humor India Indian music: typographical error
by Warren
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The Great Vowel Shift
The Best Typographical Error in the World…
…is on page 111 of Najma Perveen Ahmed’s book, “Hindustani Music.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you:
Profile: Dominique Eade
I first heard Dominique Eade sing around 1980, when Matt Darriau and I had put together a short-lived big band. She sang on one or two of the charts, and I was bowled over by her musicianship. I still am, and I find it amazing that we have not shared the stage since then. Thirty years, huh?
This post duplicates the information about Dominique on the “Singing For The Planet” page, but it includes some music. Listen. She’s an extraordinary artist.
About Dominique Eade
Since her arrival in Boston in the late 1970s, vocalist and composer Dominique Eade has stood out as a musician of exceptional quality. Combining conceptual daring with superb technique, she has won admirers around the world for her fearlessness and artistry.
Dominique Eade — “Go Gently To The Water”
Education Indian music music: layakari practice riyaaz
by Warren
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Layakari Practice: The N+1 Game
Here’s another installment in my series of practice materials. This is another approach to the mastery of layakari in the 16-beat teentaal cycle. I call this the N+1 Game.
The object of this exercise is to explore a rich yet tightly constrained set of melodic materials in a variety of rhythmic phrasings. The same melody is sung in thirty-six slightly different rhythmic variations, each one fitting neatly into one cycle of teentaal.
Jazz music: Billie Holiday genius
by Warren
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Billie Holiday, Just Because…
“The Blues Are Brewing” with Louis Armstrong
Billie Holiday (born Elinore Harris;[1] April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day[2] by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Above all, she was admired all over the world for her deeply personal and intimate approach to singing.
Critic John Bush wrote that she “changed the art of American pop vocals forever.”[3] She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably “God Bless the Child”, “Don’t Explain”, “Fine and Mellow”, and “Lady Sings the Blues”. She also became famous for singing jazz standards including “Easy Living” and “Strange Fruit”.
music: genius Ray Charles
by Warren
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Feeling Like Some Ray Charles This Morning
Yeah, Ray was a Republican. Nobody’s perfect. I’ve got a lot of work to do, so I’m not going to bother with wiki excerpts and biographical snippets. Just three excellent songs.
Education Personal Warren's music: Brother Blue genius memorial storytelling
by Warren
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Remembering The Greatest Storyteller in the World
Today was the memorial service for The Greatest Storyteller in the World. Hundreds of storytellers, musicians, dancers, artists, poets, professors, politicians and just plain folk gathered at Boston’s Cathedral of Saint Paul to celebrate the life and times of Brother Blue — The Greatest.
Brother Blue, aka Hugh Morgan Hill, died peacefully at home on November 3, 2009 at the age of 88. An internationally renowned storyteller, mentor to hundreds, inspiration to thousands…Brother Blue’s life exemplified his passionate belief that telling and listening to stories changes the world. His stories have changed the worlds of everyone who heard him.
Link
Brother Blue — Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill.
I was part of the memorial, held in Boston’s Cathedral of Saint Paul. I drove in with my tamboura and got stuck in traffic, but I was unable to curse my fate, for I was going to sing for Brother Blue, a man whose personal clock moved on mythic time.
Jazz music: genius Jazz Jon Hendricks vocalese
by Warren
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Have Some Jon Hendricks To Take The Edge Off A Little
W/O.C. Smith — Lambert, Hendricks and Ross perform “Every Day I Have The Blues”
Jon Hendricks (born September 16, 1921) is an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is considered one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists (such as the big band arrangements of Duke Ellington and Count Basie). Furthermore, he is considered one of the best practitioners of scat singing, which involves vocal jazz soloing. For his work as a lyricist, jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called him the “Poet Laureate of Jazz” while Time dubbed him the “James Joyce of Jive.” Al Jarreau has called him “pound-for-pound the best jazz singer on the planet—maybe that’s ever been”.[1]
India Indian music music: genius khyal Ramakrishnabua Vaze
by Warren
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Ramakrishnabua Vaze: Raga Mian Ki Malhar
As promised long ago, here is the full-length version of Vazebua’s Mian ki Malhar. The two khyals are both classics; the vilambit is Karim naam tero; the drut Bolare papihara.
The accompanists are both superb. Sarangi is provided by Ustad Bundu Khan, playing his special small humaniform sarangi; tabla is by a young Ustad Alla Rakha. Vazebua was in his eighties, so there are moments when his intonation loses focus or his breath control gives out before his idea has been resolved, but these are minor quibbles…the performance as a whole is riveting, the last recorded testament of one of the form’s greatest masters.
All India Radio Recording: Raga Mian Ki Malhar
Pandit Ramakrishna Vaze
Rajeev Vaze, Bua’s great-grandson, commented on one of the earlier posts:
I would like to elaborate on couple of things in line with my comment that ‘Bua was much ahead of his times’. He was one of the first musicians and possibly the only one, who published books on many compositions with notation, which he acquired from his Gurus by way of extreme hard work. The idea behind this was to throw open his stores to every follower of music. There are many books written by estiblished musicians thereafter but all those are without notations and the students can not gain anything except the literature.
You will also realise that not many stalwarts were mentally prepared to cut records under the pretext that their music will become common and thereby loose its value. Realising the importance of documentation and it’s usefulness for generations to come, Buwasaheb not only mastered the art of modulating his voice so as to suit the recording machines available in those days but tried to present different facets such as Thumari, Tarana, Bhajan along with the khyal on the number of records being cut.Unfortunately, all his deciples died at a very young age and most of them such as Master Deenanath, Keshaorao Bhosale, Bapusaheb Pendharkar belonged to Theatre. His work is not known to present generation. I’ve seen many people sing / like compositions from dramas such as ‘Sanyasta Khadga’, ‘Shah Shivaji’ etc with a wrong presumption that these are composed by Master Deenananth. This is incorrect as all these and many more are composed by Buwasaheb. There are many songs composed by Pt Hridaynath which are based on the original compositions of Vazebua and the listeners are still enjoying.
music: country music genius George Jones
by Warren
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George Jones: One Of A Kind (R.I.P.)
George Glenn Jones (born September 12, 1931 – died April 26, 2013) is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette.
Over the past 20 years, Jones has frequently been referred to as “the greatest living country singer.”[1] Country music scholar Bill C. Malone writes, “For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved.”
Throughout his long career, Jones made headlines often as much for tales of his drinking, stormy relationships with women, and violent rages as for his prolific career of making records and touring. His wild lifestyle led to Jones missing many performances, earning him the nickname “No Show Jones.” With the help of his fourth wife, Nancy, he has been sober for many years. Jones chalked up more than 150 hits during his career, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists.
“The Grand Tour” — I admire the way he references the lower register, anchoring his tenor lines with occasional grace notes from an octave below. Fabulous pitch, of course — and the emotional veracity of the performance is undeniably powerful.
humor music: birthdays genius satire Tom Lehrer
by Warren
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Tom Lehrer is 27.7777…. today
The greatest satirical songwriter ever to grace the planet prefers to count his age in Centigrade. In Farenheit, he’s 82.
On April 9, 1928, little Thomas Lehrer was born in Manhattan, and…
…began studying classical piano music at the age of seven, but was more interested in the popular music of the age. Eventually, his mother also sent him to a popular-music piano teacher. At this early age, he began writing his own show tunes, which eventually would help him in his future adventures as a satirical composer and writer in his years at lecturing at Harvard University and later at other universities.
I was privileged to see and hear the Master in a living room concert in the early part of 1968. I was nine, and it was a fundraiser for Eugene McCarthy. He sang and played all of his best-known material, and delivered “Whatever Became of You, Hubert?” with an air of great mockery. As a special part of the fundraising, a bottle of French wine labeled “Chateau Maccarthy” and autographed by Lehrer was auctioned off; my father bought it. I wonder where that bottle is now.