I like reading New Yorker, and particularly Sasha Frere-Jones’ columns on music. She has a very independent take, and more often than not I find myself nodding in agreement when I read her. In the latest issue, she reviews Amy Winehouse and puts the troubled singer’s music – and her 5 Grammys – in perspective.
I never thought I’ll like Amy Winehouse till I heard her. And not just rehab. In fact, the faddish frequent visits to rehab centres kind of clubs all the singers in the same bracket. I was wrong. Amy and Britney are poles apart, and thank God for that! Amy is power, Britney is puff.
Back to Black, Amy’s latest album that won her the Grammys, has sold over 1.6 million copies and counting. The numbers might have lot to do with her self-destructive trips, the constant media scrutiny and the resultant public voyeurism, her tattoos, her publicity stunts, her contrived dysfunctional behaviours, not necessarily in that order, but you just can’t take even an iota away from the power of that album.
Before I read Sascha’s column in New Yorker, I was trying to pin down the reasons why the tracks sound so good and hypnotic. I was debating between great production values and the sound of her voice in that album. But the most important USP of that album is the selection of the songs (Back to Black). I think that album works miraculously because she has chosen songs and sung them in way that reminds you of the soul era belonging to greats like Ella, Etta, Aretha, etc.
The New Yorker piece drove the point home, in no uncertain terms:
With the producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, she made a very popular album that looks firmly, and directly, backward. “Back to Black” is a deft and convincing pastiche of the girl groups of the sixties, the jazz singers of the forties, and a variety of rhythms from the seventies and the nineties. (The eighties get a pass.) It’s an entertaining, clever album that benefits from a strategy that makes everyone who isn’t Miles Davis look good: it’s only thirty-five minutes long (and closer to thirty without the bonus track). “Back to Black” is a modified sixties soul album, with one perfect single (the ubiquitous “Rehab,” which allows Winehouse to celebrate, make fun of, and justify her own substance abuse), sung and written by a twenty-four-year-old girl from Southgate, London, who says she has the musical taste of “an old Jewish man” and wears her hair in a vertical pile she refers to as “my hive.” (…Winehouse is the Marge Simpson of junkie retro soul.)
The piece continues further..
Yet what reads as musical innovation in 2008 is blue-ribbon revivalism, a high-production-value version of the songbook logic driving current Broadway musicals. The sounds of yesteryear! Sung by today’s young people! (Who, in this case, enjoy ketamine and margaritas.) Winehouse’s music is reassuring to those old enough to remember the original and novel to those too young to know. And her music refers to rappers while simultaneously avoiding actual rapping and sounding just like the music that rappers first sampled decades ago. So many demographics united through the magic of consumption!
Sucinctly put, and this is precisely why this album works on people like us. There are many other reasons that Sascha gives and most of you’ll find yourself nodding in agreement. But that’s not the point of this blog.
There are a few extremely valid inferences that I’ve drawn. Some of them could well be pertinent for the musicians who play at Blue Frog and for Blue Frog itself.
1. There is no substitute for good production values.
Producers of albums are like nagging moms during your teens. You find her totally out of date, old-fashioned with no contemporary taste, dogmatic and so uncool. Till you start realising her contribution and her vision during the latter years. A good producer will do the same for new bands. They might totally, totally piss you off with their control, their persistence, their arrangement, but the end product is what matters. Musicians who clutch on to their creative freedom and expression rather jealously will need to let go some of their creative fiefdom to animals called producers. New talented bands who have played at Blue Frog definitely need to realise this. Something Relevant that played at Blue Frog could do with some kick-ass producer who can shape their melodies quite memorably.
2. Develop a sound that finds a resonance across generations
Music will need to include people of all generations to be able to make a mark; Its not enough to target your music to only 16 year olds or 30 year olds or to those above 45. Like Amy Winehouse, you need to make the older audience comfortable with the sound as well as intrigue the newer audience. The older audience is not always looking for retro nostalgia (though it sure has its merits), they’re perhaps seeking a comfort with a new sound that might have déjà vu-ish reckonings and yet sound fresh. The newer audiences also have respect for older sounds – after all, they have developed their own taste listening to and getting awed by the musical legends past and present – but in order to intrigue them, a band will necessarily need to judiciously use past references to create their own fresh sound. So, while electronica and thumping, repetitive drum beats are alright for parties, your music will engage your audiences only if it has elements that appeal to people of all age groups. That’s when it might stand the test of time. Ragatronics that played at Blue Frog has been able to achieve this to a great extent. They have even used electronica and comp music to create a sound that appealed to people across age brackets.
3. Do not scoff at doing covers
For young bands, doing covers is not something to scoff at. Interpret the covers your own way, but doing covers is a sure shot of getting old and new audiences sit up and take notice of the music you play. Try Sting’s Probably Me. You can interpret this track in a range of genres – from avant garde jazz, to funk to bluesy to rock, and perhaps even try electronica on this (I personally will be rather wary), but you’ll get an audience connect as well as have the opportunity to dazzle them with your brilliance. The music history is replete with examples when covers have become even more famous and popular than the originals. I have now stopped fighting with people who think All Along The Watchtower is a Jimi Hendrix song.
Chances are, you’ll discover your own sound while interpreting the covers of musicians that have survived time. Perhaps Amy found her sound through them. And won 5 Grammys for that!
Those of you who were at the Frog last night (Tuesday, 26th of Feb, 2008) might grasp the power of covers. Susanne D’mello aka Suzie Q mostly sang the covers of all time greats (Earth Wind and Fire, Blues classics, etc.) Her band of musicians were generating their own interpretations and sounds with impeccable skills – she even had someone to rap brilliantly – in the process, the band created yet another definitive sound that had audience screaming for more till the last track. The audience engagement during yesterday’s show was electric: the band on stage and the audience in the pits both fed off each other. The end product: it was one of those rare nights when without any fancy billing, Blue Frog was creaming. Another superb night at the Frog!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sunday Nights at Blue Frog
I have said this earlier and will say it again: Sundays are the best nights at Blue Frog. Last Sunday was no exception. In fact, I felt that Sunday’s gig kind of defined Blue Frog’s musical sojourn for me.
Georg Gratzer is a classically trained musician and plays saxophones, bass clarinet, flute and percussion. He has studied jazz saxophone in Austria and plays in a successful folk band there. Thomas Mauerhofer trained in classical guitar, studied jazz guitar at the prestigious Graz University, and plays in rock bands. Raul Sengupta, born in Hannover, Germany, studied various world percussions with international musicians like Luis Conte and Ismail Sané, and tabla with Pandit Shankar Ghosh (no relative of mine).
Together these three talented young men – can be loosely defined as world musicians – created magic on the stage. Bringing elements from all over the musical world to jazz compositions, Georg on his trumpet and Thomas with a huge repertoire of guitar music and styles, roped in Raul’s percussion rhythms to create jazz improvisations with sublime ease.
In a way this truly defines Blue Frog for me. Here’s a stage where some extremely talented musicians jam together, improvise together, discover new chemistry of sounds and use the energy of an applauding and appreciating audience to marvel at the revelatory harmonies and sounds that seem to be magically produced. That’s history in the making. That one new sound, that one new tempo, that one new octave, that one new unison that suddenly revealed itself while playing could well become the inflexion point of a defining musical chapter in later years. And acknowledge it or not, it all happened at Blue Frog.
And when this “jam” showcases a dance performance by Hina Sarojini, a name I was totally unfamiliar with, who brought in classic Indian dance forms ranging from Kathak, kathakali, Bharat Natyam, Odyssey, permuted and combined them with oriental kabuki kinda dance drama and displayed the power of Indian mudras that swayed with each change of scale, the result was mesmerising.
Suddenly, that Sunday gig transformed itself into a performance. A performance that would captivate any audience anywhere in any setting! It was clearly impromptu, but Ms Sarojini unravelled lots of grey areas for me. For once, the intricacies of Indian classic dance forms, the exaggerated eye movements, the sudden fluid change of dance scale (so to speak) made perfect sense when she started narrating the story of a jazz improvisation through her dance. I’m not kiddin’ but Hina added that fictional flesh to an esoteric jazz live act. Her dancing brought out the range of the music being improvised on the stage – from mellowness to sensuousness, from prankster fun to primal joy, it was all there. That to me was a revelation, a moment of bliss.
I been thinking about this for a while now, and discussing with friends, but the audience too plays an important part in getting the best out of acts. Several musicians have told me that they draw energy from the audience during their live acts. A positive energy from the audience enhances the quality, often surprising the musicians itself. An indifferent or negative energy so affects the act. One large, noisy table at Blue Frog ruins the experience for all of us. Its alright when electronica and thumping beats are deafening the senses anyway, but for crying out loud, when music is sublime, shrieking out loud even if four pair of cleavages get entangled is not kosher.
The musicians feel insulted, the audience helpless and frustrated.
I would definitely urge all true music lovers to drop by on Sunday evenings at Blue Frog. The music is great, the ambience mellow, the ladies are elegant, the men engrossed, the band often engages with you, everybody likes to stop and speak and perhaps say hello with just a glance.
Georg Gratzer is a classically trained musician and plays saxophones, bass clarinet, flute and percussion. He has studied jazz saxophone in Austria and plays in a successful folk band there. Thomas Mauerhofer trained in classical guitar, studied jazz guitar at the prestigious Graz University, and plays in rock bands. Raul Sengupta, born in Hannover, Germany, studied various world percussions with international musicians like Luis Conte and Ismail Sané, and tabla with Pandit Shankar Ghosh (no relative of mine).
Together these three talented young men – can be loosely defined as world musicians – created magic on the stage. Bringing elements from all over the musical world to jazz compositions, Georg on his trumpet and Thomas with a huge repertoire of guitar music and styles, roped in Raul’s percussion rhythms to create jazz improvisations with sublime ease.
In a way this truly defines Blue Frog for me. Here’s a stage where some extremely talented musicians jam together, improvise together, discover new chemistry of sounds and use the energy of an applauding and appreciating audience to marvel at the revelatory harmonies and sounds that seem to be magically produced. That’s history in the making. That one new sound, that one new tempo, that one new octave, that one new unison that suddenly revealed itself while playing could well become the inflexion point of a defining musical chapter in later years. And acknowledge it or not, it all happened at Blue Frog.
And when this “jam” showcases a dance performance by Hina Sarojini, a name I was totally unfamiliar with, who brought in classic Indian dance forms ranging from Kathak, kathakali, Bharat Natyam, Odyssey, permuted and combined them with oriental kabuki kinda dance drama and displayed the power of Indian mudras that swayed with each change of scale, the result was mesmerising.
Suddenly, that Sunday gig transformed itself into a performance. A performance that would captivate any audience anywhere in any setting! It was clearly impromptu, but Ms Sarojini unravelled lots of grey areas for me. For once, the intricacies of Indian classic dance forms, the exaggerated eye movements, the sudden fluid change of dance scale (so to speak) made perfect sense when she started narrating the story of a jazz improvisation through her dance. I’m not kiddin’ but Hina added that fictional flesh to an esoteric jazz live act. Her dancing brought out the range of the music being improvised on the stage – from mellowness to sensuousness, from prankster fun to primal joy, it was all there. That to me was a revelation, a moment of bliss.
I been thinking about this for a while now, and discussing with friends, but the audience too plays an important part in getting the best out of acts. Several musicians have told me that they draw energy from the audience during their live acts. A positive energy from the audience enhances the quality, often surprising the musicians itself. An indifferent or negative energy so affects the act. One large, noisy table at Blue Frog ruins the experience for all of us. Its alright when electronica and thumping beats are deafening the senses anyway, but for crying out loud, when music is sublime, shrieking out loud even if four pair of cleavages get entangled is not kosher.
The musicians feel insulted, the audience helpless and frustrated.
I would definitely urge all true music lovers to drop by on Sunday evenings at Blue Frog. The music is great, the ambience mellow, the ladies are elegant, the men engrossed, the band often engages with you, everybody likes to stop and speak and perhaps say hello with just a glance.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Our desi Rockers
Wanted: some serious angst
No one wants to get arrested. Why, even the headbanging rockers are oh-so-politically correct. They hardly even use the Fuck word, let alone simulate the act on stage. We don’t have gigs where rockers dismember life-size replicas of their girlfriends or boyfriends, nor has anyone ever broken a guitar or smashed a drum, or set their hair on fire. Why can’t a gig have someone doing fellatio to the mike or take priapic digs at the politicians. Why hasn’t any one ever painted their buttocks with Kiss my arse, Mushie (Musharraf) and shown the hirsute black rear to the audiences?
Yet if you look at the clothes, the hairstyle, the tattoos of the audiences who flock these rockshows, you would think rebeldom still rocks. I remember one trendy teen at one of the out-of-tune rock concerts tell me without any aggression, “Man, we are the rebels; we rock.” At another, a not-yet-17 rock music fan told me and my friend, “Man its so good to see guys your age at these shows. Its really good. Thank you so much.” I was puzzled and aghast. Decades ago, when we saw oldish people at rock shows, we would scream, “Fuck off. If you can’t speak our lingo, get the fuck outta our lives.”
Music needs rebellion as fish need to swim upstream. Sure, the dimensions of rebellion will change constantly, as they should, but music – particularly rock music – without angst is like marriage without sex. We don’t need no education might be passe in today’s context, but Don’t Make Us Mug For Marks or Roll Over Study-by-Rote surely deserves anthemic status.
Or is it that we have nothing to rebel against. Global warming and clean up the streets are so establishment. Politics is something that doesn’t concern me. I won’t starve to death, so unemployment doesn’t bother me. Indians are global haute property now, so the skin colour discrimination that we still practise in our backyards can be swept under the carpet. We can not ridicule page 3 people as all of us want to be on that page. How come no one is spoofing the Breaking News syndrome on TV channels, or pricking the pomposity and/or double standards of older generations or celebrating the pockets of sunshine from all across the country in this new economic prosperity through rock ballads!
We don’t want Britney Spears kinda breakdown, nor do we want Michael Jackson kinda delusion, but yeah, allow sex, drugs and rock-n-roll to evolve out of its pathetic slogan value. Rock and roll first, in its true sense, sex and drugs will follow, if you’re indeed destined.
Rock-n-roll was a term coined during puritan days when pre-marital sex was a taboo. The contemporary music scene in India needs to punch holes in all the taboos and balloons that society creates. Maybe we need to go back to drugs that make you think, and not just ecstasy that pastes a beatific grin on your face and makes you dance robotically to the same rhythmic loop and a thumping beat. Maybe a few rockers need to get arrested first before we bring “pigs” back into our lexicon. Contemporary India has the content and the idiom, its music requires an attitude not seen before.
No one wants to get arrested. Why, even the headbanging rockers are oh-so-politically correct. They hardly even use the Fuck word, let alone simulate the act on stage. We don’t have gigs where rockers dismember life-size replicas of their girlfriends or boyfriends, nor has anyone ever broken a guitar or smashed a drum, or set their hair on fire. Why can’t a gig have someone doing fellatio to the mike or take priapic digs at the politicians. Why hasn’t any one ever painted their buttocks with Kiss my arse, Mushie (Musharraf) and shown the hirsute black rear to the audiences?
Yet if you look at the clothes, the hairstyle, the tattoos of the audiences who flock these rockshows, you would think rebeldom still rocks. I remember one trendy teen at one of the out-of-tune rock concerts tell me without any aggression, “Man, we are the rebels; we rock.” At another, a not-yet-17 rock music fan told me and my friend, “Man its so good to see guys your age at these shows. Its really good. Thank you so much.” I was puzzled and aghast. Decades ago, when we saw oldish people at rock shows, we would scream, “Fuck off. If you can’t speak our lingo, get the fuck outta our lives.”
Music needs rebellion as fish need to swim upstream. Sure, the dimensions of rebellion will change constantly, as they should, but music – particularly rock music – without angst is like marriage without sex. We don’t need no education might be passe in today’s context, but Don’t Make Us Mug For Marks or Roll Over Study-by-Rote surely deserves anthemic status.
Or is it that we have nothing to rebel against. Global warming and clean up the streets are so establishment. Politics is something that doesn’t concern me. I won’t starve to death, so unemployment doesn’t bother me. Indians are global haute property now, so the skin colour discrimination that we still practise in our backyards can be swept under the carpet. We can not ridicule page 3 people as all of us want to be on that page. How come no one is spoofing the Breaking News syndrome on TV channels, or pricking the pomposity and/or double standards of older generations or celebrating the pockets of sunshine from all across the country in this new economic prosperity through rock ballads!
We don’t want Britney Spears kinda breakdown, nor do we want Michael Jackson kinda delusion, but yeah, allow sex, drugs and rock-n-roll to evolve out of its pathetic slogan value. Rock and roll first, in its true sense, sex and drugs will follow, if you’re indeed destined.
Rock-n-roll was a term coined during puritan days when pre-marital sex was a taboo. The contemporary music scene in India needs to punch holes in all the taboos and balloons that society creates. Maybe we need to go back to drugs that make you think, and not just ecstasy that pastes a beatific grin on your face and makes you dance robotically to the same rhythmic loop and a thumping beat. Maybe a few rockers need to get arrested first before we bring “pigs” back into our lexicon. Contemporary India has the content and the idiom, its music requires an attitude not seen before.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Electronica beats me!
Why I have no love lost for electronica?
Its supposed to have started as underground music; it’s a music that is often frowned upon by the traditionalists; it’s a music that helps you bond and connect with new people; it’s a music that almost compels you to dance – all these parameters are sure recipe for success in my books. That’s precisely how rock-n-roll was perceived too.
Do you know that the very phrase rock-n-roll used to connote conjugal delights amongst couples in days when pre-marital sex was still a taboo. Except for western classical and opera music, most popular music had rebellion as its roots. So any music that has its beginning as underground, any music that makes its audiences experiment with substances or lifestyles, ought to be kosher in my books. That’s how most of us have grown to love music.
Yet, I can’t stand electronica. Why? I’ve tried my best to give it the benefit of doubt that it deserves; I’ve tried my utmost to discover nuances of this music, tease open some deep insights that the music is hinting at. Why, I’ve even attended rave parties and done X and danced through the night with a large beatific grin pasted on my ugly mug throughout, but alas, electronica still fails to spur me.
They define it as dance music, and if you happen to get into details, the kind of sub-genres that exist within electronic dance music, will perhaps exceed all of Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach’s repertoire put together. At my last count there were over 150 sub-genres of electronic music with names exuding strong spoors of Sci Fi characters. I can’t claim that I’ve heard all the 21 electronic music genres, each having sub-genres like Illbient and Psybient belonging to Ambient genre, or turntablism, NuNRG, Nitzhonot, Technoid, Suomisaundi, to name just a few, but if you start permuting and naming each scratch, each loop, each repeat, differently, I guess, the sky’s the limit.
At the very least, I can almost imagine the snobbery amongst the electronica fans and the casual oh-so-carelessly-bandied-yet-another-name-of yet-another-sub-genre that should make them electronica-evolved citizens. {Oh, I’m only into illbient and Psybient with a dash of Nitzhonot thrown in for good measure, otherwise I would rather burn the floor than the disc}
Why do we appreciate music? There is a primal reason and an evolved reason. The primal reason must have something to do with the inherent rhythm in nature that our body, mind and soul resonates with. Its nature’s metronome like the howling of the wind, the rustling of leaves, the rhythmic chirping of birds, the metronomic roar of the sea, etc. etc.
The evolved reason, I think is the awe factor. Awe at skilled permutations and combination of notes, harmonies, lyrics, rhythms, beats etc that again resonates with your own evolution of taste and liking. Awe also at those who are skilled and talented enough to create such combinations that just mesmerise you. And of course awe at a phenomenon that you think you can not replicate. More or less these are the reasons with varying degrees why one really loves music.
To me electronica, at best, falls under the first premise. It’s a primal rhythmic beat created electronically that resonates with our inherent sense of rhythm. It is primal. I don’t know if this has ever been experimented, but my guess would be that if you make primates listen to electronica for some time, even they would start swaying to its rhythm. If that is the reason of its popularity and its hold over the masses, give me a break! I mean, come on, surely, we’re far more evolved than the primates. I don’t mean to be a musical snob, but this affinity to our primal sense is boring beyond doubt. Otherwise, we would record the roar of the sea waves, loop it over and over, and listen to it for hours.
At the same time, its equally true that if any music doesn’t follow an innate sense of rhythm or harmony, we wouldn’t like it. In fact the theorists have spent centuries honing the harmonies and rhythms under a guiding time tenure to appeal to our inherent primal sense of rhythm and harmony. That’s what we call melody. My point is that given these constraints, I look for more than quenching a primal rhythm need from music.
I like the way the beats go all berserk only to come together at some point when it suddenly dawns on you the virtuoso skills with voice or instruments were, in fact, all in the same melodic beat all this while. I love when a voice modulates, pitches, here and there and then wows you with a particular rhythm that was seemingly amiss but suddenly made sense and rhythm. I like when brilliant lyrics can manage to be kept under the guidelines without you as a listener ever being aware. I love when an instrument shoots from one range to the other, from one extreme to another only to fall in line with that melody that you would not have thought were possible.
That’s what musical evolution is all about. That’s what separates – or links - a Beethoven from – or with – Bono.
That’s why I still prefer AC/DC to some DJ with alpha-numeric name who can take a timeless riff from BBKing or a sax wail from Coltrane, loop the same over his Mac at different speeds, add some loud pulsating drum thumps and presto, the glittering cleavages start jiggling.
That sure is nice to watch. The music continues to bore me. And thus I walk out.
Will someone please furnish a rational, logical or emotional reasons why they like electronica? I’m all willing to be converted.
Its supposed to have started as underground music; it’s a music that is often frowned upon by the traditionalists; it’s a music that helps you bond and connect with new people; it’s a music that almost compels you to dance – all these parameters are sure recipe for success in my books. That’s precisely how rock-n-roll was perceived too.
Do you know that the very phrase rock-n-roll used to connote conjugal delights amongst couples in days when pre-marital sex was still a taboo. Except for western classical and opera music, most popular music had rebellion as its roots. So any music that has its beginning as underground, any music that makes its audiences experiment with substances or lifestyles, ought to be kosher in my books. That’s how most of us have grown to love music.
Yet, I can’t stand electronica. Why? I’ve tried my best to give it the benefit of doubt that it deserves; I’ve tried my utmost to discover nuances of this music, tease open some deep insights that the music is hinting at. Why, I’ve even attended rave parties and done X and danced through the night with a large beatific grin pasted on my ugly mug throughout, but alas, electronica still fails to spur me.
They define it as dance music, and if you happen to get into details, the kind of sub-genres that exist within electronic dance music, will perhaps exceed all of Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach’s repertoire put together. At my last count there were over 150 sub-genres of electronic music with names exuding strong spoors of Sci Fi characters. I can’t claim that I’ve heard all the 21 electronic music genres, each having sub-genres like Illbient and Psybient belonging to Ambient genre, or turntablism, NuNRG, Nitzhonot, Technoid, Suomisaundi, to name just a few, but if you start permuting and naming each scratch, each loop, each repeat, differently, I guess, the sky’s the limit.
At the very least, I can almost imagine the snobbery amongst the electronica fans and the casual oh-so-carelessly-bandied-yet-another-name-of yet-another-sub-genre that should make them electronica-evolved citizens. {Oh, I’m only into illbient and Psybient with a dash of Nitzhonot thrown in for good measure, otherwise I would rather burn the floor than the disc}
Why do we appreciate music? There is a primal reason and an evolved reason. The primal reason must have something to do with the inherent rhythm in nature that our body, mind and soul resonates with. Its nature’s metronome like the howling of the wind, the rustling of leaves, the rhythmic chirping of birds, the metronomic roar of the sea, etc. etc.
The evolved reason, I think is the awe factor. Awe at skilled permutations and combination of notes, harmonies, lyrics, rhythms, beats etc that again resonates with your own evolution of taste and liking. Awe also at those who are skilled and talented enough to create such combinations that just mesmerise you. And of course awe at a phenomenon that you think you can not replicate. More or less these are the reasons with varying degrees why one really loves music.
To me electronica, at best, falls under the first premise. It’s a primal rhythmic beat created electronically that resonates with our inherent sense of rhythm. It is primal. I don’t know if this has ever been experimented, but my guess would be that if you make primates listen to electronica for some time, even they would start swaying to its rhythm. If that is the reason of its popularity and its hold over the masses, give me a break! I mean, come on, surely, we’re far more evolved than the primates. I don’t mean to be a musical snob, but this affinity to our primal sense is boring beyond doubt. Otherwise, we would record the roar of the sea waves, loop it over and over, and listen to it for hours.
At the same time, its equally true that if any music doesn’t follow an innate sense of rhythm or harmony, we wouldn’t like it. In fact the theorists have spent centuries honing the harmonies and rhythms under a guiding time tenure to appeal to our inherent primal sense of rhythm and harmony. That’s what we call melody. My point is that given these constraints, I look for more than quenching a primal rhythm need from music.
I like the way the beats go all berserk only to come together at some point when it suddenly dawns on you the virtuoso skills with voice or instruments were, in fact, all in the same melodic beat all this while. I love when a voice modulates, pitches, here and there and then wows you with a particular rhythm that was seemingly amiss but suddenly made sense and rhythm. I like when brilliant lyrics can manage to be kept under the guidelines without you as a listener ever being aware. I love when an instrument shoots from one range to the other, from one extreme to another only to fall in line with that melody that you would not have thought were possible.
That’s what musical evolution is all about. That’s what separates – or links - a Beethoven from – or with – Bono.
That’s why I still prefer AC/DC to some DJ with alpha-numeric name who can take a timeless riff from BBKing or a sax wail from Coltrane, loop the same over his Mac at different speeds, add some loud pulsating drum thumps and presto, the glittering cleavages start jiggling.
That sure is nice to watch. The music continues to bore me. And thus I walk out.
Will someone please furnish a rational, logical or emotional reasons why they like electronica? I’m all willing to be converted.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
A seminal moment at Blue Frog
Among other seminal moments that Blue Frog will witness in the months to come, Monday’s gig was one such. Perhaps the first one.
It was sudden billing. Zakir Hussain, the tabla wizard, had got in Bela Flek and Earl Levy for his annual homage concert to his dad. (It would make any dad proud, and I hope my dad can feel the same). Sunday afternoon a SMS announces a flash Bela Fleck concert hosted by Zakir Hussain at Blue Frog on its weekly off day early in the evening at 7 PM.
The musicians had agreed to play gratis at Blue Frog for a small audience. The Club decided to make the entry free and posted the item on Facebook. While Zakir was stuck in the traffic, the crowd was piling up at the club. An hour or so later when the show began, the club was packed to its gills surprising all and sundry at the unexpectedly large crowd. For the first time in it short stint, music lovers had to be asked to wait it out. Few left and others were gradually pulled in.
This is from his website:
"Just in case you aren't familiar with Béla Fleck, there are some who say he's the premiere banjo player in the world. Others claim that Béla has virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo through a remarkable performing and recording career that has taken him all over the musical map and on a range of solo projects and collaborations. If you are familiar with Béla, you know that he just loves to play the banjo, and put it into unique settings."
He’s a legend, alright. Winner of several Grammy’s and having played with legends like Chick Correa, Fleck can truly be called a pioneer of world music. As much at home with bluegrass – he played a lovely bluegrass track– he has also delved into classical, Indian, African, European and Latin American.
This is not his first brush with Indian classical. He has played with pandit Vishwa Monhan Bhatt, Zakir Hussain, and several others. He’s seasoned, savvy, sublime and of course, hugely talented. Zakir Hussain of course is a legend and a wizard. His band of musicians, several young exponents who promise an incredible potential, along with Fleck and bassist Meyer – when they warmed up, there were 13 musicians on the stage – created magic for a relentless two hour session. I was actually awed by Louiz Banks the most. In an impromptu set-up, Louiz stood his own ground in a musical range that bordered pure Indian classical to world music, with élan!
It was Zakir’s show and the maestro ran it with clockwork precision. Fleck and the bassist didn’t miss a beat, both of them showing glimpses of their incredible talent. Yesterday we also felt the potential of the acoustics inside the venue and the discerning nuances of its quality.
What the show did, however, was to make me yearn for the Flecktones. I’m sure many of us just got our appetite whetted for a Flecktones show with Bela. Victor Woutten on base, Jeff Coffin on sax, Edgar Meyer on base and that will perhaps be yet another seminal moment for Blue Frog. {Musicians should particularly get hold of The Music Lesson, a book written by Victor Woutten where he explores the mental and the emotional processes a musician goes to come to terms with the sounds of his music and how to constantly improve upon them. It’s a book written in a style where the musician is in conversation with his own alter ego and is almost cathartic and therapeutic for even those of us who are not musicians}
Famed for a non-stop touring schedule, the Flecktones have reached more than 500,000 audience members yearly from 2001 on. Still releasing albums and touring, the Tones have garnered a strong and faithful following among jazz and new acoustic fans. They have shared the stage with Dave Mathews Band, Sting, Bonnie Raitt and the Grateful Dead, among many others.
Although the first Flecktones albums were created live-in-the-studio, the group went on to experiment with overdubs and guest artists on later albums, with contributions from artists as diverse as Chick Corea, Bruce Hornsby, Branford Marsalis, John Medeski, Amy Grant and Dave Matthews. The Flecktones went on tour with Dave Matthews Band in 1996 and 1997, and Fleck is featured on several tracks on DMB's 1998 album "Before these Crowded Streets."
Collaborating with Fleck on "Perpetual Motion" was his long time friend and colleague Edgar Meyer, a bassist whose virtuosity defies labels and also an acclaimed composer. In the wake of that album's release, Fleck & Meyer came up with the idea of a banjo/bass duo, which they developed and refined during a concert tour of the US. Live recordings from that tour are the basis for their latest Sony Classical recording "Music For Two" which also includes a bonus DVD featuring a documentary film by Sascha Paladino (Fleck's brother) that captures the duo's collaboration and crafting of repertoire while on tour. Béla and Edgar also co-wrote and performed a double concerto for banjo, bass and the Nashville Symphony, which debuted in November 2003.
The recipients of Multiple Grammy Awards going back to 1998, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones picked up the Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, Instrumental Grammy in 2000 for "Outbound", a typically wide-ranging project, with guest artists that include guitarist Adrian Belew and singers Jon Anderson and Shawn Colvin, built around Fleck's concept of "the banjo being weird."
Flecks' total Grammy count is 8 Grammys won, and 20 nominations. He has been nominated in more different categories than anyone in Grammy history.
Whether Fleck and the Flecktones perform at Blue Frog in future remains to be seen, but whats clear is that Monday night raised the bar at Blue Frog. The musicians who perform on that stage will know that no less than Zakir Hussain and his troupe along with Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer hve also performed on that stage. Once the news spreads, I suspect it’ll be easier for Blue Frog to rope in other artsistes of similar stature to come play at Blue Frog.
That’s why I called it a seminal moment in the Blue Frog chapter. The kid’s growing up, and growing up fast!
It was sudden billing. Zakir Hussain, the tabla wizard, had got in Bela Flek and Earl Levy for his annual homage concert to his dad. (It would make any dad proud, and I hope my dad can feel the same). Sunday afternoon a SMS announces a flash Bela Fleck concert hosted by Zakir Hussain at Blue Frog on its weekly off day early in the evening at 7 PM.
The musicians had agreed to play gratis at Blue Frog for a small audience. The Club decided to make the entry free and posted the item on Facebook. While Zakir was stuck in the traffic, the crowd was piling up at the club. An hour or so later when the show began, the club was packed to its gills surprising all and sundry at the unexpectedly large crowd. For the first time in it short stint, music lovers had to be asked to wait it out. Few left and others were gradually pulled in.
This is from his website:
"Just in case you aren't familiar with Béla Fleck, there are some who say he's the premiere banjo player in the world. Others claim that Béla has virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo through a remarkable performing and recording career that has taken him all over the musical map and on a range of solo projects and collaborations. If you are familiar with Béla, you know that he just loves to play the banjo, and put it into unique settings."
He’s a legend, alright. Winner of several Grammy’s and having played with legends like Chick Correa, Fleck can truly be called a pioneer of world music. As much at home with bluegrass – he played a lovely bluegrass track– he has also delved into classical, Indian, African, European and Latin American.
This is not his first brush with Indian classical. He has played with pandit Vishwa Monhan Bhatt, Zakir Hussain, and several others. He’s seasoned, savvy, sublime and of course, hugely talented. Zakir Hussain of course is a legend and a wizard. His band of musicians, several young exponents who promise an incredible potential, along with Fleck and bassist Meyer – when they warmed up, there were 13 musicians on the stage – created magic for a relentless two hour session. I was actually awed by Louiz Banks the most. In an impromptu set-up, Louiz stood his own ground in a musical range that bordered pure Indian classical to world music, with élan!
It was Zakir’s show and the maestro ran it with clockwork precision. Fleck and the bassist didn’t miss a beat, both of them showing glimpses of their incredible talent. Yesterday we also felt the potential of the acoustics inside the venue and the discerning nuances of its quality.
What the show did, however, was to make me yearn for the Flecktones. I’m sure many of us just got our appetite whetted for a Flecktones show with Bela. Victor Woutten on base, Jeff Coffin on sax, Edgar Meyer on base and that will perhaps be yet another seminal moment for Blue Frog. {Musicians should particularly get hold of The Music Lesson, a book written by Victor Woutten where he explores the mental and the emotional processes a musician goes to come to terms with the sounds of his music and how to constantly improve upon them. It’s a book written in a style where the musician is in conversation with his own alter ego and is almost cathartic and therapeutic for even those of us who are not musicians}
Famed for a non-stop touring schedule, the Flecktones have reached more than 500,000 audience members yearly from 2001 on. Still releasing albums and touring, the Tones have garnered a strong and faithful following among jazz and new acoustic fans. They have shared the stage with Dave Mathews Band, Sting, Bonnie Raitt and the Grateful Dead, among many others.
Although the first Flecktones albums were created live-in-the-studio, the group went on to experiment with overdubs and guest artists on later albums, with contributions from artists as diverse as Chick Corea, Bruce Hornsby, Branford Marsalis, John Medeski, Amy Grant and Dave Matthews. The Flecktones went on tour with Dave Matthews Band in 1996 and 1997, and Fleck is featured on several tracks on DMB's 1998 album "Before these Crowded Streets."
Collaborating with Fleck on "Perpetual Motion" was his long time friend and colleague Edgar Meyer, a bassist whose virtuosity defies labels and also an acclaimed composer. In the wake of that album's release, Fleck & Meyer came up with the idea of a banjo/bass duo, which they developed and refined during a concert tour of the US. Live recordings from that tour are the basis for their latest Sony Classical recording "Music For Two" which also includes a bonus DVD featuring a documentary film by Sascha Paladino (Fleck's brother) that captures the duo's collaboration and crafting of repertoire while on tour. Béla and Edgar also co-wrote and performed a double concerto for banjo, bass and the Nashville Symphony, which debuted in November 2003.
The recipients of Multiple Grammy Awards going back to 1998, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones picked up the Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, Instrumental Grammy in 2000 for "Outbound", a typically wide-ranging project, with guest artists that include guitarist Adrian Belew and singers Jon Anderson and Shawn Colvin, built around Fleck's concept of "the banjo being weird."
Flecks' total Grammy count is 8 Grammys won, and 20 nominations. He has been nominated in more different categories than anyone in Grammy history.
Whether Fleck and the Flecktones perform at Blue Frog in future remains to be seen, but whats clear is that Monday night raised the bar at Blue Frog. The musicians who perform on that stage will know that no less than Zakir Hussain and his troupe along with Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer hve also performed on that stage. Once the news spreads, I suspect it’ll be easier for Blue Frog to rope in other artsistes of similar stature to come play at Blue Frog.
That’s why I called it a seminal moment in the Blue Frog chapter. The kid’s growing up, and growing up fast!
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