The Great Benefit of Being a Music Obsessive

Well, there actually is a real benefit from being a music obsessive - the freedom to transcend the BS of life when possible. It isn't always possible since life can be horrific as human history bears out. One doesn't have to look too far - geographically or otherwise - for examples where music is the LAST thing on anyone's mind. But in those moments when we get to choose what to think and how to think about the world around us, music can provide a useful lens - an alternate reality through which to construct meaning out of the seemingly random events of life's cacophony. 

As I mentioned in the last post, the focus of this blog is going to shift beyond the classical realm to be more inclusive of the music I’m listening to and thinking about from all genres I like. Yet, the reason I’m keeping this blog as the active one is because of the classical content. Though I’ll never be a serious music scholar I do get a lot of enjoyment out of interacting with the music and learning what I can as I go along. If I discover anything useful or fun I’ll continue to pass along the vibrations as usual.

Every so often I do get a little sense of being on the right track – or at least having my feelings about the music reinforced from those more eloquent than I. One of my favorite music books is The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross – a truly eye-opening and ear-opening work. Ross is a writer of exceptional talent, perception and vision. He is a contributing writer to several periodicals including The New Yorker. Last year I had the pleasure of discovering an article he’d written about appreciating Brahms in times of loss and life’s difficulties. Here is a link to that article:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/grieving-with-brahms

In a short essay, Ross manages to put into words the way I’ve found myself reacting to Brahms since I began listening more seriously years ago. I'd even read the complaints about Brahms and thought "Is there something wrong with me?" Ha! Not that I needed Ross to legitimize my enjoyment - I just really appreciate his usually brilliant insights and scholarship. 

I immediately took to Brahms 3rd and 4th Symphonies years ago. These days I'm developing an appreciation for his 1st and 2nd Symphonies. I pulled out this Solti / CSO box to give the 1st a spin. I forgot how jarring and pessimistic the opening was - yikes! But it all gets resolved in the 3rd and 4th movements where really beautiful stuff emerges. 

I had a similar reaction to this Piano Concerto No. 2 record:

A lot of pyrotechnics in the first two movements, but the 3rd movement is where this piece really came to life for me - really beautiful music! I'd have to do some reading up on Brahms as a composer to figure out if my impressions about his intentions are what I suspect. Won't pursue that idea any further now until I do. Need to dedicate some more time to listening and studying up on Brahms. Ahhh - dedication..........

For those really dedicated, there are multiple pathways as usual. Like it or not, Charles Ives sold insurance. That was his day job. Is his art any less valid? Robbie Basho was a stock clerk at times. The guys in The Minutemen organized their tours around their day jobs. Gotta hustle to survive, as always. Which coincidentally is the title of this great Les McCann album from 1975. Atlantic Records was about to shift focus away from the more straight ahead jazz to more commercial crossover stuff which suited Les McCann since he had hits like Compared to What. 

This was his second to last LP for Atlantic. Jazz was going through changes and so too was the music business in general.  As a company, Atlantic became part of the WEA group as a result of a merger and the focus went to rock groups like Led Zeppelin. Many of the jazz artists, if they didn't have soul crossover hits, were being phased out. Even if they DID have hits like Les McCann. 1976 would be the end of Atlantic's jazz roster as it had been. Other labels would try to absorb the cast off artists - McCann went to ABC while others went to Warners or A&M. The attempts of those companies to support jazz artists would be short lived as the late 70s yielded to disco and eventually the origins of rap and hip hop. 

So all of this buzzes around my mind when I listen to Les McCann's last few Atlantic records. The very last album is really wonderful - River High River Low. 

Both are reflective of the end of an era - in a business sense and on a cultural level. These changes happen so quickly - even in the business world. Companies rise and fall. What might appear to be fixed and stable is more often an illusion.  I was a young boy when this music was new and though my memories of those days are preserved in flashes and moments I can relate to the feelings. The country felt different then - not so polarized, or so it seems. Hard to know since I was a kid in the 70s. But considering the events of Watergate - as damaging as that was (or should have been) - life went on. Perhaps what we were missing was a glorification of bad behavior in the culture.  The closest thing may have been the reckless rock stars behavior, but it was widely understood most folks would never get away with Keith Moon type antics in the everyday world. 

Digressions aside, there are still plenty of unexplored musical horizons out there to discover. I know it's probably old news by now, but the most recent Pharoah Sanders collaboration with electronic artist Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra is one of the best things I've heard in a long time!

Although I eventually wound up with this on vinyl I first heard it via youtube when it popped up as part of the algorithm of my searches there. I didn't know if it was new, old or what. The day I first heard the music (most of it) wound up being indelibly linked to a very significant event - the day my wife went to the hospital to deliver our son! Pharoah Sanders has been a favorite of mine for many years so it knocked me out to know he had this wonderful new music available. (I did not name my son  Pharoah, however....)  So, many thanks to these great musicians for providing a stunning soundtrack to a joyous moment!

 Collaborations are more commonly found outside the classical realm perhaps due to the tradition of who composers are - how they've been defined. Fritz Reiner was not considered a collaborator of Strauss or Rimsky-Korsakoff. Hendrix did not exactly collaborate with Noel Redding. Yet, the process of bringing music into being does involve way more than the work of the composer. Bill Bruford recently offered his thoughts about the relationships between technologies, musicians and how their roles have influenced the process of music making into current times. His essay contains words of caution, but with specific solutions to recommend. Check out this worthwhile read here:

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/absent-without-leave

 I hope to return to the themes he brings up, since I noticed a pattern of thinking similar to ideas expressed by Van Dyke Parks and others on the topic.  To be fair, Bill uses the term "interactive" music though I think he is on the path towards collaboration. In his doctoral thesis he poses the question - to what degree are contributing musicians responsible for the outcome of any given piece of music above and beyond the composer? 

Speaking of Van Dyke Parks, I have been exploring an unusual offering of his from around 2005 or so - Super Chief!

The music was composed for films - which and how many I don't know. It is a purely instrumental album featuring orchestral music as only Van Dyke Parks can create. The ensemble reminds me of an expanded version of the kind of musicians used on the 1995 release Orange Crate Art. I don't have any other Van Dyke Parks albums to reference though I'm sure that will change. Super Chief is way more complex than average movie music. I'm still exploring its mysteries. 

And that is the major takeaway - the exploring of the unknown and mysterious. There is another entry in the pipeline that will pick up where this one leaves off. In the meantime - keep the circles spinning and the ears open!

NEW HORIZONS / NEW YEAR!!

 

Greetings readers and listeners! It certainly has been awhile since I've posted here last. 2018 seems like a different world for many reasons. Yes, the pandemic era (as it continues beyond 2020) has been heartbreaking for many. Music, often a source of solace and comfort in difficult times, has been impacted – at least in terms of performances and as an industry in general. Who knows what the fate of record stores will be as the future unfolds? I don't think the format of vinyl is headed for the dustbin of history quite yet. Then again, aren't there more important things to think about? Perhaps so.

Such has been the case for me. Upheavals can bring change – sometimes (when we are lucky) necessary and better change. That has been my experience since 2018. I realize many are suffering and it is not my intention to downplay that suffering if I take a moment to acknowledge the many blessings that have come into my life in the past two years. To dance along with the quick stepping of life's changes can require some nimble maneuvering. Where graceful motion would be the ideal, often enough it's all we can do to just keep up with the dance itself.

For the past ten years I managed to keep up a steady pace of listening, reflecting, reading and generally absorbing the multiple vibrations collectively known as “classical music” - as a conscious use of my time. Of course my ears have been open in those directions since I was a kid, but during the past decade I really dove in. Its been a rewarding journey, no doubt. Yet, I took a break in late 2018 / early 2019. While I was “away” from writing / blogging I was still listening though not as obsessively as before.

As I took time to rethink the role of music in my life, I figured any return to writing would be focused on one blog instead of two. I've been happier with the time I've spent with this blog though I'd hate to limit things to only “classical” . So I'll open it up to any music that's meaningful to my life going forward. I'm not a terrific fan of labels, though they can be useful for organizing things I suppose. Like records! Now certainly there are no shortage of other blogs and places on the internet where folks can wax eloquent about popular music and well-worn musical pathways. My impulses propel me in other musical directions. And it might not just be music since I've got a LOT on my mind these days. Well, I'm ready for adventure, aren't you? Good! Onward then.............. 

 Way back in September I got all amped up about the Harry Smith documentary. Even though it wasn't new, it also didn't seem to be available through the usual avenues – at least for streaming / renting. I was happy to finally see it since I'd found nice box sets of all three volumes of the American Folk Anthology years ago. Not that I've managed to play through those boxes entirely yet, but what caught my interest about Harry Smith was something I saw / heard in an interview with poet Ed Sanders. To roughly paraphrase – Ed was especially praising Smith's ability to cull together in an artful way a seemingly disparate jumble of pre-war, weirdo recordings to create a quilt of primordial Americana.

The notion of piecing together a cohesive statement out of these arcane yodels is as fascinating as anything composed by Harry Partch or Moondog. The process exists somewhere between being a composer and an archivist. The idea of compiling audio from 78 shellac discs to LPs was nothing new in that era (classical was there first, of course). Yet, maybe it was the durability and ubiquity of the format that helped preserve not just the sounds, but also Harry Smith's vision of what it all meant.

Then, as the story goes – the generation of singers and writers who latched onto the songs would bring them forward further. Dylan and everyone else right along with the electric bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company (Janis did the Coo Coo Bird with them!) propelling those vibrations into the future. Somewhere recently I read an observation I've considered for a long time – the similarities between the folk movement of the early 60s and the punk movement of the early 80s. Both were reactions to the “professional music entertainment machines” of their respective eras. Though I have no idea what Harry Smith thought of punk music, in my mind he WAS punk. Maybe the original punk? 

 As part of the documentary, there were clips from Hal Willner's tribute concerts featuring (in his inimitable style) far-flung artists performing songs from the Anthology. As much as I admire the singular and brilliant work of the late Willner, I was left wondering if the proceedings would help communicate the vibrations down the line. Elliott Sharp's “Coo Coo Bird” sure was fascinating, but Sharp is already pretty strange (though brilliant). All of this is actually me admitting how much I'll miss Hal Willner's inimitable spirit and inspiration as time unfolds. Imagine Willner convincing Taylor Swift to sing the Coo Coo Bird alongside Elliott Sharp and THEN we'd have something interesting going on! (Though I have to give the nod to this really wonderful video of Elliot Sharp performing in an art gallery in Austria. I listened to the whole thing, even though I could not hear the music of Theolonious Monk so easily. No matter. I liked it all the same!) 

 

Though I suppose ANYTHING going on would be pretty amazing. Which reminds me, I was treated to a live music experience that jolted my sensibilities back in November by my lovely wife to be. We went to see and hear Mike Stern and his excellent band at a local jazz place and it was EVERYTHING I'd been wanting to hear without even knowing it. I had never seen Stern live and it was beyond fantastic. He took the audience to the outer reaches of musical brilliance.....it was beautiful. I can only hope things get better for musicians and audiences soon. The world needs live music, especially of that caliber. If Mike Stern is playing anywhere near you – just GO. 

 

Speaking of firsts – I finally listened to my first John Adams piece on CD – his breakthrough HARMONIUM. Alright, so I haven't gotten to Nixon in China yet, but hey – its a start. And I really enjoyed it. I didn't choose this disc in a conscious way – just picked it out of the pile I'd accumulated. There are a lot of piles like that around my house, alas. I keep telling myself – music is art designed for the future. I just have to make sure I visit the future once in awhile. Harmonium still sounds like the future to me. Certainly a future I'd rather inhabit compared to other possible futures!

I also made the time to watch the 2015 documentary on Robbie Basho. It was a really beautifully done film, though a bit of sadness permeated the narrative. I think Basho was very much in devotion to his art, perhaps as a way to mitigate the struggles of his life. Though his singing is off-putting to some, I happen to like it very much (in most cases). What comes through all of his music for me is an utter sincerity and sense of wonder. Maybe not everyday listening, perhaps. Yet – as with other great artists gone too soon, I wonder where his muse would have taken him had he stayed with us longer. I don't have everything he did, though I've been tempted by the new box set of unreleased recordings. The time has to be right for that though.......and I'm not sure that time is here yet. 

 

It was time, however, to set the reel to reel machine back up. And the first tape to get rolled out – Nielsen's Symphonies 3 and 6! 

 I was inspired to break this tape out when I played the 3rd off this old mono LP:

I was especially fascinated by how the opening, syncopated chords sounded a lot like the end of "The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This" from Love's Forever Changes. I'll bet the similarity is unintended, but still cool nonetheless. It sure is odd to hear something you associate with one record come blaring out of something totally unexpected. I hadn't listened to any Nielsen pieces in awhile and found the LP among a stack I had set aside awhile ago. 

 Gotta admit – sometimes it comes down to the record covers for me. Having a lot of albums and doing a lot of listening, I've found it helpful to take pictures of the covers just to keep track of things I've listened to. If all the covers looked the same I'd be more confused than I already am! And that's not good!! Here are some good looking records that caught my eye and wound up on the turntable recently......

I reckon commentary about the platters above might be in order, but I'll leave that for next time. For now, I'll yield the floor back to Harry Smith - the original Americana punk and some of his homemade films. Happy viewing!