Awhile back Gwenda called on me to do this meme thingie. However, my musings are too high-class a location for such low-brow frippery (that’s right, Mely, I mock your mock!). But now that I’m slumming in blogland with the rest of youse . . .
1. The person (or persons) who passed the baton to you.
2. Total volume of music files on your computer.
10.89 GB. Not a tonne . . . Haven’t managed to get done ripping all my cds on account of them all being in Sydney in a storage unit. Sigh. I am missing my seventies Elvis. I surely am. And Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues. Double sigh.
3. The title and artist of the last CD you bought.
“Hijos de Culo” by Bersuit Vergarabat. They’re an Argentinian band, bought it last year in Buenos Aires. I adore it. They funny and talented. The title translates as “Children of the Adorable Enchanted Land of Pixies”. Honest.
4. Song playing at the moment of writing.
“This is All” Jay Hawkins.
5. Five songs you have been listening to of late (or all-time favorites, or particularly personally meaningful songs).
Of late, in random order:
“Get Back (Black, Brown and White)” Bill Broonzy–brilliant, brilliant satirical song from the forties. “If you’re white, you’re alright. If you’re brown stick around, but if you’re black: get back, get back.”
“Fallen” K D Lang–her voice. Oh my.
“To Be Good Takes A Long Time” Vika & Linda–I don’t care what they sing, they got the best harmonies going ever. And has anyone even heard of them outside of Australia?!
“Isfahan” Joe Henderson–this one’s on high rotation. It’s so so so beautiful.
“Ojalá” Silvio Rodriguez–can’t hear this song without wanting to cry. Rodriguez does that to me every single time. Such lyrics!
6. The five people to whom you will ‘pass the musical baton.’
I don’t want to offend anyone by not passing such a lovely baton in their direction, so whoever wants it it’s yours, even though it’s kind of old and everyone’s on to the next one of these thingies . . .
if you like joe henderson’s isfahan you should check out ellington’s far east suite. johnny hodges is extraordinary on it, and isfahan is a piece of a longer work.
I have indeed checked it out and am very fond. It’s hard to go past Ellington as a composer. Sheer perfection. Sadly I don’t have it on my computer though. So I’m contenting myself with the whole Joe Henderson “Lush Life” record. How do you feel about Billy Strayhorn? (Aside from him having the best name ever.) And how do you feel about the work they did together (Ellington & Strayhorn, I mean).
hmm. tricky question. i’m trying to remember when i first became consciously aware of ellington or strayhorn. i grew up with jazz playing in the house, particularly the rather teutonic swing of stan kenton, for which i hold no particular affection. but i do remember ellington playing a lot in the background when i was growing up. that said, lush life was the first record that i purchased (in a small store in berkeley) that really made me think about strayhorn, as opposed to ellington.
i think strayhorn was probably one of those amazing talents that lacked the ego to push forward individually, so instead focussed on making wonderful romantic music with ellington instead. i think the music he made was extraordinary, beautiful, and romantic. and i loved the album ellington recorded in tribute, “…and His Mother Called Him Bill”.
A handful of (white, college-student) organizers for the Progressive Party drove through a Cleveland ghetto in 1947 with their sound-truck blaring Broonzy’s “Black, Brown, and White Blues.” They meant to show black Clevelanders how sympathetic they were to racial problems. It was not well-received.
Gosh, I hope peripherally-related anecdotes are allowed in blog comments.