair for the wisecrack, but Jarrett wasn't amused. He sued the songwriters for creative theft, and successfully earned himself a writing credit for "Gaucho."

Interestingly, this wasn't even the first time Steely Dan had self-consciously alluded to a jazz recording on one of their tracks. Listen to the opening riff of their 1974 hit, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" back-to-back with the intro to Horace Silver's 1965 number, "Song for My Father," and you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two. But Silver didn't sue the Dan — perhaps recognizing the jazz ethos to which they claim in interview after interview. While a borrowing in rock and roll may be cause for litigation, jazz musicians frequently reference other works of music in moments of improvisation. Quoting is all part of the jazz musician's bag, and if, say, the estate of Jerome Kern sued every time a saxophone player snuck in a melodic snippet from "All the Things You Are," there'd be an endless series of copyright infringement suits showing up on dockets.

mikelz777 said:

I found this in an article about music plagiarism which was kind of interesting:

In a 1980 Musician magazine interview, Steely Dan co-founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker got themselves into a bit of hot water with a sarcastic answer to a question about the title track to their new LP, Gaucho. Confronted with the overwhelming musical similarities between their song and a half-decade old tune called "Long As You Know You're Living Yours" by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, the ironic songwriters quipped, dismissively: "We're the robber-barons of rock and roll." Fans of Steely Dan might have been charmed by Fagen and Becker's usual flair for the wisecrack, but Jarrett wasn't amused. He sued the songwriters for creative theft, and successfully earned himself a writing credit for "Gaucho."

Interestingly, this wasn't even the first time Steely Dan had self-consciously alluded to a jazz recording on one of their tracks. Listen to the opening riff of their 1974 hit, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" back-to-back with the intro to Horace Silver's 1965 number, "Song for My Father," and you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two. But Silver didn't sue the Dan — perhaps recognizing the jazz ethos to which they claim in interview after interview. While a borrowing in rock and roll may be cause for litigation, jazz musicians frequently reference other works of music in moments of improvisation. Quoting is all part of the jazz musician's bag, and if, say, the estate of Jerome Kern sued every time a saxophone player snuck in a melodic snippet from "All the Things You Are," there'd be an endless series of copyright infringement suits showing up on dockets.

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It's disappointing to hear that Becker and Fagan knowingly plagiarized other peoples music seemingly without conscience.